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Looking to nature to improve
our grids

Conventional power grids are built for one-way power distribution, but with increased electric vehicle adoption and the addition of solar panels to homes comes challenges with grid stability. That’s why researchers are turning to nature for ideas — namely, the honeybee.

Wangda Zuo, professor of architectural engineering at Penn State University, is heading up a project on the operational expertise of honeybees: How they communicate and adapt to challenges might offer a way to help energy grids handle disruptions and streamline the way energy is distributed.

“Honeybees are masters of coordination,” says Zuo. “Inside a hive, thousands of bees work together sharing food, balancing needs and keeping the colony running smoothly without any central command. That’s exactly the kind of teamwork we need for the future electric grid,” he adds.

The current electric grid operates top-down and everything flows one way, but the team is looking for major change in how this happens so different energy recipients can talk to each other and “share energy directly, much like bees deciding when to feed each other or store honey. This peer-to-peer coordination could make the grid more adaptable and resilient, especially during storms or high-demand periods,” Zuo says.

The project has been funded with a U.S.$1 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

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No bones about it

There are many physiological processes our bodies need calcium for, like building bones, contracting muscles (including the heart) and operating neurons. Calcium concentration in our bodies is typically regulated by the endocrine system using parathyroid hormones (PTH) and calcitonin.

PTH releases calcium from bones when blood calcium is low to maintain these functions. But what happens when you don’t have bones?

Well until now, it’s been a mystery.

A new study from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, published in Nature, has discovered that peptide hormone Capa regulates calcium in the body fluid of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

“The team further discovered that Capa is secreted by specific neurons in the cranial nervous system and acts on the apical region of the Malpighian tubules — organs analogous to vertebrate kidneys — to mobilize calcium from “pearl-like calcium granules,” says the University of Tsukuba Research News.

This discovery offers the first evidence that animals without bones contain an endocrine system regulating calcium concentration.

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Tiny miners clean up our soil

A Chinese research team recently proposed the novel idea that the ground beneath our feet could clean itself.

A process called microbial iron mining utilizes microbes that can “breathe” iron. As they do, they switch iron back and forth between its rusty and shiny forms — like a little chemical frolic that captures and modifies pollutants.

The tiny miners can tackle toxic metals like arsenic and lead, chemicals like pesticides and microplastics and excess antibiotics and nutrients that typically pollute waterways.

Most notable is that the soil cleaning is natural. Rather than having to dig up and haul away contaminated soil, scientists can provoke these microbes to do the work while saving energy, protecting ecosystems and recovering valuable resources like rare earth elements.

It’s still early days and the research is still lab based, but it shows promise. The next steps are deciphering how this will work in real-world soil while managing side effects like greenhouse-gas releases.

The research demonstrates how powerful nature can be under the right conditions and was published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes.

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Of mummies, mice and medical students

A crew of curious biology and chemistry students recently marched into Khalifa University’s main campus in Abu Dhabi for the science lesson of a lifetime.

IMAGE: Courtesy of UAE Year of Community website

 

With two packed days meeting med students, seeing how genome sequencing can help diagnose a centuries-old mummy and learning how to anesthetize a mouse, this was a field trip to remember.

The Raha International School, Khalifa City campus students’ bus was met by the academic coordinator of KU’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hibba Samir El-Atar, and members of the KU public outreach team that had orchestrated experiences and welcome packs with their first (but hopefully not their last) lab coats.

“Our primary goal with these outreach programs is to make higher education in STEM fields tangible and accessible. We want to show students the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ they learn in school. By bringing a piece of the KUST campus experience to them, we hope to plant a seed, showing them the incredible opportunities and dynamic environment that await them at a university like ours,” Khawla Alsaedi, specialist with the KU outreach team, tells KUST Review.

Next, the students visited the KU Experiential Learning and Clinical Simulation Center, where KU students are exposed to life-like situations and advanced imaging technology for an immersive learning experience.

The students, led by Ahmed Khalam Mohamed and his team, observed CPR demos, tried out vital-signs equipment and participated in a clinical-skills workshop.

“I got to experience the facilities that I plan on studying in,” says Ali Zoheir, a Grade 12 student and self-proclaimed future plastic surgeon.

The remainder of the first day was a bit of a dream for potential future docs as they worked with the team from the medical sciences through a real-life case study and spent the final hour with a couple of KU med students, Layth Rafat and Carl Kassab, to find out what it’s really like to live in their lab coats.

The soon-to-be Raha graduates threw questions at the duo and received valuable advice: Take chances, manage your time well and get involved in research right out of the undergrad gate.

KU lab instructors Trust Nyirenda and Samson Chengetanai and KU faculty member Okobi Ekpo led the students on a guided tour of the anatomy and histology labs.

“It was very unconventional for us as (high school) students to be put in such a developed lab,” said Grade 12 student Farah Al Blooshi.

Next came the KU Body Museum tour. The museum opened in 2023 and is a permanent exhibition of dissected human bodies presenting both regional and systems-based anatomy in healthy and diseased adults. It is open to the public and often hosts school tours.

Within its walls the Raha students witnessed what a brain looks like after a stroke; what a person’s internal organs can tell us about their lifestyle and quality of life; the vastness of a fully extracted and intact human nervous system; and much more.

Siobhan O’Sullivan from the Department of Biological Sciences talked about her career path and an Egyptian mummy she studied as an undergraduate to determine the cause of death.

FYI, it was sickle cell anaemia.

O’Sullivan used the DNA extracted from the mummy’s toenails, which sat in a jar on her desk for a time. Gross or super cool? We’re going with cool.

There was more “cool” to come as the students moved on to a talk about what a biomedical engineer does with faculty member Anna-Maria Pappa and a demonstration of medical technology by Rateb Katmah.

They discussed wearable technologies like foot and heart sensors, sleep-pattern monitoring caps and stress-testing tech currently in use.

In the final part of the KU journey, students spent more lab time with Hamdan Hamdan for a talk about neurological conditions like ADHD, autism and Alzheimer’s.

They watched a video of a surgery on a mouse, learned how to anesthetize said mouse and why mice are used in the lab more than other animals (FYI, it’s cheaper and we can increase the testing size).

KU hopes to share these experiences with the Raha Grade 11 class soon and will continue to open its doors to other academic institutions.

“Our DP2 Science students’ visit to Khalifa University was an inspiring and intellectually enriching experience.

The students learned a tremendous amount — from exploring the body museum and how different parts of the body function, how genetic testing is conducted on ancient Egyptian mummies, to understanding how artificial intelligence can be used to personalize medical treatment, to observing how multiple sclerosis is diagnosed and treated, among many other fascinating insights.

“We are deeply grateful for the warmth, guidance, and professionalism shown to us throughout the visit — particularly to Ms. Hibba (Samir El-Atar), who was present and continually sought ways to enrich the experience, and to Ms. Khawla, who accompanied and supported us throughout the two days.

This visit was truly memorable and profoundly educational for our students, and we extend our sincere thanks to everyone who made it possible,” said Margarita Lozinova, secondary chemistry teacher at the Raha, Khalifa City campus.

El-Atar says she very much enjoyed being part of organizing and hosting the visit is thrilled with the outcome and participation from the students and KU team alike, “Seeing everything come together and watching everyone engage so enthusiastically made it all worthwhile. I’m so grateful for the teamwork and support that made the day a success. I am looking forward to many more events like this in the future and welcoming students from schools all over Abu Dhabi.”

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GIFT FROM
THE SEA

Mangroves provide many benefits for the environment. They store carbon dioxide. They supply habitats for fish and other marine life. And they act as a natural windbreak, protecting the shore from tidal surges.

But what really excites Tiejun Zhang and his team at Khalifa University is the trees’ ability to purify seawater by extracting the salt that enters through their roots.

Purifying seawater is how the UAE gets most of its potable water. The traditional processes of desalination, however, are energy-intensive and create about 141.5 million cubic meters of brine a day around the world. This waste material can damage the environment if it’s pumped back into the sea or brought onshore.

Zhang’s bioinspired artificial mangrove, however, could be the inexpensive breakthrough a thirsty world needs.

The process is simple, Zhang says, and it’s powered entirely by the heat of the sun.

The sun’s heat draws liquid up through a nanostructured titanium mesh using passive capillary action. The salt separates from the water and precipitates on “leaves,” then at night falls onto the floating foam disc that keeps the device upright in water. The process collects about 2.2 liters/m2 of water a day.

The initial device is small, but we can make it much bigger depending on how much water you need.

– Tiejun Zhang, department of engineering at Khalifa University

As a bonus, the researchers are investigating how the collected salt could be separated and used for other purposes.

“Sodium chloride is edible,” he says. “Calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, those are more for industrial processes. Our current technology proves that we can collect the salt. If we pull everything in a mixture, it’s not very valuable. If we can separate (the salts), refine them, and make them pure, then that would be very valuable.”

Zhang thinks the device might eventually be able to draw other valuable materials from seawater, even lithium.

But the applications aren’t just industrial, he says, pointing out that the device is small enough to carry in a backpack. Hikers and people who live off-grid might be able to use the artificial mangroves to purify water for personal use.

And the simple design, featuring titanium mesh and chemical etching to create a nano structure, makes it easily reproducible.

“A high school student could make it,” Zhang says. In the meantime, Zhang and his team are investigating start-up opportunities.

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