Not entirely a surprise that this research comes from Australia, given that country’s need for water. From a November 3, 2025 news item on Nanowerk. Note: A link has been removed,
Researchers at the University of Sydney and start-up Dewpoint Innovations have developed a nanoengineered polymer paint-like coating that can passively cool buildings and capture water directly from the air – all without energy input.
The invention could help tackle global water scarcity and help cool buildings, reducing the need for energy-intensive systems.
The research team led by Professor Chiara Neto created a porous polymer coating that reflects up to 97 percent of sunlight and radiates heat into the air, keeping surfaces up to six degrees cooler than the surrounding air even under direct sun. This process creates ideal conditions for atmospheric water vapour to condense into droplets on the cooler surface, the way steam condenses on your bathroom mirror.
Professor Neto from the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Chemistry said the findings could have far-reaching implications.
“This technology not only advances the science of cool roof coatings but also opens the door to sustainable, low-cost and decentralised sources of fresh water – a critical need in the face of climate change and growing water scarcity,” she said.
In the six-month long outdoor study conducted on the roof of the Sydney Nanoscience Hub, dew could be collected over 32 percent of the year and so could provide a sustainable and predictable supply of water even in periods with no rain. Under optimum conditions, the coatings can harvest up to 390 mL of water per square metre each day – enough for a 12-square-metre surface to supply the daily drinking needs of one person.
The study, published in Advanced Functional Materials, shows that passive cooling and atmospheric water capture can be integrated into a paint-like material for large-scale use.
Larger collection areas mean the paint could be versatile in industry: water for animals, for horticulture of high-value plants, for use in cooling by misting, or for use in hydrogen production. (About nine litres of water per kilogram of hydrogen is needed in electrolysis.)
Cooling the city, drop by drop
Unlike traditional white paints, the porous coatings, made of polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene, or PVDF-HFP, do not rely on ultraviolet-reflective pigments such as titanium dioxide.
“Our design achieves high reflectivity through its internal porous structure, delivering durability without the environmental drawbacks of pigment-based coatings,” said Dr Ming Chiu, the study’s lead author and Chief Technology Officer of Dewpoint Innovations.
“By removing UV-absorbing materials, we overcome the traditional limit in solar reflectivity while avoiding glare through diffuse reflection. This balance between performance and visual comfort makes it easier to integrate and is more appealing for real-world applications.”
Over the six-month outdoor trial, the team recorded cooling and water collection data minute-by-minute, confirming robust performance with no degradation under harsh Australian sun. Similar technologies have been shown to quickly deteriorate.
Beyond water harvesting, these coatings could help reduce urban heat island effects, lower energy needs for air-conditioning and provide climate-resilient water sources in regions facing growing heat and water stress.
Professor Neto, also a member of the University of Sydney Net Zero Institute, said the research also challenges the assumption that dew collection only works in humid climates.
“While humid conditions are ideal, dew can form even in arid and semi-arid regions where night-time humidity rises. It’s not about replacing rainfall but supplementing it – providing water where and when other sources become limited.”
From lab to rooftop
To bring the discovery from the lab to rooftops, Dewpoint Innovations is now developing a water-based paint formulation that can be applied using ordinary rollers or sprayers.
“At Dewpoint, we’re proud to partner with the University of Sydney to bring this breakthrough in passive atmospheric water harvesting to life through advanced paint-based coatings,” said Perzaan Mehta, CEO of Dewpoint Innovations.
“It’s a scalable, energy-free solution that transforms rooftops and remote infrastructure into reliable sources of clean water, helping address an urgent challenge of our time.”
With more than two million Australian homes already collecting rainwater, Professor Neto said dew-collecting roofs could complement existing systems.
“Imagine roofs that not only stay cooler but also make their own fresh water – that’s the promise of this technology,” she said.
The Neto group’s innovation was licensed from the University of Sydney in 2022 to start-up company Dewpoint Innovations. Its commercial translation represents a significant step toward scalable, environmentally friendly solutions for water harvesting and passive cooling, with potential applications in the built environment, agriculture, remote communities, and urban infrastructure.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Passively Cooled Paint-Like Coatings for Atmospheric Water Capture by Ming Chiu, Emile Theau, Angus Harrison, Johanna M. Terpstra, Riccardo Parin, C. Martijn de Sterke, Tristram J. Alexander, Chiara Neto. Advanced Functional Materials Online Version of Record before inclusion in an issue DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202519108 First published: 30 October 2025
Children naturally learn by building foam compositions on this interactive sculpture. Maja Baska Photography
Sanné Mestrom’s (Senior Lecturer, DECRA Fellow, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney) September 2, 2025 essay for The Conversation explores the importance of touch where visual art is concerned and describes an exhibition she developed for the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Note: Links have been removed,
Walk into most art galleries with children, and you’ll hear the familiar refrain “look but don’t touch”. This instruction reveals something troubling about how cultural institutions understand learning. Museums have become temples to visual consumption, where knowledge is received through eyes rather than constructed through bodies.
This fundamentally misunderstands how humans learn – and what we deny young people when we privilege looking over all other forms of engagement.
At my exhibition The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Her Parts, I have watched visitors consistently spend significantly longer with touchable elements compared to visual-only displays. Visitors engaging tactilely ask fundamentally different questions, too, moving from “what is this?” to “how was this made?” and “what if I tried…?”
So what happens when we design cultural spaces honouring the full range of human learning capacities?
Touch reveals what eyes miss
My exhibition includes bronze reliefs visitors can touch while viewing corresponding paintings. This simple addition reveals artistic knowledge that visual observation alone cannot provide.
Take a moment I witnessed with the work The Weight of Connection, where a child placed her hands on reliefs while looking at paintings.
These bronze sculptures translate semi-abstract paintings into three-dimensional form, but with a twist. What appears to recede in the painting might actually protrude in the bronze relief.
“This looks like the background, but it feels raised,” she said, as her fingers traced raised areas that appeared sunken in the painting. Suddenly she had to work harder to understand what was actually happening, comparing what her eyes told her with what her hands discovered.
This is spatial reasoning in action: understanding emerging not from a single sense, but from reconciling conflicting information.
The exhibition’s large playable sculpture, Ludic Folly, transforms semi-abstract figurative forms into an interactive adventure. Visitors climb, rest and navigate space. I repeatedly observe children and adults having “aha moments” as physical position fundamentally changes their understanding of sculptural forms.
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Mestrom’s exhibition ran from May 31 to September 21, 2025, which means that a visit to Australia now will not yield an experience at “The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Her Parts” but there are still materials available online via the National Gallery of Australia’s Sanné Mestrom, The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts Learning Resources webpage, Note: Links have been removed,
This catalogue and learning resource has been written by artist Sanné Mestrom offering essays, activities, and inquiry questions designed to complement her work The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts. This resource aims to deepen understanding of how art challenges traditional perspectives, develop observational and critical thinking skills, showcase the value of play-based learning in connecting with complex artistic and philosophical ideas, support inclusive education for diverse learning styles and connect historical artistic movements with contemporary practices.
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts, 2025 is a dedicated interactive space created by Sanné and presented as part of the exhibition Cézanne to Giacometti: Highlights from Museum Berggruen / Neue Nationalgalerie on display from 31 May – 21 Sep 2025. This space builds on Sanné’s artistic engagement with female representation in modern Western art. Drawing on iconic 20th century works, Sanné filters their legacies through her own systems of reference, to question notions of lineage, originality and influence.
For Sanné her works are always expressive of the body and driven by an understanding of art’s role as a conduit for embodiment and locator of place and how art can bridge the built and natural environments.
The connection to the exhibition running concurrently and serving as inspiration “Cézanne to Giacometti: Highlights from Museum Berggruen / Neue Nationalgalerie” is briefly explained in a July 10, 2025 University of Sydney press release, Note: Links have been removed,
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Running alongside the NGA’s blockbuster Cézanne to Giacometti exhibition until 21 September, Dr Mestrom’s interactive installation responds to works by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Klee, and Giacometti. Through participatory experiences, the exhibition examines female representation in the modernist canon and reimagines how audiences engage with art.
“We’re taught to look at art from a distance, but what happens when we’re invited to touch it, build with it, and even inhabit it?” asked Dr Mestrom. “This work is about inviting people of all ages to experience art through their bodies, not just their eyes.”
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Dr Mestrom has a long tradition of incorporating play into her artwork. She uses interactive, large-scale and functional sculptures, from skating installations to children’s playgrounds, to question the physical and social aspects of urban design. Her research investigates ways that art in public places has the potential to create spaces for intergenerational play.
“I make sculptures that people can move through and interact with, because I want art to feel like part of everyday life, not something distant or untouchable,” she said. “When we play with art, we start to see the world differently. It’s a way to break out of the usual rules and routines, and that kind of freedom can be quietly powerful, even political.”
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Commercialising visual arts research
Dr Mestrom’s exhibition is the outcome of a four-year Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA) research project and an example of research translation and commercialisation in the arts. Her broader research into playful environments and inclusive spaces has influenced urban policy and generated $1.7 million in research income, demonstrating the civic and commercial value of her work to the wider public.
The exhibition also contributes to the NGA’s Know My Name initiative, which aims to address the gender imbalance and increase the representation and visibility of women artists in Australian art collections. Through her work, Dr Mestrom is actively challenging audiences to rethink how the female body is represented and experienced.
“This is about loosening the grip of hierarchy and ownership in art,” said Dr Mestrom. “My work is inclusive, it’s playable, and it’s about making space for new ways of seeing and being in spaces accessible by all.”
Finally, there’s a May 20, 2025 posting here that reveals a certain synchronicity with Mestrom\s work across time; it’s titled, “Marshall McLuhan, Harley Parker, and “multi-sensory museology”.”
An interdisciplinary team of experts in green chemistry, engineering and physics at Flinders University in Australia has developed a safer and more sustainable approach to extract and recover gold from ore and electronic waste.
Explained in the leading journal Nature Sustainability, the gold-extraction technique promises to reduce levels of toxic waste from mining and shows that high purity gold can be recovered from recycling valuable components in printed circuit boards in discarded computers.
The project team, led by Matthew Flinders Professor Justin Chalker, applied this integrated method for high-yield gold extraction from many sources – even recovering trace gold found in scientific waste streams.
The progress toward safer and more sustainable gold recovery was demonstrated for electronic waste, mixed-metal waste, and ore concentrates.
“The study featured many innovations including a new and recyclable leaching reagent derived from a compound used to disinfect water,” says Professor of Chemistry Justin Chalker, who leads the Chalker Lab at Flinders University’s College of Science and Engineering.
“The team also developed an entirely new way to make the polymer sorbent, or the material that binds the gold after extraction into water, using light to initiate the key reaction.”
Extensive investigation into the mechanisms, scope and limitations of the methods are reported in the new study, and the team now plans to work with mining and e-waste recycling operations to trial the method on a larger scale.
“The aim is to provide effective gold recovery methods that support the many uses of gold, while lessening the impact on the environment and human health,” says Professor Chalker.
The new process uses a low-cost and benign compound to extract the gold. This reagent (trichloroisocyanuric acid) is widely used in water sanitation and disinfection. When activated by salt water, the reagent can dissolve gold.
Next, the gold can be selectively bound to a novel sulfur-rich polymer developed by the Flinders team. The selectivity of the polymer allows gold recovery even in highly complex mixtures.
The gold can then be recovered by triggering the polymer to “un-make” itself and convert back to monomer. This allows the gold to be recovered and the polymer to be recycled and re-used.
Global demand for gold is driven by its high economic and monetary value but is also a vital element in electronics, medicine, aerospace technologies and other products and industries. However, mining the previous metal can involve the use of highly toxic substances such as cyanide and mercury for gold extraction – and other negative environmental impacts on water, air and land including CO2 emissions and deforestation.
The aim of the Flinders-led project was to provide alternative methods that are safer than mercury or cyanide in gold extraction and recovery.
The team also collaborated with experts in the US and Peru to validate the method on ore, in an effort to support small-scale mines that otherwise rely on toxic mercury to amalgamate gold.
Gold mining typically uses highly toxic cyanide to extract gold from ore, with risks to the wildlife and the broader environment if it is not contained properly. Artisanal and small-scale gold mines still use mercury to amalgamate gold. Unfortunately, the use of mercury in gold mining is one of the largest sources of mercury pollution on Earth.
Professor Chalker says interdisciplinary research collaborations with industry and environmental groups will help to address highly complex problems that support the economy and the environment.
“We are especially grateful to our engineering, mining, and philanthropic partners for supporting translation of laboratory discoveries to larger scale demonstrations of the gold recovery techniques.”
Lead authors of the major new study – Flinders University postdoctoral research associates Dr Max Mann, Dr Thomas Nicholls, Dr Harshal Patel and Dr Lynn Lisboa – extensively tested the new technique on piles of electronic waste, with the aim of finding more sustainable, circular economy solutions to make better use of ever-more-scarce resources in the world. Many components of electronic waste, such as CPU units and RAM cards, contain valuable metals such as gold and copper.
Dr Mann says: “This paper shows that interdisciplinary collaborations are needed to address the world’s big problems managing the growing stockpiles of e-waste.”
ARC DECRA Fellow Dr Nicholls, adds: “The newly developed gold sorbent is made using a sustainable approach in which UV light is used to make the sulfur-rich polymer. Then, recycling the polymer after the gold has been recovered further increases the green credentials of this method.”
Dr Patel says: “We dived into a mound of e-waste and climbed out with a block of gold! I hope this research inspires impactful solutions to pressing global challenges.”
“With the ever-growing technological and societal demand for gold, it is increasingly important to develop safe and versatile methods to purify gold from varying sources,” Dr Lisboa concludes.
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Fast Facts:
Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing solid waste streams in the world. In 2022, an estimated 62 million tonnes of e-waste was produced globally. Only 22.3% was documented as formally collected and recycled.
E-waste is considered hazardous waste as it contains toxic materials and can produce toxic chemicals when recycled inappropriately. Many of these toxic materials are known or suspected to cause harm to human health, and several are included in the 10 chemicals of public health concern, including dioxins, lead and mercury. Inferior recycling of e-waste is a threat to public health and safety.
Miners use mercury, which binds to gold particles in ores, to create what are known as amalgams. These are then heated to evaporate the mercury, leaving behind gold but releasing toxic vapours. Studies indicate that up to 33% of artisanal miners suffer from moderate metallic mercury vapor intoxication.
Between 10 million and 20 million miners in more than 70 countries work in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, including up to 5 million women and children. These operations, which are often unregulated and unsafe, generate 37% of global mercury pollution (838 tonnes a year) – more than any other sector.
Most informal sites lack the funding and training needed to transition towards mercury-free mining. Despite accounting for 20% of the global gold supply and generating approximately US$30 billion annually, artisanal miners typically sell gold at around 70% of its global market value. Additionally, with many gold mines located in rural and remote areas, miners seeking loans are often restricted to predatory interest rates from illegal sources, pushing demand for mercury.
High quality gold recovered from electronic waste in the Flinders University study. Credit: Flinders University
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Sustainable gold extraction from ore and electronic waste (2025) by Maximilian Mann, Thomas P Nicholls, Harshal D Patel, Lynn S Lisboa, Jasmine MM Pople, Le Nhan Pham, Max JH Worthington, Matthew R Smith, Yanting Yin, Gunther G Andersson, Christopher T Gibson, Louisa J Esdaile, Claire E Lenehan, Michelle L Coote, Zhongfan Jia and Justin M Chalker .Nature Sustainability 8, pages 947–956 (2025) Published online: 26 June 2025 Issue Date: August 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01586-w
A luxurious fiber once reserved exclusively for emperors in ancient times has been brought back to life through the scientific ingenuity of Korean researchers. A team led by Professor Dong Soo Hwang (Division of Environmental Science and Engineering / Division of interdisciplinary bioscience & bioengineering, POSTECH) and Professor Jimin Choi (Environmental Research Institute) has successfully recreated a golden fiber, akin to that of 2,000 years ago, using the pen shell (Atrina pectinata) cultivated in Korean coastal waters. This breakthrough not only recreates the legendary sea silk but also reveals the scientific basis behind its unchanging golden color. The study was recently published in the prestigious journal Advanced Materials.
Sea silk—often referred to as the “golden fiber of the sea”—was one of the most prized materials in the ancient Roman period, used exclusively by figures of high authority such as emperors and popes. This precious fiber is made from the byssus threads secreted by Pinna nobilis, a large clam native to the Mediterranean, which uses the threads to anchor itself to rocks. Valued for its iridescent, unfading golden color, light weight, and exceptional durability, sea silk earned its reputation as the “legendary silk.” A notable example is the Holy Face of Manoppello, a relic preserved for centuries in Italy, which is believed to be made from sea silk.
However, due to recent marine pollution and ecological decline, Pinna nobilis is now an endangered species. The European Union has banned its harvesting entirely, making sea silk an artifact of the past—produced only in minuscule quantities by a handful of artisans.
The POSTECH research team turned their attention to the pen shell Atrina pectinata, a species cultivated in Korean coastal waters for food. Like Pinna nobilis, this clam secretes byssus threads to anchor itself, and the researchers found that these threads are physically and chemically similar to those of Pinna nobilis. Building on this insight, they succeeded in processing pen shell byssus to recreate sea silk.
However, their achievement goes beyond mere replication of its appearance. The team also revealed the scientific secret behind sea silk’s distinctive golden hue and its resistance to fading over time.
The golden color of sea silk is not derived from dyes, but from structural coloration—a phenomenon caused by the way light reflects off nanostructures. Specifically, the researchers identified that the iridescence arises from a spherical protein structure called “photonin,” which forms layered arrangements that interact with light to produce the characteristic shine. Similar to the color seen in soap bubbles or butterfly wings, this structure-based coloration is highly stable and does not fade easily over time.
Moreover, the study revealed that the more orderly the protein arrangement, the more vivid the structural color becomes. Unlike traditional dyeing, this color is not applied but instead generated by the alignment of proteins within the fiber, contributing to the material’s remarkable lightfastness over millennia.
Another significant aspect of this research is the upcycling of pen shell byssus, previously discarded as waste, into a high-value sustainable textile. This not only helps reduce marine waste but also demonstrates the potential of eco-friendly materials that carry cultural and historical significance.
Professor Dong Soo Hwang noted, “Structurally colored textiles are inherently resistant to fading. Our technology enables long-lasting color without the use of dyes or metals, opening new possibilities for sustainable fashion and advanced materials.”
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Structurally Colored Sustainable Sea Silk from Atrina pectinata by Jimin Choi, Jun-Hyung Im, Young-Ki Kim, Tae Joo Shin, Patrick Flammang, Gi-Ra Yi, David J. Pine, Dong Soo Hwang. Advanced Materials Volume37, Issue30 July 29, 2025 2502820 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202502820 First published online: 29 April 2025
Caption: Death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides) Credit: Jolanda Aalbers/Shutterstock [downloaded from https://theconversation.com/what-is-inaturalist-the-citizen-science-app-playing-an-unlikely-role-in-erin-pattersons-mushroom-murder-trial-255714]
The woman’s trial is still ongoing and my interest is in the citizen science aspect of it all. Here’s a precis of the murder trial and a discussion of iNaturalist from a May 2, 2025 essay by Caitlyn Forster, associate lecturer, University of Sydney, and Melissa Humphries, senior lecturer, University of Adelaide, for The Conversation, Note: Links have been removed,
The world has been gripped by the case of Australian woman Erin Patterson, who was charged with the murder of three people after allegedly serving them a lunch of beef wellington containing poisonous death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides).
A new element of the sensational story emerged in court this week, when prosecutors reportedly alleged Patterson used iNaturalist to locate and visit places where death cap mushrooms were known to grow.
So what exactly is iNaturalist? And how is this 17-year-old citizen science project being used to better understand our world?
More than 240 million observations worldwide
iNaturalist is an app that allows users to take photos of plants, fungi, animals and any piece of nature. The photos are uploaded, and identified using a combination of crowd-sourcing and artificial intelligence.
When a user uploads an image, they can also choose to make the location public, so others can see where it was found. iNaturalist’s database holds more than 240 million observations wordlwide. More than 10.6 million of these are in Australia.
All of this data is extremely important for scientists to understand the ecology of different species. iNaturalist has played a key role in the discovery of new species as well as sightings of species that have previously not been seen for decades.
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Finding the unusual
Real people usually collect images for iNaturalist as part of their everyday life, rather than systematically as part of their job. That means there are patterns to the data that is collected.
Observations tend to be recorded on weekends and in good weather, and to involve life forms people find strange, unusual or interesting.
For example, at the time of writing, iNaturalist had recorded 1,382 sightings of domestic cats in Australia, compared with 29,660 koalas. But cataloguing the rare and wonderful can be useful.
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In 2011, iNaturalist added more features to protect geoprivacy – which allows locations of observations to be obscured. Rare and exciting pets, and collectable insects could be found by looking at location data on iNaturalist.
There is previous evidence this has occurred. Nowadays, species of concern for poaching automatically have their locations obscured, preventing them from being illegally poached or collected. This can also be helpful to prevent people crowding popular endangered animals when they have been sighted.
Typically, anything listed as endangered will automatically have an obscured location on iNaturalist.
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Observing nature has huge benefits to understanding our natural world. But these observations do collect a lot of personal data in terms of where and when the observation occurred.
Although iNaturalist doesn’t sell users’ information, and users can obscure their precise location, the pictures a person shares can still contain enough information to figure out where they are.
This could be used for forensic intelligence to locate plants and animals of interest, and to place people with them at the time the photo was taken.
If you’re lucky enough to see a rare or threatened species, consider taking a photo that has little background information that can give away the precise details of the locations, particularly when observing immobile organisms like such as plants and fungi.
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iNaturalist is a fantastic resource for observing nature. More data points to understand where plants, animals, and mushrooms can be found is vital for understanding their ecology, and potentially conserving species.
It also has huge ramifications for biosecurity, forensics, and even understanding movements that may have occurred during an alleged crime. So it’s really worth getting out in nature and taking photos of interesting things you see!
I have **a** few comments, it’s well known that some varieties of mushrooms can be fatal and they have been inadvertently or purposefully implicated in more than one death. It’s up to a jury to decide Ms. Patterson’s guilt or innocence and I imagine the folks at iNaturalist are making some adjustments to what geolocation information is being shared on their site.
Getting back to citizen science and iNaturalist, there’s this from their homepage, Note: A link has been removed,
Contribute to Science
Every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed. We share your findings with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to help scientists find and use your data. All you have to do is observe.
I have been stumbling across bug (or insect) research at a greater rate than usual and while the ‘bug-informed’ community is, no doubt, acutely aware of the loss of insect life, the severity of the situation was a revelation to me.
Bugpocalypse (h/t IFLScience for the head)
Caption: Drosophila use multiple mechanisms to adapt to hot, dry desert temperatures. Credit: Sarah Becan for the Gallio Lab/Northwestern University
Insect populations, foundational to food chains and pollination, have dramatically declined over the past 20 years due to rapid climate change
Scientists identify two ways fly species from different climates (high-altitude forest and hot desert) have adapted to temperature
Paper provides evidence that changes in brain wiring and heat sensitivity contributed to shifting preference to hot or cold conditions, respectively
Results may help predict the impact of ongoing climate change on insect distribution and behavior
EVANSTON, Ill. — Tiny, cold-blooded animals like flies depend on their environment to regulate body temperature, making them ideal “canaries in the mine” for gauging the impact of climate change on the behavior and distribution of animal species. Yet, scientists know relatively little about how insect sense and respond to temperature.
Using two species of flies from different climates — one from the cool, high-altitude forests of Northern California, the other hailing from the hot, dry deserts of the Southwest (both cousins of the common laboratory fly, drosophila melanogaster) — Northwestern scientists discovered remarkable differences in the way each processes external temperature.
Forest flies showed increased avoidance of heat, potentially explained by higher sensitivity in their antennae’s molecular heat receptors, while desert flies were instead actively attracted to heat, a response that could be tracked to differences in brain wiring in a region of the fly brain that helps compute the valence (inherent attractiveness or aversiveness) of sensory cues.
The scientists believe these two mechanisms may have accompanied the evolution of each species as it adapted to its distinctive thermal environment, starting from a common ancestor dating back 40 million years (not long after dinosaurs went extinct).
These findings, published today (March 5 [2025]) in the journal Nature, help understand how animals evolve the preferences for specific temperature environments and may help predict the impact of a rapidly changing climate on animal behavior and distribution.
‘Not enough people care about insects’
“Insects are especially threatened by climate change,” said Northwestern neurobiologist Marco Gallio. “Behavior is the first interface between an animal and its environment. Even before the struggle to survive or perish, animals can respond to climate change by migration and by changing their distribution. We are already seeing insect populations declining in many regions, and even insect vectors of disease like the Zika virus and malaria spreading into new areas.”
Gallio, a self-appointed “insect advocate,” is a professor in the neurobiology department and the Soretta and Henry Shapiro Research Professor in Molecular Biology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. His lab examines fruit flies and their sensing systems. Gallio acknowledged there is limited data because “not enough people care about the insects,” but that available figures record a dramatic decline in insects in the past 20 to 50 years. Though bug haters may rejoice, Gallio said the population decline in the animal group with the most species on Earth is nothing to celebrate.
In addition to their position at the foundation of most terrestrial food chains, insects pollinate 70% of our crops. Gallio said losing insect communities could cause catastrophic damage to ecosystems across the globe and have a direct impact on human wellbeing.
Understanding heat circuits in the brain
Previous work from the Gallio Lab focused on how small insects like laboratory flies respond to sensory cues like harmless and painful temperature changes.
“The common fruit fly is an especially powerful animal to study how the external world is represented and processed within the brain,” Gallio said. “Many years of work on fly genetics and neuroscience have given us a map of the fly brain more detailed than that of any other animal.”
In the present study, Gallio and colleagues wondered how the brain circuits and resulting behaviors compared in fly species that were very similar aside from their choices of thermal habitat.
Using genetic tools, including CRISPR [clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats], to knock out certain genes and gene swaps between species, the team studied both the molecular and brain mechanisms that may explain species-specific differences in temperature preference.
Ph.D. student and lead author Matthew Capek explained that they first found differences in the molecules that detect heat, causing them to activate at different temperatures. And while Capek said the difference in activation could explain the forest flies’ preference for cooler environments, a shift in receptor activation was not enough to explain the behavior of the desert fly.
“The desert fly seemed actively attracted to warmer temperatures — around 90 degrees Fahrenheit compared to the forest fly’s sweet spot just below 70 degrees,” said Capek, who works in the Gallio lab. “In fact, the activation threshold of the antenna heat sensors corresponded to their favorite temperature range, which they will seek, rather than to a temperature they should avoid.”
“In other words, the fly doesn’t behave any longer as though the antennae are telling it to run away from dangerous heat; they seem to be telling it higher temperatures are good, and to approach them.”
High cost, high reward
Gallio was initially puzzled — deserts are hot, so it did not make sense that flies sought out heat — but a lab trip to the Anza Borrego desert of Southern California provided key inspiration.
“Deserts in this region are very hot during the day, but temperatures can drop extremely rapidly when the sun goes down, and night can be downright freezing,” said Alessia Para, also a key author of the study and a research associate professor of neurobiology. “Flies in this climate may need to constantly attend to the rapidly changing temperature and always seek the ideal range, finding shady spots during the day and hiding in cacti for warmth at night.”
Flies from more forgiving environments may instead ignore temperature except when it changes rapidly. Constantly detecting the right temperature is costly from an energy perspective, but for desert flies, it’s life or death.
“This comparative work is useful in a couple of different ways,” Gallio said. “When an animal is born, the brain is already programmed to know if many of the things it will encounter are bad or good for it, and we do not understand how that programming works.
These fly species represent a natural experiment because a stimulus that is good for one species is bad for the other, and we can study the differences that make it so. We also want to learn more about how animals have been able to adapt to different temperatures during evolution, so that we may be able to better understand and even predict how they react to ongoing climate change. Of course we care about the insects, and we hope that what we learn may help us appreciate and protect them better.”
There’s more but first, a citation and a link to the Gallio Lab’s paper,
Evolution of temperature preference in flies of the genus Drosophila by Matthew Capek, Oscar M. Arenas, Michael H. Alpert, Emanuela E. Zaharieva, Iván D. Méndez-González, José Miguel Simões, Hamin Gil, Aldair Acosta, Yuqing Su, Alessia Para & Marco Gallio. Nature (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08682-z Published: 05 March 2025
This paper is behind a paywall.
Bugs Matter
Thanks to buglife.org.uk for the subhead and the report. Here’s more from their April 30, 2025 press release, Note: Links have been removed,
The troubling extent of insect declines across the UK has been highlighted once again by the results of the 2024 Bugs Matter citizen science survey published today. The latest data shows that the number of flying insects sampled on vehicle number plates, across the UK, has fallen by a staggering 63% since 2021.
The Bugs Matter survey, led by Kent Wildlife Trust in partnership with invertebrate charity Buglife, relies on a nationwide network of volunteer citizen scientists who record insect splats on their vehicle number plates after journeys, using the Bugs Matter app built by Natural Apptitude. Analysis of records from more than 25,000 journeys across the UK since 2021 shows an alarming decrease in bug splats but data from 2024 shows this decrease has slowed.
Insects are critical to ecosystem functioning and services. They pollinate crops, provide natural pest control, decompose waste and recycle nutrients, and underpin food chains that support birds, mammals and other wildlife. Without insects, the planet’s ecological systems would collapse.
Dr. Lawrence Ball of Kent Wildlife Trust stated:“This huge decrease in insect splats over such a short time is really alarming. Its most likely that we are seeing the compounding effects of both a background rate of decline as well as a short term cycle of decline, perhaps linked to the extreme climate in the UK in recent years. Bug splats declined 8% from 2023 to 2024, following sharper drops of 44% in 2023 and 28% in 2022. This shows the rate of decline has slowed and it may even flatten or reverse next year. Continued support from citizen scientists is key to revealing the overall trend in insect numbers.”
The new data shows a decrease in insect splat rates across all the UK nations, with the sharpest fall between 2021 and 2024 recorded in Scotland at 65%. In England, the number of insect splats fell by 62%, in Wales by 64%, and in Northern Ireland by 55%, over the same time period.
Andrew Whitehouse, from Buglife added:“The latest Bugs Matter data suggests that the abundance of flying insects in our countryside has fallen again. The consequences are potentially far-reaching, not only impacting the health of the natural world, but affecting so many of the essential services that nature provides for us. Human activities continue to have a huge impact on nature, habitat loss and damage, pesticide use, pollution, and climate change all contribute to the decline in insects. Society must heed the warning signs of ecological collapse, and take urgent action to restore nature.”
Participation in Bugs Matter is growing and the number of journeys recorded in 2024 far exceeded previous years. This is in part thanks to a new partnership with Openreach, owner of the nation’s second largest commercial van fleet.
Peter Stewart, Openreach’s UK Operations Director for Service Delivery said:“We’re excited to participate in the ‘Bugs Matter’ survey for the second year. Our engineers travel millions of miles annually across the UK to build and maintain our network, making it easy for them to measure insect splats on vehicle number plates. We recognise the crucial role pollinators play for all of us to thrive, and as part of our strategy to protect nature, we’re proud to support this campaign again. Last year, we contributed around 10% of the registered journeys, and with our 25,000-strong fleet, we aim to do even better this year.”
Andrew Whitehouse concluded: “Thank you to everyone who participated in the Bugs Matter survey in 2024. Your contribution has provided invaluable insights into the health of our insect populations and wider environment. We are relaunching the survey on May 1 this year [2025], and with our expansion into the Republic of Ireland, we hope to engage even more people in this crucial citizen science effort.”
The 2025 Bugs Matter survey will run from Saturday 1 May to Tuesday 30 September. It is quick, free and easy to get involved – simply download the free mobile phone app and start recording insect splats on vehicle journeys.
Expansion into Republic of Ireland
In response to growing interest and the need for more comprehensive data, the Bugs Matter survey is expanding into the Republic of Ireland for the 2025 season, thanks to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Imagine Grant ‘Go Further, Faster’ Award received by Bugs Matter at the end of 2024. This grant provides vital resources to non-profit organisations looking to deploy cloud technology as a central tool to achieve their mission goals, and is providing Bugs Matter with a combination of funding, cloud computing credits, and engagement with AWS technical specialists. This marks an important step in building a more complete picture of insect populations across the British Isles, and future expansion of the Bugs Matter survey.
Dr. Lawrence Ball of Kent Wildlife Trust stated, “We’re extremely grateful for the financial and technical support from Amazon Web Services, which means we can launch in Ireland this year and in more countries in 2026. If you drive or know someone who drives in Ireland, please download the app, sign up, and take part! The UK results highlight the importance of understanding insect numbers elsewhere.”
The charities caution that continued long-term monitoring is essential to track the precise magnitude of these alarming trends, but stress that the current pace of decline is clearly ecologically unviable. By taking part in the Bugs Matter survey each year, citizen scientists can provide crucial data to better understand insect population patterns and support evidence-based conservation actions.
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Zac Sherratt’s April 30, 2025 article for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) online news website offers little more information,
A survey tracking the “staggering” decline in insect numbers across the UK and Ireland has begun.
The Bugs Matter survey, led by Kent Wildlife Trust and invertebrate charity Buglife, runs from 1 May to 30 September each year and sees “citizen scientists” record the number of bug splats on their vehicle number plates after a journey.
…
Dr Ball [Dr. Lawrence Ball of Kent Wildlife Trust] said: “Without insects, the planet’s ecological systems would collapse so this huge decrease in insect splats over such a short time is really alarming.”
Bug splats declined 8% in 2024, following sharper drops of 44% in 2023 and 28% in 2022.
Dr Ball said the slowing rate of decline shows the curve may flatten or even reverse next year.
More than 25,000 journeys have been analysed as part of the survey since 2021.
There’s an interesting back story for IFLScience (which started life as as Facebook page titled, “I Fucking Love Science”). If you want to find out more about IFLScience’s origins and founder, there’s Elise Andrew’s Wikipedia entry.
Returning to the bugs, Dr. Russell Moul’s April 30 (?), 2025 article for IFLScience further highlights the plight of insects around the world, Note: Links have been removed,
Insect populations have been declining across the world at an alarming rate, but no one has been sure why. According to a new study, intense agricultural practices are at the top of the list of causes, but there are multiple interrelated factors that are all contributing to quickly killing off these vital creatures.
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“Insects are fundamental to life on earth. They are really important pollinators, decomposers, and prey for birds, bats, reptiles, and other species”, Eliza Grames, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, told IFLScience.
“Insects pollinate around 80 percent of wild flowering plants, and 75 percent of agricultural crop species rely on insects for pollination. Without insects as decomposers, the earth would essentially be covered in manure. Cow manure takes 60 percent longer to deteriorate when insects are excluded from an area.”
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But despite their importance, insect numbers are declining. In 2017, a devastating study demonstrated that there has been more than a 75 percent decline in insect populations over the last three decades. As a result, scientists have been seeking to identify the likely causes for this decline.
In order to understand which causes the scientific community has found so far, Grames and colleagues from Binghamton University examined some 175 scientific reviews, which contained over 500 hypothesized drivers behind the decline. This information allowed the team to create an interconnected network of 3,000 possible links, known as a meta-synthetic approach, which spanned everything from beekeeping and deforestation to urban sprawl and parasites.
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Within this network of information, the team found that intensified agriculture was the most cited driver behind the mass die-off. This was linked to issues such as land-use change and insecticides. However, focusing solely on the most cited drivers is not the way to interpret this information. As the team note in their work, the results show how interconnected the drivers are, highlighting complex issues.
For example, the climate may be an important driver behind the decline, but there are aspects within that, such as extreme precipitation, fire, and temperature rises, which can then contribute to other drivers. It’s an extremely connected and synergistic network.
“The drivers of insect decline are really complex and there are many overlooked stressors that we should be thinking about and researching,” Grames told IFLScience.
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If you have a little more time, you can find some interesting tidbits in Moul’s April 30 (?), 2025 article.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the recent meta-analysis/meta-synthesis mentioned in the article,
A February 6, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily announces an application that uses machine learning for insect identification,
A farmer notices an unfamiliar insect on a leaf.
Is this a pollinator? Or a pest? Good news at harvest time? Or bad? Need to be controlled? Or not?
That farmer can snap a picture, use a smartphone or computer to feed the photo into a web-based application called InsectNet and, with the help of machine learning technology, get back real-time information.
“The app identifies the insect and returns a prediction of its taxonomic classification and role in the ecosystem as a pest, predator, pollinator, parasitoid, decomposer, herbivore, indicator and invasive species,” said a scientific paper describing InsectNet recently published by the journal PNAS Nexus [PNAS stands for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US]. Iowa State University’s Baskar Ganapathysubramanian and Arti Singh are the corresponding authors.
InsectNet – which is backed by a dataset of 12 million insect images, including many collected by citizen-scientists – provides identification and predictions for more than 2,500 insect species at more than 96% accuracy. When the application isn’t sure about an insect, it says it is uncertain, giving users more confidence when it does provide answers.
And, because the application was built as a global-to-local model, it can be geographically fine-tuned using expert-verified local and regional datasets. That makes it useful to farmers everywhere.
So, beware, armyworms, cutworms, grasshoppers, stink bugs and all the other harmful insects. And, hello, butterflies, bees and all the other pollinators. Good to see you, lady beetles, mantises and all the other pest predators.
“We envision InsectNet to complement existing approaches, and be part of a growing suite of AI technologies for addressing agricultural challenges,” the authors wrote.
A village of researchers
InsectNet’s ability to be fine-tuned for specific regions or countries make it particularly useful, said Singh, an associate professor of agronomy.
In Iowa, for example, Singh said there are about 50 insect species particularly important to the state’s agricultural production. To identify and provide predictions about those insects, Singh said the project used about 500,000 insect images.
That could happen for farmers all over the globe. And wherever there isn’t sufficient data – these sophisticated models often require millions of images – for local fine-tuning, the global dataset is still available for farmers.
InsectNet isn’t just for farmers, though. Singh said it could also help agents at ports or border crossings identify invasive species. Or it could help researchers working on ecological studies.
So, the app is usable and flexible. But is it accessible?
You can’t go to an app store and download a version just yet, said Ganapathysubramanian, the Joseph and Elizabeth Anderlik Professor in Engineering and director of the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture based at Iowa State. But the app is running on a server at Iowa State. With a QR code (see sidebar) or this URL (insectapp.las.iastate.edu/), users can upload insect pictures and get an identification and prediction.
This works throughout the stages of an insect’s life: from egg to larva to pupa to adult. It works with look-alike species. And it works with diverse image qualities and orientations.
The bottom line for any user is basic information about an insect: “Is this a pest?” Singh said. “Or is it a friend?”
Developers demonstrated the app during last August’s Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. And now the research paper is introducing it to a broader, scientific audience.
But aren’t there already apps that help identify insects?
Yes, said Ganapathysubramanian, but they’re not to the scale of InsectNet and aren’t capable of global-to-local applications. And they’re also not open-source applications with technology that can be shared.
“Making InsectNet open source can encourage broader scientific efforts,” he said. “The scientific community can build on these efforts, rather than starting from scratch.”
The project also answered a lot of technical questions that could be applied to other projects, he said.
How much data is enough? Where can we get that much data? What can we do with noisy data?
How much computer power is necessary? How do we deal with so much data?
“Lastly, it takes a village of expertise to get to this point, right?” said Ganapathysubramanian.
It took agronomists and computer engineers and statisticians and data scientists and artificial intelligence specialists about two years to put InsectNet together and make it work.
“What we learned working with insects can be expanded to include weeds and plant diseases or any other related identification and classification problem in agriculture,” Singh said. “We’re very close to a one-stop shop for identifying all of these.”
The InsectNet project was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (through the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture), the National Science Foundation (through COALESCE: COntext Aware LEarning for Sustainable CybEr-Agricultural Systems), the NSF’s Smart and Connected Communities Program, the USDA’s Current Research Information System Project, and Iowa State’s Plant Sciences Institute.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
InsectNet: Real-time identification of insects using an end-to-end machine learning pipeline by Shivani Chiranjeevi, Mojdeh Saadati, Zi K Deng, Jayanth Koushik, Talukder Z Jubery, Daren S Mueller, Matthew O’Neal , Nirav Merchant , Aarti Singh , Asheesh K Singh , Soumik Sarkar , Arti Singh , Baskar Ganapathysubramanian. PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2025, pgae575, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae575 Published: 27 December 2024
Pro-environmental behaviour increases among school students who participate in insect-related citizen science projects, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.
Students who participated in citizen science project Insect Investigators, which engages students in the discovery of new insects, not only expressed an intention to change their personal behaviour but also to encourage others to protect nature.
“As a result of their involvement in this program, students expressed intentions to further engage in insect–science–nature activities,” says the University of Adelaide’s Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, who contributed to the study.
“In addition, teachers reported increased intentions to include insect-related topics in their teaching, which was positively associated with students’ own intentions for pro-environmental behaviour change.
“This suggests students’ response to the project influenced their teacher’s decision to include citizen science in their lessons.”
School-based citizen science projects facilitate authentic scientific interactions between research and educational institutions while exposing students to scientific processes.
“Teachers’ motivations for providing citizen science experiences to students was to create hands-on learning opportunities and to connect students with real science and scientists,” says Professor Patrick O’Connor AM, Director of the University’s School of Economics and Public Policy.
“Teachers reported interactions with researchers as invaluable. These interactions could take the form of in-person visits by team members, or even instructional videos and curriculum-linked teacher lesson plans.”
Incorporating insects into school-based citizen science projects can challenge widespread human misconceptions about insects and their roles in ecosystems, and foster human–insect connections.
“Given global concerns of rapid insect declines and the overarching biodiversity crisis, insect-focused, school-based citizen science projects can ultimately contribute towards equipping students with knowledge of, and actions to promote, insect conservation,” says lead author Dr Andy Howe, from the University of the Sunshine Coast.
“In Australia, approximately 33 per cent of insects are formally described, the remainder exist as ‘dark taxa’, to the detriment of environmental and biodiversity management initiatives.
“Encouraging more young people to engage in science not only engenders positive feelings in them towards the environment, it will also help to build the next generation of scientists who will fill in the vast knowledge gap that exists in the world of insects.”
Before getting to the link and citation, here’s an update on the Australian higher education ecosystem, from the March 24, 2025 version of the press release on EurekAlert ,
The University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia are joining forces to become Australia’s new major university – Adelaide University. Building on the strengths, legacies and resources of two leading universities, Adelaide University will deliver globally relevant research at scale, innovative, industry-informed teaching and an outstanding student experience. Adelaide University will open its doors in January 2026. Find out more on the Adelaide University website.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) issued an April 22, 2025 news release (also received via email) by Sachi Wickramasinghe announcing research on ‘parks for bugs’,
As the days get longer and gardeners plan their spring planting, research from the University of British Columbia offers some good news this Earth Day: small, simple changes to urban green spaces can make a big difference for pollinators. The study, published in Ecology Letters, found that reducing lawn mowing and creating pollinator meadows – think of them as ‘parks for bugs’– significantly boosts pollinator diversity, creating healthier and more resilient ecosystems.
A buzzing success
The three-year study, conducted in collaboration with the City of Vancouver’s pollinator meadows program, surveyed pollinators in 18 urban parks across Vancouver, comparing parks where meadows were planted and mowing was restricted with parks that remained as standard turfgrass lawns.
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And while the tall grass caused a small stir among some neighbours, the results were striking: parks with meadows saw an immediate increase in pollinator species, with 21 to 47 more wild bee and hoverfly species compared to parks without meadows. The increase persisted over the three-year study period, suggesting that the meadow parks also support pollinators in the long run.
More than 100 species of wild bees and hoverflies were identified, with 35 of them only found in parks with meadows – including the Vancouver and Nevada bumble bee, some miner bees such as the Milwaukee miner bee, the red-faced miner bee and several species of hoverflies.
“Many people think of urban landscapes as poor environments for biodiversity, but our research shows that small actions can have a lasting impact,” said lead author Jens Ulrich, a PhD candidate in the faculty of land and food systems. “You don’t need a lot of space or resources to make a difference.”
Urban landscapes as pollinator havens
Unlike farmland, where large fields with monocrops can limit pollinator movement, urban areas are full of green spaces—gardens, parks, and even roadside boulevards—that can serve as pollinator refuges. The patchwork of small habitats allows species to move freely and settle into restored areas quickly.
The research highlights the importance of maintaining and expanding such efforts. Ongoing management, such as adding more native plants and controlling invasive species, can further strengthen pollinator communities.
The findings also offer practical guidance for city planners and community groups looking to enhance urban green spaces, and have already informed the City of Vancouver’s long-term planning—helping to establish pollinator meadows as a permanent option for parks and shaping future efforts to balance ecological function with aesthetic and cultural values.
“With so much land dedicated to lawns, there’s a major opportunity to rethink how we use these spaces,” said co-author Dr. Risa Sargent, an associate professor in the faculty of land and food systems. “Even small patches of insect-friendly meadows can provide critical resources for pollinators.”
Whether you have a backyard, balcony, or community garden plot, you can support pollinators with these simple steps:
Reduce mowing: Pollinators thrive in areas where flowers are allowed to bloom. Consider letting a section of your lawn grow longer or mowing less frequently.
Plant native flowering shrubs and trees: Perennial species like native chokecherry, Pacific ninebark, oceanspray, native hawthorn, red flowering currant, salal, red-osier dogwood, snowberry and vine maple are great choices for British Columbia’s Lower Mainland.
Create a diverse habitat: Incorporate a variety of plants that bloom at different times of the year to provide food from spring to fall.
Avoid pesticides: Many urban areas, including Vancouver, have already restricted pesticide use, but avoiding chemical treatments in your own garden can further protect pollinators.
Leave natural nesting sites: Many native bees nest in the ground or in plant stems. Keeping some bare soil or leaving flower stalks through winter can provide valuable shelter.
The Opening Ceremony of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) will be held from 4-5 February 2025 at UNESCO Headquarters. It marks the official commencement of a global initiative dedicated to advancing quantum science and its transformative applications. As the lead agency for IYQ, UNESCO aims to maximize the visibility of IYQ and the transformative potential of quantum science and technology in addressing critical global challenges. It will serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas, allowing participants to showcase best practices in quantum science education, research, and industry applications. It will provide an opportunity to inspire interdisciplinary and cross-regional cooperation and to address disparities between the Global North and South while inspiring inclusive innovation. The opening ceremony will also highlight the importance of integrating ethics and responsible innovation into the core of discussions.
The Exhibition
An exhibition will run alongside the event to celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Visitors can explore cutting-edge displays that showcase quantum science breakthroughs, innovative applications, and future possibilities. This interactive experience is designed to engage audiences and inspire a deeper appreciation for quantum technologies. The exhibition will be held in Salle des Actes and Salle des Pas Perdus from 3–7 February 2025 and is open throughout the day for all attendees to visit.
The Opening Ceremony and the Exhibition is open to the public and everyone is invited! Please join us!
Important Notice
Please note the dates and times of the Opening Ceremony and exhibition carefully to plan your visit. As the Opening Ceremony spans two days, we kindly ask you to specify during registration whether you will attend on February 4 [2025], February 5 [2025], or both days. Additionally, the exhibition will run from February 3–7, 2025, providing flexibility for your visit. Your timely registration helps us ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for all attendees.
Day 1 Opening Ceremony: The Day 1 Opening Ceremony will take place on February 4, 2025, in Room I, UNESCO Headquarters, 125 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, France. The event starts at 10:00 AM, with doors opening at 8:30 AM and welcome coffee served from 9:30 AM.
Day 2 Opening Ceremony: The Day 2 Opening Ceremony will take place on February 5, 2025, in Room II, UNESCO Headquarters, 125 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, France. The event starts at 9:30 AM, with doors opening at 8:00 AM and welcome coffee served from 9:00 AM.
Exhibition: A special exhibition showcasing quantum science and its revolutionary applications will be held in Salle des Actes and Salle des Pas Perdus from February 3–7, 2025. The exhibition will be open throughout the day, providing attendees an engaging and interactive experience.
There is a registration form for attending the two day opening ceremony, there’s also a registration form for exhibitors and you can find both here. The deadline for both registrations is February 2, 2025.
The opening session will set the tone for the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, emphasizing the significance of quantum advancements in shaping our future. Leaders and experts will highlight the global importance of fostering innovation and international collaboration.
10:00-10:05 Promotional Video of the International Year 10:05-10:10 Opening Ms Hayley Edmonds, master of ceremony 10:10-10:20 Welcome Address Ms Lidia BRITO, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO 10:10-10:25 High-Level Remarks Minister of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation of the United Mexican States(tbc) H.E. Amb. Simona-Mirela Miculescu, President of the 42nd session of the General Conference Mr Cephas Adjej MENSAH, Director of Research, Statistics and Information Management, on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Republic of Ghana 10:25-10:55 Keynote Address “Watching The Quantum World With Ultrashort Light Pulses” Prof. Anne L’HUILLIER, Physicist and 2023 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Sweden/France
10:55 -11:00 Group Photo
11:00-11:50 Fireside Chat: Shaping a Sustainable Future for Global Development
This engaging fireside chat will delve into the ways quantum technologies can contribute to a more inclusive and equitable world. Panelists will discuss strategies to bridge the global divide and ensure that the benefits of quantum advancements are shared widely.
Moderator: Ms Catarina ROLFSDOTTER-JANSSON, journalist, Moderator, TV-program host, Sweden ▪ Ms Samia Charfi KADDOUR, Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar; former Director General of Scientific Research at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; Tunisia ▪ Prof. Ana Maria CETTO, Professor at the Institute of Physics, the Director of the Museum of Light at the National University of Mexico, the United Mexican States ▪ Prof. John DOYLE, Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics at Harvard University, President of the American Physical Society; the United States of America
11:50-12:40 Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Frontiers of Quantum Science and Technology
Discover groundbreaking research and innovations that are pushing the boundaries of quantum science. This discussion will highlight the latest advancements and how they are shaping tomorrow’s technologies.
Moderator: Ms Maricela MUNOZ, Director External Affairs, Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), Switzerland
▪ Dr Dave SMITH, National Technology Adviser, on behalf of the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ▪ Prof. Alain ASPECT, Physicist and 2022 Nobel Laureate in Physics, France ▪ Prof. Stephanie SIMMONS, Founder & Chief Quantum Officer at Photonic, Co-Chair of Canada’s National Quantum Advisory, Canada [still a professor at Simon Fraser University?] ▪ Prof. Jian Wei PAN, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Vice Chancellor, University of Science and Technology of China, China
12:40-12:50 Music Performance
12:50-1400 Lunch Hall Segur, le Foyer and the Restaurant on the 7th floor of the UNESCO
14:00-14;50 Panel Discussion and Public Engagement and Education in Quantum Science and Technology
Explore the critical role of public engagement and education in demystifying quantum science and inspiring the next generation. Panelists will discuss initiatives that make quantum concepts accessible to diverse audiences and highlight the importance of inclusivity in science education.
Moderator: Prof. Emily EDWARDS, Associate Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Duke Quantum Center, United States of America ▪ Prof. Andrzej SZEPTYCKI, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland ▪ Prof. Jacquiline ROMERO, Associate Professor, Reader and Westpac Research Fellow, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland Australia/the Republic of the Philippines. ▪ Dr Yaseera ISMAIL, Senior lecturer, Department of Physics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa ▪ Ms Elisa Torres DURNEY, CEO of Girls in Quantum; Chile ▪ Dr John DONOHUE, Senior Manager of Scientific Outreach at the Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo; Canada
14:50-15:40 Roundtable Discussion: Policy and Innovation in Quantum Science for Advancing Global Goals for Sustainable Development
This session will explore how policies and innovation in quantum science can be aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The discussion will focus on harnessing quantum advancements for climate action, economic growth, and societal well-being.
Moderator: Prof. Luiz DAVIDOVICH, Professor Emeritus at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Distinguished fellow at the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering of the University of Texas A&M [Texas A&M University], Brazil ▪ Mr. Seizo ONOE, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, International Telecommunication Union ▪ Prof. Serge HAROCHE, Physicist and 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, France ▪ Dr Najwa AARAJ, CEO of Technology Innovation Institute, UAE ▪ Prof. Tommaso CALARCO, Director of the Institute for Quantum Control in Jülich, Coordinator of EU Quantum Flagship; Germany/Italy ▪ Dr Cathy FOLEY, Board member of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia
15:40-16:35 Networking Session Coffee Break
16:35-17:45 Insight Talk by Nobel Laureate on Quantum Mechanics 2025: Incredible Past, Amazing Present, Magnificent Future
Be inspired by the insights of Prof. William D. Phillips, 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics, as he shares his unique perspective on the wonders of quantum science. This engaging session allows attendees to interact with one of the field’s most esteemed figures.
Moderator: Prof. Rosario FAZIO, Head of the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Section, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Speaker: Prof. William D. PHILLIPS, Physicist and 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics, United States of America
17:05-18:05 Voices from the Industry: The Challenge of Developing Quantum at Scale
This panel will address the challenges and opportunities of scaling quantum technologies for practical use. Industry leaders will share their experiences in bringing quantum research to market, showcasing groundbreaking developments in this field.
Moderator: Dr. Celia MERZBACHER, Executive Director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) ▪ Ms Katie PIZZOLATO, Vice President of Quantum Algorithms and Scientific Partnerships, IBM ▪ Dr Krysta SVORE, Technical Fellow, Microsoft ▪ Dr Rajeeb HAZRA, CEO of Quantinuum ▪ Dr Grégoire RIBORDY, CEO of ID Quantique ▪ Prof. Alexander LING, Principal Investigator, Centre for Quantum Technologies, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore; Co-founder of SpeQtral & S-Fifteen Instruments, Singapore. ▪ Dr Takuya Kitagawa, President, QuEra
18:05-18:25 UNESCO’s Role in Reducing the Quantum Divide: Advancing Global Innovation and Inclusion
This session highlights UNESCO’s commitment to reducing the global quantum divide by fostering innovation, building capacities, and advancing inclusion between the Global North and South. It emphasizes the transformative potential of quantum science and technology while ensuring its ethical and responsible applications. By bridging technical gaps and promoting equity, UNESCO reaffirms its dedication to leveraging quantum technologies for sustainable and inclusive development.
Host: Ms Lidia BRITO, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO ▪ Ms Dafna FEINHOLZ, Director a.i. Division of Research, Ethics and Inclusion, Social and Human Sciences Sector, UNESCO ▪ Mr. Guilherme CANELA DE SOUZA GODOI, Director of Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation (CI/DPT) and Secretary of the Information for All Programme (IFAP), Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO ▪ Mr Atish DABHOLKAR, Director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, UNESCO
18:25-18:30 Day one Concluding Notes
Sir Peter KNIGHT, Professor, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Chair of the Quantum Metrology Institute, National Physical Laboratory, co-chair of the Steering Committee of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Day 2 5 February 2025 Room II
09:00-09:30 Welcome Coffee
09:30-09:45 Introductory Session
Begin the day with reflections on the importance of ethics in quantum science and its role in shaping responsible innovation and inclusive governance, setting the tone for the day’s discussions.
09:30-09:35 Welcome address by the Master of Ceremonies Ms Hayley EDMONDS, journalist, France 09:35-09:40 Introductory remarks (video meesage) Ms Gabriela RAMOS, Assistant Director-General of Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO 09:40-09:45 Scene Setting Allocution Prof. Yasser OMAR, Theoretical Physicist, IST, University of Lisbon & President of PQI – Portuguese Quantum Institutel
09:45-10:45 Panel Discussion: Ethics of Quantum Technologies
This panel will explore the ethical challenges of quantum advancements and the need for an anticipatory approach and a global reflection to understand the potential benefits and risks of these powerful technologies. Panelists will discuss why an ethical and human rights-based framework is essential to ensure ethical guardrails while enabling responsible innovation.
09:45-09:50 Scene Setting Allocution Prof. Pieter VERMAAS, Philosopher and Head of the Quantum Lab, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of TU Delft, and Lead of ethics research, Dutch Quantum Delta, Kingdom of the Netherlands 09:50-10:35 Panel Discussion ’ Moderator: Mr Diederick CROESE, Director of the Centre for Quantum and Society, Quantum Delta NL, Kingdom of the Netherlands ▪ Prof. Emma RUTTKAMP-BLOEM, Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria, Chairperson of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), South Africa ▪ Professor Sang Wook YI, Professor of Philosophy, Hanyang University, Chairperson, Division of Ethics and Safety, National High-Level Committee for AI Strategies, Rapporteur of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), Republic of Korea ▪ Prof. Karina Garay PALMETT, Senior Researcher, Department of Optics of the Division of Applied Physics of the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada, the United Mexican States ▪ Prof. Shohini GHOSE, Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University and Chief Technology Officer, Quantum Algorithms Institute, Canada ▪ Prof. Anil PRABHAKAR, Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Co-Founder of QuNu Labs and Quanfluence, India
10:35-10:45 Q&A session
This panel focuses on fostering responsible innovation in quantum science to ensure its alignment with global ethical standards and sustainable development goals. This panel will discuss strategies, challenges, and opportunities for integrating responsibility into the research and deployment of quantum technologies. Panelists will focus on concrete ways to create responsible and inclusive innovation systems and how open-source applications can be promoted to prevent further widening digital divides.
11:05-11:10 Scene Setting Allocution Prof. Matthias C. KETTEMANN, Professor of Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law, University of Innsbruck, and Director of the Innsbruck Quantum Ethics Lab, Member of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), Republic of Austria
11:10-12:00 Panel Discussion
Moderator: Mr Diederick CROESE, Director of the Centre for Quantum and Society, Quantum Delta NL, Kingdom of the Netherlands ▪ Dr Mira Luca WOLF-BAUWENS, Responsible Quantum Computing Lead in the Responsible & Inclusive Technology Team, IBM Research, Switzerland ▪ Dr. Prince OSEI, Lead Scientist & Director for Quantum Leap Africa, President of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Ghana ▪ Prof. Farida FASSI, Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Member of African Academy of Sciences, Morocco ▪ Prof. Matthias C. KETTEMANN, Professor of Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law, University of Innsbruck, and Director of the Innsbruck Quantum Ethics Lab, Member of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), Republic of Austria ▪ Prof. Yasser OMAR, Theoretical Physicist, President of IST, University of Lisbon & PQI – Portuguese Quantum Institute, Portugal
12:00-12:10 Q&A session
12:10-12:30 Closing of Day 2 and the Launch of the International Year
Celebrate the successful completion of Day 2 of the Opening Ceremony and the launch of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology with reflections from UNESCO’s leadership and closing cultural performances. Final remarks will emphasise the global importance of quantum advancements and the collaborative efforts needed to harness their full potential.
12:10-12:15 Concluding notes of Day Two Ms Claudia REINPRECHT, Focal point of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in digital and tech diplomacy and for the EU Digital Diplomacy Network, Republic of Austria
12:15-12:25 Closing of the Launch of the International of the Year Quantum Science and Technology Ms Dafna FEINHOLZ, Director a.i. Division of Research, Ethics and Inclusion, Social and Human Sciences Sector, UNESCO Ms Lidia BRITO, Assistant Director-General of Natural Sciences, UNESCO
Side-Exhibition
An exhibition for the IYQ will be held on Salle des Actes and Salle des Pas Perdus.
I have posted this as a prelude (of sorts) to my commentary on the November 2023 Council of Canadian Academies’ report, Quantum Potential.
ETA: On February 3, 2025 all tags added except ‘UNESCO’ and ‘International Year of Quantum Science and Technology’, which were included when previously published.
If you thought your kids were away from harm playing multi-player games through VR headsets while in their own bedrooms, you may want to sit down to read this.
Griffith University’s Dr Ausma Bernot teamed up with researchers from Monash University, Charles Sturt University and University of Technology Sydney to investigate what has been termed as ‘metacrime’ – attacks, crimes or inappropriate activities that occur within virtual reality environments.
The ‘metaverse’ refers to the virtual world, where users of VR headsets can choose an avatar to represent themselves as they interact with other users’ avatars or move through other 3D digital spaces.
While the metaverse can be used for anything from meetings (where it will feel as though you are in the same room as avatars of other people instead of just seeing them on a screen) to wandering through national parks around the world without leaving your living room, gaming is by far its most popular use.
Dr Bernot said the technology had evolved incredibly quickly.
“Using this technology is super fun and it’s really immersive,” she said.
“You can really lose yourself in those environments.
“Unfortunately, while those new environments are very exciting, they also have the potential to enable new crimes.
“While the headsets that enable us to have these experiences aren’t a commonly owned item yet, they’re growing in popularity and we’ve seen reports of sexual harassment or assault against both adults and kids.”
In a December 2023 report, the Australian eSafety Commissioner estimated around 680,000 adults in Australia are engaged in the metaverse.
This followed a survey conducted in November and December 2022 by researchers from the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate, who conducted 11 hours and 30 minutes of recorded user interactions on Meta’s Oculus headset in the popular VRChat.
The researchers found most users had been faced with at least one negative experience in the virtual environment, including being called offensive names, receiving repeated unwanted messages or contact, being provoked to respond to something or to start an argument, being challenged about cultural identity or being sent unwanted inappropriate content.
Eleven per cent had been exposed to a sexually graphic virtual space and nine per cent had been touched (virtually) in a way they didn’t like.
Of these respondents, 49 per cent said the experience had a moderate to extreme impact on their mental or emotional wellbeing.
With the two largest user groups being minors and men, Dr Bernot said it was important for parents to monitor their children’s activity or consider limiting their access to multi-player games.
“Minors are more vulnerable to grooming and other abuse,” she said.
“They may not know how to deal with these situations, and while there are some features like a ‘safety bubble’ within some games, or of course the simple ability to just take the headset off, once immersed in these environments it does feel very real.
“It’s somewhere in between a physical attack and for example, a social media harassment message – you’ll still feel that distress and it can take a significant toll on a user’s wellbeing.
“It is a real and palpable risk.”
Monash University’s You Zhou said there had already been many reports of virtual rape, including one in the United Kingdom where police have launched a case for a 16-year-old girl whose avatar was attacked, causing psychological and emotional trauma similar to an attack in the physical world.
“Before the emergence of the metaverse we could not have imagined how rape could be virtual,” Mr Zhou said.
“When immersed in this world of virtual reality, and particularly when using higher quality VR headsets, users will not necessarily stop to consider whether the experience is reality or virtuality.
“While there may not be physical contact, victims – mostly young girls – strongly claim the feeling of victimisation was real.
“Without physical signs on a body, and unless the interaction was recorded, it can be almost impossible to show evidence of these experiences.”
With use of the metaverse expected to grow exponentially in coming years, the research team’s findings highlight a need for metaverse companies to instil clear regulatory frameworks for their virtual environments to make them safe for everyone to inhabit.
Barely audible to human ears, healthy soils produce a cacophony of sounds in many forms—a bit like an underground rave concert of bubble pops and clicks.
Special recordings made by Flinders University ecologists in Australia show that this chaotic mixture of soundscapes can be a measure of the diversity of tiny living animals in the soil, which create sounds as they move and interact with their environment.
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An August 16, 2024 Flinders University press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes a newish (more about newish later) field of research ‘eco-acoustics’ and technical details about the researchers’ work, Note: A link has been removed,
With 75% of the world’s soils degraded, the future of the teeming community of living species that live underground face a dire future without restoration, says microbial ecologist Dr Jake Robinson, from theFrontiers of Restoration Ecology Lab in the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University.
This new field of research aims to investigate the vast, teeming hidden ecosystems where almost 60% of the Earth’s species live, he says.
“Restoring and monitoring soil biodiversity has never been more important.
“Although still in its early stages, ‘eco-acoustics’ is emerging as a promising tool to detect and monitor soil biodiversity and has now been used in Australian bushland and other ecosystems in the UK.
“The acoustic complexity and diversity are significantly higher in revegetated and remnant plots than in cleared plots, both in-situ and in sound attenuation chambers.
“The acoustic complexity and diversity are also significantly associated with soil invertebrate abundance and richness.”
The latest study, including Flinders University expert Associate Professor Martin Breed and Professor Xin Sun from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, compared results from acoustic monitoring of remnant vegetation to degraded plots and land that was revegetated 15 years ago.
The passive acoustic monitoring used various tools and indices to measure soil biodiversity over five days in the Mount Bold region in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. A below-ground sampling device and sound attenuation chamber were used to record soil invertebrate communities, which were also manually counted.
“It’s clear acoustic complexity and diversity of our samples are associated with soil invertebrate abundance – from earthworms, beetles to ants and spiders – and it seems to be a clear reflection of soil health,” says Dr Robinson.
“All living organisms produce sounds, and our preliminary results suggest different soil organisms make different sound profiles depending on their activity, shape, appendages and size.
“This technology holds promise in addressing the global need for more effective soil biodiversity monitoring methods to protect our planet’s most diverse ecosystems.”
This is a copy of the research paper’s graphical abstract,
Caption: Acoustic monitoring was carried out on soil in remnant vegetation as well as degraded plots and land that was revegetated 15 years ago. Credit: Flinders University
Like a lot of newish scientific terms, eco-acoustics, appears to be evolving. A search for the term led me to the Acoustic ecology entry on Wikipedia, Note: Links have been removed,
Acoustic ecology, sometimes called ecoacoustics or soundscape studies, is a discipline studying the relationship, mediated through sound, between human beings and their environment.[1] Acoustic ecology studies started in the late 1960s with R. Murray Schafer a musician, composer and former professor of communication studies at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) with the help of his team there[2] as part of the World Soundscape Project. The original WSP team included Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, Bruce Davies and Peter Huse, among others. The first study produced by the WSP was titled The Vancouver Soundscape. This innovative study raised the interest of researchers and artists worldwide, creating enormous growth in the field of acoustic ecology. In 1993, the members of the by now large and active international acoustic ecology community formed the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.[3]
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Soundscapes are composed of the anthrophony, geophony and biophony of a particular environment. They are specific to location and change over time.[12] Acoustic ecology aims to study the relationship between these things, i.e. the relationship between humans, animals and nature, within these soundscapes. These relationships are delicate and subject to disruption by natural or man-made means.[9]
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The acoustic niche hypothesis, as proposed by acoustic ecologist Bernie Krause in 1993,[23] refers to the process in which organisms partition the acoustic domain, finding their own niche in frequency and/or time in order to communicate without competition from other species. The theory draws from the ideas of niche differentiation and can be used to predict differences between young and mature ecosystems. Similar to how interspecific competition can place limits on the number of coexisting species that can utilize a given availability of habitats or resources, the available acoustic space in an environment is a limited resource that is partitioned among those species competing to utilize it.[24]
In mature ecosystems, species will sing at unique bandwidths and specific times, displaying a lack of interspecies competition in the acoustic environment. Conversely, in young ecosystems, one is more likely to encounter multiple species using similar frequency bandwidths, which can result in interference between their respective calls, or a complete lack of activity in uncontested bandwidths. Biological invasions can also result in interference in the acoustic niche, with non-native species altering the dynamics of the native community by producing signals that mask or degrade native signals. This can cause a variety of ecological impacts, such as decreased reproduction, aggressive interactions, and altered predator-prey dynamics.[25] The degree of partitioning in an environment can be used to indicate ecosystem health and biodiversity.
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Earlier bioacoustic research at Flinders University has been mentioned in a June 14, 2023 posting “The sound of dirt.” Finally, whether you spell it eco-acoustics or ecoacoustics or call it acoustic ecology, it is a fascinating way of understanding the natural and not-so-natural world we live in.
A July 24, 2024 news item on phys.org highlights research into regenerating bone and skin, Note: A link has been removed,
Researchers are exploring new nature-based solutions to stimulate skin and bone repair.
In the cities of Trento and Rovereto in northern Italy and Bangkok in Thailand, scientists are busy rearing silkworms in nurseries. They’re hoping that the caterpillars’ silk can regenerate human tissue. For such a delicate medical procedure, only thoroughbreds will do.
“By changing the silkworm, you can change the chemistry,” said Professor Antonella Motta, a researcher in bioengineering at the University of Trento in Italy. That could, in turn, affect clinical outcomes. “This means the quality control should be very strict.”
Silk has been used in surgical sutures for hundreds of years and is now emerging as a promising nature-based option for triggering human tissue to self-regenerate. Researchers are also studying crab, shrimp and mussel shells and squid skin and bone for methods of restoring skin, bone and cartilage. This is particularly relevant as populations age.
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A July 23, 2024 article by Gareth Willmer for Horizon Magazine, the EU (European Union) research & innovation magazine, which originated the news item, provides more details,
‘Tissue engineering is a new strategy to solve problems caused by pathologies or trauma to the organs, as an alternative to transplants or artificial device implantations,’ said Motta, noting that these interventions can often fail or expire. ‘The idea is to use the natural ability of our bodies to rebuild the tissue.’
The research forms part of the five-year EU-funded SHIFT [Shaping Innovative Designs for Sustainable Tissue Engineering Products] project that Motta coordinates, which includes universities in Europe, as well as partners in Asia and Australia. Running until 2026, the research team aim to scale up methods for regenerating skin, bone and cartilage using bio-based polymers and to get them ready for clinical trials. The goal is to make them capable of repairing larger wounds and tissue damage.
The research builds on work carried out under the earlier REMIX [Regenerative Medicine Innovation Crossing – Research and Innovation Staff Exchange in Regenerative Medicine] project, also funded by the EU, which made important advances in understanding the different ways in which these biomaterials could be used.
Building a scaffold
Silk, for instance, can be used to form a “scaffold” in damaged tissue that then activates cells to form new tissue and blood vessels. The process could be used to treat conditions such as diabetic ulcers and lower back pain caused by spinal disc degeneration. The SHIFT team have been exploring minimally invasive procedures for treatment, such as hydrogels that can be applied directly to the skin, or injected into bone or cartilage.
The approaches using both silkworms and some of the marine organisms have great potential, said Motta.
‘We have three or four systems with different materials that are really promising,’ she said. By the end of SHIFT, the goal is to have two or three prototypes that can be developed together with start-up and spin-off companies created in collaboration with the project.
One of the principles of the SHIFT team has been been exploring how best to harness the concept of a circular economy. For example, they are looking into how waste products from the textile and food industries can be reused in these treatments.
Yet with complicated interactions at a microscale, and the need to prevent the body from rejecting foreign materials, such tissue engineering is a big challenge.
‘The complexity is high because the nature of biology is not easy,’ said Motta. ‘We cannot change the language of the cells, but instead have to learn to speak the same language as them.’
But she firmly believes the nature-based rather than synthetic approach is the way to go and thinks treatments harnessing SHIFT’s methods could become available in the early 2030s.
‘I believe in this approach,’ said Motta. ‘Bone designed by nature is the best bone we can have.’
Skin care
Another EU-funded project known as SkinTERM [Skin Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: From skin repair to regeneration], which runs for almost five years until mid-2025, is also looking at novel ways to get tissue to self-regenerate, focusing on skin. To treat burns and other surface wounds today, a thin layer of skin is sometimes grafted from another part of the body. This can cause the appearance of disfiguring scars and the patient’s mobility may be impacted when the tissue contracts as it heals. Current skin-grafting methods can also be painful.
The SkinTERM team are therefore investigating how inducing the healing process in the networks of cells surrounding a wound might enable skin to repair itself.
‘We could do much better if we move towards regeneration,’ said Dr Willeke Daamen, who coordinates SkinTERM as a researcher in soft tissue regeneration at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. ‘The ultimate goal would be to get the same situation before and after being wounded.’
Researchers are studying a particular mammal – the spiny mouse – which has a remarkable ability to heal without scarring. It is able to self-repair damage to other tissues like the heart and spinal cord too. This is also true of early foetal skin.
The team are examining these systems to learn more about how they work and the processes occurring in the area around cells, known as the extracellular matrix. They hope to identify factors that might have a role in the regenerative process, and test how it might be induced in humans.
Kick-start
‘We’ve been trying to learn from those systems on how to kick-start such processes,’ said Daamen. ‘We’ve made progress in what kinds of compounds seem at least in part to be responsible for a regenerative response.’
Many lines of research are being carried out among a new generation of multidisciplinary scientists being trained in this area, and a lot has already been achieved, said Daamen.
They have managed to create scaffolds using different components related to skin regeneration, such as the proteins collagen and elastin. They have also collected a vast amount of data on genes and proteins with potential roles in regeneration. Their role will be further tested by using them on scar-prone cells cultured on collagen scaffolds.
‘The mechanisms are complex,’ said Dr Bouke Boekema, a senior researcher at the Association of Dutch Burn Centres in Beverwijk, the Netherlands, and vice-coordinator of SkinTERM.
‘If you find a mechanism, the idea is that maybe you can tune it so that you can stimulate it. But there’s not necessarily one magic bullet.’
By the end of the project next year, Boekema hopes the research could result in some medical biomaterial options to test for clinical use. ‘It would be nice if several prototypes were available for testing to see if they improve outcomes in patients.’
Research in this article was funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). The views of the interviewees don’t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.
Interesting. Over these last few months, I’ve been stumbling across more than my usual number of regenerative medicine stories.
The latest newsletter from the Metacreation Lab for Creative AI (at Simon Fraser University [SFU]), features a ‘first’. From the June 2024 Metacreation Lab newsletter (received via email),
“Longing + Forgetting” at the 2024 Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe
We are thrilled to announce that Longing + Forgetting has been invited to the esteemed Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Longing + Forgetting is a generative audio-video installation that explores the relationship between humans and machines. This media art project, created by Canadian artists Philippe Pasquier and Thecla Schiphorst alongside Australian artist Matt Gingold, has garnered international acclaim since its inception. Initially presented in Canada in 2013, the piece has journeyed through multiple international festivals, captivating audiences with its exploration of human expression through movement.
Philippe Pasquier will be on-site for the festival, overseeing the site-specific installation at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe. This marks the North American premiere of the redeveloped version of “Longing + Forgetting,” featuring a new soundtrack by Pasquier based solely on the close-mic recording of dancers.
Currents New Media Festival runs June 14–23, 2024 and brings together the work of established and emerging new media artists from around the world across various disciplines, with an expected 9,000 visitors during the festival’s run.
Discover “Longing + Forgetting” at Bunjil Place in Melbourne
We are excited to announce that “Longing + Forgetting” is being featured at Bunjil Place in Melbourne, Australia. As part of the Art After Dark Program curated by Angela Barnett, this outdoor screening will run from June 1 to June 28, illuminating the night from 5 pm to 7 pm.
Presenting “Unveiling New Artistic Dimensions in Calligraphic Arabic Script with GANs” at SIGGRAPH 2024
We are pleased to share that our paper, “Unveiling New Artistic Dimensions in Calligraphic Arabic Script with Generative Adversarial Networks,” will be presented at SIGGRAPH 2024, the premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. The event will take place from July 28 to August 1, 2024, in Denver, Colorado.
This paper delves into the artistic potential of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to create and innovate within the realm of calligraphic Arabic script, particularly the nastaliq style. By developing two custom datasets and leveraging the StyleGAN2-ada architecture, we have generated high-quality, stylistically coherent calligraphic samples. Our work bridges the gap between traditional calligraphy and modern technology and offers a new mode of creative expression for this artform.
For those unfamiliar with the acronym, SIGGRAPH stands for special interest group for computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH is huge and it’s a special interest group (SIG) of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery).
If memory serves, this is the first time I’ve seen the Metacreation Lab make a request for volunteers, from the June 2024 Metacreation Lab newsletter,
Are you interested in music-making and AI technology?
The Metacreation Lab for Creative AI at Simon Fraser University (SFU), is conducting a research study in partnership with Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. We are testing and evaluating MMM-Cubase v2, a creative AI system for assisting composing music. The system is based on our best music transformer, the multitrack music machine (MMM), which can generate, re-generate or complete new musical content based on existing content.
There is no prerequisite for this study beyond a basic knowledge of DAW and MIDI. So everyone is welcome even if you do not consider yourself a composer, but are interested in trying the system. The entire study should take you around 3 hours, and you must be 19+ years old. Basic interest and familiarity with digital music composition will help, but no experience with making music is required.
We seek to better evaluate the potential for adoption of such systems for novice/beginner as well as for seasoned composers. More specifically, you will be asked to install and use the system to compose a short 4-track musical composition and to fill out a survey questionnaire at the end.
Participation in this study is rewarded with one free Steinberg software license of your choice among Cubase Element, Dorico Element or Wavelab Element.
For any question or further inquiry, please contact researcher Renaud Bougueng Tchemeube directly at rbouguen@sfu.ca.
