We’re about to see Earth’s magnetic shield like never before - European Space Agency, ESA

 

Solar energy could be key to making sustainable aviation fuel - Energy & Green Tech - Automotive

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new way of making sustainable aviation fuel that could cut the reliance on used cooking oil as a feedstock has been developed by a team of engineers led by the University of Sheffield. The new technique captures CO₂ from the air, combines it with hydrogen, and then heats it using concentrated solar energy to produce the fuel. For their study published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used comprehensive computer modeling and simulation to understand how and where this first-of-a-kind technology could function at an industrial scale.

Where the new fuel could scale

Their analysis suggests that five countries across different continents could be suitable for such large-scale SAF production plants due to their high levels of sunlight and low costs of hydrogen or land. These are: the U.S. (North America), Chile (South America), Spain (Europe), South Africa (Africa), and China (Asia).

The research follows recent statistics from the UK's SAF mandate, which show the majority of SAF in the U.K. is made from used cooking oil.

Why new feedstocks are needed

Professor Meihong Wang, Professor of Energy Systems at the University of Sheffield, who led the research, said, "Decarbonizing the aviation industry is key to slowing global warming and achieving net zero. SAF has emerged as a promising solution to meet energy needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as it works in existing engines, potentially allowing for sustainable air travel without major mechanical changes to airplanes. However, a major challenge in switching to SAF is ensuring that we have enough feedstock to produce the huge amount of fuel that the industry needs and also making the fuel in a way that doesn't require fossil fuels.

"The process we have proposed has the potential to address key challenges in scaling up SAF. It's a renewable energy-powered way of capturing CO₂ from the air and making SAF that is cost-effective and can be scaled to industrial levels. It also reduces electricity consumption in the production process and can fit within a circular economy."

Schematic representation of DAC for CO2 storage or utilization pathways. Credit: Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67977-x

How the solar-driven process works

The solar-driven SAF technique was developed in collaboration with researchers from the East China University of Science and Technology. It improves on an existing proposed way of making SAF called Direct Air Capture and CO₂ Utilization (DACCU), which is currently in the research and development phase.

This existing DACCU method captures CO₂ from the air and combines it with hydrogen, similar to the proposal led by Sheffield; however, it heats the chemicals using a fossil fuel—natural gas—a process which the Sheffield-led team says would prevent SAF from being a truly sustainable fuel.

The researchers from Sheffield and China have shown in their study that replacing the fossil fuel with concentrated solar energy is capable of providing the intense heat needed to create the chemical reactions to produce SAF. It could also cost less than existing DACCU pathways—projections estimate US$4.62 per kg compared to US$ 5.6 per kg.

The reactor at the heart of it

Professor Wang added, "The innovation lies in a hydrogen-fluidized calciner. This is a specialized reactor that uses a field of mirrors to focus sunlight, eliminating the need for onsite fossil fuel combustion. By using hydrogen to circulate the carbon particles, the system also streamlines production as it serves as the medium to circulate the carbon particles while simultaneously providing the essential feedstock for fuel synthesis.

"This dual-purpose design allows us to bypass traditional, complex steps like syngas production and CO₂ purification, resulting in a much more streamlined and cost-effective production cycle. By converting atmospheric carbon into SAF directly onsite, we transform CO₂ from a waste product into a valuable resource, fostering a circular economy that eliminates the need for the expensive pipeline networks and geological reservoirs required by traditional carbon capture and storage." 

Provided by University of Sheffield 

by Sean Barton, University of Sheffield

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Solar energy could be key to making sustainable aviation fuel   

Huge study finds no evidence cannabis helps anxiety, depression, or PTSD

A landmark paper published in The Lancet Psychiatry – the largest-ever review of the safety and efficacy of cannabinoids across a range of mental health conditions – found no evidence that medicinal cannabis is effective in treating anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The study comes amid more than one million prescription approvals and a tripling of sales of cannabinoid medications (including both cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products) in Australia over the past four years, often for the treatment of mental health and substance-use disorders.  In the United States and Canada, 27 percent of people aged 16–65 have used cannabis for medical purposes, with about half using it to manage their mental health.

The study’s lead author, Dr Jack Wilson at the University of Sydney’s The Matilda Centre, said the results call into question the approval of medicinal cannabis for the treatment of depression, anxiety and PTSD.

“Though our paper didn’t specifically look at this, the routine use of medicinal cannabis could be doing more harm than good by worsening mental health outcomes, for example a greater risk of psychotic symptoms and developing cannabis use disorder, and delaying the use of more effective treatments,” he said. 

More than 700,000 Australians have reported using medicinal cannabis to treat over 250 different health conditions. The research found evidence to suggest that medicinal cannabis could potentially be beneficial for some conditions – such as the treatment of cannabis use disorder (otherwise known as cannabis dependency), autism, insomnia, and tics or Tourette’s syndrome.

Dr Wilson said: “But the overall quality of evidence for these other conditions, such as autism and insomnia, was low. In the absence of robust medical or counselling support, the use of medicinal cannabis in these cases are rarely justified. 

“There is, however, evidence that medicinal cannabis may be beneficial in certain health conditions, such as reducing seizures associated with some forms of epilepsy, spasticity among those with multiple sclerosis, and managing certain types of pain, but our study shows the evidence for mental health disorders falls short.

“In the case of autism specifically, while the study showed some evidence medicinal cannabis could assist with a reduction in symptoms, it is worth noting that there is no one – or universal – experience of autism, so this finding should be treated with caution.”

The study found that medicinal cannabis was not effective for every type of substance-abuse disorder. While medicinal cannabis may help with cannabis dependence, it was found to increase cocaine cravings among people with cocaine-use disorder

“Similar to how methadone is used to treat opioid-use disorder, cannabis medicines may form part of an effective treatment for those with a cannabis-use disorder. When administered alongside psychological therapy, an oral formulation of cannabis was shown to reduce cannabis smoking,” Dr Wilson said. 

“However, when medicinal cannabis was used to treat people with cocaine-use disorder, it increased their cravings. This means it should not be considered for this purpose and may, in fact, worsen cocaine dependence,” he said. 

Researchers urge greater regulation for prescribing of medicinal cannabis

The rapid expansion in medicinal cannabis use and prescribing rates has raised concerns among major medical bodies, including the Australian Medical Association (AMA), the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the American Medical Association in the United States, about the largely unregulated growth in prescribing and the uncertainty surrounding the efficacy and safety of these products.

In response, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) initiated a review of the regulatory oversight of medicinal cannabis, with more than 500 responses published in February.

“Our study provides a comprehensive and independent assessment of the benefits and risks of cannabis medicines, which may support the TGA and clinicians to make evidence-based decisions, helping to ensure patients receive effective treatments while minimising harm from ineffective or unsafe cannabis products,” Dr Wilson said.

Source: https://www.sydney.edu.au/research.html 

Source: Huge study finds no evidence cannabis helps anxiety, depression, or PTSD – Scents of Science  

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What's Up: April 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

 

Mercury shines extra bright, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks, and a comet soars into view

Mercury shines at its brightest for the year, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks, and a bright new comet makes an appearance in April’s night sky.

Skywatching Highlights

• April 3: Mercury at greatest elongation
• April 17: Best chance to see Comet C/2025 R3
• April 21 to 22: Lyrid meteor shower peak
• April 27: Comet C/2025 R3 makes closest approach to Earth

Transcript

Mercury shines extra bright, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks, and a comet soars into view. That's What's Up this April. 

On April 3rd, Mercury will be at its most visible all year. On this date, the planet will be at its greatest elongation, or its furthest distance from the Sun, as we see it from Earth, making it easier to see the often hard-to spot-planet. 

To find Mercury, look east before the Sun begins to rise. The planet will be very low on the horizon, just above Mars. 

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks April 21st to 22nd. This meteor shower comes from debris left behind by Comet Thatcher. 

When this debris hits and then burns up in our atmosphere, we see the "shooting stars" of a meteor shower. 

To experience the peak of the April Lyrids, look to the east starting at around 10 p.m. on April 21st and through the night into April 22nd. The meteor shower takes place nearby the star Vega, the fifth brightest star in the night sky, which can be found in the constellation Lyra, the Harp. 

April 17th might be your best chance to see the Comet C/2025 R3, which some think could be the brightest comet of the year. This comet will make its closest approach to Earth on April 27th, coming within 44 million miles of our planet. 

Experts estimate that the comet will likely reach magnitude eight, which means you would need access to a telescope or binoculars to see it. The comet will be visible in the eastern sky in the constellations Pegasus and above Pisces. You'll be able to spot the comet in the predawn hours from mid-April through the end of April in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the evenings in early May for viewers in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Here are the phases of the Moon for April. You can stay up to date on all of NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond, at science.nasa.gov. I'm Chelsea Gohd from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that's What's Up for this month.

Source: What's Up: April 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA - NASA Science

Alkaline steel and cement wastewater could capture 30 million tons of CO₂ annually

Abstract. Credit: Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.6c00081

Alkaline industrial wastewaters from steel or cement production are ideally suited to bind and sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂) chemically, safely, and for the long term. This is the result of a study conducted by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon. Until now, this wastewater has been disposed of into rivers without using its CO₂-sequestration capacity. In the future, it could neutralize millions of tons of CO₂—offering an attractive and implementable option to mitigate climate change. The study was recently published in the journal Environment, Science & Technology Letters.

Despite the Paris Climate Agreement and all energy-saving measures, global CO₂ emissions continue to rise. Current climate protection efforts, such as expanding solar and wind energy, have so far not been sufficient to stop or even reverse this trend. For several years, climate experts have therefore been urging the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere and its long-term sequestration.

A key focus is on a method that mimics a natural process that has controlled atmospheric CO₂ levels for billions of years: rock weathering, which chemically binds CO₂ into so-called carbonates—commonly known, for example, as baking soda. The carbonates enter the environment through the weathering of limestone-rich rocks. Rain washes them into rivers and the ocean, where they react with CO₂. In this way, the greenhouse gas CO₂ remains chemically bound for long periods and is removed from the atmosphere. Hereon researchers have now succeeded in developing an industrial-scale process based on this principle that could bind and sequester many millions of tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Reaction of carbonic acid

"Our process is essentially based on a reaction that many people will remember from chemistry class—the neutralization of a base by an acid," explains Prof Helmuth Thomas, head of the Hereon Institute for Carbon Cycles.

A textbook example is the reaction of sodium hydroxide with hydrochloric acid, producing table salt. CO₂ behaves in a similar way. CO₂ from the air reacts with water to form carbonic acid. When this carbonic acid reacts with a base—an alkaline liquid—bicarbonate is formed, which binds the CO₂ in water for the long term. The idea behind the project is not to use carbonates derived from rock for the reaction with carbonic acid, but rather alkaline industrial wastewater.

"These alkaline wastewaters are produced in large quantities—for example in cement or steel production," says Thomas. Until now, they have been mixed with sulfuric or hydrochloric acid to neutralize the base before being released into rivers. In other words: the wastewater's potential to bind CO₂ has remained completely untapped and appears wasted.

But what if, instead of sulfuric acid, the alkaline wastewater were neutralized with CO₂—or carbonic acid—in the future? This method would allow vast quantities of the greenhouse gas to be chemically bound as bicarbonate at an industrial scale. The open question was how much carbon dioxide could actually be bound using this process. Answering it required Thomas's chemical expertise, who calculated the precise CO₂ turnover for such systems.

The result was clear: neutralizing CO₂ in this way is worthwhile—especially because the energy consumption of the facilities is low. Environmental and regulatory constraints, in particular with respect to the pH conditions, are met via automatic adaptation of the released waters to the original conditions of the receiving river.

Global potential

Experts have been discussing chemical CO₂ binding with carbonates for some time. One idea has been to transport rock flour from mountains to the sea via trains and trucks, load it onto ships, and disperse it into the ocean. But the logistical effort would be enormous. Moreover, no one knows how efficiently or quickly the carbonates from the rock flour would react with CO₂ in the water—or whether they would simply sink before the reaction occurs. This is not an issue in an industrial facility: the entire reaction takes place onsite, and the mass balance can be calculated precisely.

"What's great is that the necessary technology is already available," says Thomas. It could begin immediately—unlike many other concepts for reducing atmospheric CO₂. The potential is enormous: if all alkaline industrial wastewater worldwide were used for this process, around 30 million tons of CO₂ could be bound per year. 

Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres 

by Torsten Fischer, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Alkaline steel and cement wastewater could capture 30 million tons of CO₂ annually   

Rare Type Icn supernova SN 2024abvb is among the most luminous known - UNIVERSE

The left panel is a 15′ × 15′ image of SN 2024abvb constructed using multi Bgr-band Swope images that are mapped to the blue, green, and red channels of the image, respectively. The right panel is a 2′ × 2′ cutout with the position of SN 2024abvb marked. The arrow indicates the host galaxy PSO J011055.760-054416.73. Credit: arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2602.16227

An international team of astronomers has carried out photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2024abvb—a recently discovered supernova of a rare Type Icn. The new observational campaign yields important information regarding the properties and nature of this supernova. The study was published February 18 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Supernovae and their extreme subtype

Supernovae (SNe) are powerful and luminous stellar explosions. They are important for the scientific community as they offer essential clues into the evolution of stars and galaxies. In general, SNe are divided into two groups based on their atomic spectra: Type I and Type II. Type I SNe lack hydrogen in their spectra, while those of Type II showcase spectral lines of hydrogen.

Type Icn SNe are an extreme subtype of interacting stripped-envelope supernovae (SESN). They have strong, narrow oxygen and carbon lines but weak or absent hydrogen and helium lines, presenting additional complications to the stripping mechanism. They have narrow emission features indicative of circumstellar interaction.

Newfound rare Type Icn supernova

So far, only six Type Icn SNe have been discovered, and SN 2024abvb is the latest addition to this short list. It was detected on November 22, 2024 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System Project (ATLAS) and was found to be associated with the host galaxy PSO J011055.760-054416.73, however highly offset from it—about 73,000 light years from the core of the host.

Recently, a group of astronomers led by Jennifer Shi of the University of Melbourne in Australia, performed follow-up monitoring of SN 2024abvb using various ground-based telescopes, hoping to get more insights into its enigmatic nature.

After explosion

The new observations found that SN 2024abvb reached a peak magnitude of -19.55, which makes it one of the most luminous Type Icn SNe. It declines at a rate of 0.07 mag/day in the r band, therefore consistent with other known supernovae of this subclass.

During the first week after explosion, SN 2024abvb shows evidence of interaction with a hydrogen/helium-poor, carbon-rich circumstellar medium (CSM) in its optical spectra. Moreover, the persistent lack of helium emission at late times of observations indicates a transition from Type Ibn to Icn with low carbon ionization. This makes SN 2024abvb the first known example of such an event.

Host, progenitor and ejecta mass

When it comes to the host of SN 2024abvb, PSO J011055.760-054416.73, the study found that it is an intermediate-mass galaxy with a stellar mass of about 6 billion solar masses. It has an extremely low specific star-formation rate and low metallicity.

According to the astronomers, these results, together with a large off-set of SN 2024abvb, suggest that the progenitor of this supernova was a low-mass star stripped by a compact companion, which then exploded within a dense, hydrogen/helium-poor CSM.

"Based on its spectral features, local and host environment properties, and host-galaxy offset, we favor an 8–10 solar masses star that is stripped by a compact companion as the progenitor that had a sufficient runaway velocity to reach the offset of SN 2024abvb," the researchers conclude.

Regarding the explosion itself, the results indicate that the ejecta mass of SN 2024abvb was at a level of 2.59 solar masses, interacting with about 0.28 solar masses of CSM material. The astronomers note that these values are generally larger than other SNe Icn but consistent with the rapidly evolving SNe Ibn.

by Tomasz Nowakowski, Phys.org

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Rare Type Icn supernova SN 2024abvb is among the most luminous known