The world is on the cusp of a revolutionary change in the way we transform fossil fuels into useful modern chemicals. Researchers at Colorado State University have made a groundbreaking discovery that uses light to rewrite the chemistry of fossil fuels, reducing energy demands and associated pollution. This breakthrough, published in Science, could be a game-changer for industries reliant on chemical manufacturing.

At the forefront of this research are professors Garret Miyake and Robert Paton from the Department of Chemistry and the Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis (SuPRCat). Inspired by photosynthesis, their organic photoredox catalysis system harnesses visible light to gently alter the properties of chemical compounds. By exposing them to two separate photons, the team’s system generates energy needed for desired reactions, performing super-reducing reactions that are normally difficult and energy-intensive.

The research has shown remarkable results on aromatic hydrocarbons – resistant compounds like benzene in fossil fuels. Miyake boasts that their technology is “the most efficient system currently available” for reducing these compounds, paving the way for the production of chemicals needed for plastics and medicine.

This work continues the efforts of the U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis at CSU, led by Miyake as its director. This multi-institution research effort aims to transform chemical synthesis processes across various uses, making synthetic and computational chemists team up to understand the fundamental chemical nature of photoredox catalysis.

Katharine Covert, program director for the NSF Centers for Chemical Innovation program, highlights the importance of photoredox catalysis in pharmaceutical development and other industries. Through the NSF Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis, researchers are developing catalysis systems similar to the one described in this paper to support energy-efficient production of ammonia for fertilizers, the breakdown of PFAS forever chemicals, and the upcycling of plastics.

Miyake emphasizes the urgency of meeting these challenges and making a more sustainable future for our world. He concludes that “the world has a timeclock that is expiring,” and we must develop sustainable technologies before it’s too late.

This breakthrough has far-reaching implications, not just in chemical manufacturing but also in addressing pressing environmental concerns. As researchers continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible with light-based chemistry, one thing is certain – the future of fossil fuel transformation has never looked brighter.

The deep ocean can be a breathtaking sight to behold, resembling a real-life snow globe. As organic particles from plant and animal matter on the surface sink downward, they combine with dust and other material to create “marine snow,” a crucial component in cycling carbon and nutrients through the world’s oceans. However, researchers from Brown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have recently uncovered surprising new insights into how these particles settle in the ocean.

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they found that the speed at which particles sink is not solely determined by resistive drag forces from the fluid, but also by their ability to absorb salt relative to their volume. This discovery challenges conventional wisdom and could have significant implications for understanding natural carbon cycling and even engineering ways of speeding up carbon capture.

“It basically means that smaller particles can sink faster than bigger ones,” said Robert Hunt, a postdoctoral researcher in Brown’s School of Engineering who led the work. “That’s exactly the opposite of what you’d expect in a fluid with uniform density.”

The researchers created a linearly stratified body of water to test their model and found that particles with high porosity tended to sink faster than those with lower porosity, regardless of their size. This means that elongated particles actually sink faster than spherical ones of the same volume.

“We ended up with a pretty simple formula where you can plug in estimates for different parameters – the size of the particles or speed at which the liquid density changes – and get reasonable estimates of the sinking speed,” said Daniel Harris, an associate professor of engineering at Brown who oversaw the work. “There’s value in having predictive power that’s readily accessible.”

The study grew out of prior work by Hunt and Harris investigating neutrally buoyant particles, and their new findings have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of how particles settle in complex ecological settings.

“We’re not trying to replicate full oceanic conditions,” Harris said. “The approach in our lab is to boil things down to their simplest form and think about the fundamental physics involved in these complex phenomena. Then we can work back and forth with people measuring these things in the field to understand where these fundamentals are relevant.”

Harris hopes to connect with oceanographers and climate scientists to see what insights these new findings might provide, and other co-authors of the research were Roberto Camassa and Richard McLaughlin from UNC Chapel Hill. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

Plants and trees have long been known to extend their roots into the earth in search of nutrients and water. However, a new study has revealed that many plants develop a second, deeper layer of roots – often more than three feet underground – to access additional nourishment. This discovery, published in the journal Nature Communications, changes our understanding of how ecosystems respond to changing environmental conditions.

The research team, led by Mingzhen Lu from New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies, used data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to examine rooting depth. By digging deeper than traditional ecological studies – up to 6.5 feet below the surface – they detected additional root patterns in diverse climate zones and ecosystem types.

The scientists’ work focused on three key questions: How do plants acquire resources? What strategies do they employ to adapt to environmental change? And what are the implications for carbon storage?

Their findings were striking: nearly 20 percent of the studied ecosystems had roots that peaked twice across depth – a phenomenon called “bimodality.” In these cases, plants developed a second, deeper layer of roots, often aligning with nutrient-rich soil layers. This suggests that plants have been growing in previously unknown ways to exploit additional sustenance.

The study’s lead author, Mingzhen Lu, observes that the current understanding of roots is “literally too shallow.” By not looking deep enough, we may have overlooked a natural carbon storage mechanism deep underground. The research opens up new avenues for inquiry into how bimodal rooting patterns impact the dynamics of nutrient flow, water cycling, and long-term soil carbon stock.

As scientists and policymakers look to manage ecosystems in a rapidly changing climate, they must consider these overlooked deep soil layers. The study concludes that plants may already be naturally mitigating climate change more actively than we’ve realized – we just need to dig deeper to fully understand their potential.