June 2020 - PROMETHEUS

Sign the petition to support ERC

Posted on June 27, 2020June 27, 2020 by Alfonso Garcia Caballero

One of the greatest European success stories in the last decade is the European Research Council (ERC)<https://erc.europa.eu/>. Thanks to its focus on excellent science and bold ideas, and its independence from political intervention, ERC grants have become one of the most prestigious research grants in the world. Considering the current European debate on the next long-term EU budget, there is significant reason to fear a budget cut for research, which is likely to affect the…

PhD Student Manolis Giampouras defended his thesis

Posted on June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 by Alfonso Garcia Caballero

In continental settings, the interaction between meteoric water and ultramafic rocks generates waters of variable physicochemical characteristics due to serpentinization and weathering. The discharge of these waters forms aerial alkaline to hyperalkaline spring systems where waters mix, undergo evaporation, and take up atmospheric CO2, leading to the precipitation of carbonate minerals. The understanding of natural carbonation in these serpentinite-hosted alkaline environments is critical, among others, for assessing the role of this process in the global…

Light-switchable anchors on magnetized biomorphic microcarriers

Posted on June 2, 2020June 11, 2020 by Alfonso Garcia Caballero

Opel, J.; Rosenbaum, L.-C.; Brunner, J.; Staiger, A.; Zimmermanns, R.; Kellermeier, M.; Gaich, T.; Cölfen, H.; García-Ruiz, J.-M., Light-switchable anchors on magnetized biomorphic microcarriers. Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2020. Download here: https://pubs.rsc.org/-/content/articlelanding/2020/tb/c9tb02955a#!divAbstract Microcarriers with the ability to release and catch substances are highly desired metamaterials and difficult to obtain. Herein, we report a straightforward strategy to synthesize these materials by combining silica-biomorphs with mesocrystals. An easy access to microcarrier hulls with covalently bound spiropyrans…

Mineral Vesicles and Chemical Gardens From Carbonate-Rich Alkaline Brines of Lake Magadi, Kenya

Posted on June 1, 2020June 1, 2020 by Alfonso Garcia Caballero

Melese Getenet, Juan Manuel García-Ruiz, Cristóbal Verdugo-Escamilla and Isabel Guerra-TGetenet, M.; García-Ruiz, J.M.; Verdugo-Escamilla, C.; Guerra-Tschuschke, I. Mineral Vesicles and Chemical Gardens From Carbonate-Rich Alkaline Brines of Lake Magadi, Kenya. Crystals 2020, 10, 467. Download here: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/10/6/467 Mineral vesicles and chemical gardens are self-organized biomimetic structures that form via abiotic mineral precipitation. These membranous structures are known to catalyze prebiotic reactions but the extreme conditions required for their synthesis has cast doubts on their formation…