Minerals News and Research

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Winery Waste Becomes Stable Squalane for Greener Cosmetics

Researchers developed an eco-friendly workflow to recover squalene from wine lees using ultrasound-assisted extraction and convert it into more stable squalane using clay-supported palladium catalysts. The upcycled squalane showed improved oxidative stability and enhanced quercetin transport across an artificial membrane, supporting its potential as a sustainable cosmetic excipient.

9 Jul 2026

Salk Institute Decodes Molecular Timeline of Age-Related Neurodegeneration

Neurodegenerative diseases affect tens of millions of people worldwide.

26 Jun 2026

New Project Explores Virovory’s Potential to Combat Eutrophication

Toxic cyanobacterial blooms can close lakes, contaminate drinking water and pose risks to human health.

10 Jun 2026

Ancient Eukaryotes Evolved on Oxygenated Seafloor Environments

From the highest mountains to the deepest ocean, the driest desert to the lushest jungle, Earth displays a dazzling array of lifeforms.

22 May 2026

Living Biofilms Act as Natural Batteries to Degrade Antibiotics at Night

Researchers have unveiled a surprising new way that soil microbes can use sunlight energy - even after the lights go out.

8 Oct 2025

Predicting Protein Metal Binding with New Artificial Intelligence Model

Biologists and computational scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory recently refined two artificial intelligence (AI) programs originally built by Meta, the company that owns Facebook, to predict protein shapes.

10 Sep 2025

Scientists Discover New Microbial Metabolism That Breathes Iron Minerals

An international team of scientists led by microbiologists Marc Mussmann and Alexander Loy from the University of Vienna has discovered a new microbial metabolism: so-called MISO bacteria "breathe" iron minerals by oxidizing toxic sulfide.

28 Aug 2025

Researchers Use Biology to Convert Human Urine into a Valuable Product

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), UC Irvine, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), have used biology to convert human urine into a valuable product.

24 Jun 2025

Genetically Modified Yeast Turns Urine into Bone Material

Genetically modified yeast transforms human urine into hydroxyapatite, a valuable biomaterial for bone repair, enhancing wastewater treatment efficiency.

18 Jun 2025

Cornell Unlocks Bacteria’s Power for Enhanced Rock Weathering

Gluconobacter oxydans is key in carbon capture and bioleaching, with genetic modifications improving metal extraction efficiency for sustainable technology.

5 Jun 2025

Peptide Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Plant Flattery

Industrial farming practices often deplete the soil of important nutrients and minerals, leaving farmers to rely on artificial fertilizers to support plant growth. In fact, fertilizer use has more than quadrupled since the 1960s, but this comes with serious consequences.

16 Apr 2025

Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Copper Against Bacteria

A researcher at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson was awarded a $1.9 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to carry out more research on the mysteries of copper, particularly how it can be used to eradicate dangerous bacteria and other microorganisms.

13 Jan 2025

ETH Zurich Researchers Accelerate Bacterial Evolution for Enhanced Cellulose Production

Bacteria produce materials that are of interest to humans, such as cellulose, silk and minerals. The advantage of producing bacteria in this way is that it is sustainable, takes place at room temperature and in water.

1 Aug 2024

Simplified Proteomics Method Could Open the Door Toward Precision Medicine

Proteins are workhorses that carry out most of the biological functions in our cells.

12 Jun 2024

Unraveling the Molecular Landscape of Parietal Cell Development

Common conditions such as indigestion and heartburn as well as peptic ulcers, autoimmune gastritis and stomach and esophageal cancers have one thing in common – they involve disruptions of the normal activity of parietal cells (PCs) in the stomach, the only cells in the body that produce acid.

13 May 2024

Harnessing the Power of Vibrio natriegens for Eco-Friendly Rare Earth Element Processing

A minuscule and industrious bacterium, weighing just one-trillionth of a gram, is poised to significantly impact the eco-friendly processing of rare earth elements.

19 Dec 2023

Diversified Farms Can Support Forest-Dependent Bird Populations

Forests appear to provide better habitat for forest-dwelling wildlife than farms. Despite this, Stanford researchers discovered in one of the world’s longest-running studies of tropical wildlife populations that, over 18 years, smaller farms with widely different crop types interspersed with patches or ribbons of forest preserve many forest-dependent bird populations in Costa Rica, even as forest populations decline.

5 Sep 2023

Smart Agrochemical Delivery Platform Shows Promise for Precision Agriculture

Improvements in crop productivity and nutritional value are needed to meet increased global demand for food in terms of both quantity and quality.

1 Aug 2023

Establishing the Flour Reference Proteome for Five Wheat Species

The protein composition of the five types of wheat—einkorn, emmer, spelt, durum, and common wheat—and their varieties differ widely.

20 Jun 2023

Heat-Damaged DNA in Food Linked to Possible Genetic Risks

Researchers have newly discovered a surprising and potentially significant reason why eating foods frequently cooked at high temperatures, such as red meat and deep-fried fare, elevates cancer risk. The alleged culprit: DNA within the food that's been damaged by the cooking process.

14 Jun 2023