Scientists Have Discovered the Recipe for Real-Life Kryptonite
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
Jadarite—commonly known as kryptonite due to its chemical similarity to the mineral bane of Superman—has only every been found in a deposit in northern Serbia.
Now, scientists have deciphered the exact geologic conditions needed to create this extremely rare mineral.
Jadarite has a high concentration of lithium, but is less energy intensive to extract lithium from than many other common lithium sources, so finding more deposits around the world could help the green energy revolution.
Most of us know kryptonite as the mineral weakness of the otherwise invulnerable Superman. But geologists are also familiar with its real-world counterpart, known as Jadarite. Initially discovered in Serbia's Jadar Basin—the only place in the world where it's been found—in 2004, the mineral is actually sodium lithium borosilicate hydroxide, which is remarkably similar in chemical composition to the fictional kryptonite. (Additionally, krypton is an unrelated chemical element, so jadarite is the most scientifically acceptable name.)
Now, scientists at the Natural History Museum in the U.K. have discovered why the white mineral is so rare on Earth—producing the stuff requires a series of very specific geologic events. The results of this study were published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.
'Similar to baking a cake, everything needs to be measured and exact for this rare mineral to form,' Natural History Museum scientist Francesco Putzolu, lead author of the study, said in a press statement. 'For instance, if the mineral ingredients are not just right, if the conditions are too acidic or too cold, jadarite will not form.'
In jadarite's case, those ingredients include a precise interplay among an alkaline-rich terminal (or endorheic) lake, lithium-rich volcanic glass, and crystalline structures formed from clay minerals. A previous paper, published last month in Economic Geology (on which Putzolu was also the lead author), goes into more specifics.
Arguably the most intriguing thing about jadarite is that it's immensely rich in lithium, which has become immensely valuable in the past few decades as humanity tries to transition away from fossil fuels. Lithium can be found in everything from EV batteries to the reactors that will (hopefully) eventually breed the necessary hydrogen isotopes for fusion energy. There's a reason many refer to lithium as 'white gold.'
The Jadar (pronounced 'Yadar') deposit is one of the 10 largest lithium deposits in the world, and the authors estimate that if it was effectively mined, it could supply Europe with 90 percent of the lithium required for its electric vehicles. Understanding the exact geologic conditions under which jadarite can form should help scientists target other areas of the world that mean similar conditions, and thus could house more of the mineral.
This is a similar approach to geologic efforts to hunt down potential sources of naturally occurring hydrogen and helium, which are used for green energy and advanced technologies like superconducting magnets. First, find the geologic recipe, then hunt for those conditions around the world. Finding other jadarite deposits could be particularly lucrative, as they have both a higher lithium content and lower energy route for extraction than other mineral lithium sources, such as spodumene.
'As the demand for lithium continues in the race toward renewable energy, if mined, jadarite can offer huge potential,' Natural History Museum geologist Robin Armstrong, a co-author of the study, said in a press statement. 'This process brings us closer to identifying other possible deposits by unravelling the formation conditions in the lab.'
Kryptonite might've been Superman's greatest weakness, but as the world tries to break its fossil fuel addiction, it just might by humanity's greatest strength.
You Might Also Like
The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape
The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere
Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
5 hours ago
- Forbes
How Life Survived Snowball Earth
Artist's impression of "Snowball Earth." The Snowball Earth hypothesis suggests that, hundreds of ... More millions of years ago, the Earth's surface may have frozen solid as a result of severe climate change. During the Cryogenian period about 700 to 635 million years ago, Earth experienced a super ice age, one that froze the entire planet from the poles to the equator. Scientist have long wondered how life survived this 'Snowball Earth.' Most of the surface was covered by ice, so there was no to little sunlight reaching the oceans, and with no weathering happening on the frozen-solid continents, no nutrients were washed into the sea. Maybe hot springs deep beneath the ice provided a last viable spot where life persisted until the ice receded. In a new study, researchers at MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Waikato in New Zealand, propose an alternative hypothesis. 'We're interested in understanding the foundations of complex life on Earth. We see evidence for eukaryotes before and after the Cryogenian in the fossil record, but we largely lack direct evidence of where they may have lived during,' says lead author Fatima Husain, a graduate student in MIT. 'The great part of this mystery is, we know life survived. We're just trying to understand how and where.' The scientists found that lifeforms could have survived the global freeze by living in watery oases on the surface. Similar environmental conditions still exist today in cryoconite holes. Dark-colored dust and debris transported by glaciers to the surface absorb sunlight, heating up and melting into the ice forming small pockets and holes. At temperatures hovering around 0 degrees Celsius, the resulting meltwater ponds could have served as habitable environments for early life. Cryoconite hole on a glacier The researchers analyzed samples from a variety of cryoconite holes and meltwater ponds located on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in an area that was first described by members of Robert Falcon Scott's 1903 expedition as 'dirty ice.' They discovered clear signatures of life in every pond. Even more surprising, the communities varied from pond to pond, revealing a high diversity of life forms. There were cyanobacteria, prokaryotic, single-celled photosynthetic organisms that lack a cell nucleus or other organelles. The oldest cyanobacteria-like fossils appear on Earth over 3 billion years ago. While these ancient microbes are known to survive within some of the the harshest environments on Earth, the researchers wanted to know whether eukaryotes — complex organisms that evolved a cell nucleus and other membrane bound organelles — could also weather similarly challenging circumstances. Chemical analysis showed the presence of various molecules clearly associated with eukaryotic life. The team found that salinity plays a key role in the kind of life a pond can host: Ponds that were more brackish or salty had more similar communities, which differed from those in ponds with fresher waters. 'No two ponds were alike,' Husain explains. 'There are repeating casts of characters, but they're present in different abundances. And we found diverse assemblages of eukaryotes from all the major groups in all the ponds studied. These eukaryotes are the descendants of the eukaryotes that survived the Snowball Earth. This really highlights that meltwater ponds during Snowball Earth could have served as above-ice oases that nurtured the eukaryotic life that enabled the diversification and proliferation of complex life — including us — later on.' Additional material and interviews provided by MIT News.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Humans Already Have the Ingredients to Regrow Limbs, Scientists Find
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Axolotls are known for their ability to grow back just about any body part that is bitten off by a predator, but the trigger for this regeneration was a mystery until now. It turns out that retinoic acid and the enzyme CYP26B1 are heavily involved in regrowing missing limbs, determining what goes where before forming new tissue. Future technology inspired by axolotls could possibly help humans regenerate limbs—we have what is needed, but need to find out how to make those pieces communicate like they do in axolotls. In the 1995 cyberpunk film Virtuosity, the genes of android villain SID 6.7 are merged with snake DNA, giving him the superhuman ability to regrow lost limbs. Axolotls can do that without even trying—in fact, it is possible for an axolotl to lose virtually any body part (even its brain and internal organs) and fully regenerate it. Mysteries surrounding these virally adorable amphibians' regenerative powers have fueled the sci-fi dreams (and frustrations) of scientists for almost two centuries, but not until recently did anyone understand the mechanism behind this ability. Now, molecular biologist James Monaghan of Northeastern University has made a breakthrough that has allowed us to identify the driving force of regeneration—and maybe, one day, we will be able to give this power to humans. Positional memory means that an axolotl somehow knows if it needs to grow back a lost finger, hand, or entire arm. This was already known to be the basic mechanism behind vertebrate regeneration, but what Monaghan found was that it begins with retinoic acid and the enzyme CYP26B1. Neither of these chemicals are exclusive to axolotls—both are also found in the human body. It is just a matter of axolotls being able to use them differently. Larger limbs at proximal sites closer to the body, such as arms, contain more retinoic acid and less CYP26B1 (which breaks the retinoic acid down). And in smaller sites further from the body, like hands, there is less retinoic acid and more CYP26B1. 'Regenerating limbs retain their proximodistal (PD) positional identity following amputation. This positional identity is genetically encoded by PD patterning genes that instruct blastema cells to regenerate the appropriate PD limb segment,' Monaghan and his team said in a study recently published in the journal Nature Communications. When a predator bites an arm (or anything else) off of an axolotl, retinoic acid is synthesized in the middle layer of skin and spreads to the limb bud. This helps generate fibroblasts, which are connective tissue cells in humans, but regenerative cells in these creatures. Fibroblasts form blastema, or limb progenitor cells, which then grow and differentiate to recreate the particular limb that is missing. Blastema mirror the behaviors of limb buds that grow as an embryo develops, and in both embryos and adult axolotls that have been injured, positional information is exchanged between stem cells in the blastema and other cells in this budding limb to ensure that the appropriate tissues regenerate where they are supposed to grow. The gene Hoxa13 activates CYP26B1, which breaks down retinoic acid where it is not needed and uses it to create a pattern for the limb being regenerated. This breakdown determines how much retinoic acid is at an amputation site and, consequently, the position and structure of the limb which is regrown. Higher levels of retinoic acid activate the Shox gene—a transcription factor that both gives directions for producing a protein that regulates what other genes do and is involved with forming the skeleton. As Monaghan found out, defects such as skeletal abnormalities can occur if this process is disrupted. Raising levels of retinoic acid in an axolotl's hand caused it to grow not just another hand, but a whole new arm. Eliminating Shox with CRISPR-Cas9 resulted in normal hands but short arms, with bones that did not harden properly. This also occurs in humans with Shox mutations. What is especially amazing about axolotls is that they regenerate the limb in the exact same form it took before amputation. Some other animals that regenerate, like lizards, may grow back the end of a missing tail, but in a simpler form than the original. Much more research will be needed to transfer this ability to humans, but the materials are there. Healing wounds without scarring might even be possible in the near future. What we need to do next to make that future a reality is find out what happens inside blastema cells during regeneration, and which parts of these cells are targeted by retinoic acid. 'If we can find ways of making our fibroblasts listen to these regenerative cues, then they'll do the rest,' Monaghan said in a recent press release. 'They know how to make a limb already because, just like the salamander, they made it during development.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Previously unknown 76M-year-old, raccoon-sized monstersaur species discovered in Utah
Hank Woolley was visiting the Natural History Museum of Utah one day when he stumbled across a jar labeled 'lizard.' Inside was a 76-million-year-old fossil that paleontologists had uncovered from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 2005. It was eventually transported to the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, where it ended up being stored in a jar. Woolley, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's Dinosaur Institute, opened the jar to find a fragmentary skeleton, which inspired him to dig deeper. 'We know very little about large-bodied lizards from the Kaiparowits Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, so I knew this was significant right away,' he explained in a statement. That decision a few years ago is now helping researchers gain a better understanding of the fossil's importance, as it gives them an improved glimpse of what Utah's ecosystem looked like 76 million years ago. Woolley is the lead author of a new study identifying a prehistoric ancestor of the Gila monsters that roam southern Utah and the Southwest U.S. today. His team's findings were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday. 'Discovering a new species of lizard that is an ancestor of modern Gila monsters is pretty cool in and of itself, but what's particularly exciting is what it tells us about the unique 76-million-year-old ecosystem it lived in,' said co-author Randy Irmis, an associate professor at the University of Utah and curator of paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and one of the study's co-authors. Paleontologists knew the fossil was 'significant' when they first uncovered it two decades ago, Irmis explains. They brought it back to Salt Lake City, where it sat and waited for the right expert to know its gravity. Woolley, who specializes in lizard evolution, happened to be that guy. He quickly got to work assembling the team that pieced together the fossils and then analyzed its skull, vertebrae and limbs, as well as other features. The team discovered that the lizard was much more intact than many lizard species of its time, and that they had uncovered a species previously unknown to experts. The species would have been about the size of a raccoon, making it one of the smaller creatures of its time, which is when southern Utah was more of a subtropical floodplain, researchers point out. The team decided to name the species Bolg amondol, or 'Bolg' for short. It's a nod to the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit,' largely for the lizard's goblin-like skull. 'The fact that Bolg coexisted with several other large lizard species indicates that this was a stable and productive ecosystem where these animals were taking advantage of a wide variety of prey and different microhabitats,' Irmis said. The team says the discovery could help piece together the evolution of lizards, especially since it was a precursor to modern-day species like the Gila monster. Irmis co-authored another study published earlier this year that explored how crocodiles and alligators may have survived extinction, which included species that would have existed at the same time as Bolg. Meanwhile, the researchers also believe there were probably other species like it that existed during the Late Cretaceous Period, which is a more probable theory thanks to Bolg. The next discovery could be waiting to be uncovered in Utah's public lands, or stored safely away in a jar like Borg.
