World Top Scientists Awards

ON THE BANKS of Nagdaha, a polluted and lotus-infested lake in Nepal, Soni Pradhanang is putting trash back into the water—on purpose. She carefully assembles a platform of styrofoam and bamboo mats, then weaves it together with zip ties and coconut fiber, refuse from nearby tech stores. Then, she pokes 55 plants lush with red flowers through 2-inch holes in the platform, each plant set 6 inches apart. Though Pradhanang’s creation isn’t high-tech, it is effective, and one of the most affordable water-filtration systems available. “I’m cheap,” she says, laughing. Pradhanang, a hydrologist at the University of Rhode Island who studies water-quality monitoring and modeling, has spent the past seven years working on her trash-based contraptions. Called floating treatment wetland systems (FTWS), these are 4-foot by 6-foot buoyant platforms topped with plants. When their roots are submerged in contaminated water, the plants suck pollutants into their stems and leaves as they grow. In turn, ...

Tokyo, July 4, 2024 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, Hitachi), Kyushu University, RIKEN, and HREM Research Inc. (HREM) today announced the world's first observation of magnetic fields of individual lattice planes.*1 This was achieved by using Hitachi's atomic-resolution holography electron microscope and a method enabling magnetic field observation of samples with uneven structures and compositions (hereinafter referred to as non-uniform samples)*2 such as magnetic multilayer films, which have been difficult to observe so far, in collaboration with National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). Observation was accomplished by developing a technology with a higher degree of electron-holography precision and automated post-image-capture focus correction. With this, it is now possible to observe magnetic fields of the atomic-layer level at local boundaries between materials (interfaces), which greatly affe...

Here’s a strategy unlikely to succeed: “We need this money and don’t much care where it comes from.” And yet it was employed by supporters of two bills to fund arts and cultural organizations in Rhode Island in our state Legislature this spring. Each bill authorized $18 million to be distributed to 14 identified organizations, including the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, which would redistribute some of the money through a grants program. The bills suggested the money could come from an allocation of ARPA (COVID relief) funds, or a bond, or a budgeted appropriation. In spite of a lobbying effort, the proposed legislation did not even make it out of committee in either the House or the Senate. Instead, the House approved budget includes an authorization for a bond to be put before the voters to borrow $10 million for a shorter list of organizations (four, to be exact) for capital expenditures only. We tend to pass bonds in this state pretty readily, so the arts and culture o...

This blog is part of a series about WITS, the World Integrated Trade Solution, a collaborative trade data platform developed by the World Bank and other institutions. This is the eighth installment of the series—for further reading, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh installments. Accurate trade data is essential for understanding global trade patterns, making informed policy decisions, and conducting empirical research. However, discrepancies in trade reporting can arise due to various factors, including logistical issues and deliberate misclassification. These discrepancies can lead to distortions in key trade metrics and negatively impact research findings. How to measure these discrepancies? The Discrepancy Index (DI) is a valuable tool for assessing the quality of trade data. By examining discrepancies in reported trade values, the DI provides insights into the accuracy and reliability of trade data, ultimately contributing to better-informed trad...