An artistic representation of the tunnel for the Future Circular Collider. | Photo Credit: CERN/PIXELRISENew process to recycle plastic wastePolyamide 66 (PA-66), commonly called nylon 66, is a widely used polymer in the plastic industry. It gets its name from the fact that it consists of two monomers that each contain six carbon atoms: adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine. Its wide use, particularly in the form of fibres for textiles, carpets, and moulded parts, is due to its high mechanical strength, rigidity, good stability under heat, and low chemical reactivity.The global nylon 66 capacity in 2022 was 3.1 million tons and is projected to cross 5 million tons by 2032. China accounts for over 55 per cent of the world’s capacity, with significant expansion afoot, and India is currently the second largest producer, accounting for about 15 per cent.Reprocessing nylon 66 waste is challenging say researchers at the Department of Materials Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. They have developed a novel chemical process to recycle nylon 66 waste sourced from fishing nets and automotive parts while preserving its desirable properties. The study was published in Chemical Engineering Journal.The IISc process involves introducing a chemical cross-linker named melamine into the melted waste containing nylon 66 in the presence of a catalyst. (A cross-linker is a reagent that chemically links two or more polymer chains together with a single or a short sequence of bonds, creating a change in the polymer’s physical properties.) The resulting reaction, called transamidation, occurs fast enough to be carried out in high-throughput industrial extruders and results in a nylon material that retains improved properties even after three reprocessing cycles, according to the IIS press release. The short time taken to convert the waste into nylon also makes scaling up easier.“Imagine taking a noodle strand. If you stir it too much, you are going to break it into smaller and smaller fragments,” explained Suryasarathi Bose, the corresponding author of the study. “But if all those fragmented threads can be stitched together into a new molecule, you first deconstruct and then reconstruct the same noodle strand but now with improved properties.”The nylon generated from the IISc recycling process was found to be quite strong. The researchers believe that it can be used for making products that require rigidity. “We are trying to see if it can be converted into park benches, road dividers, or pavement tiles,” Bose said. The recycled nylon was tested to 3D-print objects, including a chair and a speedboat.Material waste from fishing is one of the deadliest forms of marine waste, threatening the lives of countless sea animals. Improved recycling processes can give the used plastic a new lease of life while also incentivising waste collection, said the release.Also Read | India can lead the way on plastic wasteAn international study found that that multilingual individuals consistently exhibited slower ageing even after the linguistic, social, physical, and sociopolitical factors were taken into account. | Photo Credit: Getty ImagesMultilingualism slows brain ageingAN international team of neuroscientists, led by researchers from Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago, Chile, has found that being multilingual could slow down brain ageing and help prevent cognitive decline. The study was published in Nature Aging.According to the work, multilingual people are half as likely to show symptoms of accelerated biological ageing as against those who speak only one language. “We wanted to address one of the most persistent gaps in ageing research, which is if multilingualism can actually delay ageing,” said Agustín Ibáñez of Adolfo Ibáñez University, a co-author of the study.Previous research had suggested that multilingualism improved cognitive functions such as memory and attention, which promote brain health as people get older. But the sample sizes in many of these studies were small. Moreover, the methods used to measure cognitive function were unreliable, leading to inconsistent results and, therefore, not generalisable.“The effects of multilingualism on ageing have always been controversial, but I don’t think there has been a study of this scale before, which seems to demonstrate them quite decisively,” a commentary in Nature quoted Christos Pliatsikas, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Reading, UK.The researchers used a computational approach to explore the link between multilingualism and healthy ageing in 86,000 healthy participants aged between 51 and 90 years across 27 European countries. A “biobehavioural ageing clock” method was used to compare the participants’ predicted biological age, based on health, cognition, education, and lifestyle factors, with their actual chronological age, the number of years they have been alive. A high biobehavioural age gap implied that someone was ageing particularly fast, or slowly.Multilingual individuals consistently exhibited slower ageing even after the linguistic, social, physical, and sociopolitical factors were taken into account. It was found that people from countries where multilingualism was common were 2.17 times less likely to experience accelerated ageing compared with those living where monolingualism held sway. The study found no evidence that the protective effect of multilingualism depended on the language learned. This shows that language learning and its use activates and engages the brain networks related to attention, memory, decision-making, and social interaction, said Ibáñez.The study of a far larger, healthy population enabled the scientists to show that the benefits of multilingualism went further than simply delaying dementia or mild cognitive impairment. “Our results provide strong evidence that multilingualism functions as a protective factor for healthy ageing,” Ibáñez said. “The protective effect was cumulative: the more languages people spoke, the greater their protection against ageing-related decline,” he added.Also Read | India: A linguistic civilisationFrom ocean to opportunity: The nylon generated from the IISc recycling process was tested to 3D print objects, including a speedboat. | Photo Credit: S. Bose et al., Chemical Engineering Journal (2025)CERN Council reviews feasibility study for next-generation colliderIN line with the recommendations of the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, CERN conducted a study to assess the feasibility of a possible Future Circular Collider (FCC), the collider that will succeed the Large Hadron Colider (LHC) after the latter reaches its end of operations in 2041. The study was undertaken in collaboration with many institutions in CERN’s Member and Associate Member States and beyond, and its report was issued on March 31, 2025. India is an Associate Member State.Following review by the CERN Council’s subordinate bodies (the Scientific Policy Committee and the Finance Committee) and by independent expert committees, the council delegates examined the FCC Feasibility Study report at a dedicated meeting held at CERN on November 6 and 7. The Feasibility Study report involved the collective effort of around 1,500 people from 162 institutes in 38 countries.The independent expert committees stated that, on the basis of the documentation presented, the FCC appears technically feasible as no showstoppers have been identified so far.In its conclusions, the CERN Council restated its commitment to maintaining CERN as a world leader laboratory in science and technology. It considers that the FCC would provide a platform for a visionary physics programme addressing many of the open questions in particle physics, notably on the Higgs boson, that are critical to understanding the foundations of the standard model and to opening up opportunities to discover new physics beyond the standard model, while at the same time driving the development of new technologies that will have a significant positive impact on society.The CERN Council also recognised that more work was required in particular on territorial implementation, environmental impact, and risk management and on reducing the cost uncertainties, securing the necessary financial resources, and communicating the technological, scientific, and societal benefits of the project.The council concluded that the Feasibility Study provided the basis for the FCC studies to continue and that the funding scenarios presented and the financial pledges obtained so far provide the basis for the continuation of the work towards securing the full financial commitments required for approval of the FCC project.The CERN release stated that the FCC Feasibility Study report was intended to support informed decision-making by CERN Member States and did not prejudge any final position. A decision by the CERN Council on the possible construction of the FCC is expected around 2028.CONTRIBUTE YOUR COMMENTS