20 BRINGING DISCOVERY TO LIGHT 21 dynamic planets origins and the of life also inside Intelligent materials Deep ocean in deep trouble Women leaders in Myanmar The virus hunter THE COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH FOR SOLUTION THE COMPLETE Credit: Denys Bilytskyi / 123rf Share your research Spread the knowledge page18 PUTTING A SPIN ON HEUSLER ALLOYS Electricity Fast spin test Venus Women leaders drop by drop for infection super-rotation in Myanmar page 08 page 25 page 32 page 42 page 28 MONITORING MALARIA topic PARASITES Environment 04 Technology 15 Medicine 24 Space 32 People 34 COVID-19 48 Welcome to the 2021 edition of Researchers are investigating the formation of | 123rf Kis Ciprian Petrica Credit: Earth and early life. Cover image credit: Johan Swanepoel | 123rf Asia Research News Team Magdeline Pokar Laura Petersen Aya Kawanishi Nadia El-Awady Vivien Chiam Ruth Francis As we complete this issue, most of Research News community have Sophie Protheroe the world has been on a pandemic lock- forged ahead and we are pleased down for over a year. In the early days to showcase some of these findings. Design of Asia Research News, I remember at- Journey with us to some of the most Gordon Doucette tending a meeting where researchers extreme places on Earth, see how cli- Editorial Consultants predicted a worldwide pandemic. It was mate change is affecting them, and Daniel Raymer chilling to recently rediscover scribbled search for clues about how life began. Pokar Vellaykuti notes from that meeting which said: “Not Find out how researchers are racing to Research featured in Asia Research News if, but when.” In this issue of the maga- develop more resource efficient tech- 2021 is based on information provided by the research institutions listed. Readers zine, we bring you a special report on nologies, production processes, and are advised to contact the researchers for additional information. the incredible work by scientists in our energy sources, as well as better tools All images used in whole or in part within this community, joining the global effort to to explore DNA, detect infection and publication are credited to the respective overcome COVID-19. treat diseases. image owners. In some places, researchers battled Don’t miss our podcasts and videos ResearchSEA Limited and the Asia Research News team does not accept responsibility for more than a pandemic. We were writ- that accompany several stories, which any loss, damage or expenses incurred resulting from the use of information in this publication. ing up the article on women leaders in you’ll find at our website. We hope Myanmar when the coup broke out. these stories inspire you as they have ISSN 2042-0536 Copyright Asia Research News. We welcome you to reproduce ar- The article outlines years of hard work us. And please get in touch. We’re on ticles in Asia Research News 2021, provided appropriate credit is given to Asia Research by local teams to study and help shrink a mission to bring new voices to inter- News and the research institutions featured. the gender gap, progress that we hope national research news and we want to Contacts will continue when peace returns. hear from you. General: Magdeline Pokar Despite the immense challenges, [email protected] researchers throughout our Asia Singapore: Vivien Chiam [email protected] Japan: Aya Kawanishi [email protected] www.asiaresearchnews.com Add your voice! @AsiaResearchNews @ResearchSEA Join our community and increase AsiaResearchNews diversity in research news. company/ResearchSEA ENVIRONMENT DEEP OCEAN IN DEEP TROUBLE Deep sea animals face greater risks compared to those nearer the surface as they become less able to maintain their preferred thermal habitats with climate change. The curly-cue shape is a characteristic An international team, including a Hok- of this chrysogorgid octocoral, called kaido University researcher, analysed Iridogorgia. contemporary and future global patterns of temperature change across the oceans’ depths. While a great deal of attention has been paid to how warming waters bleach coral and stress other animals liv- ing closer to the surface, this study shows creatures of the deep, where water is colder, are not safe. “We wanted to challenge the common perception that deep sea biodiversity is less exposed to climate change because deep waters are less variable than sur- face waters,” says Jorge García Molinos, a ASIA RESEARCHASIA NEWS climate ecologist at Hokkaido University’s Arctic Research Center, who contributed to the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. “In fact, we find deep sea biodiversity is likely to be at greater risk because they are adapted to much more stable thermal environments.” Specifically, García Molinos and his col- Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research 2021 Further Assistant Professor Jorge García Molinos | [email protected] Arctic Research Center 4 information Hokkaido University ENVIRONMENT Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and Exploration Ocean of Office NOAA Credit: Hariotta raleighana, a long-nosed chimaera leagues analysed climate velocity, which tested greenhouse gas emission scenar- where high biodiversity and velocity describes the speed and physical direc- ios,” García Molinos says.“This provides overlap. They found that risk areas for tion of temperature change, and serves as strong motivation for considering the surface and intermediate layers domi- a proxy for potential shifts of marine biota future impacts of ocean warming on nate in tropical and subtropical latitudes, seeking to maintain their thermal habitats. deep ocean biodiversity, which remains but risk areas in the deepest layers are They found that globally, average climate worryingly understudied.” widespread across all latitudes except velocities in the deepest layers of the Climate velocities in the mesopelagic for the polar regions. ocean (deeper than 1,000 metres) have layer of the ocean (200-1,000 metres) The scientists caution that uncertainty been two to nearly four times faster than are projected to be four to 11 times high- of the results increases with depth. Also, at the surface between 1955 and 2005. er than current velocities at the surface life in the deep ocean is limited by many This is due, in part, to the deep ocean by the end of this century. Marine life factors other than temperature, such as having temperature layers that don’t in the mesopelagic layer includes great pressure, light and oxygen concentrations. change much as you move laterally, so abundance of small fish that are food for “Without knowing if and how well deep animals have to move much longer dis- larger animals, including tuna and squid. ocean species can adapt to these chang- tances to compensate for even small This could present additional challenges es, we recommend following a precau- temperature changes. for commercial fisheries if predators and tionary approach that limits the negative RESEARCHASIA NEWS Notably, even though climate veloc- their prey further down the water column effects from other human activities, such ities are projected to slow down at the do not follow similar range shifts. as deep-sea mining and fishing, as well as ocean surface if strong action is taken to The research team, led by the Uni- planning for climate-smart networks of limit global warming, climate velocities will versity of Queensland in Australia, also large marine protected areas that include continue to accelerate in the deep ocean. compared biodiversity levels and climate the deeper ocean,” says García Molinos. “The acceleration of climate velocity for velocity for more than 20,000 marine the deep ocean is consistent through all species to reveal potential risk areas 2021 5 ENVIRONMENT MACHINE LEARNING PREDICTS STRUCTURAL CORROSION Complex algorithms can be taught to predict steel corrosion rates in coastal regions, helping engineers choose the best materials for each location. Credit: Sean Pavone | 123rf Pavone Sean Credit: The massive Akashi Kaikyō Bridge structure boasts a 3,911m span. Materials scientists in China report in Gao and her colleagues applied six Further evaluations showed that the the journal Science and Technology of different machine learning algorithms total content of alloying elements, such Advanced Materials that machine learn- to data from the Corrosion Data Sheet as copper, chromium, nickel, manganese, ing algorithms can effectively predict belonging to Japan’s National Institute for silicon or phosphorus, was always one how easily certain low-alloy steels used in Materials Science. The data is based on a of the most significant factors affecting bridges and other structures might cor- variety of low-alloy steels, which contain a corrosion rates. Also, salt deposition on rode in coastal regions. low percentage of certain metals, exposed the metal and local precipitation were the “The corrosion resistance of metals at three coastal sites around Japan for one main factors affecting corrosion in the affects the service life and safety of en- to 10 years. Eighty percent of the data was first three years of exposure, while local gineering structures like bridges and oil used to train their machine learning mod- humidity was the most significant factor platforms,” says Kewei Gao of the Uni- els and the remaining 20% was used to after five years. versity of Science and Technology Beijing, test the model’s prediction accuracy. Once the model learned the complex ASIA RESEARCHASIA NEWS who led the study. “Evaluating corrosion The scientists fed the algorithms effects of the various factors on metal resistance is an important aspect of con- information about the composition of 18 corrosion, the scientists used the remain- struction and new material development, low-alloy steels and the effects of several ing data to test its accuracy predicting the but doing so in the actual environment environmental factors on their corrosion metals’ corrosion behaviour. “Our opti- where they will be used is expensive and over varying time periods.