Sara Núñez-Sánchez

Understanding the prevalence of climate change and sustainable development in the new curriculum of compulsory secondary education (ESO) and the baccalaureate is crucial for educational communities in Spain. However, there was a lack of studies that examined the integration of climate change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as cross-cutting themes in the new education framework, particularly in the technology disciplines. This study aimed to address this gap by conducting a comparative analysis of the new legislative content (LOMLOE) and the previous legislation (LOMCE). The analysis quantified the presence of keywords related to climate change and sustainable development in both legal texts, focusing on the definition of objectives, level skills, evaluation criteria, and blocks of knowledge. Additionally, the study assessed the inclusion of SDGs and the ethical implications associated with the use and production of technologies at both education levels. The analysis of the curriculum content revealed a significant presence of references to climate change, sustainable development, and SDGs throughout the LOMLOE curriculum, particularly in the baccalaureate. Notably, education’s role in addressing climate change and promoting sustainable development was explicitly recognized as an objective at this level. Regarding technology disciplines, LOMLOE placed considerable emphasis on fostering awareness of the environmental impact of technological development by introducing a new cross-level knowledge block named “Sustainable Technology”, spanning from ESO to the final courses of baccalaureate. This integration was further reinforced by evaluation criteria and specific skills that strongly aligned with sustainability principles, encouraging assessments centred around environmental awareness, ethical responsibilities, and sustainable entrepreneurship. Further studies are required to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating SDGs and climate change into technology disciplines following the implementation of LOMLOE, with the aim of identifying best practices for effectively combatting climate change and promoting sustainability in technology education.

Light-harvesting complexes in natural photosynthetic systems, such as those in purple bacteria, consist of photo-reactive chromophores embedded in densely packed “antenna” systems organized in well-defined nanostructures. In the case of purple bacteria, the chromophore antennas are composed of natural J-aggregates such as bacteriochlorophylls and carotenoids. Inspired by the molecular composition of such biological systems, we create a library of organic materials composed of densely packed J-aggregates in a polymeric matrix, in which the matrix mimics the optical role of a protein scaffold. This library of organic materials shows polaritonic properties which can be tuned from the visible to the infrared by choice of the model molecule. Inspired by the molecular architecture of the light-harvesting complexes of Rhodospirillum molischianum bacteria, we study the light–matter interactions of J-aggregate-based nanorings with similar dimensions to the analogous natural nanoscale architectures. Electromagnetic simulations show that these nanorings of J-aggregates can act as resonators, with subwavelength confinement of light while concentrating the electric field in specific regions. These results open the door to bio-inspired building blocks for metamaterials from visible to infrared in an all-organic platform, while offering a new perspective on light–matter interactions at the nanoscale in densely packed organic matter in biological organisms including photosynthetic organelles.