Environment
- Environment
Common, cheap ingredients can break down some ‘forever chemicals’
Forever chemicals, or PFAS, are harmful compounds that are very difficult to degrade. But some are no match for lye and dimethyl sulfoxide.
- Environment
Electrical bacteria may help clean oil spills and curb methane emissions
Cable bacteria are living electrical wires that may become a tool to reduce methane emissions and clean oil spills.
- Environment
How to make jet fuel from sunlight, air and water vapor
Solar kerosene could one day replace petroleum-derived jet fuel in airplanes and help stabilize greenhouse gas emissions.
- Environment
Underground heat pollution could be tapped to mitigate climate change
Data from thousands of groundwater well sites in Europe reveal that more than half of the locations possess usable underground heat.
- Science & Society
In the battle of human vs. water, ‘Water Always Wins’
In her new book, environmental journalist Erica Gies follows people who are looking for better solutions to extreme droughts and floods.
- Environment
Flower shape and size impact bees’ chances of catching gut parasites
Bumblebees have higher chances of contracting a gut parasite from short, wide flowers than from blooms with other shapes, experiments show.
- Environment
How to build better ice towers for drinking water and irrigation
“Ice stupas” emerged in 2014 as a way to cope with climate change shrinking glaciers. Automation could help improve the cones’ construction.
- Environment
Earth’s oldest known wildfires raged 430 million years ago
430-million-year-old fossilized charcoal suggests atmospheric oxygen levels of at least 16 percent, the amount needed for fire to take hold and spread.
- Ecosystems
Just 3 ingredients can quickly destroy widely used PFAS ‘forever chemicals’
Ultraviolet light, sulfite and iodide break down enduring PFAS molecules faster and more thoroughly than other UV-based methods.
- Ecosystems
Biocrusts reduce global dust emissions by 60 percent
Lichens and other microbes construct biological soil crusts that concentrate nutrients and slash global dust emissions.
- Agriculture
These six foods may become more popular as the planet warms
Millet, kelp, Bambara groundnut and cassava are resilient, sustainable and nutrient dense — good options for future dinner plates.
- Climate
Replacing some meat with microbial protein could help fight climate change
Just a 20 percent substitution could cut deforestation rates and land-use CO2 emissions by more than half by 2050, a new study suggests.
