Environment
- Oceans
The world’s fisheries are incredibly intertwined, thanks to baby fish
A computer simulation reveals how one nation's management of its fish spawning grounds could significantly help or hurt another country's catch.
- Chemistry
How seafood shells could help solve the plastic waste problem
Chitin and chitosan from crustacean shells could put a dent in the world’s plastic waste problem.
- Ecosystems
Many of the world’s rivers are flush with dangerous levels of antibiotics
Antibiotic pollution can fuel drug resistance in microbes. A global survey of rivers finds unsafe levels of antibiotics in 16 percent of sites.
- Environment
Some Canadian lakes still store DDT in their mud
Yesterday’s DDT pollution crisis is still today’s problem in some of Canada’s lakes.
- Oceans
Tiny plastic debris is accumulating far beneath the ocean surface
Floating trash patches scratch only the surface of the ocean microplastic pollution problem.
- Environment
Chemicals in biodegradable food containers can leach into compost
PFAS compounds from compostable food containers could end being absorbed by plants and later eaten by people, though the health effects are unclear.
- Environment
How one fern hoards toxic arsenic in its fronds and doesn’t die
To survive high levels of arsenic, a fern sequesters the heavy metal in its shoots with the help of three proteins.
- Environment
Emissions of a banned ozone-destroying chemical have been traced to China
Since 2013, eastern China has increased its annual emissions of a banned chlorofluorocarbon by about 7,000 metric tons, a study finds.
- Life
1 million species are under threat. Here are 5 ways we speed up extinctions
One million of the world’s plant and animal species are now under threat of extinction, a new report finds.
- Earth
The search for new geologic sources of lithium could power a clean future
Futuristic clean-energy visions of electric vehicles are driving the hunt for lithium.
- Agriculture
Can Silicon Valley entrepreneurs make crickets the next chicken?
Entrepreneurs are bringing automation and data analysis to insect agriculture to build a profitable business that helps feed the planet.
- Climate
Tiny microplastics travel far on the wind
Airborne bits of plastic that originated in cities ended up in pristine mountains at least 95 kilometers away, a study finds.
