Pollution

Beijing, China — The United Nations’ most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report paints a bleak picture for the world’s water supply: Of the 7.8 billion people on Earth, about 4 billion do not have access to sufficiently clean water for at least a month every year. While several water purification schemes have been proposed, […]

Geesthacht, Germany — The North Sea’s unique coastal region stands for a historical scene and the North’s pride and joy. Beach and dune landscapes appeal for relaxation and function as industrial and business location besides a popular place for living. However, the ubiquitous pollution in this appreciated environment remains unseen. Contaminants enter the coastal ecosystems […]

Washington, DC — As a major source of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, food production has long occupied an important place in the climate-change discussion. Writing in BioScience, Alice Jones of the University of Adelaide, and an international team of scientists from the University and The Nature Conservancy, discuss the potential of marine aquaculture, or mariculture, to […]

Japan — In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident, the Japanese government performed intensive decontamination in the human-occupied parts of the affected area by removing soil surface layers. But a major affected region consists of dense, uninhabited forests, where such decontamination strategies are not feasible. So, finding ways to avoid the spread of radioactive […]

Dalian, China — Natural gas can be used as fuel for generating electricity, heating and powering transportation. It is also the raw material to manufacture hydrogen and ammonia. Currently, biogenic and thermogenic processes are the two widely accepted methods for natural gas production. Whereas, high content of CO2 in gas products is inevitable during these […]

Edgewater, MD — Coastal plants and animals have found a new way to survive in the open ocean—by colonizing plastic pollution. A new commentary published Dec. 2 in Nature Communications reports coastal species growing on trash hundreds of miles out to sea in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, more commonly known as the “Great Pacific […]

Tokyo, Japan — Using photocatalysts to reduce CO2 has received a lot of attention recently. Scientists from Tokyo Tech have developed a new osmium complex that can absorb a full wavelength range of visible light and act as a panchromatic redox photosensitizer for CO2 reduction. The team combined this complex with a ruthenium (II) catalyst […]

Athens, GA — Replacing petroleum-based aviation fuel with sustainable aviation fuel derived from a type of mustard plant can reduce carbon emissions by up to 68%, according to new research from University of Georgia scientist Puneet Dwivedi. Dwivedi led a team that estimated the break-even price and life cycle carbon emissions of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) […]

Tempe, AZ — With each passing day, the dark side of our addiction to fossil fuels becomes more apparent. In addition to slashing emissions of carbon dioxide, society must find sustainable alternatives to power the modern world. In a new study, Gary Moore and his research group explore different approaches to catalysis, a chemical process that plays […]

New York, NY — Scientists have developed seven crystal forms of imidacloprid—one of the world’s most widely used insecticides—in an effort to sharply reduce its environmental impact, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The new forms work up to nine times faster than the original version, meaning a […]

Sydney, Australia — It is commonly assumed that any important scientific knowledge would be available in English, and so scientific knowledge used in international studies is predominantly sourced from English-language documents. But is this assumption correct? According to research published October 7 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, led by Dr. Tatsuya Amano at […]

Nahant, MA — Between 35.6% and 95% of 20th century ocean surface climates — defined by surface water temperature, pH and the concentration of the mineral aragonite — may disappear by 2100, depending on how greenhouse gas emissions develop in the first half of the 21st century, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The findings also […]