Researchers at the National University of Singapore have created a way to convert plastic bottle waste into an ultralight aerogel material that has multiple potential applications.
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What’s In The Air?
Researchers at Yale are using some advanced technology to analyze air samples in order to obtain a detailed look at the molecular makeup of organic aerosols, which have a significant presence in the atmosphere.
A Plane With No Moving Parts
Airplanes have been with us for more than a century and they fly with the help of propellers, turbine blades or fans that noisily move them through the air. Recently, MIT engineers have built and flown a plane with no moving parts.
Growing Use Of Wind And Solar Power
According to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, solar and wind energy now generate more than 20% of the electricity used in 10 states. Topping the list is Iowa, which got 37% of its electricity from wind and solar in 2017. The next three states were Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, all […]
A Prize For Water From The Air
The XPrize competitions provide monetary incentives to crowdsource solutions to the world’s grand challenges. Originally started in 1994 to spur the development of private spaceflight, the XPrize program now offers prizes for diverse fields including Oceans, Learning, Health, Energy, Environment, Transportation, Safety and Robotics.
The Global Vertebrate Population Is Struggling
According to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund, the planet’s populations of vertebrates have dropped an average of 60% since 1970.
Cleaner Air For China
For more than 15 years, the Chinese government has been grappling with some of the deadliest air pollution in the world. Extreme pollution events are a regular wintertime occurrence and health experts estimate that more than a million people die each year in China from particulate air pollution.
Bring The Wild Back Into Farmlands
A recent study published in Science looks at the effects of maintaining at least a little bit of the wild on working lands including farmland, rangeland and forests. The study concludes that doing so may be a key to preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change.
Powering Africa With The Sun
There are roughly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who currently live without electric power. Putting in the infrastructure to supply power to these people in their various countries has been a major economic and logistical challenge.
Zika Insecticides And Honeybees
Honeybees, which play a critical role in agriculture by pollinating crops, are not native to the United States. Beekeepers manage most honeybee colonies and they move the bees around to support farmers.
More Power From The Sun’s Heat
When we think of solar power, we usually are talking about the panels that generate electricity using the photovoltaic effect. These panels are on millions of rooftops around the world and in utility-scale solar farms. There are also solar water heating systems that use the sun’s heat to provide hot water for homes and businesses.
Bad News For Beer
As extreme weather events become increasingly common, arctic ice disappears, and wildfires burn for weeks on end, many people wonder just what it will take to change some of the entrenched opinions about climate change.
Microplastics And Humans
Microplastics are everywhere. The tiny plastic particles pose a massive environmental challenge. Microplastics are polluting oceans at an alarming rate. Much of the oceanic microplastics result from the breakdown of plastic litter. Another source of microplastics pollution is microbeads. Microbeads, which are commonly added to cleansing and exfoliating personal care products, pollute the environment when […]
A Better Filter For Saltwater
Turning seawater into drinkable water is a highly desirable capability given that fresh water is generally in short supply and seawater is endlessly abundant. Desalination plants typically strain salt out of seawater by pumping it through films made of polyamide. Polyamide filters are riddled with tiny pores that allow water molecules to squeeze through, but […]
Pando Is In Trouble
Pando is widely considered to be the world’s largest single organism, weighing in at about 13 million pounds and covering over 100 acres.
Solar Plus Storage In The Caribbean
The Caribbean is home to nearly 30 island nations and more than 7,000 individual islands with a combined population of around 40 million. All of the islands are susceptible to disasters such as hurricanes that can leave residents without electrical power for extended periods of time.
Trading Rhino Horn And Tiger Bone
Historically, rhino horn and tiger bone were used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various illnesses, despite the lack of any evidence of their effectiveness. In fact, rhino horn is simply keratin, a protein that is found in human fingernails and hair. Rhino horn is used to treat everything from cancer to gout in traditional […]
Greenland Turning Pink
A burgeoning ecosystem of algae is turning parts of the Greenland ice sheet pinkish-red. It isn’t just colorful. It is contributing more than a little to the melting of one of the biggest frozen bodies of water in the world.
Plastic Bottles
Plastic straws have become outcasts these days and for good reasons. But they are not the only bad actors in the world of plastic products. Single-use plastic water bottles are another example of a real trouble maker.
Shifting Climate Zones
As the climate warms, the planet’s landscape is changing. The Arctic ice is shrinking, the ocean is rising altering coastlines, and plants, animals and diseases are on the move. The world’s climate zones are changing in significant and measurable ways.