Environment

At least 11 states have enacted bans on expanded polystyrene (EPS), which is commonly used in packing peanuts and food packaging, due to environmental harm. The food packaging industry is now looking for compliant alternatives. However, these tend to be more expensive than conventional polystyrene.   Researchers have created a sustainable alternative to polystyrene using sawdust…

When researchers Marc Hillmyer and Christopher Ellison created their compostable plastic, they focused on accelerating PLA’s degradation without sacrificing other properties such as strength and shelf life.  In a paper published in ACS Central Science, the researchers describe polylactide (PLA) blends that reach 90% biodegradation in 11 days under composting conditions and hold up on…

A new study published in Nature found that Antarctic ice loss is remarkably predictable for the next few decades, but varies by glacier. Near-term Antarctic ice loss is linearly predictable through the mid-21st century, but this predictability isn’t a single number. Instead, it’s governed by a physical property called “reservoir timescale” which swings from roughly…

For years, international climate targets have been calculated using the assumption that the world’s northern permafrost would act as a carbon sink through the end of the century. Now, a paper published in Science Advances finds that the northern land carbon sink will become a carbon source in the 2050s.  The northern permafrost region, which…

The Trump administration is dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a $368 million network of over 900 deep-ocean instruments that provide researchers with real-time, long-term data on marine ecosystems, coastal environments and global climate patterns.  This could lead to permanent gaps in long-term oceanographic datasets, disrupting longitudinal studies on climate change and ocean health. The…

According to measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations averaged approximately 431 parts per million (ppm) last month, a record high.  In 1958, when continuous monitoring began, levels were below 320 ppm. Before the Industrial Revolution, levels were approximately 280 ppm or less.  NOAA data…

A new study published in Nature Climate Change concluded that atmospheric microplastics may significantly contribute to global warming. The study showed that microplastics’ warming effect equates to about 16.2% of that of black carbon, or soot.  In hotspots such as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the warming effect of microplastics can exceed that of local…

A team of researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is using microbes to turn single-use plastics into biodegradable plastics and bioproducts, including biodegradable jet fuel, nylon and chemicals used in chemotherapy and child myopia treatments. They published their findings in Trends in Biotechnology.  Common recycling practices can only use a fraction of plastic waste in…

A research project in Hawaii is turning recycled plastic waste into asphalt, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of marine debris and improve the state’s infrastructure. The program, called Nets-to-Roads, is run by Hawaii Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR).  The CMDR pulls approximately 200 tons of plastic from the ocean each year,…

Researchers at Brno University of Technology have developed magnetic microbots that can remove nanoplastics from water via electrostatic attraction. They published their findings in Environmental Science: Nano.  Nanoplastics, plastic particles smaller than 100 nm, are considered more dangerous than microplastics because their size allows them to cross cell membranes. They have been detected in the…

Interphex 2026 brought over 600 exhibitors to the Javits Center in New York City this week. Among the hundreds of vendors, a few themes emerged: AI and automation, digitalization and sustainability.  The show indicated that discussions around the digital transformation are turning into action. “I think we’re seeing the transition of the discussion around digital…

Ryan Davis and Nathan Bays, scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, set out to find a better way to absorb and degrade per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water sources, but quickly discovered that detecting the chemicals in the water took too long. They pivoted and have developed a faster, cheaper way to test for PFAS…

President Donald Trump’s budget request, released April 3, asks for major cuts to research funding at the National Science Foundation (NSF) while proposing $900 million to fund the construction of a new Antarctic research icebreaker.  In 2025, the NSF ended its lease of the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker, which it had relied on to…

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the HHS’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) will spend $144 million on external research grants over five years as part of the Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics (STOMP) program.  The program aims to create…

Carbamazepine, a common antiepileptic, is frequently detected in surface water, groundwater and drinking water, where it can induce toxic effects in aquatic organisms and potentially impact human health through long-term exposure. Conventional treatment technologies are often inefficient, have high energy demands or cause secondary pollution when addressing persistent compounds such as pharmaceutical contaminants. Current advanced…

Researchers from Beijing Normal University and East China Normal University have developed a new disaster detection framework called Single-temportal High-spatial resolution image Individual unsupervised change Detection (Shield). They published their research in the Journal of Remote Sensing. The system allows satellites to detect disaster-affected areas directly in orbit. By combining change detection and anomaly detection,…

Black flies, sometimes known as “buffalo gnats,” may not be as widely recognized as the common housefly, but they are undeniably more pernicious. Females of most black fly species need a blood meal to produce eggs, and rather than cleanly piercing the skin like a mosquito, they slice it open and lap up the pooled…

A research team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China has developed a new process that uses sunlight to convert polystyrene waste and excess sulfur into valuable organic products. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.  The chemical industry produces over 20 million tons of polystyrene annually for…

Researchers have developed a novel physics-informed deep learning approach that reconstructs Earth’s rotational history with unprecedented precision, revealing that climate change is lengthening days at rates unseen in 3.6 million years. Climate change is lengthening Earth’s days by approximately 1.5 milliseconds per century, according to researchers at the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich. Rising…

Researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology and Stanford University have discovered that the cockroach Blaptica dubia can degrade polystyrene microplastics at rates an order of magnitude higher than previously known insect species, and they’ve decoded the metabolic mechanism that makes it possible. The findings, published February 25 in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, reveal a sophisticated…

Laboratories chasing defensible PFAS data for U.S. drinking water compliance are dealing with a wave of challenges that makes the seemingly simple goal elusive. In addition to growing PFAS testing demand, other challenges include blank contamination, sloppy field handling, method deviations and reporting errors. The EPA’s PFAS drinking water rule is live, requiring approved methods…

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories are investigating methods to capture methane from biogas, a mixture found in waste such as food scraps, manure and sewage. Biogas is a renewable energy source produced by breaking down organic matter that can be used to fuel vehicles, heat homes and generate electricity.  “We are creating new types of…

Researchers in the Netherlands, Italy and Poland have developed a new porous material that can selectively capture carbon dioxide and release it in response to visible light. Their work was published in PNAS last month.  The work combines porous framework materials and light-responsive functional groups. Ben Feringa, who shared the 2016 chemistry Nobel Prize, and…

Researchers at the University of Chicago have discovered a way to use lithium to break down 95% of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), one of the most abundant “forever chemicals,” which may cause cancer and other harmful effects. The team published their findings in Nature Chemistry. PFAS are commonly found in drinking water, soil, waste sites, foods…

Researchers at Nanjing University published a new study in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes describing a method for treating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in water. By introducing a small amount of formic acid into a UV-activated persulfate system, the researchers increased defluorination from 27% to 89% in 24 hours. The best results required acidic conditions (pH 2.5),…