MS-ESS3-3
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- Earth
Fighting big farm pollution with a tiny plant
Fertilizer runoff can fuel the growth of toxic algae nearby lakes. A teen decided to harness a tiny plant to sop up that fertilizer.
- Chemistry
Concrete science
Teen researchers are exploring ways to strengthen this building material, use it for safety purposes and use its discarded rubble.
- Climate
Zapping clouds with lasers could alter Earth’s climate
Scientists zapped ice crystals in a lab. They were exploring whether this approach might be used to break those crystals in clouds — potentially as a way to cool Earth’s fever.
- Computing
‘Couch potatoes’ tend to be TV-energy hogs
Many government programs urge people to save electricity by using more efficient TVs. Here’s why these programs should target “couch potatoes.”
- Earth
Common water pollutants hurt freshwater organisms
The germ killers we use and the drugs we take don’t just disappear. They can end up in the environment. There they can harm aquatic organisms, three teens showed.
- Earth
Breathing very dirty air may boost obesity risk
Breathing dirty Beijing air made rats heavier and less healthy than rats breathing clean air. Scientists now worry such polluted air may do the same thing to people.
- Environment
Not so sweet: Fake sugar found at sea
Sucralose — sold in stores as Splenda — has begun turning up in seawater. This raises concern about the fake sweetener’s impacts on the environment.
- Chemistry
Gulf oil spills could destroy shipwrecks faster
In the Gulf of Mexico, leftover crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill may be speeding the corrosion of old shipwrecks.
- Tech
Powered by poop and pee?
Scientists are developing methods to not only remove human waste from wastewater, but also to harness the energy hidden within it.
- Chemistry
Olive oil untangles plastic
Vegetable oils can make plastic fibers stronger. And the process is safer and better for the environment than other detanglers.
- Animals
Using dolphins to find unknown ocean pollutants
Long-lasting pollutants may threaten marine mammals and human health. To find those pollutants, scientists are sampling blubber, then running the fatty material through new types of tests.
- Climate
Arctic ice travels fast, carrying pollution
Climate change is melting old sea ice in the Arctic. Now, younger, thinner ice is migrating far and fast, taking pollutants with it.
