MS-ESS3-3
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- Environment
New ultrathin materials can pull climate-warming CO2 from the air
To slow global warming, we’ll need help from CO2-trapping materials. Enter MXenes. They’re strong and reactive — and they love to eat up CO2.
- Oceans
Shading corals during midday heat can limit bleaching
Shading coral reefs during the sunniest part of the day may help corals survive marine heat waves.
- Tech
How green is your online life?
From the manufacturing of our favorite devices to using them for social interactions, our digital lives can have a big climate impact.
- Tech
Bits of trees can make and store energy for us to use
This cellulose and lignin, two major building blocks of trees, could lead to greener electronics.
- Tech
Bionic plants and electric algae may usher in a greener future
Some can aid the climate by removing pollutants. Others would just avoid dirtying the environment in the first place.
- Climate
Some tree leaves are finding it too hot for photosynthesis
Earth’s ongoing fever threatens to push entire forests toward this heat limit — and possible death.
- Tech
Engineers cook up a new way to tackle CO2: Make baking soda
Engineers have found a material that can collect carbon dioxide from the air. When later mixed with water, it forms baking soda that can be shed in the sea.
- Materials Science
A new hydrogel could help pull drinking water from the air
The salty gel absorbs more water from the air than similar gels, even in desert climates. This could provide clean water for drinking or farming.
- Environment
Ultrasound waves can help remove polluting microplastics in water
The innovative process concentrates microplastics within a flowing liquid. A two-step process then removes the potentially toxic bits.
- Space
Four researchers on Earth are spending a year on ‘Mars’
A crew of four entered Mars Dune Alpha in Houston, Texas. They will remain isolated inside for a year, living and working as if on the Red Planet.
- Climate
Let’s learn about why summer 2023 was so hot
Human-caused climate change has played a big role in this summer’s historic heat.
- Oceans
Summer 2023 is when the ocean first turned ‘hot tub’ hot
Unfortunately, scientists worry that this atypical sea warming may actually be the beginning of an unwelcome new ‘normal.’
