MS-ESS3-3
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- Materials Science
Let’s learn about microplastics
Microplastics have turned up everywhere from the highest mountains to the bottom of the ocean — and even inside animals and people.
- Climate
Warming temps could turn some blue lakes green or brown
Slightly warmer summers could cause thousands of blue lakes to become a murky green or brown, according to a tally of color in 85,000 lakes worldwide.
- Animals
Watch: This red fox is the first spotted fishing for its food
Big fish in shallow water were easy pickings for this red fox. It’s the first of its species known to fish.
- Tech
No trees were harmed to 3-D print this piece of wood
How clever! Scientists used print-speed adjustments to control how flat, 3-D printed shapes morph into complex wooden objects.
- Materials Science
Laser light transformed plastic into tiny diamonds
The technique could be used to make nanodiamonds for quantum devices and other technology.
- Plants
No sun? No prob! A new process might soon grow plants in the dark
Teamwork makes green-work! Collaborating scientists came up with an electrifying farming trick that could make sunlight optional.
- Climate
Heat waves appear more life-threatening than scientists once thought
This is bad news as a warming planet leads to growing numbers of excessive heat waves — and millions more people facing potentially deadly temperatures.
- Chemistry
Simple process destroys toxic and widespread ‘forever’ pollutants
Ultraviolet light, sulfite and iodide break down these PFAS molecules faster and more thoroughly than other methods.
- Earth
Uplifting Antarctic shores point to accelerating loss of glaciers
It appears the Pine Island and “Doomsday” Thwaites glaciers are losing ice — and shrinking faster — than at any time in the past 5,500 years.
- Animals
Some Greenland polar bears are surviving with very little sea ice
The ‘glacial mélange’ on which they’ve come to rely — a mix of ice, snow and slush — could be a temporary refuge for some polar bears.
- Animals
Palm-size marsupials may face extinction from wild ‘house’ cats
After surviving Australian bushfires, the Kangaroo Island dunnart is losing ground as it's targeted by hungry predators.
- Animals
Let’s learn about amphibians
Amphibians are named after the Greek word for “double life” because many transform from water dwellers to landlubbers as they grow up.
