Environment

Materials Science

This glitter gets its color from plants, not a synthetic plastic

In the new material, tiny arrangements of cellulose reflect light in specific ways to create vibrant hues in an environmentally friendly glitter.

Environment

A new way to make plastics could keep them from littering the seas

Borrowing from genetics, scientists are creating plastics that will degrade. They can even choose how quickly these materials break down.

Humans

The ultimate genealogical search hunts for our earliest ancestors

The complex search to identify humans’ most distant cousins is long, complex and far from straightforward. It’s also far from over.

Environment

Leaky sewer pipes pollute urban streams and bays with drugs

Scientists find that leaking sewer pipes around Baltimore, Md., spew thousands of doses of medicines into the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.

Earth

What can ‘silent earthquakes’ teach us about the next Big One?

Earthquakes usually last seconds. But sometimes, they can last days, or even years. Here’s what scientists are learning about these “slow-slip events.”

Environment

Everyday plastics can pollute, leaching thousands of chemicals

Plastic bags and containers leach potentially toxic chemicals into both food and water, but researchers yet don’t know how they might affect health.

Agriculture

Potty-trained cows could help reduce pollution

About a dozen calves have been trained to pee in a stall. Toilet training cows on a large scale could cut down on pollution, scientists say.

Environment

Cheatgrass thrives on the well-lit urban night scene

Middle-grade campers team up with ecologists at Denver University to show that streetlights boost the growth of a reviled invasive species.

Animals

Will the woolly mammoth return?

Scientists are using genetic engineering and cloning to try to bring back extinct species or save endangered ones. Here’s how and why.

Animals

Cloning boosts endangered black-footed ferrets

A cloned ferret named Elizabeth Ann brings genetic diversity to a species that nearly went extinct in the 1980s.

Materials Science

Scientists Say: Aerosol

Aerosols are tiny bits of solids or drops of liquids suspended in gas. Aerosols include mist, fog and soot, as well as pollution from fossil fuels.

Environment

Wildfire smoke seeds the air with potentially dangerous microbes

Studies now show that most wildfires don’t kill microbes. That’s fueling worries about what risks these smoke hitchhikers might pose to people.