Environment
- Chemistry
Turning jeans blue with sunlight might help the environment
When dipped in indican and exposed to sunlight, yarn turns a deep blue. This process is more eco-friendly than the current denim dyeing method.
- Earth
Experiment: Can plants stop soil erosion?
Soil erosion washes pollutants into streams and rivers — but plants may help limit that.
- Environment
Scientists Say: Carbon capture
Carbon capture technology tackles climate change by stomping out carbon dioxide at the source.
- Health & Medicine
Health problems persist in Flint 10 years after water poisoning
Flint, Mich., residents still show health impacts long after a switch in their drinking-water source exposed them to toxic lead and other pollutants.
- Health & Medicine
9 things to know about lead’s health risks — and how to curb them
Lead has been linked to lower IQ, behavior problems, mental-health disorders, strokes and more health impacts. There are ways to reduce your exposure.
- Microbes
Let’s learn about useful bacteria
Bacteria do many useful jobs almost everywhere on Earth, from the soil to the seafloor to our stomachs.
- Environment
Bottled water hosts many thousands of nano-sized plastic bits
The finding emerges from tests of a new tool that identified smaller-than-ever tiny plastic bits in three brands of bottled water.
- Oceans
Analyze This: Climate change may worsen the spread of ocean noise
Some parts of the ocean may become five times as loud in the future.
- Animals
Which way is up? Insects may lose track near artificial lights
Flying insects may use light to figure out where the sky is. But artificial lights can send them veering off course, high-speed video suggests.
- Climate
Warmer seas trigger skyrocketing ice loss in 3 Antarctic glaciers
Destabilized by waves and vanishing sea ice, one of the glaciers lost 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) of ice in 16 months — a possible hint of worse to come.
- Life
Has the Endangered Species Act saved species from extinction?
After 50 years, this landmark law has kept many species alive — but few wild populations have recovered enough to come off the “endangered” list.
- 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.
