Environment

When restoring former industrial or agricultural land back to its natural state, it's vitally important to reestablish ground cover plants such as native grasses. According to a new study, the addition of aspirin helps those grasses grow.

Researchers have put forward an interesting way of preventing some of this damage brought by ocean acidification, through a study demonstrating how releasing an alkalinizing agent from shipping lanes could help protect much of the Great Barrier Reef.

Back in January, we covered an autonomous plastic trash collector called Clearbot that was designed to remove waste from local waterways. Now the startup behind the project has partnered with gaming titan Razer for an updated design.

Scientists measuring concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory have reported the highest levels on record, and ones not see on Earth in more than four million years.

New research led by the University of California Riverside has identified a relatively simple catalyst that can remove common pollutants called perchlorates, helping reduce water and soil pollution not just on Earth but potentially on Mars one day.

As technology continues to evolve, we're going to see an increasing number of battery-powered connected devices – some of which will be single-use, like shipping packaging. A new biodegradable mini-capacitor has been created with such uses in mind.

Discarded carpets take up a lot of space in landfills, or create a great deal of smoke when incinerated. Soon, however, it may be possible to recover high-grade polypropylene from synthetic carpets that would otherwise just end up in the dump.

Although the use of pesticides is harmful to the environment, farmers still need a way of keeping crop-damaging organisms at bay. According to a new study, a combination of agricultural and beer brewing waste products may be able to help.

A number of factors are contributing to declining bee populations, but a tiny new ingestible particle developed at Cornell University takes aim at a key one, by detoxifying deadly insecticides before they can do these important critters harm.

A new sponge-like material likened to a Swiss Army knife could help scientists tackle the problem of phosphate pollution and algae blooms, with the ability to not just capture phosphate from water sources but allow it to be collected for reuse.

Scientists have demonstrated a new way we may be able to limit damage to the world's coral reefs, by taking coral species that have already survived severe heat stress and transplanting them to degraded reefs to sow the seeds for restoration.

Scientists have discovered a species of Galapagos tortoise that hasn’t been seen for 115 years, and was presumed extinct. DNA tests have confirmed that a specimen found in 2019 is indeed a long-lost Fernandina Giant tortoise.