Environment

Manufacturing of chemicals has grown so rapidly that governments are now unable to assess, let alone control the risks to Earth's ecosystems, taking us beyond a safe "planetary boundary" and endangering the planet's stability.

A new method quickly converts carbon dioxide into solid carbon, which can be stored indefinitely or turned into useful materials. The technology works by bubbling CO2 up through a tube of liquid metal, and could be used at the source of emissions.

Carbon dioxide may hog headlines as a climate change villain, but methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas. MIT has now demonstrated a new way to remove methane from the air, even at low concentrations, with a common clay used to make cat litter.

Egg white powder is a widely used food ingredient, which means that a lot of hens have to be raised on a lot of farms, producing a lot of waste. There may soon be a greener alternative, however, thanks to a fungus which produces a key egg protein.

Food additives called emulsifiers are widely used to combine two liquids which ordinarily don't mix, like oil and water. And while most are made from dairy proteins or egg yolks, a new one uses spent brewer's grain which may otherwise be discarded.

Members of a student team from the Technology University of Eindhoven are about to embark on a fact-finding mission to the South Pole that will inform the creation of an autonomous solar-powered Antarctica research rover.

Scientists have uncovered a new way tsunamis might be better predicted ahead of time, showing how the magnetic fields they generate can be detected before the massive, devastating waves make it to shore.

As 3D-printed electrical circuits become more widely produced, the problem of electronic waste could correspondingly get worse. That's why Swiss scientists have developed a new natural-source "e-ink" that biodegrades once discarded.

A new type of storm has been discovered in the skies over the Indian Ocean. Named “atmospheric lakes,” these events are slow-moving pools of concentrated water vapor that can last for days and bring large amounts of rain to the surface below them.

Not only are herbicides harmful to the environment, but they're also one more expense for the farmers who use them. That's where the Greeneye selective spraying system comes in, as it's claimed to only dispense herbicide when weeds are detected.

Recent research has uncovered a range of plastic-degrading enzymes, and a new study has revealed this to be part of a broader trend in which such enzymes are increasing in numbers and diversity in direct response to plastic pollution around the world.

Although there are now biodegradable single-use electronic devices such as environmental sensors, the batteries in those devices can still pose an ecological problem. That's why scientists have now created a fully biodegradable paper-based battery.