Environment

Back in 2018, scientists made the key discovery of a bacterium with a natural appetite for PET plastics. Scientists have now used this bacterium as the basis for a newly engineered “super-enzyme” that can digest plastic waste at six times faster.

Laundry cycles see our clothes shed huge amounts of microplastic fibers into the wastewater and scientists have now made an effort to quantify this, estimating that millions of metric tonnes of synthetic fibers have entered waterbodies since 1950.

Coral bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by high water temperatures and other factors, causing them to expel the symbiotic algae living within them. Given that fact, scientists are now looking into saving reefs by pumping up cool water from the ocean's depths.

Scientists at the University of Utah have come up with a relatively low-tech solution for air quality monitoring, demonstrating how the buildup of magnetic particles on tree leaves can be used to gauge the quality of the surrounding air.

The Arctic is one place that’s been hit particularly hard by climate change. Now a new study has shown that the Arctic is beginning to transition into an entirely new climate state, leaving its predominantly frozen state behind.

Drawing on extensive analysis of species populations around the world, a new report from the WWF reveals an average decline of 68 percent in vertebrate species numbers between 1970 and 2016, a decline the authors describe as "catastrophic."

We're on the brink of a sixth major extinction event, largely thanks to human activity and climate change. The least we could do is try to prevent some of them, and now a study has quantified how many species we may have saved in the last few decades.

Scientists observed some notable declines in carbon dioxide emissions due to coronavirus lockdowns this year, however, a new report reveals concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere are continuing to soar to record levels anyway.

It can be hard to determine if an animal is extinct or just really good at hiding. A new study shows how environmental DNA can help the hunt, with several missing frog species rediscovered in Brazil, including one that hasn’t been seen in 50 years.

Scientists studying more than half a century of data on bottom-dwelling shellfish have uncovered evidence of a feedback loop in which generations of these marine creatures are becoming trapped in warmer areas that threaten their survival.

While we hear a great deal about the huge patches of garbage that are floating on the world's oceans, there's even more trash lying on the seabed. The European Union-funded SeaClear project aims to gather much of it up, using autonomous robots.

A new Yale study suggests that asphalt, so ubiquitous in our modern cities, continues to release a wide range of chemicals into the air long after it's laid down – and it gets up to three times worse on hot days.