Environment

Seeking a passive way to keep buildings cool in hot weather and warmer in the colder months, researchers have developed a new electrochromic shape-shifting material. It switches from solid to liquid and from clear to opaque at set temperatures.

Scientists in Australia have developed an intriguing new technique for removing toxic “forever chemicals” from water. Adding a solution to contaminated water coats the pollutants and makes them magnetic, so they can easily be attracted and isolated.

Atmospheric dust can both cool and warm our planet. A new study shows that this dust could be masking the true impact of greenhouse gasses on climate change, and that a shift in the dust quantity could lead to a warming spike.

Greenhouse gases and plastic waste are two of the biggest environmental problems the world faces today. A new reactor from Cambridge tackles both at once, converting CO2 and used plastic bottles into useful materials, powered entirely by sunlight.

Microplastics are a growing environmental problem, but now researchers in Korea have developed a new water purification system that can filter out these tiny fragments, as well as other pollutants, very quickly and with high efficiency.

It’s a cruel irony that 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in undrinkable water. Scientists have now modeled the feasibility of a hypothetical system that can capture water vapor from ocean air and condense it into drinking water, at a large scale.

A new study documenting the accumulation of microplastic particles on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea has shed some new light on plastic pollution, finding that concentrations of this material on the floor of the Med has tripled since 2000.

In what is being hailed as an historic moment for the environment, world leaders at the UN’s Biodiversity Conference COP15 in Montreal have reached an agreement to ramp up protections of the planet’s precious natural ecosystems.

PFAS are insidious pollutants thanks to their ubiquity, long life and a growing list of linked health concerns. But now researchers at UC Riverside have developed a new method to break them down more effectively, using hydrogen and UV light.

Researchers in Auckland have used advanced chemical analysis to calculate the amount of microplastic particles falling from the sky over the city, equating it to three million plastic bottles each year.

Loose plastic bags can be a hassle to store for recycling, plus they may blow away and become litter if they're left outside at the recycling depot. The Clear Drop SPC is made to help, by compressing loads of your bags into compact bricks.

Scientists are claiming to have solved a longstanding mystery around why lightning takes on a zigzag shape as it flashes across the sky, pinning it on high-energy molecules responsible for redistributing electrical fields.

In addition to rising air temperatures and warming waters, Arctic’s sea ice also has hostile weather conditions to contend with, and new analysis of an extreme event earlier this year suggests it may be more vulnerable to these than we thought.

The way animals disperse seeds throughout landscapes is known to be an important element in promoting growth of forested areas, and a new study over an extended timeframe has shed valuable new light on this process.

While the purification of wastewater once just involved the removal of traditional pollutants, it now also entails the removal of microplastics. A new powder reportedly does the job much quicker and more thoroughly than has previously been possible.