Pollution

A new sensor system is designed to catch polluters, by sampling and analyzing water within the sewer line.

​​One disconcerting consequence of our huge plastic pollution problem is that we really have no idea where the stuff can end up. The latest locale to surprise scientists looking into such matters is the Arctic, who say that snowfall there is bringing tiny fragments of plastic along for the ride.​

We already have devices which detect vehicles that are exceeding the speed limit, or that are too noisy. Now, scientists are working on an unmanned sensor that could be used to sniff out automobiles that are emitting overly-dirty exhaust.

​Although many smokers apparently don't realize it (or just don't care), cigarette butts are very much a form of litter – in fact, they're the world's most common type of litter. And they're not just an eyesore, as new research now indicates that they also dramatically reduce plant growth.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have turned to Twitter for a better picture of the effect ocean plastics are having on sharks and rays. Summing these reports, they identified more than 1,000 individual sharks and rays seen entangled in ocean waste.

New research has found that each of us is regularly producing our own personal cloud of pollutants, affecting indoor air quality. But not the way you think. The team found that oils on our skin and clothes are reacting with ozone in the air, producing a range of volatile and semi-volatile substances

Given that the WHO estimates that seven million premature deaths annually around the world are caused by air pollution, monitoring air quality is vital. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed an optical nano-sensor that can be mounted to most streetlamps.

​Plastic can be a very useful medium, but our throw away culture has also made it a huge pollution problem – especially when it ends up in the sea. While efforts like the Ocean Cleanup attempt to deal with plastic waste near the surface, researchers are developing a robot to clear the seabed.

A new study has independently measured methane emissions from a number of ammonia fertilizer plants. The startling results suggest methane emissions are 100 times higher than industry estimates, and three times higher than the EPA’s estimate for all industry methane emissions in the United States.​

In a huge global study hundreds of rivers around the world have been tested for levels of common antibiotics. It found 65 percent of all samples contained some concentration of antibiotics, with the worst cases showing levels more than 300 times higher than the generally accepted safe threshold.

"Hypersaline brine" is industrial waste-water with salt levels that exceed even that of seawater. It’s a big, expensive, destructive problem which a team of engineers at Columbia University in New York City hope to solve with their solvent-based method of desalination.

​Ordinarily, when drinking water is being tested for toxic heavy metals, samples have to be sent off to labs. And while there are portable testing systems, they do have some limitations. A new device, however, is claimed to work better – by copying a process that takes place within the human body.