Pollution

Although the air in our homes or workplaces may seem OK, it might contain harmful compounds emitted by materials like particleboard and carpeting. New research suggests that we may soon be able to tell if that is the case, using tiny glowing worms.

By exposing healthy adults to diesel fumes before having their brain activity imaged in an fMRI machine, researchers have shown how traffic pollution can impair brain function, offering evidence of the connection between air quality and cognition.

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.

A new study shows that lettuce readily takes up particles produced from rubber car tires as they roll along our roadways. The research is part of a growing body of evidence that materials we use everyday are flowing back into our food supply.

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.

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.

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.

It's assumed that as we get older our health will deteriorate. Our bodies age, wrinkles form, metabolism slows, and our immune system weakens. But how much of what we consider to simply be natural aging is actually due to preventable environmental factors?

Imagine if there were a robotic fish that filtered microplastic particles out of the water as it swam. Well, now there is one, and it's the physical version of the winning concept in the first-ever Natural Robotics Contest.

A large percentage of microplastic pollution takes the form of synthetic microfibers, shed by our clothes as they're being washed. Gulp lets homeowners filter those fibers out of their wash water, keeping them from reaching rivers or the sea.

It's always upsetting to see images of seabirds covered in crude oil, as the result of an accidental spill. According to a new study, however, even tiny amounts of routinely released waterborne oil may seriously damage such birds' feathers.

Scientists continue to unearth enzymes that can eat away plastic materials with high efficiency, and a team in Spain has just discovered more in the saliva of wax worms, which have the ability to degrade plastic bags in hours at room temperature.