Need to measure how much uranium is in the soil at that contaminated old mine? Just bring a can of Coca-Cola Classic® along. Researchers report that the popular pop works just as well as more expensive solutions for analyzing levels of “bioaccessible” uranium and other trace elements in soil.
There is a rising need […] Read More »
The Monadnock Building in downtown Chicago, Illinois, was completed in 1894 and was once the largest office building in the world. With austere, 17-story façades ornamented mainly by columns of bay windows, it’s the sort of structure that led the poet Carl Sandburg to call Chicago “City of the Big Shoulders.”
It’s also a […] Read More »
By Richard Conniff
People who work in the natural world often get asked how on Earth they came to devote their lives to gastropods, or ground beetles, or whatever other species happens to have found its way into their hearts. What the questioners generally mean is that becoming a naturalist is a little enviable, […] Read More »
Sitting in a sturdy wooden chair as you read this? How do you know the raw material didn’t come from a criminal gang that had razed a protected forest? And how about the pages of this magazine—was some of the pulp wrung from an endangered tree?
For decades, it was hard for conservationists fighting […] Read More »
Durian is famous for its noxious smell, but one day the so-called king of fruits could actually help reduce pollution, say researchers at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. They are developing a process to turn durian and other tropical plants into activated carbon, a component of electric-car batteries.
Activated carbon is used to […] Read More »
By John Carey
As a scientist working on breakthrough lighting technologies, Jeff Tsao is a firm believer in the magic of energy efficiency. After all, the numbers are compelling. Replace traditional bulbs with far more efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and, studies suggest, the U.S. could cut the electricity used by lighting by at least […] Read More »
Cell phones can be annoying. But could the electromagnetic fields they produce be contributing to the collapse of honeybee colonies? New research showing that bees, too, are annoyed by cell calls is adding to the buzz surrounding a provocative idea.
Experiments suggesting that active handsets tucked into hives can lead to changes in bee […] Read More »
Text by Lindsey Doermann
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Bionic Handling
The elephant’s trunk re-imagined as a graceful machine
The Bionic Handling Assistant is a lightweight, fluidly moving, robotic arm inspired by the strong but flexible trunk of an elephant. Made of the polymer polyamide and containing no iron or steel, the arm is strong enough to […] Read More »
Engineering, it has been said, is that art of taking ideas out of thin air and expressing them in steel and concrete. Now, some engineers are demonstrating how to incorporate ecological concepts into heavy-duty coastal building projects, using items as simple as concrete flower pots to create more habitat for algae, shellfish and starfish.
Thick […] Read More »
It’s not time to throw the recycled bathwater out with the baby. Although wastewater recycling plants can produce more greenhouse gas emissions that traditional water treatment facilities, a new study finds they can still offer advantages in water-stressed regions.
Nitrous oxide, a potent warming gas, is by-product of common bacteria “that live in agricultural soils […] Read More »
Male sea turtles can’t take the heat. Warmer temperatures cause turtle eggs to produce females – leading to concerns that global warming could wipe out mates. A new study from Central America, however, suggests that a few sheets of plastic could help one highly endangered species produce some pretty cool guys.
Among “marine turtles, sex […] Read More »
Cities are creeping into some of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems, concludes a new analysis that takes a first crack at estimating how fast the world’s urban areas have grown over the last few decades – and how much they might grow in the future.
“The conversion of Earth’s land surface to urban uses […] Read More »
Researchers have definitively linked a bacterium found in human waste to “white pox disease,” a disfiguring and lethal ailment that has helped put Caribbean elkhorn coral on the U.S. Endangered Species List. But some new sewage treatment plants may help stop the spread.
“These bacteria do not come from the ocean, they come from us,” […] Read More »
How about some newts on the back nine? Or a toad near the tee? With a few strokes of inspiration, golf courses could provide amphibians with some desperately needed habitat, a new study concludes.
“The average golf course occupies 150 acres of land and consists of approximately 16% non-turfgrass vegetation and 7% waterbodies,” Daniel Jackson […] Read More »
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions at U.S. power plants could help save some water too, a new analysis concludes.
Coal-fired and nuclear power plants are among the nation’s thirstiest water users, Munish Chandel and two colleagues at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, report in Energy Policy. In 2005, electricity generators sucked up roughly 143 billion […] Read More »
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Changing the BatteryFlamingos stand precariously on top of one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium—the very stuff that powers our mobile world
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Shrink to FitHumanity appears to be ushering in new age of minifauna, a kind of Lilliputian world full of runts and dwarves |
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Chasing RainbowsLured by a utopian visions, agencies dropped billions of trout into thousands of lakes. Now, they’re determined to undo the damage they caused. |
