How Space Can Boost Clean Energy and Contribute to a Sustainable Economy
An all-day digital workshop to explore how space can boost clean energy and contribute to a sustainable economy will be held on September 14, 2020….
Sustainability
Battery-Free Game Boy Runs Forever – Powered by Button Pressing and Solar Energy
A hand-held video game console allowing indefinite gameplay might be a parent’s worst nightmare. But this Game Boy is not just a toy. It’s a…
Natural Pest Control: Biological Control of Insect Pests Is Saving Farmers Billions of Dollars
Biological control of insect pests – where ‘natural enemies’ keep pests at bay – is saving farmers in Asia and the Pacific billions of dollars,…
Serious Challenges From Unsustainable Food Systems: Can We Reverse Current Trends?
The impact of global crises underscores the fragility of food systems. In addition to short-term acute shocks, long-term global demographic changes like urbanization and population…
Scientists Say Global Plan to Protect Endangered Species Has Major Flaw
A global group of scientists is calling for an urgent rethink on a draft action plan to safeguard biodiversity. The provisional action plan[1], unveiled in…
New Mass-Timber Sustainable Building Takes Shape in Boston
A five-story mixed-use structure in Roxbury represents a new kind of net-zero-energy building, made from wood. A new building about to take shape in Boston’s…
Uniting Irrigation Science and Agronomy: Water Management Grows Farm Profits
A healthy lifestyle consists of a mixture of habits. Diet, exercise, sleep and other factors all must be in balance. Similarly, a sustainable farm operates…
Researchers Evolve Bacteria That Consume CO2 for Energy
Over the course of several months, researchers in Israel created Escherichia coli strains that consume CO2 for energy instead of organic compounds. This achievement in…
Seeds Coated With Fertilizer-Generating Microbes May Enable Agriculture on Marginal Land
A specialized silk covering could protect seeds from salinity while also providing fertilizer-generating microbes. Providing seeds with a protective coating that also supplies essential nutrients…
How Diet Changes Can Sustain The World’s Food Production
A model helps researchers look at optimal ways to mine phosphate rock sustainably. If you wanted to really mess with the world’s food production, a…
Researchers Use Gelatin to Make Powerful New Hydrogen Fuel Catalyst
A cheap and effective new catalyst developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, can generate hydrogen fuel from water just as efficiently as…
Wind Farms Cause More Environmental Impact Than Previously Thought
When it comes to energy production, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, unfortunately. As the world begins its large-scale transition toward low-carbon energy…
New Lithium-Based Battery Design Makes Use of Greenhouse Gas
New lithium-based battery could make use of greenhouse gas before it ever gets into the atmosphere. A new type of battery developed by researchers at…
Scientists Develop a New Way to Turn Sunlight Into Fuel
The quest to find new ways to harness solar power has taken a step forward after researchers successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen by…
New Dual-Layer Solar Cell Sets Record for Efficiently Generating Power
Materials scientists from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have developed a highly efficient thin-film solar cell that generates more energy from sunlight than typical…
Published Study Shows Algae Using Raw Plants as a Carbon Energy Source
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and partner institutions provided today the first published report of algae using raw plants as a carbon energy source….
Engineers Create Sustainable Concrete That Reduces Energy Demand, Greenhouse Emissions
Washington State University researchers have created a sustainable alternative to traditional concrete using coal fly ash, a waste product of coal-based electricity generation. The advance…
‘Promiscuous’ Enzyme Turns Plant Waste into Sustainable Products
A new family of enzymes has been discovered which paves the way to convert plant waste into sustainable and high-value products such as nylon, plastics,…