pressnews.MEDICINE · SCIENCE · EVIDENCE
RSSSearchMy library
The archive · since 2010
THE ORIGINAL COLLECTION · SINCE 2010

Environment
press releases.

Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.

Original publication datesPage 39
FIND A STORY

Find a past release.

Dates and source material belong to the original release.

Read our research explainers

Browse the collection · original publication order

Environment

Hollow molecules offer sustainable hydrocarbon separation

Hollow, pumpkin-shaped molecules can efficiently separate valuable hydrocarbons from crude oil, KAUST researchers have shown[1]. These ‘molecular sieves’, known as cucurbiturils, could enable a more sustainable approach to producing raw materials for the chemicals industry. Crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons vital for almost every aspect of life, from fuels to plastics. Cyclohexane, for example, is used in nylon production, but isolating it at sufficient purity typically involves multiple energy-intensive fractional distillation steps. The KAUST team has now developed an alternative separation strategy based on cucurbiturils, named for their ...

Read the release
Environment

Tailored hard/soft magnetic heterostructure anchored on 2D carbon nanosheet for efficient microwave absorption and anti-corrosion property

With the rapid development of modern society and the increasing popularity of electronic equipment, electromagnetic wave pollution has become a serious problem. In order to solve this problem, the research and application of electromagnetic absorbing materials have been widely concerned. In recent years, the construction of heterogeneous absorbing materials with different components has become a major research focus. The heterogeneous structure formed by hard magnetic and soft magnetic materials can produce interfacial exchange coupling at the heterogeneous interface. However, there are few researches on soft and hard heterostructures ...

Read the release
Environment

FloodPlanet dataset enhances global inundation monitoring

A new high-resolution flood dataset, FloodPlanet, is enhancing satellite-based flood monitoring through more accurate training of deep learning models. By manually labeling inundation data from commercial satellites and aligning them with public sensor imagery, researchers improved flood detection accuracy by up to 15.6%. This work addresses critical limitations in current flood mapping and opens the door for more reliable global inundation response systems. Flooding affects more people globally than any other environmental hazard, yet accurate ...

Read the release
Environment

Turning waste alkaline water directly into clean hydrogen!

Dr. Sung Mook Choi and his research team at the Energy & Environmental Materials Research Division of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) have successfully developed a highly durable non-precious metal-based hydrogen evolution catalyst for use in a direct electrolysis system employing waste alkaline water and anion exchange membranes (AEM). This breakthrough enables the production of clean hydrogen by directly utilizing alkaline wastewater generated from industrial processes. Notably, the developed catalyst was applied to a commercial-scale ...

Read the release
Environment

Arctic winter reaches melting point: scientists witness dramatic thaw in Svalbard

A new commentary published in Nature Communications by Dr James Bradley, Reader in Environmental Science at Queen Mary University of London, and his team reveals a dramatic and concerning shift in the Arctic winter. During a fieldwork campaign in Svalbard in February 2025, researchers encountered exceptionally high temperatures, widespread snowmelt, and blooming vegetation. Svalbard, warming at six to seven times the global average rate, is at the forefront of the climate crisis, with winter ...

Read the release
Environment

Scientists will use a $1M grant to build a support system addressing sea level rise and flooding in South Florida

A team of University of Florida scientists has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to tackle one of South Florida’s most urgent environmental threats: groundwater flooding and saltwater intrusion caused by sea level rise. During the three-year project, scientists on a multidisciplinary team at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), will develop a decision-support system to help local leaders make science-based, cost-effective choices about land use, infrastructure, climate adaptation and flooding mitigation. “This ...

Read the release
Environment

Why some ecosystems collapse suddenly—and others don’t

A new study published in the journal One Earth reveals that the way ecosystems collapse—abruptly or gradually—may depend on internal complexity, much like how magnetic materials behave under stress. The study, led by Professor John Dearing at the University of Southampton with colleagues from Rothamsted Research, Bangor University, and Edinburgh University, challenges the prevailing assumption that climate tipping points always happen suddenly. Instead, it shows that some large-scale Earth systems may be experiencing gradual ...

Read the release
Environment

Don’t feed the animals: Researchers warn of risks tied to wildlife interactions

A study led by a scientist at the University of California San Diego offers new warnings on the dangers of human interactions with wildlife. Assistant Professor Shermin de Silva of the School of Biological Sciences studies endangered Asian elephants and has reported on their shrinking habitats, a downturn that has resulted in territorial conflicts between people and elephants. Along with her study coauthors, de Silva now provides fresh evidence in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence on ...

Read the release
Environment

Recycled tyre tech boosts railway resilience and cuts waste

New research has shown that a world-first system of rubber shock absorbers made from recycled tyres can significantly protect railway tracks from damage, addressing the dual challenges of high maintenance costs and national tyre waste. The technology was validated over a two-year period by a collaborative team from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney Trains, Transport for NSW, and industry partners EcoFlex and Bridgestone, following extensive monitoring at a live Sydney Trains freight line in Chullora. Researchers installed track ...

Read the release
Environment

From kelp to whales: marine heatwaves are reshaping ocean life

New research from the University of Victoria (UVic) highlights how marine heatwaves can dramatically impact marine ecosystems and offers a stark preview of how future ocean warming will reshape ocean life. From 2014 to 2016, the Pacific coast of North America experienced the longest marine heatwave ever recorded, with temperatures reaching two to six degrees above historical averages over a prolonged period. Researchers from UVic’s Baum Lab have compiled a comprehensive overview of the heatwave’s ecological impacts, reviewing the findings from 331 primary studies and governmental reports. “The marine heatwave resulted in unprecedented ecological disturbance across thousands ...

Read the release
Environment

Here’s how the U.S. military can trim its massive carbon footprint

As an institution, the U.S. military is the world’s single largest consumer of energy and emitter of climate-altering carbon pollution, on par with the entire nation of Venezuela. Now for the first time, research by a University of Utah sociologist documented how military spending tracks in near lockstep with emissions. Brett Clark and his coauthors conclude that reducing those expenditures can lead to significant reductions of energy use and, thereby, carbon emissions. Can the military play a role in climate ...

Read the release
Environment

Gene editing offers transformative solution to saving endangered species

Gene editing technologies - such as those used in agriculture and de-extinction projects - can be repurposed to offer what an international team of scientists is calling a transformative solution for restoring genetic diversity and saving endangered species. In a new Nature Reviews Biodiversity Perspective article published today, the authors explore the promises, challenges and ethical considerations of genome engineering, and propose an approach for its implementation into biodiversity conservation. They argue that gene editing could recover lost genetic diversity in species at risk of extinction using historical samples, such as DNA from museum collections, biobanks ...

Read the release
Environment

WPI researchers develop cleaner, scalable process to recycle lithium-ion batteries

In a major step forward for sustainable energy technology, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), led by Professor Yan Wang, William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, have developed a new, scalable method to recycle lithium-ion batteries in a way that is both efficient and environmentally friendly. The team’s research, titled Upcycling Mixed Spent Ni-Lean Cathodes into Ni-Rich Polycrystalline Cathodes, was recently published in Energy Storage Materials, a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal focused on the topics of materials and energy. The paper details an innovative hydrometallurgical upcycling approach that offers both environmental ...

Read the release
Environment

Magellanic penguins may use currents to conserve energy on long journeys

Currents can affect marine animals’ locomotion, energy expenditure and ability to navigate; the force of currents may cause them to drift off-course of their intended trajectory. A study published July 17th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Richard Michael Gunner at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensbiologie, Germany, suggests that Magellanic penguins can sense current drift and maximize navigation efficiency by alternating between traveling in a direct route in calm conditions and swimming with the flow of strong currents ...

Read the release
Environment

Vaccination could mitigate climate-driven disruptions to malaria control

Tropical cyclones in Madagascar lead to sharp spikes in malaria infections – particularly in children – due to interruptions in control efforts, according to a new study. However, the findings show that newly introduced long-lasting vaccines can help to mitigate these gaps. This points to pathways to climate-resilient control strategies in malaria-prone regions. Malaria, already a persistent global health challenge, poses new threats from climate change, not only through rising temperatures that shift mosquito dynamics but also via extreme weather events like tropical cyclones. Such disasters can severely ...

Read the release
Environment

Scientists repurpose old solar panels to convert CO2 exhaust into valuable chemicals

Centuries ago, alchemists worked furiously to convert the common metal lead to valuable gold. Today, chemists are repurposing discarded solar panels to create valuable organic compounds from carbon dioxide (CO2), a common greenhouse gas. Significantly reducing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere to mitigate the most devastating effects of climate change will require a large reduction in emissions as well as strategies designed to sequester emitted CO2 and other offending gasses. While simply sequestering ...

Read the release
Environment

How do the SOx and NOx in flue gas influence the adsorptive-catalytic performance of integrated carbon capture and in situ dry reforming?

Integrated carbon capture and utilization has become a promising technology to achieve carbon neutrality. However, conventional studies focused on the development of novel dual-functional materials while neglecting the impact of common impurities such as sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), thereby limiting the practical industrial applicability of ICCU technology. A team of scientists has investigated the impact of SO2 and NO2 on the ICCU-dry reforming of methane (ICCU-DRM) process using a representative Ni-Ca dual-functional material. Their work is published in the journal Industrial Chemistry & Materials on 04 July 2025. “We ...

Read the release
Environment

Warming oceans a turn-off for female Critically Endangered sharks

Critically Endangered female angelsharks (Squatina squatina) are changing normal mating routines in warming oceans as they prioritise staying cool over visiting breeding grounds when things get too hot. These changes are creating a potential mismatch in the mating behaviours between the sexes of angelshark that could have severe consequences for the future of the species, scientists say. A team of marine scientists, co-led by researchers at Lancaster University and the Angel Shark Project: Canary Islands ...

Read the release
Environment

Self-reporting climate anxiety in the United States is linked to being young, female, believing climate change will impact you personally, and more frequent media and community discussions around clim

A new study describes factors associated with self-reported climate anxiety in the United States, publishing July 16, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Katherine Kricorian from For Good Measure, United States, and colleagues Karin Turner and Christopher Kricorian, who is also a current high school student. Climate change has many adverse effects on the environment and human health, including higher rates of self-reported anxiety. In this study, Kricorian and co-authors ...

Read the release
Environment

Restored wetlands reap benefits for climate, drought-resilience after just one year: study

Reviving floodplain wetlands slashes carbon emissions by 39% and restores critical ecosystem functions in one year – without the methane spike typically seen in restored peatlands, a new study has found. Peatlands are known as top carbon sinks, but can produce up to 530% more methane after restoration, potentially offsetting short-term climate benefits. Whereas floodplain, or riparian wetlands, which comprise over half of global wetlands, are often overlooked due to their lower carbon storage. Now a new study in the Journal of Environmental ...

Read the release
Environment

Can legal obstacles delay Japan’s plans to achieve carbon neutrality?

Japan’s green transformation (GX) strategy aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through growth-oriented carbon pricing, but some parties face litigations against renewable energy projects. A recent study analyzed Japan’s GX Promotion Act and compared it to the United States’ clean energy policies, including both successes and setbacks. The findings stress that early stakeholder involvement and cooperation with local communities are essential for successful renewable energy projects and a seamless green transition. As nations worldwide race to ...

Read the release
Environment

Teams engineer microporous new CO₂-activated carbon material—Enabling energy-efficient separation of critical fluorinated gases

Ultramicroporous carbon materials with Ångstrom-precise pore engineering offer a transformative solution for separating fluorinated gases like C3F6 (fluorinated propylene) and C3F8 (fluorinated propane). A team of scientists has synthesized the CO2-activated porous carbon adsorbents derived from a precursory resin and systematically investigated their molecular sieving behavior for C3F6/C3F8 mixtures. Through controlled thermal pyrolysis and stepwise CO2 activation, they tailored ultramicropore size distributions to selectively exclude or admit target molecules. Their work is published in the journal Industrial Chemistry & ...

Read the release
Environment

University of Birmingham and CBMM partner to drive disruptive innovation in carbon recycling

The University of Birmingham, UK, and Brazilian-based CBMM, have partnered on a project to ensure the future supply of Niobium, a non-critical but rare and important metal and an essential component for a carbon recycling technology that could radically reduce emissions from energy- and carbon-intensive foundation industries. CBMM, a global leader in the production of Niobium products, will work with Birmingham researchers led by Professor Yulong Ding to improve the efficiency of production, and reduce the ...

Read the release
Environment

MSU team develops scalable climate solutions for agricultural carbon markets

Why this matters: Builds trust in carbon markets. This science-based baseline system dramatically improves accuracy, helping ensure carbon credits are credible and truly reflect climate benefits. Enables real climate impact by accounting for both soil carbon and nitrous oxide emissions, the approach delivers a full, net climate assessment. Scales across millions of acres. Tested on 46 million hectares in 12 Midwest states, this approach is ready for large-scale adoption, helping farmers transition to regenerative practices with confidence and clarity. EAST LANSING, Mich. – New research ...

Read the release
Environment

Realizing on-site carbon nanotube photo-thermoelectric imaging

Summary Led by Assistant Professor Kou Li, a research group in Chuo University, Japan, has developed chemically enriched photo-thermoelectric (PTE) imagers using semiconducting carbon nanotube (CNT) films, resulting in the achievement of enhanced response intensity and noise reduction, that enables efficient remote and on-site inspections, according to a recent paper publication in Communications Materials. CNT film-based PTE imagers are crucial for multimodal non-destructive inspection, but conventional device ...

Read the release
From the original Press-News collection. Issuers of news releases are responsible for the accuracy of their content.