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Environment

Air pollution standards currently focus on the mass concentration of particles smaller than 10 micrometres in diameter (PM10) or smaller than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5). Image credit - Panek/Wikimedia, licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0
health | environment
27 July 2020

Size matters in air pollution – but it’s not enough

Current regulations on air pollution mainly focus on the mass of particles of a particular size range in a sample, and this has been used as a marker for their threat to human health. But these air quality standards do not address the medical implications of the very smallest particles – nor other attributes that may be damaging, such as their chemical makeup.

Rising tree mortality could be affecting existing and new forests' ability to store carbon. Image credit - Daniele Castagneri
environment | frontier research
24 July 2020

Understanding why trees are dying may be key to locking up carbon

Rising tree deaths may be reducing the ability of many forests worldwide to lock up carbon by pulling in greenhouse gases from the air. To properly grasp what this means for carbon budgets, scientists need to solve the puzzle of why trees are dying – and how they respond to change.

Smoke from wildfires can rise many kilometres into the stratosphere and cause air pollution in areas far away from where the flames actually were. Image credit - Pixabay/Saiho, licenced under Pixabay licence
environment | frontier research
22 July 2020

‘Four times more toxic’: How wildfire smoke ages over time

Enormous plumes of smoke thrown into the atmosphere by uncontrolled wildfires may be affecting the health of people living hundreds of miles away.

Dairies generate a substantial amount of organic waste, including wastewater and whey, which are now being used to create products like bioplastics. Image credit - Keith Weller/USDA/Wikimedia, public domain
agriculture | environment
16 July 2020

Dairy waste is being turned into bioplastics and plant food

Dairies in Europe are major economic drivers in rural areas, but they produce significant waste from cleaning and processing. Wastewater and milk residue, which are typically disposed of, are now being turned into new products such as phosphate-rich fertiliser and bioplastics.

90% of brain development happens by the age of four, so scientists want to understand the effects of air pollution at the earliest stages of life. Image credit - Unsplash/Pixabay, licenced under Unsplash licence
health | environment | frontier research
13 July 2020

Air pollution affects brain development - but when does the damage start?

The emergency rooms in Barcelona were collapsing under the pressure. Hundreds of patients were arriving in desperate need as they struggled to breathe, while intensive care units struggled to cope with the sudden influx of respiratory problems. Epidemiologists scrambled to trace the source of the outbreak.

Hydrogen-powered planes are still in their infancy but the first commercial versions could enter the European market by 2035 according to a new report. Image credit - DLR/CC BY-3.0
energy | transport | environment | policy
08 July 2020

Quiet and green: Why hydrogen planes could be the future of aviation

Today, aviation is responsible for 3.6% of EU greenhouse gas emissions. Modern planes use kerosene as fuel, releasing harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But what if there was another way?

A coat of special green paint used on panels at a school gym in Almere, the Netherlands, helps the panels absorb sunlight for heating and for hot water. Image credit - Emergo
environment
07 July 2020

How Europe’s city façades and pavements are being used to harvest clean energy

Building façades and pavements in Dutch and Italian cities are being turned into smart, energy-harvesting surfaces and equipped with sensors to power, heat and cool spaces and even monitor roads.

Millions of tonnes of organic waste are currently dumped in landfill, where it decomposes and gives off greenhouse gases. Image credit - Pixabay/Ben_Kerckx, licenced under Pixabay licence
environment | energy
12 June 2020

Making coal from food waste, garden cuttings – and even human sewage

Food waste, garden cuttings, manure, and even human sewage can be turned into solid biocoal for energy generation, and, if scaled up, could help match the industrial demand for carbon with the need to get rid of organic waste and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The packaging of fresh foods such as meat and cheese often uses a variety of layers of different plastic types which need to be separated before recycling. Image credit - Pixabay/ photosforyou, licenced under pixabay licence
environment
08 June 2020

How hard-to-recycle plastic is being made as good as new

New recycling technologies currently being tested may allow plastics such as single-use food packaging, fibre-reinforced car parts and mattress foam – polymers which often wind up in landfills or are incinerated – to have more than just a second life: they can become as good as new.

Scientists are working to increase the number of charging cycles a lithium-sulphur battery can go through before it fails in order to make it a realistic alternative to today’s lithium-ion design. Image credit - Pxfuel, public domain
energy | transport | environment
05 June 2020

Cheaper, lighter and more energy-dense: The promise of lithium-sulphur batteries

Lithium-sulphur batteries, which are lighter and cheaper than today’s models, may be the next generation of power cells that we use in electric cars or mobile phones – if scientists can get them to last for longer.

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