Scientists have spotted microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters, in some of the most pristine environments on Earth, from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the snow on Mt. Everest to the mountaintop clouds of China and Japan.

In early November 2024, a series of explosive, deadly eruptions occurred at Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki—a volcano on the Indonesian island of Flores.

A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS — including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS — from water in a single process.

The 2023 blaze in Lahaina, Hawaii, which claimed more than 100 lives and burned 6,500 acres of land across Maui, is a tragic example of how rapid wildfire spread can make effective response efforts impossible, resulting in the loss of life and property.

Solar panels have the power to make the aviation industry greener than it’s ever been, but they can also impose challenges for pilots and air traffic control.

Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered the origin of a curious duplication that gives plants multiple ways to override instructions that are coded into their DNA.

Once a rare sight in the northeastern United States, the eastern coyote has become a common presence across New Hampshire’s forests, farms and suburbs.

The Biden administration’s recently announced plan to replace all lead pipes in the U.S. is a reminder that the toxic metal remains a threat, even in a country that has largely banned its use.

Materials scientists can now use insight from a very common mineral and well-established earthquake and avalanche statistics to quantify how hostile environmental interactions may impact the degradation and failure of materials used for advanced solar panels, geological carbon sequestration and infrastructure such as buildings, roads and bridges.

Bio-based materials may pose a greater health risk to some of the planet’s most important species than the conventional plastics they are designed to replace, a new study has shown.