Pollution News and Research

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Green roofs reduce urban microplastic pollution by billions

Green roofs serve as effective pollution barriers, capturing billions of microplastics annually and enhancing urban air quality and stormwater management.

13 Jun 2025

Bats Hold Clues to Natural Cancer Resistance

A study to look at why long-lived bats do not get cancer has broken new ground about the biological defenses that resist the disease.

11 Jun 2025

Giant Viruses Discovered to Influence Marine Ecosystems and Algal Blooms

Giant viruses play a role in the survival of single-celled marine organisms called protists. These include algae, amoeba, and flagellates, that form the base of ocean food webs.

9 Jun 2025

Scientists Engineer Proteins That Morph Like Nature’s Own

The ability to engineer shapeshifting proteins opens new avenues for medicine, agriculture, and beyond.

24 May 2025

Zebrafish Study Warns of Ecological Risk from Tire-Related Water Contaminants

Emerging contaminants from rubber tires N-(1,3-Dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) and its oxidation product 6PPD-quinone (6PPDQ)-are raising new red flags for aquatic ecosystems.

20 May 2025

Skin Microbiome Found to Help Regulate Immune Response to UV Radiation

The skin microbiome plays an important role in health and disease. Researchers have now substantiated that certain skin bacteria can protect us from the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation specifically by metabolizing cis-urocanic acid using an enzyme called urocanase.

14 May 2025

Study Reveals the Scale of Antibiotic Pollution in Rivers Worldwide

Millions of kilometers of rivers around the world are carrying antibiotic pollution at levels high enough to promote drug resistance and harm aquatic life, a McGill University-led study warns.

12 May 2025

Unraveling the Genetic Basis of Biosurfactant Production in an Oil-Degrading Bacterium

The marine bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis consumes oil and proliferates rapidly following oil spills, thereby enhancing the removal of pollution in many instances.

12 May 2025

Evolutionary Rescue in Microbes Leads to the Collapse of Mutualism

Microorganisms –defined as very small living beings, invisible to the naked eye, comprising bacteria, fungi, viruses or others– naturally compete and cooperate in nature for survival.

5 May 2025

Dangerous Synthetic Opioids and Animal Sedatives Not Approved for Human Use Have Been Found in Australia's Wastewater

University of South Australia scientists have developed a highly sensitive method to detect illegal opioids and a veterinary sedative in Australia’s wastewater system, providing a vital early warning tool to public health authorities.

28 Apr 2025

Multifaceted Impact of Human Activities on Biodiversity

Research highlights the complex effects of human activities on biodiversity, urging conservation efforts to focus on vulnerable species and ecosystem health.

3 Apr 2025

Mitochondria Found to Control DNA Repair Protein and Delay Inflammaging

In humans and other multicellular organisms, cells multiply. This defining feature allows embryos to grow into adulthood, and enables the healing of the many bumps, bruises and scrapes along the way.

14 Mar 2025

Novel Biorecycling Method Transforms Nylon Waste into Bioplastics

A group of researchers from the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences – Biotechnology at Forschungszentrum Jülich, in collaboration with the company Novonesis, has successfully engineered a bacterium capable of “eating” individual building blocks of various types of nylon and converting them into value-added products.

11 Feb 2025