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Clothing might not come to mind when people think of plastic pollution. But polyester, derived from crude oil, makes up half the total fiber used in the global manufacture of textiles for apparel, ...

Among the sea of cars, motorcycles, and three-wheeled auto rickshaws at some of the busiest intersections in of Delhi, India sit refrigerator-sized machines hopelessly chugging away. They suck in the brew of pollutants belched from the vehicles and pump out fresh air. The machines, installed at 54 intersections this past autumn by the federal Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), pass air through three filters to remove particulates and dust. Ultraviolet lamps sitting in an inner chamber trigger photocatalyst-coated charcoal particles to oxidize small, toxic organic compounds that make it past the filters, transforming them into—relatively speaking—innocuous carbon dioxide and water. The machine’s developers at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute say a single filtration machine can purify air over an area of 500 m2 and that larger devices capable of covering 10,000 m2 are in the works. Critics aren’t so sure about the machines

Natural gas is racing neck and neck with coal to be the top fuel for generating electricity in the U.S. thanks to increased use of techniques, such as hydraulic fracturing, that extract the gas from unconventional sources. Since burning natural gas emits half as much carbon dioxide as does burning coal, the natural gas boom has helped lower per capita carbon emissions in the U.S. over the past decade. However, a major downside of natural gas is that it leaks. Millions of tons every year—roughly 9 million tons in the U.S. alone—spill into the atmosphere during extraction, storage, and transport. Because natural gas comprises 95% methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 86 times as much heat as does carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, leaking just 2–3% of the gas that’s produced worldwide can wipe out its environmental benefits over coal. “The short-term climate punch of waste methane is equivalent

More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas, and that share will grow to two-thirds by 2050, according to the United Nations. To be safe and sustainable in the face of extreme weather and other climate hazards, cities will have to adapt. Materials technologies, both low tech and cutting edge, will play an important role. Cities must brace against a range of threats, including heat waves baking Southeast Asia, tropical storms and rising seas menacing coastal megacities, wildfires raging in Australia, and rivers bursting with torrential rainfall in the US Midwest. Intense heat, in particular, can melt asphalt roads and buckle railways—and it kills thousands annually. “Heat is the number 1 lethal natural disaster every year,” says Kurt Shickman, executive director of the Global Cool Cities Alliance, based in Washington, DC. “And the poorest feel the worst of the effect.” Scientists and entrepreneurs are developing technologies to design

Hooking up solar panels to batteries is the norm for storing extra energy produced when the sun is shining. To streamline this process, researchers have developed a lithium-ion battery that can be ...

Researchers have developed a new processing technique that could enable mass production of intricate, high-performance glass objects that cost as little as plastic ones ( Science 2021, DOI: 10.1126...

With a new durable composite hydrogel, researchers have 3D printed heart valves that last nearly 100 times as long as valves made with a simple hydrogel ( Matter 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2021.03.0...

A new technique to capture carbon dioxide from the air could be less expensive and use less energy than today’s technologies ( Cell Rep. Phys. Sci. 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100385 ). Direct a...

Graphene has slowly made its way into sports gear, anticorrosion coatings, and even fabric face masks. But widespread use of the strong, conductive material hinges on making high-quality graphene a...