Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 18, 2016

'See' What You Breathe with New Air-Quality Monitor

People typically think about clean or dirty air only when they're outside, but air quality can be a significant problem even indoors. And now, using a new gadget, people can identify pollutants — some smaller than the width of a hair — in their homes, and this could help ward...

Jun 2, 2016

NASA Satellite Spots Toxic Air Pollution That Went Unreported

A new satellite-based detection method has revealed 39 unreported and major human-made sources of toxic air pollution. The newly identified sources of toxic sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions include coal-burning power plants; smelters; and oil and gas operations in the Middle East, Mexico and parts of Russia, according to the new...

Jun 29, 2016

Light Pollution Is Waking Trees Up Early for Spring

The bright lights of the big city may trick trees into budding up to a week early, new research finds. Light pollution in the United Kingdom was linked to early budburst, or the date that green leaves just begin to emerge from a budding tree. Later-budding trees such as the...

Jul 18, 2016

Living Near a Fracking Site May Increase Your Risk of Asthma

Living close to a site used for hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, may increase a person's risk of developing asthma, a new study finds. Researchers found that people who lived close to active fracking wells were more likely to develop mild, moderate or severe asthma compared with those who did...

Oct 31, 2016

Bomb-Sniffing Bionic Plants Could Look for Pollution

Bionic plants that can detect explosives in real time could be the future of environmental monitoring and urban farming, researchers said in a new study. The spinach plants have carbon-nanotube-based nanoparticles in their leaves that give off infrared light and are sensitive to the presence of nitroaromatics, key components of...

Dec 12, 2016

Age-Old Problem: River in Jordan Polluted by Copper 7,000 Years Ago

The first river polluted by humanity may have been discovered in Jordan, contaminated by copper about 7,000 years ago, a new study finds. Scientists examined a now-dry riverbed in the Wadi Faynan region of southern Jordan. Archaeologist Russell Adams at the University of Waterloo in Canada and his colleagues have...

Feb 8, 2017

Device Turns Air Pollution Into Printing Ink

An MIT spinoff company in India is proposing a novel solution to air pollution problems in Asia — turning vehicle exhaust into ink. It involves attaching a device, called a Kaalink, to the business end of a standard automobile exhaust pipe. The Kaalink filters and captures unburned carbon emitted by...

Feb 15, 2017

'Disturbing' Results Show High Pollution Levels in Mariana Trench

The vast underwater wilderness of the deep sea may be largely unexplored by humans, but it's still incredibly polluted, a new study finds. Researchers made the finding by using baited traps to capture tiny crustaceans in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean — the deepest known spot on...

Mar 6, 2017

Nearly 2 Million Kids Die from Pollution Each Year

More than a quarter of deaths in children under age 5 worldwide are tied to polluted environments, such as contaminated water and smoggy air, according to a new report. The report, from the World Health Organization (WHO), found that each year, 1.7 million children under age 5 die from causes...

May 19, 2017

Device Purifies Air and Creates Energy All at the Same Time

A small innovation could have a big impact on air pollution. In Belgium, researchers have engineered a device that uses sunlight to purify polluted air and produce hydrogen gas that can be stored and used for power. We couple both processes together in one device, Sammy Verbruggen, a professor of...

May 24, 2017

Trouble Sleeping? Air Pollution Could Be the Culprit

The air pollution around you could affect how well you sleep, a new study finds. Researchers found that people in the study who lived in areas with high levels of air pollution were 60 percent more likely to sleep poorly, based on the measures used in the study, than those...

Jun 9, 2017

Take a Whiff of Cities' Unique Smells with 'Pollution Pods'

And now, visitors to the Starmus Festival — an annual celebration of science, art and culture that will be held June 17 to 23 in Trondheim, Norway, this year — will be able to breathe deeply and compare city smells, thanks to the creators of a large-scale art installation. In...

Jun 21, 2017

New Pollution Map Offers Unprecedented View of City's Air Quality

The data, which was collected by sensors on two Google Street View cars, could ultimately help everyone from policymakers to individuals make smarter choices about how to reduce pollution in a given city and increase awareness about how pollution varies in individual neighborhoods, the researchers said. The cars drove more...

Jun 30, 2017

Air Pollution May Make Solar Panels Less Efficient

From inefficient grids, shortfalls in policy, and even the occasional eclipse, solar-energy collection faces no shortage of hurdles. Scientists have discovered another stumbling block: air pollution. In certain parts of the globe, the accumulation of particulate matter on solar panels can curtail energy output by more than 25 percent, according...

Dec 15, 2017

8 Ways That Air Pollution Can Harm Your Health

Breathe deep (Image credit: Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto/Getty)An estimated 3.3 million deaths worldwide are caused by outdoor air pollution, according to a study published in September 2015 in the journal Nature. Of those deaths, about 75 percent are from heart attacks or strokes, while about 25 percent are from lung-related ailments, Live...