ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

Micropollutants such as steroid hormones contaminate drinking water worldwide. Until now, easily scalable water treatment technologies that remove them efficiently and sustainably have been lacking. Scientists have developed a new chemical process for removing hormones. It takes advantage of the mechanisms of photocatalysis and transforms the pollutants into potentially safe oxidation products.

A newly developed tool will allow scientists to better gauge how centuries of fossil fuel emissions could be skewing the data they collect from marine environments. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks led the effort, which created a way for marine scientists to factor into their results the vast amounts of anthropogenic carbon dioxide that are being absorbed by oceans.

Research has revealed the structure of 2D perovskite thin films resembles a sandwich containing layers beneficial for generating electricity more efficiently in photovoltaics.

How can we determine how empty or full the soil reservoir is in areas that are difficult to access? Researchers have now demonstrated an elegant method to track groundwater dynamics in high mountains: They use seismic waves.

Scientists provide a framework for a new approach to modeling infectious diseases. It adapts established methods developed to study the planet’s natural systems, including climate change, ocean circulation and forest growth, and applies them to parasites and pathogens that cause disease.

Pollinators in the tropics are less likely to thrive in intensive croplands, finds a new study suggesting bees and butterflies are at risk of major losses.

Plant diseases don't stop at a nation's borders and miles of oceans don't prevent their spread, either. That's why plant disease surveillance, improved plant disease detection systems and predictive plant disease modeling - integrated at the global scale - are necessary to mitigate future plant disease outbreaks and protect the global food supply.