News tagged with toxic pollutant

Silkmoth inspires novel explosive detector

Imitating the antennas of the silkmoth, Bombyx mori, to design a system for detecting explosives with unparalleled performance is the feat achieved by a French research team. Made up of a silicon microcantilever ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Jun 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Mercury in dolphins: Study compares toxin levels in captive and wild sea mammals

Amid growing concerns about the spread of harmful mercury in plants and animals, a new study by researchers from The Johns Hopkins University and The National Aquarium has compared levels of the chemical in ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Animal with the most genes? A tiny crustacean: First crustacean genome sequenced

Complexity ever in the eye of its beholders, the animal with the most genes -- about 31,000 -- is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea. By comparison, humans have about ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (16) | comments 22 | with audio podcast

Has warming put 'Dirty Dozen' pollutants back in the saddle?

"Dirty Dozen" chemicals, including the notoriously toxic DDT, are being freed from Arctic sea ice and snow through global warming, a study published on Sunday suggested.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 24, 2011 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (11) | comments 19

L.A., Bakersfield remain among U.S.'s most polluted cities, report says

Smog and soot levels have dropped significantly in Southern California over the last decade, but the Los Angeles region still has the highest levels of ozone nationwide, violating federal health standards an average of 137 ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 3

Carbon, nitrogen link may provide new ways to mitigate pollution problems

A new study exploring the growing worldwide problem of nitrogen pollution from soils to the sea shows that global ratios of nitrogen and carbon in the environment are inexorably linked, a finding that may ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 21, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Toxic legacy seeps from melting Alpine glaciers: study

Swiss researchers have found that Alpine glaciers melting under the impact of climate change are releasing highly toxic pollutants that had been absorbed by the ice for decades.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 14, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (12) | comments 0

'Rock-breathing' bacteria could generate electricity and clean up oil spills

A discovery by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) could contribute to the development of systems that use domestic or agricultural waste to generate clean electricity.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Stockholm Convention scientists seek ban on chemical

Scientists at the Stockholm Convention, which interdicts dangerous chemicals, said on Friday they will recommend the banning of a flame retardant commonly used in polystyrene.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

EPA to test air outside schools, but has largely ignoring its peer-reviewed screening tool

After ignoring its own research for most of the last decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this spring will test the air outside dozens of schools across the nation that are close to industrial polluters.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 07, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Dust deposited in oceans may carry elements toxic to marine algae

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dust blown off the continents and deposited in the open ocean is an important source of nutrients for marine phytoplankton, the tiny algae that are the foundation of the ocean food web. But ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Toxic chromium found in Chicago's drinking water

Chicago's first round of testing for a toxic metal called hexavalent chromium found that levels in local drinking water are more than 11 times higher than a health standard California adopted last month.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3

Blood tests reveal tobacco smoke residues in non-smoking New Yorkers

More than half of non-smoking New Yorkers have elevated levels of cotinine in their blood - meaning that they were recently exposed to toxic second-hand smoke in concentrations high enough to leave residues in the body. Cotinine, ...

Medicine & Health / Health

created Apr 08, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

New EPA air quality rules outweigh costs and provide major health and environmental benefits

A report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides an expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA). ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Can coal plants afford EPA's new air-toxics rule?

America has never had a nationwide limit on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants. That's about to change, though, and it will cost companies such as American Electric Power, which runs the Tanners ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 06, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0