Bioremediation is a set of methods that exploit the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms, plants, or their enzymes to transform, detoxify, or remove environmental contaminants from soil, water, sediments, or air. Approaches include intrinsic bioremediation, where indigenous microbes degrade pollutants without intervention, and engineered strategies such as biostimulation (addition of nutrients or electron acceptors) and bioaugmentation (introduction of selected strains or consortia). Target contaminants commonly include hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, pesticides, heavy metals (via transformation or immobilization), and emerging pollutants, with process design guided by site-specific geochemistry, microbial ecology, and kinetic constraints to achieve regulatory cleanup endpoints.
Today's high-tech electronics and green energy technologies would not function without rare earth elements (REEs). These 17 metals possess unique properties essential to creating items like the phosphors that illuminate our ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 13, 2025
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With the continuous expansion of industrial and agricultural activities, the contamination of water bodies and soils by heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) has become a severe global environmental challenge. These ...
Ecology
Oct 29, 2025
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A unique bacterium that thrives in highly acidic environments feeds on spent battery "waste," making it a promising new method for self-sufficient battery recycling, according to new research from Boston College chemists.
Biotechnology
Oct 22, 2025
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Wetlands act as nature's kidneys: They trap sediments, absorb excess nutrients and turn pollutants into less harmful substances. Now, the list of pollutants wetland plants can remove includes per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ...
Environment
Oct 14, 2025
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A research team from the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has clarified the structure and function of synthetic microbial consortia, providing new insights for bioremediation of complex ...
Biotechnology
Oct 10, 2025
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A new study has, for the first time, uncovered a connection between bacteria living in Norway spruce needles and gold nanoparticles. This discovery could pave the way for environmentally friendly gold exploration methods, ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 6, 2025
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Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a class of fire-resistant industrial chemicals, were widely used in electrical transformers, oils, paints and even building materials throughout the 20th century. However, once scientists ...
Environment
Sep 29, 2025
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Beneath our feet, an invisible world of electron exchanges quietly drives the chemistry that sustains ecosystems, controls water quality, and even determines the fate of pollutants.
Earth Sciences
Sep 26, 2025
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More marine life is living on some World War II munitions disposed of on the Baltic Sea's seabed than on the sediment surrounding it. The findings, reported in a paper in Communications Earth & Environment, show that some ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2025
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Hollywood and commercial cinema often portray microbes as villains—causing deadly epidemics, fueling apocalyptic scenarios, or being weaponized for destruction. This stereotype reinforces a cultural bias known as germophobia. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 15, 2025
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