Related topics: water · pollution

Agronomists save tomatoes from toxic aluminum with melatonin

RUDN University agronomists and colleagues from China and Iran have helped tomatoes cope with the toxic effect of aluminum in acidic soils with the help of melatonin. This hormone contributes to nitric oxide production, blocking ...

Researchers discover alternative cosmic source of gold

Dr. Shing Chi Leung, SUNY Poly assistant professor of physics, in collaboration with Mr. Chun-Ming Yip, Dr. Ming-Chung Chu and Dr. Lap-Ming Lin, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, have discovered that the explosion ...

NASA rocket to see sizzling edge of star-forming supernova

A new sounding rocket mission is headed to space to understand how explosive stellar deaths lay the groundwork for new star systems. The Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment, or INFUSE, sounding rocket mission, ...

Decontamination method zaps pollutants from soil

Filtration systems are designed to capture multiple harmful substances from water or air simultaneously, but pollutants in soil can only be tackled individually or a few at a time—at least for now.

Transforming wastewater into valuable chemicals with sunlight

Researchers led by Prof. Gao Xiang from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Lu Lu from the Harbin Institute of Technology have proposed a novel method to transform ...

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Heavy metal (chemistry)

A heavy metal is a member of an ill-defined subset of elements that exhibit metallic properties, which would mainly include the transition metals, some metalloids, lanthanides, and actinides. Many different definitions have been proposed—some based on density, some on atomic number or atomic weight, and some on chemical properties or toxicity. The term heavy metal has been called "meaningless and misleading" in an IUPAC technical report due to the contradictory definitions and its lack of a "coherent scientific basis". There is an alternative term toxic metal, for which no consensus of exact definition exists either. As discussed below, depending on context, heavy metal can include elements lighter than carbon and can exclude some of the heaviest metals. Heavy metals occur naturally in the ecosystem with large variations in concentration. Nowadays anthropogenic sources of heavy metals, i.e. pollution, have been introduced to the ecosystem. Waste derived fuels are especially prone to contain heavy metals so they should be a central concern in a consideration of their use.

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