As living organisms eat, grow, and self-regenerate, all the while they are slowly dying. Chemically speaking, this is because life is thermodynamically unstable, while its ultimate waste products are in a state of thermal ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Until a few years ago, photosynthesis seemed to be a straightforward and well-understood process in which plants and other organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, with oxygen ...
Polyethylene plastics—in particular, the ubiquitous plastic bag that blights the landscape—are notoriously hard to recycle. They're sturdy and difficult to break down, and if they're recycled at all, they're melted into ...
Polymers
Sep 29, 2022
1
167
When we started using plastics about 70 years ago, not much thought—if any—was given to the implications of their lifespan and the fact that they can take centuries to decompose. Consequently, as plastics have diversified ...
Materials Science
Oct 22, 2020
2
501
A new family of enzymes has been engineered to perform one of the most important steps in the conversion of plant waste into sustainable and high-value products such as nylon, plastics and chemicals.
Biochemistry
Jun 24, 2019
3
1
Insects are critical contributors to ecosystem functioning, and like most living organisms their co-evolution with microbes has been essential to support these functions. While many insects are infamous for wreaking havoc ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 11, 2019
1
811
The rapidly growing desalination industry produces water for drinking and for agriculture in the world's arid coastal regions. But it leaves behind as a waste product a lot of highly concentrated brine, which is usually disposed ...
Materials Science
Feb 13, 2019
5
607
(Phys.org)—It was another good week for physics as a team of researchers found some ways to increase antihydrogen production—having more of the stuff could lead to better experiments to learn more about antimatter in ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- This flow chart of the estimated US energy use in 2009, assembled by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), paints a pretty sobering picture of our energy situation. To begin with, it shows that ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Matt Scullin co-founded Alphabet Energy just one year ago, but already the CEO has ambitions of turning the San Francisco-based start-up company into the "Intel of waste heat." By harnessing the waste heat ...
