From Cup to Drain :Artificial Sweeteners Linger in Groundwater

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Artificial sweeteners pass through our bodies and end up in wastewater virtually unchanged. Some sweeteners are particularly widespread in the environment, according to a new study, making them ideal markers for following pollution from treatment plants and other sources into the environment.

Contaminated groundwater is both an environmental and public health issue. Once run-off gets into the environment, though, it can be hard to know whether it came from industry, agricultural fields, traffic, homes or other sources. Scientists have been looking for marker molecules that might help them track down and possibly reduce some of these inputs.

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Shellfish reefs are ‘most imperilled sea habitat’

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Globally, 85 per cent of reefs have been lost. Destructive fishing practices, disease and coastal development threaten many of the survivors. What sounds like an apocalyptic vision of the future for the world’s tropical corals is in fact a chilling assessment of the current state of reefs built in cooler waters by oysters and other bivalve shellfish.

According to a report from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), released this week at the International Marine Conservation Congress in Washington DC, shellfish reefs are the world’s most imperilled marine habitats – faring worse than coral reefs and mangrove forests.

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Owls replace pesticides in Israel

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Many farmers are installing nest boxes to encourage the birds, which hunt the crop-damaging rodents.

In Israel, where there is a drive to reduce the use of toxic chemical pesticides, this has been turned into a government-funded national programme. Scientists and conservation charities from Jordan and Palestine have joined the scheme.

According to the charity BirdLife International, hundreds of birds of prey – including many endangered species – have been killed in Israel through eating rodents containing poisonous “rodenticides” sprayed on to crop fields.

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And Now Plastic will Grow On Trees

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

PNNL researchers can now take cellulose to HMF in one step, a process that might someday replace crude oil to make fuel and plastics. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

In a Giant step towards sustainable ecosystem growth , researchers hope to turn plants into a renewable, nonpolluting replacement for crude oil. To achieve this, scientists have to learn how to convert plant biomass into a building block for plastics and fuels cheaply and efficiently. In new research, chemists have successfully converted cellulose — the most common plant carbohydrate — directly into the building block called HMF in one step.

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