Read the full post at Chem Ed XChange by Nina Hike. She recently did an AMA for the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community. You should check it out (create a free account to read the posts).
Teaching decontextualized chemistry has often made it difficult for teachers to connect chemistry to students’ everyday lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd protests and the implosion of the Crawford Power Plant in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood I realized that students should have a working knowledge of chemistry to understand what is happening in their communities by examining social justice science issues (SJSI) as relevant storylines. Teaching SJSI allows students to identify, describe, and dismantle socioeconomic, environmental, and health issues that cause harm in their communities. In this article, I will explain how I use SJSI as a pathway to teach the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the fourth dimension of Johnstone’s Triangle.
This report provides an overview of the current state of scientific knowledge concerning PFAS, as well as a concise assessment of current and potential impacts of its continued use. It discusses exposure pathways impacting the health of the people, organisms and environment in Indiana and the region. Also included are recommendations regarding pressing challenges and how individuals can work to reduce the presence of PFAS while also limiting exposure and negative impacts.
Canada’s biodiversity is in decline. Globally, climate change, urbanization, overexploitation of resources and habitat loss are combining to drive biodiversity loss across all ecosystems.
Laws matter. They codify societal values and priorities, define acceptable behaviours and establish the government programs and institutions needed to tackle complex problems. Canadian biodiversity law is neither meeting today’s challenges nor positioning us for the future.
Over the years, important additions to these acts include habitat and sustainability provisions to the Fisheries Act in 1977 and 2019 respectively, and a 2011 amendment to the CNPA, requiring that National Parks be managed to ensure their “ecological integrity.”
Nevertheless, several of the laws are pre-date the Second World War and all pre-date the internet, climate change and current biodiversity science.
Whooping cranes are considered endangered, and are protected under the Species at Risk Act. (Shutterstock)
Disconnected approach
Canadian biodiversity laws evolved through multiple unconnected legislative events over 150 years. They legislatively fragment the environment into separate components and fracture accountability into multiple agencies. They entrench program silos fostering conflicting departmental priorities and operational inefficiencies.
They establish no biodiversity goals, reporting mechanisms or mandates for biodiversity science. Their structures impedes public data sharing and transparency, dissuades Indigenous engagement and consistently sparks federal-provincial tensions.
Nothing on the horizon suggests that these shortcomings will be addressed through new leadership, new policy or plain old good luck. On the contrary, these laws seem destined to yield the same sub-optimal outcomes.
The Jefferson salamander is listed as endangered by both federal and provincial legislation. (iNaturalist/evangrimes), CC BY
Meeting the challenge
If we are to meet current and future biodiversity conservation challenges, we must develop a new legislative approach. This approach should support the creation of modern biodiversity programs and institutions and drive integrated, transparent and inclusive decision-making.
Our work suggests that we need a single unified law for biodiversity: a Canadian Biodiversity Conservation and Protection Act (CBCPA). A new act of this kind would replace the existing nine laws and could usefully include:
Principles requiring — not just encouraging — nature-positive programs emphasizing biodiversity, science, ecosystems, transparency, accountability and inclusivity.
Mandated biodiversity target and objective setting, including those of the Global Biodiversity Framework. This should also include reporting measures that offer actionable insights into program effectiveness and delivery improvement opportunities.
Requirements for the use and public documentation of science in decision-making, including the requirement that all government biodiversity data should be made available to the public.
Establishment of governance arrangements embracing Indigenous rights and interests, as well as mechanisms to bring conservation communities together around collective actions, facilitated by a new Biodiversity Conservation Fund.
Creation of a Biodiversity Conservation Agency to fuse the existing four agencies into one, and establish clear ministerial accountability and a stronger voice for biodiversity in Cabinet.
Operational elements governing the establishment and operation of protected areas, the management of fish and migratory birds, and the protection and recovery of species at risk in a cohesive and mutually reinforcing manner.
A CBCPA would dramatically improve policy and regulatory certainty for industry. It would drive program cohesion and efficiency, build trust in government decision-making and facilitate intra- and inter-governmental collaboration. It would remove key obstacles to biodiversity conservation success and create the societal conditions so urgently needed to reverse biodiversity decline in Canada.
This would obviously be an ambitious legislative project replete with substantive policy and political challenges. But the importance of biodiversity to Canada’s ecological, economic and social well-being is difficult to overstate. Maintaining the legislative status quo or adopting minimalist incrementalism is unwise.
As we transform our economic and trade systems in Canada to grapple with climate change, a fundamental shift in how we conserve and protect biodiversity is equally vital. This is a time for ambition, not apathy.
The Washington Post asked researchers at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design to simulate the potential cost savings and emissions reductions of updating this home. Holly Samuelson, an associate professor of architecture, and Mayuri Rajput, a lecturer and fellow, modeled the home and possible improvements. Local contractors provided cost estimates on those upgrades.
The results show that, while there are a few easy and cost-saving upgrades, anyfinal decision may depend more on a homeowner’s comfort — and desire to cut carbon emissions — than saving money.
Scientists say a complex mix of factors are making seasonal allergies more extreme for longer in many parts of the world – but why is it happening and is it here to stay?
Liu, X., Liu, X., Li, B., Zhang, X., & Hu, B. (2025). Lab-on-Robot: Unmanned Mass Spectrometry Robot for Direct Sample Analysis in Hazardous and Radioactive Environments. Analytical Chemistry, 97(17), 9126–9130. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5c01237
Abstract
Onsite, safe, and reliable mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of hazardous and radioactive samples plays a crucial role in timely chemical emergency management and response in real environments. The current study reports the development of a smart MS robot by integrating miniature MS, quadruped robot, switchable robotic arm sampler, and direct ionization for remote-controlled chemical analysis of complex samples in inaccessible hazardous and radioactive environments. High automation and excellent analytical performance have been achieved in the real-time analysis of volatile toxic substances in air and onsite detection of explosive particles in air aerosols. Successful detection of hazardous compounds has been performed from raw wastewater. The chemical analysis of radioactive ore samples has also been demonstrated. Low limits of detection at ng/g or ng/mL (signal-to-noise ratio, S/N = 3) and good relative standard deviation (RSD < 12.0%, n = 6) were obtained by the MS robot for analyzing different gaseous, aerosol, liquid, and solid samples. The remote detection results of the MS robot were further validated. The reported study encourages the future development of a smart lab-on-robot, which functions with smart operation to replace the traditional laboratory procedures for MS analysis of dangerous chemical and environmental samples.
2024 marked a decisive shift in Europe’s green transition. As the EU entered a new political cycle, the European Green Deal moved from high-level policymaking to tangible rollout in the real economy. Governments, businesses and people are making definite strides towards a cleaner future. However, to ensure a resilient transition, Europe needs better coordination, greater investment, stronger social foundations and more political stability.
In this report, we analyse the political realities of implementing the green transition in the EU in 2024. We examine key political trends, fractures and challenges that are shaping the transition on the ground, explore the most contentious debates of the year, and delve deeper into several real-world stories.
Mikhael, E., Bouazza, A., Gates, W. P., & Gibbs, D. (2025). Efficient containment of PFAS in municipal solid waste landfills using powdered activated carbon-amended GCLs. Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances, 18, 100710. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazadv.2025.100710
Abstract
Presented herein is a laboratory investigation on the sorption of four perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), namely perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) and perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), in a landfill leachate matrix by two variants of powdered activated carbon (PAC) proposed to be admixed with the bentonite component of geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). The effectiveness of the sorbents in removing selected PFAS compounds from landfill leachate followed the order PFHxS > PFOA > PFBS > PFBA. PFBA and PFBS reached maximum removal of 85–99.99 % at the highest sorbent dosage (500 mg/10 mL), while PFOA and PFHxS achieved >99.99 % removal at dosages exceeding 200 mg/10 mL and 50 mg/10 mL, respectively. Sorption kinetics data for all PFAS compounds were best described by the pseudo-second-order (PSO) model, thus inferring that both physisorption and chemisorption occurred on the surface of the adsorbents. The experimental sorption isotherms suggest that the interactions between PAC and short-chain PFAS were primarily driven by multilayer adsorption on a heterogeneous adsorbent surface. Notably, none of the isotherm models employed in this study adequately explained the adsorptive behaviour of long-chain compounds on the PAC sorbents. Short-chain PFAS (PFBA and PFBS) exhibited reversible sorption, whereas long-chain compounds (PFHxS and PFOA) demonstrated stronger binding, highlighting the impact of chain length on PFAS retention. Overall, the data presented herein suggest that incorporating PAC into GCLs could effectively mitigate the migration of long-chain PFAS through geosynthetic composite lining systems. While migration of short-chain compounds was retarded, these continue to be significantly more challenging to contain with traditional treatments.
The State Department plans to eliminate its Office of Science and Technology Cooperation as part of a sweeping reorganization at the agency, current and former staff members at the department told FYI.
Thousands of scientific collaboration agreements between the U.S. and foreign countries are negotiated and overseen by the office, including agreements that allow U.S. researchers to access international science facilities such as CERN and ITER. While some of these agreements automatically renew, others will lapse without intervention, potentially disrupting international research collaborations and data sharing agreements as well as research facility access abroad.
Federal funding cuts are hitting STEM engagement programs across the career pipeline, from K-12 to postdocs and early-career faculty. Almost half of NSF’s mass grant cancellations in April were in the Directorate for STEM Education and dozens of the agency’s most prestigious early-career faculty grants were terminated, according to an agency list reviewed by FYI. Meanwhile, the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 proposes cutting STEM engagement programs at a variety of agencies, including a $4.7 billion reduction in funding for general research and education and broadening participation efforts at NSF.
According to a list provided by NSF’s union representative, between April 18 and April 25, NSF canceled more than 1,000 active research grants; this number includes collaborative grants awarded to multiple institutions. Many of these were related to diversity, equity, and inclusion or misinformation, and the agency’s announcement stated that the grants no longer “effectuate” agency priorities. NSF has since stopped disbursing grant funds, including for new grants and yearly allotments for current grants, and begun screening proposals for “topics or activities that may not be in alignment with agency priorities,” Nature reported.
The president’s budget request released today proposes further cuts to “climate; clean energy; woke social, behavioral, and economic sciences; and programs in low priority areas of science” as well as NSF’s “broadening participation” efforts.
Flowers and fauna grow around the Red Oak Rain Garden, which is designed to soak up excess rainwater, but also succeeds in creating a peaceful campus space. The10,000 square-foot demonstration site is designed to educate the public about sustainable garden design and exemplary rainwater management. The garden is located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus between Allen Hall and McKinley Health Center.(Photo credit: Fred Zwicky/University of Illinois)
Located right next to Allen Hall and Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall is a 13,000-square-foot area, thriving with native plants and wildlife. A bridge runs through the greenery, separating a giant red oak and a sycamore tree. But what many may not know is that this vibrant space is actually the Red Oak Rain Garden — a carefully engineered system.
Average rainfall in the Champaign-Urbana area has risen in the past century, according to the Illinois State Climatologist, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources considers flooding to be Illinois’ most prominent natural disaster. More than just stormwater sewers, rain gardens are one way to manage this increased rainfall.
“While a rain garden may look like a regular garden, it’s really doing more — it’s infrastructure,” said Eliana Brown, the water quality and stormwater specialist with Illinois Extension and RORG director.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is belching smog-forming pollution into an area of South Memphis that already leads the state in emergency department visits for asthma.
None of the 35 methane gas turbines that help power xAI’s massive supercomputer is equipped with pollution controls typically required by federal rules.
The company has no Clean Air Act permits.
In just 11 months since the company arrived in Memphis, xAI has become one of Shelby County’s largest emitters of smog-producing nitrogen oxides, according to calculations by environmental groups whose data has been reviewed by POLITICO’s E&E News. The plant is in an area whose air is already considered unhealthy due to smog.
The ocean economy includes all activities that depend on, extract form or use the ocean, from generating energy to transporting goods and people. (Jeff McLain/Unsplash)
Maritime activities, from global trade to tourism, exceed US$3 trillion annually. The “ocean economy” is the fourth largest in the world. Furthermore, our global economic vitality is largely due to the cost-effective nature of ocean transportation, which contributes to the reduced price per ton of shipped goods.
The ocean has changed dramatically in the past century, and we expect more change to come. Collapses of fisheries, coral reefs, shark populations and other species — along with increased dead zones, red tide blooms and invasive species — have followed increased human development, industrial use of the sea, climate change and pollution.
Humanity is at a social, political, environmental and scientific nexus point.
We are a group of researchers and experts who served on a committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to advise the National Science Foundation on forward-looking approaches to investing in ocean science research, infrastructure and workforce development.
We considered the question: What vital research must we pursue now, and what investments must we make to achieve ambitious research goals?
Our scientific efforts must focus on the key gaps in our predictive knowledge, and on the critical pathways and thresholds for ocean change. We should support ocean science to prepare for the future.
Readying ocean science
Given limited resources and rapid changes, we need to consider how to set priorities. Our committee offered a distinction between urgent and vital research: urgent research is time-sensitive, with immediate relevance to emerging regional and global issues, while vital research transforms our ability to grapple with rapid changes in the ocean and the Earth system.
The growing focus on links between the chemical, physical, geological and biological states of the ocean, and planetary climate states, provides a much-improved structure for forecasting the state of the ocean.
Healthy oceans, healthy people
A focus on human well-being and its dependence on ocean processes can provide an important connection that places ocean sciences in key conversations related to human health.
When it comes to understanding the importance of ocean and climate, we need to determine how the ocean’s ability to absorb heat and carbon dioxide will change. While the ocean presently absorbs 90 per cent of global heat and roughly 30 per cent of carbon dioxide, changes in the physical and biological ocean will likely slow these rates, leading to accelerated atmospheric warming.
Related to this climate question, how will marine ecosystems respond to changes in the Earth system? Declining ecosystem resilience will likely have strong negative impacts on food supplies and livelihoods.
Can we develop new understanding that will support model forecasts to determine the effects of warming, acidification and de-oxygenation on marine life?
Another challenge is to improve our ability to forecast extreme events driven by ocean and seafloor processes. Marine earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and storm surges are natural processes that pose serious risks to human well-being. Societal vulnerability to these extreme events can be profound.
As our built coastal infrastructure expands, and climate change shifts patterns of such extreme events, it is critical to improve our ability to observe, understand and forecast extreme events.
Investing in ocean futures
Ocean research depends on continued funding of basic studies and investment in key ocean science infrastructure. We must integrate emerging technologies, artificial intelligence and expanded use of existing ocean infrastructure such as globally ranging research vessels, global drifters that float on the ocean surface and gather information, underwater communication cables and coastal marine laboratories.
International co-operation is needed since few of these challenges are truly local. A move towards more collaborative, transdisciplinary research is necessary, alongside an expanded ocean science workforce with training and knowledge well beyond those of traditional disciplines.
Our assessment of the state of ocean science in the United States identified key infrastructure required to address these challenges.
For example, while advances in autonomous vehicle technology offer many opportunities, there will remain a need for specialized research ships that can operate in coastal and deep-sea waters and ice-covered regions to drill for** seafloor samples. Globally, there has been a decline in available ships to support ocean research.
Likewise, nearly 100 marine laboratories dot U.S. coastlines, providing training, access and research for thousands of students each year. The development of this infrastructure offers opportunities for international collaboration and cooperation with private sector partners. It may also be that some of the existing infrastructure, such as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, needs to be reconsidered in light of shifting priorities and developing technologies.
An ocean glider deployed at sea. (B. DeYoung), CC BY-ND
Collective action
We differentiate between urgent and vital ocean science research priorities.
While the urgent will continue to demand our attention — the next coral bleaching event, the latest fisheries collapse — it is our commitment to the vital research priorities identified in the report that will ultimately determine our ability to steward rather than merely react to complex changes in the oceans.
Our work offers a compass, but navigation requires collective action. Research institutions must transform their approach: restructuring tenure and promotion criteria to reward transdisciplinary investigations, supporting reskilling and upskilling of faculty, and preparing an innovative, adept workforce.
Policymakers must create frameworks that value long-term investigation. And citizens must advocate for sustained investments in ocean science that transcend political cycles. The ocean’s future — and our own — depends on our willingness to pursue what is vital.
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