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Farewell to ‘forever’ — Destroying PFAS by grinding it up with a new additive

Solid PFAS contamination is an ongoing issue for soil near waste sites, manufacturing sites, and facilities that frequently use firefighting foam. Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends incineration to destroy these substances, but concerns remain about whether this energy-intensive method can effectively prevent environmental contamination. Another option is ball milling, a process that mixes …

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Simulations and experiments reveal unprecedented detail about water’s motion in salt water

“There is more to salt solutions than meets the eye,” said Alexej Jerschow, a professor in NYU’s Department of Chemistry and one of the study’s senior authors. “This was evident when we both measured and modeled the very fast dynamics of sodium chloride ions and surrounding water molecules.” The findings, published in Nature Communications, will …

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Unprecedented levels of high-severity fire burn in Sierra Nevada

For the study, published in the journal Ecosphere, scientists analyzed fire severity data from the U.S. Forest Service and Google Earth Engine, across seven major forest types. They found that in low- and middle-elevation forest types, the average annual area that burned at low-to-moderate severity has decreased from more than 90 percent before 1850 to …

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Bacterial electricity: Membrane potential influences antibiotic tolerance

Single bacteria build up an electric potential across their envelope (the membrane), and thus are electrically polarized. For the cell, this polarization is an important energy source for respiration, the uptake of nutrients and for the export of toxins. Recent methodological advances have enabled researchers to examine the dynamics of the membrane potential at the …

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Strategies for up-scaling of bioelectrochemical systems

Microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) have recently emerged as a tool for recovering bioenergy and bio-resource from organic waste matter. This can help with long-term energy generation during wastewater treatment. METs, commonly expressed as bioelectrochemical systems (BES), offer maximum resource and energy recovery with minimum energy investment. However, there is currently a mismatch between expectations and …

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Harnessing solar energy: New method improves readings of double-sided panels

Published in the journal Joule, this study from the SUNLAB team in the Faculties of Engineering and Science proposes a characterization method that will improve the measurement of bifacial panels indoors by considering external effects of ground cover such as snow, grass and soil. This will provide a way to consistently test bifacial solar panel …

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