Black plastic that takes e-waste to your kitchen and your food

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Black plastic is a common material in most kitchens and is used in utensils like spoons, spatulas, and containers. However, a growing body of research suggests that it poses health risks because it can be made from recycled electronic waste. This process may introduce toxic flame retardants, such as brominated and organophosphate compounds, into the material and into your food when exposed to heat. These chemicals are associated with serious health issues, including cancer and hormone disruption.

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Project Breakthrough: we are on collision course with the climate

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According to the latest report of Project Breakthrough: Collision Course, an accelerated rate of warming is likely to continue until mid-century, given the failure so far to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

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Warning: mirror bacteria pose threat to human, animal and plant life

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Scientists are sounding the alarm about the risks of creating mirror bacteria, hypothetical organisms made entirely from mirror-image biological molecules.

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Quantum computing just made a big leap with new chip Willow

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Google has introduced Willow, its latest quantum chip, representing a major breakthrough in quantum computing. This chip tackles two key challenges that have long hindered the field.

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Hidden treasures lie under old coal ash

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Coal ash—the toxic byproduct from coal combustion—may turn out to be a significant domestic source of rare earth elements essential to clean energy technologies, including electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels.

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From the Ukrainian battlefield, dangerous resistant bacteria klebsiella emerges

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The bacterium ‘Klebsiella pneumoniae’, which is resistant to all antibiotics, is also particularly aggressive and dangerous.

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Tax havens cost the world half a trillion $

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Countries are losing US$492 billion in tax a year to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax, the Tax Justice Network’s annual State of Tax Justice shows. Nearly half the losses (43%) are enabled by the eight countries that remain opposed to a UN tax convention: Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the UK and the US.

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Nearly five-fold increase in North Pacific Garbage Patch plastic waste

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A study published today in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that centimetre-sized plastic fragments are increasing much faster than larger floating plastics in the North Pacific Garbage Patch [NPGP], threatening the local ecosystem and potentially the global carbon cycle.

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Climate illusions in oil capitals, COP29 in Baku

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COP after COP forces many thousands of delegates to cram in faraway places, only to add to the long lists of promises and pledges, of which only few ever see results. Next stop: oil-soaked Baku, Azerbaijan. The latest news: the COP CEO is lobbying for the oil industry.

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Another COP, another plan, but will it stick?

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A new global fund for sharing the benefits of using digital sequence information (DSI) from genetic resources was agreed at COP16 in Cali, Colombia. However, discussions around the establishment of a new wider biodiversity fund, as well as other key decisions, have been postponed and the meeting suspended.

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