Every time a rocket is launched, tons of valuable materials are lost, and huge amounts of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting chemicals are released into the atmosphere. Publishing December 1 in the Cell Press journal Chem Circularity, sustainability and space scientists discuss how the principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling could be applied to satellites and spacecraft—from design and manufacturing to in-orbit repair and end-of-life repurposing.

With USAID shuttered, SIL has gone from working in 31 countries to four: one of which is Malawi, where they’re leveraging new irrigation infrastructure to build up soybean in the region. This work was made possible by an anonymous $1 million donation. Now, SIL has secured another $1.5 million from the Gates Foundation to strengthen and expand testing of new seed products across sub-Saharan Africa.

MIT engineers developed artificial tendons that could connect robotic skeletons and biological muscle tissue. Made from tough and flexible hydrogel, the tendons could be used in various bio-hybrid robots.

Researchers have developed a new method to more accurately analyze small microplastics in the ocean. They collected seawater from 12 ocean layers across 4 regions in the North Pacific Ocean to find that the concentrations of small microplastics ranged from 1,000 to 10,000 particles per cubic meter of seawater. Additionally, small microplastics enter the ocean by either reaching near-neutral buoyancy to drift at specific depths or rapidly sink to the seafloor.