As traditional candles burn, they can contribute to indoor air pollution by emitting volatile compounds and smoke, which may pose inhalation risks. Scented wax melts are often marketed as safer alternatives to candles because they’re flame- and smoke-free. But in a study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchers describe how aroma compounds released from the melted wax can react with ozone in indoor air to form potentially toxic particles.

Agricultural fertilizers are critical for feeding the world’s population, restoring soil fertility and sustaining crops. Excessive and inefficient use of those resources can present an environmental threat, contaminating waterways and generating greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Agricultural Science & Technology have addressed those challenges with glass fertilizer beads. The beads control nutrient release, and the researchers say they’re environmentally compatible.

A hybrid microscope, born at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), for the first time allows scientists to simultaneously image the full 3D orientation and position of an ensemble of molecules, such as labeled proteins inside cells. The research is published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The microscope combines polarized fluorescence technology, a valuable tool for measuring the orientation of molecules, with a dual-view light sheet microscope (diSPIM), which excels at imaging along the depth (axial) axis of a sample.

University of Houston professors Birol Dindoruk, Megan Robertson and Francisco Robles Hernandez have joined the prestigious list of Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors. The University of Houston now has 39 faculty members in the NAI.