Soil pollution from pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals is a growing threat to global food security and public health. With nearly 80 percent of agricultural soils containing traces of organic contaminants, researchers are looking for sustainable ways to restore damaged land. A new study in Biochar highlights an emerging solution that pairs plant-microbe partnerships with biochar, an engineered carbon-rich material—to detoxify polluted soils while supporting plant growth and economic resilience.

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new menstrual health product designed to complement and enhance an existing menstrual cup that is safer, easier to use and more environmentally sustainable than current options.

https://www.uta.edu/news/news-releases/2025/10/09/old-tricks-new-tech-scams-in-the-age-of-ai

Glaciers are fighting back against climate change by cooling the air that touches their surfaces. But for how long? The Pellicciotti group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has compiled and re-analyzed an unprecedented dataset of on-glacier observations worldwide. Their findings, published in Nature Climate Change, demonstrate that glaciers will likely reach the peak of their self-cooling power by the next decade before their near-surface temperatures spike up and melting accelerates.

University of Tennessee, Knoxville Nuclear Engineering Department Head Brian Wirth has been elected a 2025 Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Some people flip off the lights the moment they leave a room, while others rarely think twice about saving energy. According to the most comprehensive analysis of people’s sentiments toward household energy savings to date, publishing October 10 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Sustainability, people’s attitudes and moral sentiments about their energy usage—rather than income or knowledge of how to conserve power—determine whether they take action at home.