For the past 250 years, people have mined coal industrially in Pennsylvania, USA. By 1830, the city of Pittsburgh was using more than 400 tons of the fossil fuel every day. Burning all that coal has contributed to climate change. Additionally, unremediated mines—especially those that operated before Congress passed regulations in 1977—have leaked environmentally harmful mine drainage. But that might not be the end of their legacy.

In research presented last week at GSA Connects 2025 in San Antonio, Texas, USA, Dr. Dorothy Vesper, a geochemist at West Virginia University, found that those abandoned mines pose another risk: continuous CO2 emissions from water that leaks out even decades or centuries after mining stops. 

University of Delaware materials scientist Matthew Doty studies how magnetic and electric systems can work together to create the next generation of computing technology. His latest research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that magnons – tiny magnetic waves – can generate measurable electric signals, opening the door to ultrafast, energy-efficient devices that transmit information using magnetic waves instead of electrical currents.