Category Environment/Geology

Tractor spraying a wheat field. Credit: © Dusan Kostic / Fotolia

Use of organophosphates has lessened, but risks to early brain development still too high. Public health experts have found there is sufficient evidence that prenatal exposure to widely used insecticides known as organophosphates puts children at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders.

In a scientific review and call to action published in PLOS Medicine, the researchers call for immediate government intervention to phase out all organophosphates...

This image shows the apparatus that is proving the efficacy of a double-layered rooftop panel. The top layer uses the standard semiconductor materials that go into energy-harvesting solar cells, the novel materials on the bottom layer perform the cooling task. CREDIT Linda Cicero, Stanford News

Scientists at Stanford University have demonstrated for the first time that heat from the sun and coldness from outer space can be collected simultaneously with a single device. Their research, published November 8 in the journal Joule, suggests that devices for harvesting solar and (space energy will not compete for land space and can actually help each other function more efficiently.

Renewable energy is increasingly popular as an economical and efficient alternative to fossil fuels, with solar en...

Simultaneous photocatalytic hydrogen generation and dye degradation using a visible light active metal-organic framework.
Credit: Alina-Stavroula Kampouri/EPFL

Researchers have developed a photocatalytic system based on a material in the class of metal-organic frameworks. The system can be used to degrade pollutants present in water while simultaneously producing hydrogen that can be captured and used further.

Some of the most useful and versatile materials today are the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are a class of materials demonstrating structural versatility, high porosity, fascinating optical and electronic properties, all of which makes them promising candidates for a variety of applications, including gas capture and separation, sensors, and photocatalysis.

Because MOFs are so...

UQ’s Dr Mario D. Garcia conducting one of the many experiments involved in the research.
Credit: The University of Queensland

A chemical compound found in common herbicides could help fight hospital-acquired human fungal pathogenic infections, which claim an estimated two million lives per year. A team of international researchers led by The University of Queensland has discovered that the chemical chlorimuron ethyl also targets a range of fungal infections that are potentially fatal to humans, particularly people undergoing treatments which place the immune system under stress.

Dr Luke Guddat, from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, said the finding was very timely, given the growth in drug-resistant infections...