Daily Science
Our team of science writers pore through stacks of the latest climate and sustainability science and bring you a hand-picked selection of the most compelling research from around the world, a compendium found nowhere else.
Takeout has a plastic problem. But just how much do reusable containers really help?
A new, intensive lifecycle assessment compared the benefits of buy-and-return container schemes with the costs of their production and use. The takeaway wasn’t clean.
Hydropower could help developing nations decarbonize . . . with minimal environmental impact
Africa and Asia have 85 percent of the world’s affordable hydropower, and it is possible to develop the resource while treading lightly, a new analysis shows
The voracious appetite of forest elephants can coax forests into storing more carbon
New study documents how elephants plant the forest with high carbon-density trees and get rid of the weeds.
The debate over fracking is spilling over into renewable energy technologies
Social scientists surveying public perceptions of energy and climate uncovered some surprising connections—both negative and positive
A mixed tapestry of crops saves land and produces more protein than monocultures
A landmark analysis of 132 studies shows that greener farming methods needn’t cost yields, land, or profits.
Concentrated sunlight puts cheap solar hydrogen within reach
Engineers have made a device one-hundredth the size of previous solar-to-hydrogen devices that is over three times more efficient
Species cross paths more often where humans dwell
Scientists dub it the compression hypothesis, a phenomenon that could have implications for everything from animal reproduction to the spread of diseases.
A new study maps the EV transition through a justice lens
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers demonstrate the climate and financial benefits of EV ownership—and the danger of leaving vulnerable populations behind.
Pitch grass needs less fertilizer than its cousin maize. And therein lies a clue to less polluting crops
When researchers grew the grass and maize side-by-side, they discovered an enzyme key to growing crops in nutrient-poor soil.
Groundbreaking process powered by the sun converts plastic and CO2 into fuel
In a promising step toward a more sustainable, circular economy, chemists have developed a reactor that turns two of the world’s most problematic waste streams into useful products
