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Plastic recycling gets a breath of fresh air (link is external)

Environmental Feed -

Current methods to recycle plastics often use expensive catalysts, harsh conditions and produce toxic byproducts. New process converts PET plastic into monomer building blocks, which can be recycled into new PET products or upcycled into higher value materials. In experiments, method recovered 94% of monomers from PET in just four hours, without harmful byproducts.

Compound found in common herbs inspires potential anti-inflammatory drug for Alzheimer's disease (link is external)

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The herb rosemary has long been linked with memory: 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance,' says Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. So it is fitting that researchers would study a compound found in rosemary and sage -- carnosic acid -- for its impact on Alzheimer's disease. In the disease, which is the leading cause of dementia and the sixth leading cause of death in the US, inflammation is one component that often leads to cognitive decline. Carnosic acid is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound that works by activating enzymes that make up the body's natural defense system. While pure carnosic acid is too unstable to be used as a drug, scientists have now synthesized a stable form, diAcCA. This compound is fully converted to carnosic acid in the gut before being absorbed into the bloodstream.

Growing consumption of the American eel may lead to it being critically endangered like its European counterpart (link is external)

Environmental Feed -

To investigate the prevalence and consumption of endangered eels, a research team examined 327 individual eel products purchased across 86 retailers throughout Singapore. The team discovered prevalence of the Anguilla rostrata, commonly known as the American eel, in the sample. While not critically endangered like the European eel, the American eel is also considered an endangered species. The findings suggested a possible shift in trade and consumption of eel to the American eel. Given these findings, the research team called for specific attention to the American eel, with increased enforcement and monitoring needed as proactive steps necessary to avoid the same dramatic population declines that have been documented in other eel species like the European eel.

Common approaches for assessing business impact on biodiversity are powerful, but often insufficient for strategy design (link is external)

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A study has determined that the widely used tools available to businesses for assessing their biodiversity impacts depend on broad assumptions and can have large uncertainties that are poorly understood or communicated. If used appropriately, they can be powerful tools to help guide effective action to address biodiversity loss -- but if not, they can lead to misguided effort and can be insufficient for robust biodiversity strategy design.

Evolution of plant network: 600 million years of stress (link is external)

Environmental Feed -

Without plants on land, humans could not live on Earth. From mosses to ferns to grasses to trees, plants are our food, fodder and timber. All this diversity emerged from an algal ancestor that conquered land long ago. The success of land plants is surprising because it is a challenging habitat. On land, rapid shifts in environmental conditions lead to stress, and plants have developed an elaborate molecular machinery for sensing and responding. Now, a research team has compared algae and plants that span 600 million years of independent evolution and pinpointed a shared stress response network using advanced bioinformatic methods.

Discovery: The great whale pee funnel moves vital nutrients (link is external)

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Scientists have discovered that whales move nutrients thousands of miles -- in their urine -- from as far as Alaska to Hawaii. These tons of nitrogen support the health of tropical ecosystems and fish, where nitrogen can be limited. They call this movement of nutrients a 'conveyor belt' or 'the great whale pee funnel.' In some places, like Hawaii, the input of nutrients from whales is bigger than from local sources. It's critical to tropical ocean health, therefore, to protect and restore whales.

Are volcanoes behind the oxygen we breathe? (link is external)

Environmental Feed -

It is widely believed that Earth's atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers provide a mechanism to explain precursor oxygenation events, or 'whiffs,' which may have opened the door for this to occur. Their findings suggest volcanic activity altered conditions enough to accelerate oxygenation, and the whiffs are an indication of this taking place.

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