New research reveals that natural soil minerals critically control the fate of lead locked into chloropyromorphite—a stable mineral formed during phosphorus-based lead remediation. Negatively charged clay minerals enhance its mobility, while positively charged iron minerals promote rapid settling, highlighting the need for site-specific risk assessments.

A new study in Macao reveals that stormwater drains carry significant microplastic pollution into coastal waters. Concentrations reached over 53 particles per litre, with hazardous polymers like PVC posing high ecological risks. The research highlights how land use and rainfall drive this pollution pathway in subtropical coastal cities.

Smoke from African agricultural fires brightens clouds over the southeast Atlantic—but new research from scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science shows that the same weather pattern carrying the smoke also thins and reduces cloud cover, effectively offsetting its cooling effect.

In 2024, D. Sarah Stamps’ team detected and tracked a short-lived bulge in the land around a volcano in Tanzania. In a paper published Sep. 18, Stamps identified the cause of the uplift: a million cubic meters of magma pouring into an existing magma reservoir about 1.8 miles underground.

Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers could help feed a growing global population while restoring nature, yet they remain among the least-supported food producers. Whole Earth Farming says the Global South’s roughly 475 million smallholder farms already produce about 30% of the world’s food, despite limited access to finance, markets and training. Author Hugh Locke argues that helping half of these farming families adopt regenerative agriculture and agroforestry could produce the additional food needed through 2050 while improving soils, biodiversity and ecosystems.