-  Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee's team (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) engineered the metabolic pathways of E. coli to produce polymers from glucose for adhesive applications

-  In a lap shear adhesion test on the stainless-steel substrate, the resulting polymer outperformed a commercial petroleum-based EVA adhesive, and also showed improved heat resistance and enzymatic biodegradation.  

-  Built a "microbial materials factory" that enables tuning of adhesive strength and heat resistance, suggesting the potential for biomanufacturing to provide alternatives to petroleum-based functional materials

Microplastics in wastewater may do more than simply carry pollutants. A new study shows that aged microplastics can actively alter the chemical reactions used to remove pharmaceutical contaminants during advanced wastewater treatment, accelerating pollutant degradation while also changing the abundance of potentially harmful transformation products.

Frequently located on hillsides and in canyons surrounded by wildlands, one of the most comprehensive studies to date shows rich neighborhoods are more likely to catch fire. However, they are also likely to recover faster than lower-income areas.

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, September 11, 2026 — NEW HORIZON PRESS LIMITED took part in the ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards 2026, held from 9 to 11 September at The Manchester Deansgate Hotel, joining publishers, learned societies, librarians, funders and technology partners from across the scholarly communications community.

University of Texas at Dallas researchers have found that, under extreme cold, making ice even colder can weaken its grip on surfaces. The discovery, published online May 29 in the journal Newton, reveals that a material’s thermal properties play a critical role in determining whether ice remains attached to a surface. The finding could guide the design of future deicing systems for aircraft, wind turbines and other applications in extreme cold.

Efforts to virtually unroll and read papyrus scrolls carbonized in the eruption of Vesuvius show the value of X-ray scans and AI in deciphering texts. UC Berkeley and NIST scientists have now created, carbonized and scanned contemporary scrolls to see if lead in the ink would make deciphering easier. They found that even small amounts of lead make the letters readable in X-ray scans, arguing for a systematic lead analysis of the remaining papyri.

X-ray technology and artificial intelligence — along with the discovery of lead in the ink of fragments of a collection of ancient Roman scrolls — could soon help scientists read long-lost texts buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE, according to a study published September 16, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Douglas Seiler, an affiliate of the University of California Berkeley, USA, Jacob Michael LaManna from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, David Kreimer from University of California Berkeley, USA, and colleagues.

It’s no secret that plastic and other human trash are a problem for marine life, but our understanding has long focused on the ocean’s surface. Now, a more complete picture is coming into focus, revealing that even some of our planet’s greatest depths have become home to our debris. As described in a study published on September 16, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One, an international team led by Dr. Daniel Lauretta of Argentina’s natural science museum surveyed the Mar Del Plata Submarine Canyon in the southwestern Atlantic, finding that our trash has accumulated in a part of the planet we typically consider pristine.