Microplastics are sneaky. They change in ways that are hard to track. Scientists have been trying to understand these changes using old methods. But now, a new tech approach is making waves. A team of researchers looked at 1371 microplastic samples. These samples went through seven different types of aging. The scientists used a smart deep learning model. This model...

Tiny plastic pieces, called microplastics, come in different shapes and types. Scientists wanted to see how these tiny plastics move through sand. They looked at two kinds: polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PS was in tiny spheres, while PET came in both spheres and fragments. The team used two types of sand: coarse and fine. They found that in c...

Scientists wanted to see how chemicals from building materials move through soil. They used both computer models and real-life experiments to figure this out. The computer models, like PELMO, are usually used for farming chemicals. But buildings are different from farms. So, the scientists had to adjust the models to fit this new situation. First, they did a short e...

Imagine tiny particles of antibiotics floating around in the ocean. That's not just a scary thought, it's reality. These particles come from our daily lives, especially from the waste we produce on land. Scientists have been digging into this issue by studying sediment cores from the Hangzhou Bay in the East China Sea. These cores are like time capsules, giving us a ...

In the bustling city of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, scientists have been looking closely at the levels of certain medicines in wastewater. They're interested in how these drugs change as they go through a wastewater treatment plant. This study is the first of its kind in South Africa to explore the presence of a drug called ivermectin in wastewater. The team col...

Digging into solid waste incineration ash, scientists found that current methods to measure heavy metals and elements like calcium (Ca) and aluminum (Al) weren't cutting it. Why? Because the structure of the ash, especially the silicon dioxide (SiO2), was tough to break down. Using hydrofluoric acid (HF) created new problems, like the formation of compounds like alum...

Every day, tiny pieces of plastic, known as microplastics, find their way into our environment. Understanding how they move around, especially downward, is crucial. Scientists have been trying to figure this out using something called "drag models. " Previously, these models haven't really considered how microplastics change over time. In this study, researchers loo...