Anthropocene Magazine

The vast ocean dwarfs our efforts to understand it. Sensor-laden buoys, high-flying satellites and sophisticated computer models can only do so much to plumb the depths of the waters covering more than two-thirds of the planet.

But a creature with intimate knowledge of the ocean might help humans get a more accurate picture of what lies beneath. Sharks could serve as mobile, wide-ranging sensor systems, collecting data that improves our understanding of ocean conditions in ways that might inform fisheries management and other critical activities, according to new research in the journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.

“Sharks are already moving through parts of the ocean that are challenging for us to observe,” said Laura McDonnell, the lead author and a postdoctoral scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts. “This research shows that data they collect can help fill important gaps.”

Scientists have attached sensors to sharks for years, but usually with the intent of understanding what’s going on with the animals. In 2022 I spent five days on the Atlantic Ocean near Africa with a team of scientists catching sharks and drilling holes in dorsal fins to attach light-bulb-sized sensors. They wanted to know how the sharks’ behavior changed as they swam through patches of low-oxygen water.

Neil Hammerschlag, a co-author of the new paper, was using sensors in much the same way as a marine ecologist at the University of Miami (UM) when, in 2018, he spoke with UM atmospheric scientist Ben Kirtman about the possibility of using data from the sensors to study the ocean, rather than the fish.

“Marine predators like sharks naturally seek out dynamic ocean features such as fronts and eddies,” explained Kirtman. “These are areas where models often lack sufficient observations.”

As a Ph.D. student at UM, McDonnell took on the question of whether this might work.  In waters off the Northeast U.S. coast, McDonnell and colleagues attached sensors to the dorsal fins of 18 blue sharks and one shortfin mako shark in October 2021. Then they set them loose, like so many fast-moving drones.

 

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In the following months, the equipment decorating the sharks’ fins collected moment-by-moment measurements of temperature and depth, two pieces of data critical to understanding the state of the ocean in a particular place. When the animals surfaced, the tags transmitted the information to satellite and on to the scientists. All told, they collected more than 8,200 snapshots of ocean conditions from the sharks. While the data was concentrated off the coast of the eastern U.S. north of Virginia, the sharks roamed as far south as Florida and out into the middle of the Atlantic. They also gave scientists glimpses of conditions at depths of almost 2,000 meters as they dove.

The researchers took this trove of information and used it to fine tune a computer program commonly used to model current ocean conditions based on data from ocean-going buoys and other sources. In certain parts of the ocean, the shark-enhanced approach was significantly closer to reality than the standard model, when scientists tested to see how well the models simulated ocean conditions during the time when the sharks were collecting the data. (The ability for computer models to accurately reconstruct past conditions is a standard test for ocean and atmospheric models.)

The improved performance was particularly notable along the shallow continental shelf, where it reduced the model’s error by 43% for November and 33% in December. That added up to the model being around 1.5°C closer to the mark when it came to sea surface temperatures, a significant improvement in an environment where subtle temperature shifts can drive major ecological changes.

 “For fisheries and coastal communities, small improvements in ocean forecasts can make a big difference,” said Camrin Braun, an oceanographer at WHOI who worked on the study. “Reducing uncertainty helps people plan, whether that’s where to fish, how to manage resources, or how to respond to changing conditions.”

That doesn’t mean sharks will be replacing other data-gathering, cautioned McDonnell. This was only a short-term experiment, and there is no mention of a more comprehensive effort to enlist sharks to the front lines of ocean forecasting. But it does show that tags formerly used to just understand the sharks could do double duty by shining more light onto broader mysteries of how the ocean is changing.

McDonnell, et. al. “Improved seasonal climate forecasting using shark-borne sensor data in a dynamic ocean.” npj Climate and Atmospheric Science. April 28, 2026.

Image: Blue shark (Prionace glauca) © Diego Delso via Flickr

A combination of sustainability strategies could slash emissions from delivering parcels from online orders in China by more than four-fifths, according to a new analysis. The study also finds the climate impact of these deliveries may be more than 9 times greater than previous studies have estimated.

The researchers tested two strategies to reduce so-called last-mile emissions – that is, the impact of final delivery of parcels to individual addresses. The first was simply replacing gasoline-powered delivery vehicles with electric ones. If implemented nationwide, they found it could save 18.2% of last-mile emissions. The EV switch would have the largest impact in smaller cities, reducing emissions by almost 30% there compared to about 7% in the largest cities.

The second strategy, however, was the real winner. Cooperation among logistics companies—which the Chinese government has been advocating since 2018—could dramatically slash emissions by avoiding having multiple couriers from different companies make deliveries to the same neighborhood. If all six major delivery companies cooperated in this way, it would reduce emissions by up to 66%.

The two strategies together could reduce last-mile emissions by as much as 84.2%.

The growth of e-commerce and surge in online orders in recent years has resulted in a massive expansion of delivery services. But the climate impact of last-mile delivery hasn’t been rigorously studied until now. Past studies have tended to be small-scale, rely on modeling or simulations, or capture only coarse-grained movements of delivery couriers, leading to underestimates of emissions.

 

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In the new analysis, researchers leveraged data on 14 billion orders from the e-commerce platform JD.com and smartphone location data from 1.9 million couriers to calculate last-mile emissions for parcel delivery in 365 Chinese cities. The analysis is particularly important in China, which handles almost 60% of the world’s parcel volume, with more than 130 billion parcels delivered in 2023.

The researchers’ analysis shows that Chinese delivery couriers traveled more than 70 million miles per day in 2023 and generated 1.59 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

Surprisingly, last-mile delivery emissions don’t increase linearly with orders. From January 2023 to January 2024, orders increased by 83.5%, but emissions only went up by 31.3%, representing a decline of about 28% in per-parcel emissions.

“This suggests that system-level efficiencies, such as better logistics, routing, and consolidation, can significantly offset the environmental impact of rapidly growing demand,” says study team member Zhiqing Hong, a computer scientist at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Source: Hong Z. et al. “Decarbonizing emissions from last-mile deliveries in Chinese cities.” Nature Cities 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine.

Several studies show that biochar can benefit soil. Now, new research shows one crucial way it appears to do that: by supporting ants which were found to build stronger, more complex colonies in the presence of this soil improver. But as the new study shows, there’s also a trade-off: too much biochar, and ants go into a decline. 

This is the first study to examine the effects of biochar on “large soil fauna” like these, looking beyond just microbes and agricultural yields, the researchers say. They went in with a hunch that the enriching substance would influence ant behaviour in some way, and to test it out they designed a series of experiments. 

First, starting with biochar made of pyrolized rice straw, they mixed varying amounts—2.5%. 5% and 10%—into samples of soil. These they compared with a soil sample that didn’t contain any biochar. To each of the four soil experiments, they added 30 worker ants from a common local species. Then, they watched and waited. 

Of particular interest was how the ants nested, socialized, and foraged in each of the soil experiments. The first thing the researchers recorded was a sharp difference in survival rates: over 83% of the ants survived when they were exposed to no biochar, or to limited amounts ranging from 2.5% to 5%. Meanwhile at 10%, their survival declined precipitously, to about 55%. 

 

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The ants were also more productive with biochar, but at lower doses. At levels of 2.5%, they developed larger and more complex nest sites, in fact almost threefold more complex than in experiments containing 10%. Ants also foraged with double the efficiency in samples with 5% biochar compared to higher dosing, travelling more quickly through the soil, showing the most success at securing food, and also finding it more quickly. As well as this, at more moderate doses of biochar ants displayed stronger social cohesion, yet were more aggressive towards invasive species and protective of their colonies, compared to ants in soils containing no biochar. 

The researchers think these interesting behavioural differences come down to biochar’s variable effects on soil chemistry. At low doses biochar slightly raises pH, which improves moisture retention in the soil and might make conditions more appealing to nest-building ants. However in larger quantities the pH can rise to levels that threaten ants’ internal balance and so become toxic to them. And because ants use elements of the soil to communicate, even small shifts in its chemistry and microbial makeup brought about by biochar can change the way they interact with one another, sharpening or dimming their communication. 

The reason any of this matters is because ants are major architects of quality soil. Socially-bonded and efficient foragers that make large, complex nests will improve soil structure and function, distribute nutrients through the terrain, and improve drainage, among other things. 

The authors’ main takeaway? Biochar may be more important to the wider health of the ecosystem than we realized—and that means thinking more carefully through precisely how it’s used. “Too much can disrupt the very biological systems we aim to restore,” the authors say.

Liu et. al. “Biochar application enhances ant (Formica japonica) ecological functions as indicated by their social behaviors.” Biochar. 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

A new device captures greenhouse gases and pollutants from the atmosphere and produces electricity. The battery-like device produces enough power for small sensors and Bluetooth Internet-of-Things gizmos.

“This work introduces a simple, scalable, self-powered platform that integrates gas capture with electricity generation,” write researchers from Korea in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. They call the device a Gas Capture and Electricity Generator.

The idea of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is starting to slowly gain traction around the world, with dozens of commercial facilities already operating and many more being planned. However existing CCUS technologies face intrinsic challenges, the researchers say.

Conventional CCUS systems typically capture and then later release CO2 for storage or reuse under high temperatures and high pressures for reuse or long-term storage. The captured CO2 can be converted into carbon-based organic materials or synthetic fuels. But those conversion processes are also highly energy-intensive or require expensive noble-metal catalysts.

Plus, CCUS does not address any other greenhouse gases or toxic gases. So the team in Korea created a device that can capture both CO2 and nitrous oxide, the third-most potent greenhouse gas. Based on a fundamentally new mechanism, the device converts the energy generated when gas gets trapped on electrode surfaces into electrical energy.

 

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To make the generator, the researchers started with mulberry paper, a soft, strong and sustainable handmade paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree. They coated the paper with soot-like carbon black powder. Then they dip this carbon-coated paper to coat it with a hydrogel on one half, and with an amine solution on the other.

The hydrogel, which is made of a polymer called polyacrylamide, selectively adsorbs nitrous oxide while the amine grabs and CO2. Hydrogen bonds form between the nitrous oxide and the hydrogel triggers a redistribution and movement of electrons. Meanwhile, the CO2 and amine react to create bicarbonate ions. The creation and movement of these charges generates a potential difference across the paper electrode, resulting in an electric current.

While the amount of electricity the gas battery produces is small, this is a promising proof-of-concept demonstration, and it should be fairly straightforward to connect several devices and allow the generation of higher power outputs, the researchers say.

“By integrating gas capture and electricity generation within a single self-powered platform, this approach provides a scalable, low-energy pathway for mitigating multiple GHGs and offers a promising strategy toward carbon neutrality,” they write.

Source: Tae Gwang Yun et al. Electrical power generation from asymmetric greenhouse gas capture, Energy & Environmental Science, 2026.

Image credit: Energy & Environmental Science, 2026, 19, 2149–2160, Eureka.

When Mark Stoeckle went fishing in New York City’s East River, he caught a lot more than he was expecting.

The scientist from The Rockefeller University was focused on testing whether DNA floating in the water could shed light on which fish were living in the notoriously polluted stretch of water that separates Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens.

But the buckets of water he hauled up from the eastern edge of Manhattan contained evidence of a lot more than just aquatic life. They also illuminated New Yorker’s eating habits and the abundance of classic urban wildlife such as rats and pigeons, according to a paper appearing today in PLOS One. In other words, each bucket of water was a little window into the Anthropocene.

“Environmental DNA doesn’t just tell us what lives in the water, it reveals insights into the entire ecosystem surrounding it, including the city itself,” says Stoeckle.

Beyond just being a curiosity (Who knew you could find DNA from tropical tilapia in the river?), the findings could help people track a plethora of interesting and important phenomena: changes in fish populations, the effectiveness of environmental restoration, trends in what people are eating, and whether New Yorker’s are making any headway in their war on rats.

“Urban biodiversity monitoring could expand dramatically and inexpensively using minimal equipment at relatively low cost,” said Stoeckle. “This ability to integrate environmental and human signals positions eDNA as a powerful tool for understanding the Anthropocene – the era defined by human influence on Earth’s systems.”

The primary focus of this research was to see if environmental DNA, or eDNA, testing could be used to gauge fish populations near a city. This DNA, shed by organisms into the environment, has been hailed as a potentially powerful tool that could alert people to the presence of particular species even if they never set eyes on the creature. Scientists have repurposed air quality monitors to detect dozens of species, counted species in zoos from sniffs of the air, and used air and water samples to assemble a surprisingly detailed picture of who and what were nearby.

But there have been obstacles to making good on the technology’s promise. It’s one thing to tell if a species is there. It’s another, more complicated thing to use DNA to estimate the size of a population. Then there’s the possibility that a flush of DNA in a crowded place like New York City might drown out the signals from fish, especially when rainstorms overwhelm the city’s sewer system, sending 18 billion gallons of raw sewage into nearby waterways each year.

 

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“After a heavy rain, the DNA of almost everything that makes the city tick—and squawk and squeak—ends up in the East River,” said coauthor Jesse Ausubel, who heads The Rockefeller University’s Program for the Human Environment.

“Genetically speaking, a rainstorm turns the river into something akin to Times Square on New Year’s Eve: crowded, noisy, and full of signals.”

To test what could be seen amid this chaos, each week between May 2024 and May 2025 the scientists collected two buckets of water from the same spot on the Manhattan side of the river and hauled it back to a lab. There, they ran the water through a filter much like a coffee filter. They took the residue left in the filter and put it through a series of treatments to see what DNA was there and compare it to a library of known DNA patterns.

When it comes to fish, the results revealed a number of fascinating patterns. The scientists didn’t claim to be able to produce counts of individual species populations. But they found that the amount of DNA from one species compared to another tracked closely with the comparative numbers that turned up in traditional net surveys. That means changes in DNA levels of different fish species over months or years probably reflects real rises and declines in their relative abundance.

That connection was buttressed by seasonal changes in the amount of fish DNA in the water. During the winter months, when fish numbers are lowest, so is their DNA. Their DNA surges tenfold during the warmer summer months, in line with population patterns.

The study also turned up evidence suggesting that efforts to rebuild reefs of oysters starting in 2015 are attracting fish. They turned up lots of DNA from skilletfish and feather blenny, which both are drawn to oyster reefs. A similar DNA survey in 2016 found little sign of those species. That matches results from nearby fish traps, where the species began appearing in 2020.

The more unexpected results were about what was happening on the surrounding land. The levels of DNA from different commonly eaten meats aligned with what New Yorkers are eating. Chicken came out on top, followed by beef and then pork. They also found traces of sheep, goat, turkey, salmon and tilapia.

They also found traces of city-dwelling wildlife. Top billing there, in terms of the concentration of their DNA in samples, went to Norway rats, followed by pigeons, Canada geese and ring-billed gulls. But it also turned up some less urban critters, including white-tailed deer and beavers.

The results show that a relatively simple, low-cost method could be used around the world to monitor the wild and not-so-wild pulse of cities, says Ausubel. A year’s worth of monitoring cost $15,000 and a slice of someone’s time, far less than traditional fishing surveys.

“Urban waterways worldwide could become distributed observatories of ecological change, reporting almost real-time what lives in and near them, not only fish but bats, beavers, and foxes,” Ausubel said. “With the right coordination, this approach could become the backbone of urban coastal monitoring.”

Stoeckle, et. al. “Biomonitoring in the Anthropocene: Urban estuary environmental DNA tracks marine fish, terrestrial wildlife, and human diet.” PLOS One. April 15, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine/AI-generated

If you every have the good fortune to taste honey from the remote Philippine island of Palaui, chances are you will be savoring the flavor of an endangered tree.

That’s what scientists working on Palaui learned when they studied wild honey collected by Indigenous Agta people there. That honey, prized for its supposed medicinal qualities, bore a chemical fingerprint suggesting it came almost exclusively from a single species of tree, the endangered Pterocarpus indicus, or narra.  

Think of it as the honey equivalent of what wine connoisseurs call terroir, the idea that the specifics of a place, such as soil chemistry, shape the flavor of a bottle. While this might just sound like airy food snobbery, it turns out the terroir of honey can tell you a lot about the surrounding landscape and the health of the forest. It can even underscore the importance of conserving endangered species.

“It demonstrates how important narra trees are for local biodiversity and for the Indigenous community that depends on harvesting this honey,” said Merlijn van Weerd, an ecologist at the University of Leiden and co-author of the recent study in Scientific Reports.

You don’t have to live in the Philippines for these lessons to apply. Honey from wild hives anywhere could offer a glimpse into the surrounding ecosystem. The story of the narra-loving bees shows how that might work.  

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that bees on Palaui were drawn to the narra, the national tree of the Philippines. When it blooms, the hardwood jungle tree is festooned with sprays of orange, nectar-rich blossoms.  But its dense wood also made it a staple of the furniture industry, driving logging that wiped it out in much of the island nation before cutting the tree became illegal. Remote Palaui is one of the few places where the trees escaped that fate.

Still, van Weerd and collaborators at the University of the Philippines say they were startled that the narra tree was such a dominant feature of the island honey.

 

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The discovery came as the scientists studied the chemical makeup of honey there to understand what it might say about the surrounding forests and to see what made this wild honey distinct. This “fingerprinting” of the honey could also enable scientists to distinguish wild, sustainably harvested honey from commercial knock-offs adulterated with cane or corn syrup, a common problem in honey marketed as being from the Philippines.

Their primary tool was a set of machines that separated the honey into its chemical constituents, then identified the individual molecules, a process known as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In 2021, they collected honey from various sites on the island, then put it through this treatment to see what it contained.

One standout was an abundance of the amino acid hypaphorine. Conversations with a local source in the Agta community led the researchers to zero in on the narra as a likely source. Analysis of pollen from the tree also revealed high levels of hypaphorine. The role of this species in the honey was confirmed by the discovery of narra pollen grains in the honey.

The sensitivity of honey to the surrounding plants was reaffirmed by the discovery of caffeine in some honey gathered at hives close to a coffee farm.

“The honey reveals which plant species occur in the area: a kind of chemical fingerprint of the local flora,” said van Weerd.

For van Weerd, the results are confirmation of the importance of conserving existing forests, clarifying the link between the trees, the bees and traditional Indigenous practices.

“We are involved in reforestation projects, in which planting narra trees plays a central role,” he said. “In addition, we assist in securing land rights for Indigenous communities, enabling them to become stewards of their land and better protect it.”

The knowledge of what goes into the honey there, and elsewhere, could help make the prospect of saving endangered trees and the surrounding forests that much sweeter.

Molino et. al. “Multi‑omics and palynology of selected Philippine forest honey.” Scientific Reports. Feb. 4, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

Wetlands, forests, peatlands, and mangrove swamps support native biodiversity and sock away large amounts of carbon. They also bog down invading armies, history shows.

These are the facts behind a new national security strategy concept that researchers from the University of East London call “defensive rewilding.” The idea is that large-scale ecosystem restoration can help protect a country’s borders – deterring invasions, slowing enemy advances, and funneling adversaries into more easily defended corridors.

Climate action and national defense are often cast as competitors for the same limited pot of government funds. But in fact, ecosystem restoration can contribute to both aims, the researchers say.

Take peatlands, for example: they’re unparalleled at storing carbon. And absolutely terrible at holding up heavy-duty military vehicles.

Or dense, mixed-species natural forests: great for biodiversity, and also for hiding defenders from surveillance drones and loitering munitions.

Natural rivers with restored floodplains provide flood control and support aquatic life and fisheries. As a bonus, their banks are too soft and their channels too wide for military tactical bridges.

The Pripyat marshes along the present-day Ukraine-Belarus border were a major barrier to German advances during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Also during World War II, coral reefs and mangrove ecosystems frustrated amphibious invasions throughout the Pacific theater. More recently, Ukraine’s flooding of the Irpin River floodplain in 2022 was a major factor in stopping the Russian advance on Kyiv.

The latter example did not involve established wetlands, but still illustrates the concept, the researchers say. They define defensive rewilding as “the intentional, pre- or mid-conflict enhancement and restoration of ecosystems to create militarily advantageous terrain, while concurrently delivering significant environmental benefits.”

 

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Defensive rewilding is not restoration as part of post-conflict nation-building, and it’s not mid-conflict environmental destruction for military advantage (known as WarWilding, like Saddam Hussein’s draining of the Mesopotamian marshes).

Rewilded ecosystems can function as a form of “deterrence by denial” – the enemy takes a look at how an invasion is likely to go, and decides to pass. Another plus is that it is “inherently defensive,” the researchers say: there’s no mistaking wetland restoration for saber-rattling, so rewilding can improve a country’s strategic situation without risking touching off a regional arms race.

Ecosystem restoration is often cheaper than constructing conventional defensive fortifications like anti-tank ditches – and rewilded ecosystems last longer and require little maintenance to boot. However, the researchers note, the ecosystem restoration has to be large-scale to really pose a deterrent.

Rewilding isn’t a national defense strategy on its own. It still takes good intelligence and solid strategy to prevent and repel invasions, and modern military technology means that natural obstacles will sometimes only slow enemy advances rather than stopping them entirely. The same wild landscapes that bog down invaders can frustrate counteroffensives, and ecosystems can be damaged in the crossfire.

Still, defensive rewilding represents a novel way of thinking and a potential win-win approach, the researchers argue. “From a fiscal perspective, this represents a shift from ‘spending’ on defense to ‘investing’ in resilience,” they write.

Source: Jelliman S. et al. “Defensive Rewilding: a Nature-Based Solution for National Security.” The RUSI Journal 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

Researchers have developed a novel fresh produce wash that removes up to 93% of pesticides from the surface and doubles as a preservative, keeping fruit fresher for days longer than normal. What’s more, the wash is mostly made up of biodegradable starch.

Pesticides are often loaded onto fruit and veg and even with regulation, it can be hard to keep amounts in check. Data from Canadian food safety agencies found that the non-compliance rate for pesticide residues on food increased from 0.4% to over 2% in the four years between 2016 and 2020, the study reports. 

The researchers’ inventive solution requires just three ingredients: starch, coated in tannic acid, a natural plant compound, and iron, forged together into nanoparticles, and suspended in a solution. 

To test it out, they first applied three types of commonly-used pesticides to apples at real-world levels: thiabendazole, acetamiprid, and imidacloprid. Next, they analyzed how their nanoparticle-infused wash compared with water, the only available method most people have to clean their produce. 

The differences were stark. While rinsing with water was able to remove about 50% of the pesticides attached to the apples’ surface, the nanowash eradicated almost double that, varying slightly depending on the pesticide type: the wash cleared 93.5% of the acetamiprid, 89.03% of the imidacloprid, and 86% of the thiabendazole. 

 

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The success comes down to a precise reaction that takes place between iron and tannic acid, which together create an absorptive effect that helps to sponge chemicals off the fruit’s surface. 

The researchers went a step further, to explore whether their invention could help tackle another huge food system challenge: waste. They suspected that their wash could be used as a treatment to provide a preservative effect—and they were proved right. When they dipped two types of fruit, cut apples and fresh grapes, into a nanoparticle solution, they found that the cut apples took longer to turn brown than the untreated fruit. The grapes, meanwhile, maintained their shape for 15 days, compared to the untreated fruit which had grown noticeably wrinkled and shrunken by that point. 

In both the treated apples and grapes the rate of weight loss was also halved compared to the untreated fruits, suggesting that they had been able to retain more moisture. Tests on the wash showed it had antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, which seem to provide a protective coating on the fruit and to slow its degradation. 

The wash poses no health risks to consumers, and in fact the added sprinkling of iron may have a nutritional benefit, the scientists say. It will take a while for this innovation to reach consumers in their homes, but in the meantime the researchers have set their sights on industry, where they say their invention could be quickly scaled and used to clean produce before it reaches people’s homes. 

“Our early cost estimates suggest it would add roughly three cents per apple—comparable to current commercial coatings, but with the added benefit of pesticide removal and extending shelf life,” the researchers say.

Yang et. al. “Dual-Function Metal−Phenolic Network-Capped Starch Nanoparticles for Postharvest Pesticide Removal and Produce Preservation.” ACS Nano. 2026.

Image: Pexels

There are several technologies out there that harvest the sun’s boundless energy. Solar panels soak up solar energy and convert it to electricity, while solar thermal systems use mirror-like contraptions to collect sunshine to heat water or living spaces. But there aren’t any efficient ways to store solar heat for days or weeks.

Now, researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara have come up with a way to do that. They have created a new engineered molecule that traps sunlight, stores the energy in its chemical bonds, and then releases it on demand. The team reported this rechargeable solar heat battery in a paper published in the journal Science.

“Think of photochromic sunglasses,” said Han Nguyen, a PhD student and the paper’s lead author in a press release. “When you’re inside, they’re just clear lenses. You walk out into the sun, and they darken on their own. Come back inside, and the lenses become clear again. That kind of reversible change is what we’re interested in. Only instead of changing color, we want to use the same idea to store energy, release it when we need it, and then reuse the material over and over.”

The new material, called a pyrimidone, can store more than 1.6 megajoules per kilogram. That is almost double the energy density of a conventional lithium-ion battery, which is about 0.9 MJ/kg. Just like a lithium-ion battery can store electricity for days, the new liquid battery could store sunshine for days to provide hot water or heat when needed.

 

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Scientists have tried to make such molecular solar thermal (MOST) energy storage systems before. But the materials designed so far either don’t store enough energy, degrade much too quickly, or need complex designs or solvents that made them impractical.

To make their MOST molecule, the California team turned to DNA for inspiration. The pyrimidone structure they have made resembles a component found in DNA that can reversibly change its form when exposed to UV light.

The new engineered pyrimidone molecule acts like a spring. When sunlight falls on it, it twists into a strained, high-energy state. It stays locked in that shape until a small amount of heat or a catalyst triggers it to release its stored energy as heat and revert to its relaxed state.

The molecule, which is soluble in water, releases enough heat to boil water in just a few minutes. The researchers suggest that it could find use in residential water heating: charge in rooftop tanks during the day and provide hot water at night, even days and weeks later.

Source: Han P. Q. Nguyen. Molecular solar thermal energy storage in Dewar pyrimidone beyond 1.6 MJ/kg. Science, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

Lakes and wetlands are welcome natural oases amidst the concrete and asphalt of the urban world. In many cities, they are magnets for people seeking a chance to go birdwatching, fishing, swimming, or just use the water as a scenic backdrop.

But these spots have an invisible and unappetizing side as well. They can be hotspots of antibiotic-resistant microbes, posing a potential health risk to people coming in contact with the water.  A survey of wetlands in Chinese cities discovered levels of these microbes on par with untreated sewage, Chinese scientists reported last week in Nature Cities.

The discovery highlights the overlooked risks of what are commonly seen as urban amenities. It also points to possible ways to clean up these waterways. Rather than being a “regulatory blind spot,” these waterbodies “should serve as ‘frontline outposts’ guarding public health and ecological security, requiring our concerted efforts to ensure they serve city residents safely,” lead author Da Lin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Urban Environment wrote in an online essay discussing the research.

The scientists were first alerted to the possible problem while strolling past a wetland in a city park “bustling with human activity,” Lin wrote. While such waterbodies might look appealing, they can also serve as impromptu stormwater storage ponds, capturing runoff from nearby streets or even from overflowing sewage pipes. The scientists wondered to what degree that also turned them into magnets for antibiotic resistant bacteria, which are known to flourish in urban settings.

They collected water samples from 17 wetlands in 9 Chinese cities, filtered the water and examined the DNA left in the filters to see what viruses and bacteria were present, and whether their genes contained signs of antibiotic resistance.

The test revealed nearly 750 types of genes coded for antibiotic resistance in concentrations 9 times greater than what researchers have found in natural lakes. It was approximately the same contamination levels seen in tests of raw sewage, and roughly four times the average levels found in urban wetland elsewhere in the world, based on results from other studies.

This microbial stew included genes for resistance to sulfonamide and tetracycline, as well as genes for broader resistance to a range of antibiotics. The scientists also found traces of 67 different microbes known to infect humans, particularly from the Pseudomonas genus, which are known for having antibiotic resistance. “This data objectively demonstrates that urban wetlands have become important reservoirs” for antibiotic resistant genes, Lin wrote.

Not all wetlands were equally problematic. Waterbodies in poorer cities had higher levels of contamination with antibiotic resistant bacteria. That might be linked to weaker urban infrastructure, which enables more untreated stormwater to flow into these lakes and ponds, the scientists wrote.

That also points to possible ways to tackle the problem. A number of Chinese cities, including the capital of Beijing, have in recent years begun building nature-inspired infrastructure to better cope with stormwater. These so-called “sponge cities” use tools such as permeable pavement, landscaping engineered to soak up rainwater and, yes, wetlands meant to clean the water.

While such infrastructure can help, as the new research points out it can also create public health headaches.

To guard against these wetlands becoming more problem than solution, the scientists called for more robust monitoring and regulation of these waterbodies. Among the recommendations: Set standards for contamination levels with antibiotic resistant bacteria; create a list of high-risk wetlands; and keep the antibiotic problem in mind when designing and managing urban water spots, rather than focusing only on removing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which can spark algae blooms.

Just as public beaches are now sometimes closed when water tests show high levels of E. coli, perhaps one day something similar might be in place for high levels of antibiotic resistance.

Lin, et. al. “Urban wetlands as hotspots of antibiotic resistomes and their potential viral transmission.” Nature Cities. April 17, 2026.

Photo by LUM3N/Freerange Stock