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Most people put little thought into the type of plastic wrap they use to store their leftovers. This study investigates the differences between biodegradable plastic wrap and non-biodegradable plastic wrap in their ability to prevent food spoilage. Does one work better than the other? Read more to find out!

Domestic waste classification using convolutional neural network

This study tested whether calcite, a safe and naturally occurring mineral, can block ultraviolet (UV) radiation when used in solar geoengineering. Students launched a high‑altitude balloon carrying UV sensors and calcite‑coated sheets to measure how much UV light passed through different calcite concentrations. Their results showed that calcite significantly reduces UV transmission, suggesting it may be a promising material for future stratospheric aerosol injection to help mitigate climate change.

This study compared two commercial shower filters and three individual filtration media to evaluate their ability to reduce total residual chlorine under household flow conditions. By identifying which materials most effectively reduce chlorine during regular shower use, this research provides practical information for consumers and offers guidance for designing more affordable and reusable shower filtration systems.

Multi-perspective drone imagery (adding oblique views to top-down shots) raised crop classification accuracy from 35.73% to 52.93% across five species. The improvement scaled with canopy complexity, from +4.2% for simple rice to +38.1% for structurally complex sugarcane.

The authors monitored water quality over time looking for influences from construction and deforestation.

We developed new eco-friendly membranes enriched with natural nanomaterials to clean iron and manganese from drinking water. Some nanocomposite membranes achieved over 95% metal removal while maintaining water flux, suggesting improved performance compared to the undoped control group.

When granular materials are poured onto a surface, they form conical piles whose slopes increase before reaching a stable angle of repose. We found that this angle evolution follows a previously unrecognized two-phase exponential growth pattern that is conserved across granular materials with diverse particle properties. The parameters of this model correlate with particle friction and are influenced by deposition conditions, providing a quantitative framework for describing pile formation.

This study investigates PFAS contamination in Santa Clarita groundwater, focusing on potential sources. The study employs statistical analysis to assess data quality and trends which allowed them to identified domestic waste, fire extinguisher materials, and food packaging as the most likely sources of contamination.

The authors studied the ability of deep learning models to predict droughts in the midwestern United States.