Member and Partner NewsAntibiotics at the Living…

Antibiotics at the Living Filter

The Living Filter at Pennsylvania State University features 600 acres of agricultural land and forest, much of which is sprayed with wastewater (called effluent) from a local wastewater treatment plant and has acted as a research site for decades. Researchers recently completed a 5-year study that observed how soils in the Living Filter could act as a tertiary treatment for wastewater,...

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Sea Grass and Ocean Acidification

Marine organisms with calcium-based shells are at risk from the effects of ocean acidification caused by increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide. Protecting seagrass meadows could be a way to minimize the impacts of ocean acidification at local levels. Richard Zimmerman from Old Dominion University (ODU), partnering with scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science, University...

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Salmon Aquaculture

A Johns Hopkins professor is determined to make sure the same pitfalls of agriculture aren’t repeated in aquaculture. Jillian Fry, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Livable Future‘s Seafood, Public Health, and Food Systems Project, is an expert in all things aquaculture. This year, the world’s first deep-sea aquaculture project will harvest their first generation of...

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Algae in the Bioeconomy

Two scientists at Old Dominion University (ODU) are conducting cutting-edge research on producing a biofuel from algae and creating a scale-able process for industry. Patrick Hatcher, Batten Endowed chair of Physical Science Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Sandeep Kumar, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of ODU’s Energy...

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Pigments and Microbes

Animals and plants can use the pigment melanin to gain heat from their environment, maintaining comfortable body temperatures. This is known as thermal melanism. But melanin also serves other functions in biology. In humans, for example, melanin helps prevent exposure to ultraviolet radiation, so humans who live closer to the equator often have higher levels of melanin in their skin. When...

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Tracking Toxics in Baltimore

Despite having been banned for for decades, many toxic chemicals still show up in the Back River in Baltimore County. That is why the county and the U.S. Department of the Interior recently funded a team from University of Maryland Baltimore County and USGS  to determine where the pollutants are coming from. The team at UMBC tackling this challenge is led by Upal Ghosh, a professor of chemical,...

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