HS-ESS3-4

Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.

  1. Climate

    Can scientists develop an icy sanctuary for Arctic life?

    The final refuge for summer sea ice may also protect the creatures that depend on it. Saving it is an ambitious goal with many hurdles.

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  2. Environment

    A new way to make plastics could keep them from littering the seas

    Borrowing from genetics, scientists are creating plastics that will degrade. They can even choose how quickly these materials break down.

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  3. Environment

    Leaky sewer pipes pollute urban streams and bays with drugs

    Scientists find that leaking sewer pipes around Baltimore, Md., spew thousands of doses of medicines into the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.

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  4. Materials Science

    Analyze This: Hardened wood can make sharp steak knives

    Researchers treated wood to make it hard and dense. Out of it, they carved sharp knives and nails that could substitute for ones made of steel.

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  5. Tech

    Scientists find a ‘greener’ way to make jeans blue

    When coated onto jeans, a plant-based polymer reduces water and cuts the amount of toxic chemicals needed.

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  6. Environment

    Everyday plastics can pollute, leaching thousands of chemicals

    Plastic bags and containers leach potentially toxic chemicals into both food and water, but researchers yet don’t know how they might affect health.

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  7. Environment

    Cheatgrass thrives on the well-lit urban night scene

    Middle-grade campers team up with ecologists at Denver University to show that streetlights boost the growth of a reviled invasive species.

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  8. Tech

    Tiny swimming robots may help clean up a microplastics mess

    Big problem, tiny solution. Researchers in the Czech Republic have designed swimming robots that can help collect and break down microplastics.

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  9. Environment

    Wildfire smoke seeds the air with potentially dangerous microbes

    Studies now show that most wildfires don’t kill microbes. That’s fueling worries about what risks these smoke hitchhikers might pose to people.

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  10. Environment

    Warming cities may see more rain — and frequent flooding

    Scientists are seeking to understand why and how to mop up excess precipitation.

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  11. Environment

    Explainer: Urban heat islands and how to cool them

    Cities transform landscapes covered in plants to ones covered in heat-absorbing asphalt and concrete. But ways exist to cool these urban heat islands.

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  12. Earth

    Stores and malls buy into ponds and rain gardens for flood control

    An extra bonus: These rainy-day ponds clean up that dirty water running off parking lots.

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