Scientists traveled to Guatemala twice in the past year to conduct research on ceramic pot filters that are used locally to remove bacteria from water. They found that silver may not be necessary to effectively remove bacteria from source water.

Scientists in Spain are testing infrared remote sensing technology to evaluate the pollutant emissions associated with motor vehicle traffic which allows for analysis of all the gases of environmental interest with one sole instrument in a sole measurement.

In order to estimate the safety of final storage for nuclear wastes, it is important to know the half-lives of the radioactive elements of the nuclear waste as accurately as possible. The half-life indicates the period of time in which the amount of a radioactive element decreases by half and breaks down into other atoms. This period of time can, depending on the composition of the nuclear waste, amount to decades or even millions of years.

There may be better ways to engineer the planet's climate to prevent dangerous global warming than mimicking volcanoes, a climate scientist in Canada says in two new studies.