HS-ESS3-4

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

  1. Environment

    Common water pollutants hurt freshwater organisms

    The germ killers we use and the drugs we take don’t just disappear. They can end up in the environment. There they can harm aquatic organisms, three teens showed.

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  2. Earth

    Quake risk in some central states rivals California’s

    Risks of tremors in some central U.S. states are as high as those in quake-prone California. The reason: waste fluids from oil and gas drilling.

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  3. Environment

    Breathing very dirty air may boost obesity risk

    Breathing dirty Beijing air made rats heavier and less healthy than rats breathing clean air. Scientists now worry such polluted air may do the same thing to people.

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  4. Oceans

    Arctic ice travels fast, carrying pollution

    Climate change is melting old sea ice in the Arctic. Now, younger, thinner ice is migrating far and fast, taking pollutants with it.

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  5. Environment

    Wildlife forensics turns to eDNA

    Environmental DNA, or eDNA, tells biologists what species have been around — even when they’re out of sight or have temporarily moved on.

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  6. Environment

    Table salt and shellfish can contain plastic

    Bits of plastic have turned up in sea salts purchased in Chinese supermarkets. The finding suggests all sea salts may be similarly tainted. Shellfish too.

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  7. Space

    Collecting trash in space

    Space junk threatens satellites that cost millions of dollars. But one teen has come up with an idea to collect and dispose of that orbiting trash.

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  8. Climate

    Warming’s role in extreme weather

    Extremes in temperature and precipitation will be more common as global temperatures rise. Human-led climate change is largely to blame, a new study finds.

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  9. Tech

    Cool Jobs: Big future for super small science

    Scientists using nanotechnology grow super-small but very useful tubes with walls no more than a few carbon atoms thick. Find out why as we meet three scientists behind this huge new movement in nanoscience.

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  10. Agriculture

    Ditching farm pollution — literally

    An Indiana project shows how fighting fertilizer runoff can save farmers money, protect wild habitats and prevent harmful algae blooms.

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  11. Environment

    Scientists Say: Microplastic

    Bits of plastic smaller than five millimeters are called microplastics. They can end up in the ocean, where corals might mistake them for food.

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  12. Environment

    Spidey sense: Eight-legged pollution monitors

    Spiders that prey on aquatic insects can serve as sentinels that naturally monitor banned chemicals that still pollute many rivers across the United States.

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