Planetary Health

The soils in many iconic Australian landscapes are colored red by an abundant mineral known as goethite. This mineral tends to lock away trace metals over time, according to WashU research.

Kimberly Parker, an assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, studies dicamba in the lab under different variables to determine the mechanisms behind how it turns into vapor, a process called volatilization.

A new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Sichuan University in China traces the roots of the longstanding cultural interactions across the Tibetan Plateau to prehistoric times, as early as the Bronze Age.

Despite efforts to reduce the use of plastic or recycle it, most plastic produced in the world ends up in landfills, the oceans or dumped, bringing with it catastrophic effects on the environment, the ecosystem and the economy. To address this, a team of researchers has established the Synthetic Biology Manufacturing of Advanced Materials Research Center.

There is no good reason to abandon the Chevron deference, a landmark Supreme Court decision in place for 40 years that says courts must defer to federal agencies’ expertise in interpreting laws, according to an expert on administrative law and regulatory reform at Washington University in St. Louis.

Students in the McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU designed prototypes for a device that could help environmental engineers monitor the air quality impact of factory farms in Missouri.

Red colobus monkeys are the most threatened group of African monkeys. A Washington University in St. Louis team will model viral transmission dynamics among red colobus monkeys and their human neighbors near Kibale National Park, Uganda. The collaboration got its start with support from Arts & Sciences under its Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures research cluster, “The Human-Wildlife Interface.”

The year 2023 was the hottest in recorded history. WashU professor Michael Wysession explains four factors that drove 2023’s extreme heat and climate disasters — and what this means for the future.

Mosquito heat tolerance varies by population, according to a new study; findings could change estimates of vector-borne disease risk.