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Most people put little thought into the type of plastic wrap they use to store their leftovers. This study investigates the differences between biodegradable plastic wrap and non-biodegradable plastic wrap in their ability to prevent food spoilage. Does one work better than the other? Read more to find out!

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a plastic used to make food containers and packing materials that poses a threat to the environment. Mealworms can degrade EPS, but at a slow rate. Here, researchers assessed the impact of food waste compost and oats on the speed of EPS consumption by mealworms, superworms, and waxworms. A positive correlation was found between food waste compost supplementation and EPS consumption, especially by mealworms, indicating a potential industrial application.

Domestic waste classification using convolutional neural network

In this study, the authors investigate whether Moringa Oleifera seeds can serve as material to aid in purifying water. M. oleifera seeds have coagulating properties and the authors hypothesized that including it in a water filtration system would reduce particles, specifically bacteria, in water. Their results show that this system removed the largest percent of bacteria. When used in combination with cilantro, it was actually more efficient than the other techniques! These findings have important implications for creating better and more economical water purification systems.

The authors studied the ability of deep learning models to predict droughts in the midwestern United States.

The authors looked at how soil temperature changes with fire to develop a sensor system that could aid in earlier detection of fires.

The authors looked at the impact of different harvest and feeding treatments on Heterandria formosa over three generations as a model for changes in marine ecosystems.

The authors looked at beach nourishment (a way to combat erosion on coasts) and resulting grain size distribution. Their work is important to understand the dynamics of erosion and it's relation to wave action and the implications this has for efforts to mitigate coastal erosion.

Using machine learning to predict the risk of algae bloom

Here the authors investigated the use of an affordable gas sensor to detect volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions as an early indicator of tree disease, finding statistically significant differences in VOCs between diseased and non-diseased ash, beech, and maple trees. They suggest this sensor has potential for widespread early disease detection, but call for further research with larger sample sizes and diverse locations.