A simple but super-absorbent artificial sponge could lower the cost of cleaning up crude oil spills in developing countries.

A team of researchers, based at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, found that simple sponges made from polyurethane foam soaked up oil spills better than more expensive sponges treated with nanoparticles.

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Las zonas bajas emisiones tienen su lugar en la limpieza de los peores focos de contaminación del aire en el Reino Unido, escribe Richard Howard. Pero también es necesario adoptar medidas fiscales para fomentar el abandono de los vehículos a diesel, para que al mismo tiempo que se suministra aire limpio, se aumenten los ingresos fiscales y se tengan menores emisiones de carbono.

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Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated water for farmed fish, drinking and other uses, scientists are now turning to an unlikely source -- the mucilage or inner "guts" of cacti.

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Dependiendo de dónde se produzcan, entre el 20 y el 40 por ciento de productos vegetales en EEUU termina desperdiciados. Una de las razones por la que muchas frutas y verduras son echados a la basura, ​​se debe a que no se ajustan a cómo los minoristas y los consumidores creen que los alimentos frescos deben lucir. Tomates demasiado anchos para un pan de hamburguesa, zanahorias que parecen salidas de un libro de texto de anatomía, y los pepinos que se atreven a ser curvado casi nunca se hacen presentes en los estantes de las cadenas de supermercados de Walmart o Whole Foods.

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Usually the word “jail” brings some harsh imagery to mind: barbed wire fences, orange jumpsuits and tall concrete walls. That’s not the case in the Key West, though. Ask a local about the jail, and the most likely image is Mo, an adorable and charismatic sloth who’s become the unofficial mascot of the Stock Island Detention Center, which doubles as a sanctuary for unwanted animals.

“All the animals here are either abandoned, abused, confiscated or donated,” Jeanne Selander, the caretaker for the facility, explains to Care2. “The animals are here because they need a forever home and we give them one.”

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