Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions

By American Chemical Society

What's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions about?

Taking inspiration from trees, scientists have developed a battery made from a sliver of wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly energy source. Their report on the device — 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper — appears in the journal Nano Letters.

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Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions episodes:

01.27.2014
Combating Disease: Paper-based device could bring medical testing to remote locales
In remote regions of the world where electricity is hard to come by and scientific instruments are even scarcer, conducting medical tests at a doctor’s office or medical lab is rarely an option. Scientists are now reporting progress toward an...
01.13.2014
Confronting Climate Change: Stop-Gap Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Sediment trapped behind dams makes them ‘hot spots’ for greenhouse gas emissions
With the “green” reputation of large hydroelectric dams already in question, scientists are reporting that millions of smaller dams on rivers around the world make an important contribution to the greenhouse gases linked to global climate change. Their study, showing...
12.09.2013
Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Improving detection of radioactive material in nuclear waste water
As the Fukushima crisis continues to remind the world of the potential dangers of nuclear disposal and unforeseen accidents, scientists are reporting progress toward a new way to detect the radioactive materials uranium and plutonium in waste water. Their report...
11.25.2013
Combating Disease: Improved smartphone microscope brings single-virus detection to remote locations
Scientists are reporting an advance in smartphone-based imaging that could help physicians in far-flung and resource-limited locations monitor how well treatments for infections are working by detecting, for the first time, individual viruses. Their study on the light-weight device, which...
11.11.2013
Our sustainable future: A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics
A new process can convert a wide variety of vegetable and animal fats and oils — ranging from lard to waste cooking oil — into a key ingredient for making plastics that currently comes from petroleum, scientists say. Their report...
10.28.2013
Confronting Climate Change - Stop-Gap Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Big environmental footprints: 21 percent of homes account for 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
Energy conservation in a small number of households could go a long way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are reporting. Their study, which measured differences in energy demands at the household level, appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science...
10.14.2013
Our Sustainable Future: An environmentally friendly battery made from wood
Scientists are reporting development and successful lab tests on the first potential drug to pack a lethal one-two punch against melanoma skin cancer cells. Hit number one destroys cells in the main tumor, and the second hit blocks the spread...
09.30.2013
Combating Disease: First dual-action compound kills cancer cells, stops them from spreading
Scientists are reporting development and successful lab tests on the first potential drug to pack a lethal one-two punch against melanoma skin cancer cells. Hit number one destroys cells in the main tumor, and the second hit blocks the spread...
08.12.2013
New Fuels – Biofuels: Duckweed as a cost-competitive raw material for biofuel production
The search for a less-expensive, sustainable source of biomass, or plant material, for producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel has led scientists to duckweed, that fast-growing floating plant that turns ponds and lakes green. That’s the topic of a report...
07.25.2013
Our Sustainable Future: Cotton offers a new ecologically friendly way to clean up oil spills
With the Deepwater Horizon disaster emphasizing the need for better ways of cleaning up oil spills, scientists are reporting that unprocessed, raw cotton may be an ideal, ecologically friendly answer, with an amazing ability to sop up oil. Their report,...
07.15.2013
Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water
Using the same devious mechanism that enables some bacteria to shrug off powerful antibiotics, scientists have developed solar-powered nanofilters that remove antibiotics from the water in lakes and rivers twice as efficiently as the best existing technology. Their report appears...
06.24.2013
Confronting Climate Change: The Quest for Permanent Solutions: A milestone for new carbon-dioxide capture/clean coal technology
An innovative new process that releases the energy in coal without burning — while capturing carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas — has passed a milestone on the route to possible commercial use, scientists are reporting. Their study in the...
06.10.2013
Supplying Safe Drinking Water: The first caffeine-‘addicted’ bacteria
Some people may joke about living on caffeine, but scientists now have genetically engineered E. coli bacteria to do that — literally. Their report in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology describes bacteria being “addicted” to caffeine in a way that...
05.28.2013
Promoting Public Health: Six in 10 people worldwide lack access to flush toilets or other adequate sanitation
It may be the 21st century, with all its technological marvels, but 6 out of every 10 people on Earth still do not have access to flush toilets or other adequate sanitation that protects the user and the surrounding community...
05.13.2013
Our sustainable future: First mobile app green chemistry fosters sustainable manufacturing of medicines
Today’s episode describes the first mobile application to foster wider use of the environmentally friendly and sustainable principles of green chemistry. It is the topic of a report in ACS’ new journal, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. The report on...
04.22.2013
Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Ancient “Egyptian blue” pigment points to new telecommunications, security ink technology
Today’s solution is an ancient Egyptian blue pigment used 5,000 years ago. The pigment is giving modern scientists clues toward the development of new nanomaterials that could have uses in medical imaging devices, remote controls, security ink and other technologies....
03.11.2013
Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Toward a better cyanide antidote for terrorist attacks and other mass casualty events
Today’s solution is a promising substance that could be the basis for the development of a better antidote for cyanide poisoning. This is an advance toward closing a major gap in defenses against terrorist attacks and other mass casualty events....
02.25.2013
Providing nutritious foods: A new, super-nutritious puffed rice for breakfast cereals and snacks
Today’s episode describes a new process for blowing up grains of rice to produce a super-nutritious form of puffed rice. The new rice has three times more protein and a rich endowment of other nutrients that make it ideal for...
02.11.2013
Our Sustainable Future: New twist on using biomass for cosmetic, personal care and antioxidant-containing products
Today’s solution is a new approach for tapping biomass as a sustainable raw material for ingredients in sunscreens, perfumes and other personal care products. The approach could open up new economic opportunities for tropical countries that grow such plants. A...
01.28.2013
Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Boosting the sensitivity of airport security screening
Today’s solution is a simple way to improve the sensitivity of the test often used to detect traces of explosives on the hands, carry-ons and other possessions of passengers at airport security screening stations. A group of scientists reported their...
01.14.2013
Combating Disease: Leaves of carob tree, source of chocolate substitute, fight virulent food-poisoning bacteria
Today’s solution is an antibacterial extract from the leaves of the carob tree (the source of a popular chocolate substitute) that could fight the microbe responsible for the serious form of food poisoning called listeriosis. The research appears in ACS’...
12.10.2012
Confronting Climate Change: Stop-Gap Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Speed limits on cargo ships could reduce their pollutants by more than half
Today’s report concludes that putting a speed limit on cargo ships as they sail near ports and coastlines could cut their emission of air pollutants by up to 70 percent. That would reduce the impact of marine shipping on Earth’s...
11.26.2012
Supplying Safe Drinking Water: New analysis of drinking water-related gastrointestinal illness
Today’s episode describes a study finding that the distribution system piping in U.S. public water systems that rely on non-disinfected well water or “ground water” may be a largely unrecognized cause of up to 1.1 million annual cases of acute...
11.12.2012
Our Sustainable Future: White rot fungus boosts ethanol production from corn stalks, cobs and leaves
Today’s solution is a fungus that shows promise in the search for a way to use waste corn stalks, cobs and leaves – rather than corn itself – to produce ethanol to extend supplies of gasoline. The research appears in...
10.22.2012
Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Leveraging bacteria in drinking water to benefit consumers
Today’s report concludes that contrary to popular belief, purified drinking water from home faucets still contains bacteria. And scientists are reporting discovery of a plausible way to manipulate those populations of mostly beneficial microbes to potentially benefit consumers.
10.08.2012
New fuels: The sun and more: Transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity
Today’s episode describes development of a new transparent solar cell, an advance toward giving windows in homes and other buildings the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside.
09.24.2012
New Fuels: The Sun and More: Toward super-size wind turbines: Bigger wind turbines do make greener electricity
Today’s study could solidify the trend toward construction of gigantic windmills. In a report in ACS’ journal Environmental Science and Technology, scientists have concluded that the larger the wind turbine, the greener the electricity it produces.
09.10.2012
Promoting Public Health: Green plants reduce pollution on city streets up to eight times more than previously believed
Today’s report concludes that trees, bushes and other greenery growing in the concrete-and-glass canyons of cities can reduce levels of two of the most worrisome air pollutants by eight times more than previously believed. A report on the research appears...
08.13.2012
Combating Disease: A non-antibiotic approach for treating urinary tract infections
Today’s episode describes a potential new approach for treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) without traditional antibiotics.
07.23.2012
Our Sustainable Future: Rivers flowing into the sea offer vast potential as electricity source
Today’s solution is a new genre of electric power-generating stations that could supply electricity for more than a half billion people by tapping just one-tenth of the global potential of a little-known energy source that exists where rivers flow into...
07.09.2012
Promoting Public Health: New, inexpensive paper-based diabetes test ideal for developing countries
Today’s development is an inexpensive and easy-to-use urine test for Type 2 diabetes ideally suited for rural India, China and other areas of the world where poverty limits the availability of health care. The report describing the paper-based device, which...
06.25.2012
Our Sustainable Future: Ancient effect harnessed to produce electricity from waste heat
A phenomenon first observed by an ancient Greek philosopher 2,300 years ago has become the basis for a new device designed to harvest the enormous amounts of energy wasted as heat each year to produce electricity. The first-of-its-kind “pyroelectric nanogenerator”...
06.11.2012
New Fuels - Biofuels: Real-life scientific tail of the first “electrified snail”
Today’s episode announces that the world’s first “electrified snail” implanted with biofuel cells that generate electricity from natural sugar in their bodies. Scientists are describing how these biofuel cells could someday serve as energy for many electronics devices in the...
05.29.2012
New Fuels - Biofuels: Meeting biofuel production targets could change agricultural landscape
Almost 80 percent of current farmland in the U.S. would have to be devoted to raising corn for ethanol production in order to meet current biofuel production targets with existing technology, a new study has found. An alternative, according to...
05.21.2012
Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Killer silk - Making silk fibers that kill anthrax and other microbes in minutes
A simple, inexpensive dip-and-dry treatment can convert ordinary silk into a fabric that kills disease-causing bacteria — even the armor-coated spores of microbes like anthrax — in minutes, protect homes and other buildings in the event of a terrorist attack...
05.07.2012
Providing Nutritious Foods: Strong scientific evidence that eating berries benefits the brain
Today’s finding suggests that eating blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and other berry fruits has beneficial effects on the brain and may help prevent age-related memory loss and other changes.
04.30.2012
Combating Disease: Adapting personal glucose monitors to detect DNA
Today’s solution addresses the development of an inexpensive device used by millions of people with diabetes that could be adapted into a home detector for many diseases.
04.16.2012
Providing Safe Food: Children may have highest exposure to titanium dioxide nanoparticles
Today’s finding warns that children may be receiving the highest exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide in candy, which they eat in amounts much larger than adults.
03.22.2012
New Fuels: Biofuels - Biofuel cell generates electricity when implanted in False Death’s Head Cockroach
Scientists have developed and implanted into a living insect — the False Death's Head Cockroach — a miniature fuel cell that converts naturally occurring sugar in the insect and oxygen from the air into electricity. They term it an advance...
03.12.2012
Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: New test could help track down and prosecute terrorists who use nerve gas and other agents
Today’s solution addresses the development of a new test that could help track down and prosecute terrorists who use chemical agents.
02.27.2012
Supplying Safe Drinking Water: “Miracle tree” substance produces clean drinking water inexpensively and sustainably
Today’s solution uses the seeds of the miracle tree to produce clean drinking water. The water-treatment process requiring only tree seeds and sand could purify and clarify water inexpensively and sustainably in the developing world, where more than 1 billion...
01.30.2012
Our Sustainable Future: Peatland carbon storage is stabilized against catastrophic release of carbon
Concerns that global warming may have a domino effect —unleashing 600 billion tons of carbon in vast expanses of peat in the Northern hemisphere and accelerating warming to disastrous proportions — may be less justified than previously thought. That’s the...
01.17.2012
Combating Disease: Turning up the heat to kill cancer cells: “The Lance Armstrong effect”
The “Lance Armstrong effect” could become a powerful new weapon to fight cancer cells that develop resistance to chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments, scientists say in a report in the ACS journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.
12.19.2011
Promoting Public Health: Household washing machines are a source of potentially harmful ocean “microplastic” pollution
Today’s solution warns that household washing machines seem to be a major source of so-called “microplastic” pollution — bits of polyester and acrylic smaller than the head of a pin — that scientists now have detected on shorelines worldwide.
12.05.2011
Promoting Public Health: Recycling thermal cash register receipts contaminates paper products with BPA
Bisphenol A (BPA) — a substance that may have harmful health effects — occurs in 94 percent of thermal cash register receipts, scientists are reporting. The recycling of those receipts, they add, is a source of BPA contamination of paper...
11.28.2011
Developing New Sources of Energy: New type of solar cell retains high efficiency for long periods
In this episode, we will addresses the development of a new type of solar cell retains high efficiency for long periods.
11.14.2011
Combating Disease: Genetically-engineered spider silk for gene therapy
Genetically engineered spider silk could help overcome a major barrier to the use of gene therapy in everyday medicine, according to a new study that reported development and successful initial laboratory tests of such a material. It appears in ACS’...
10.24.2011
New Fuels Biofuels: Alligator fat as a new source of biodiesel fuel
Today’s solution addresses the development of a unique form of biodiesel fuel using alligator fat.
10.10.2011
Providing Safe Foods: Flooding of farmland does not increase levels of potentially harmful flame retardants in milk
Today’s solution provides a reassuring message—although potentially harmful flame retardants build up in flooded rivers, that doesn’t translate to harmful levels in milk from cows that consume the grass in these flood-prone areas.
09.26.2011
Confronting Climate Change: Using the energy in oil shale without releasing carbon dioxide in a greenhouse world
New technology that combines production of electricity with capture of carbon dioxide could make billions of barrels of oil shale — now regarded as off-limits because of the huge amounts of carbon dioxide released in its production — available as...

What's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions episodes:

Combating Disease: Paper-based device could bring medical testing to remote locales

Confronting Climate Change: Stop-Gap Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Sediment trapped behind dams makes them ‘hot spots’ for greenhouse gas emissions

Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Improving detection of radioactive material in nuclear waste water

Combating Disease: Improved smartphone microscope brings single-virus detection to remote locations

Our sustainable future: A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics

Confronting Climate Change - Stop-Gap Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Big environmental footprints: 21 percent of homes account for 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions

Our Sustainable Future: An environmentally friendly battery made from wood

Combating Disease: First dual-action compound kills cancer cells, stops them from spreading

New Fuels – Biofuels: Duckweed as a cost-competitive raw material for biofuel production

Our Sustainable Future: Cotton offers a new ecologically friendly way to clean up oil spills

Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Solar-powered nanofilters pump in antibiotics to clean contaminated water

Confronting Climate Change: The Quest for Permanent Solutions: A milestone for new carbon-dioxide capture/clean coal technology

Supplying Safe Drinking Water: The first caffeine-‘addicted’ bacteria

Promoting Public Health: Six in 10 people worldwide lack access to flush toilets or other adequate sanitation

Our sustainable future: First mobile app green chemistry fosters sustainable manufacturing of medicines

Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Ancient “Egyptian blue” pigment points to new telecommunications, security ink technology

Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Toward a better cyanide antidote for terrorist attacks and other mass casualty events

Providing nutritious foods: A new, super-nutritious puffed rice for breakfast cereals and snacks

Our Sustainable Future: New twist on using biomass for cosmetic, personal care and antioxidant-containing products

Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Boosting the sensitivity of airport security screening

Combating Disease: Leaves of carob tree, source of chocolate substitute, fight virulent food-poisoning bacteria

Confronting Climate Change: Stop-Gap Measures to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Speed limits on cargo ships could reduce their pollutants by more than half

Supplying Safe Drinking Water: New analysis of drinking water-related gastrointestinal illness

Our Sustainable Future: White rot fungus boosts ethanol production from corn stalks, cobs and leaves

Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Leveraging bacteria in drinking water to benefit consumers

New fuels: The sun and more: Transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity

New Fuels: The Sun and More: Toward super-size wind turbines: Bigger wind turbines do make greener electricity

Promoting Public Health: Green plants reduce pollution on city streets up to eight times more than previously believed

Combating Disease: A non-antibiotic approach for treating urinary tract infections

Our Sustainable Future: Rivers flowing into the sea offer vast potential as electricity source

Promoting Public Health: New, inexpensive paper-based diabetes test ideal for developing countries

Our Sustainable Future: Ancient effect harnessed to produce electricity from waste heat

New Fuels - Biofuels: Real-life scientific tail of the first “electrified snail”

New Fuels - Biofuels: Meeting biofuel production targets could change agricultural landscape

Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: Killer silk - Making silk fibers that kill anthrax and other microbes in minutes

Providing Nutritious Foods: Strong scientific evidence that eating berries benefits the brain

Combating Disease: Adapting personal glucose monitors to detect DNA

Providing Safe Food: Children may have highest exposure to titanium dioxide nanoparticles

New Fuels: Biofuels - Biofuel cell generates electricity when implanted in False Death’s Head Cockroach

Promoting Personal Safety and National Security: New test could help track down and prosecute terrorists who use nerve gas and other agents

Supplying Safe Drinking Water: “Miracle tree” substance produces clean drinking water inexpensively and sustainably

Our Sustainable Future: Peatland carbon storage is stabilized against catastrophic release of carbon

Combating Disease: Turning up the heat to kill cancer cells: “The Lance Armstrong effect”

Promoting Public Health: Household washing machines are a source of potentially harmful ocean “microplastic” pollution

Promoting Public Health: Recycling thermal cash register receipts contaminates paper products with BPA

Developing New Sources of Energy: New type of solar cell retains high efficiency for long periods

Combating Disease: Genetically-engineered spider silk for gene therapy

New Fuels Biofuels: Alligator fat as a new source of biodiesel fuel

Providing Safe Foods: Flooding of farmland does not increase levels of potentially harmful flame retardants in milk

Confronting Climate Change: Using the energy in oil shale without releasing carbon dioxide in a greenhouse world