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The Duke Critical Minerals Hub was one of three faculty collaborations selected for support through a new internal funding opportunity. The project brings together experts from engineering and the natural and social sciences to establish an interdisciplinary platform for research and education on lithium and other critical minerals.

Much of the world’s lithium occurs in salty waters with fundamentally different chemistry than other naturally saline waters like the ocean, according to a new study published in Science Advances. The finding has implications for lithium mining technologies and wastewater assessment and management.

A team of Nicholas School graduate students conducted field research in Barbados to advance a project aimed at improving climate resilience and energy access for Small Island Developing States.

At the Nicholas School of the Environment, researchers and entrepreneurs are joining forces to solve environmental problems.

A trove of lithium-rich brine exists underground in Bolivia. Researchers conducted the first comprehensive chemical analysis of wastewater associated with mining the resource.

Kidney disease is typically linked to conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, which gradually wear down the kidneys’ delicate systems that keep the body in balance. But the communities that 91�������� researchers Nishad Jayasundara , PhD, and nephrologist Anna Strasma , MD, study are facing a different problem.

Meet the Hunt Lab, learn more about its research focus, a lab member's experience in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers Duke students.

Meet the Patino-Echeverri Lab, learn more about its research focus, lab member's experiences in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers Duke students.

Meet the Stapleton Lab, learn more about its research focus, a postdoc's experience in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers Duke students.

Gulf War Illness (GWI), which affects approximately 250,000 U.S. veterans, has been found to significantly reduce the ability of white blood cells to make energy and creates a measurable biochemical difference in veterans who have the disease. The finding comes from a physician who noticed GWI symptoms paralleled those of mitochondrial diseases. Analysis revealed significantly lower levels of extracellular acidification and oxygen consumption in the white blood cells of veterans with GWI.

As the world endeavors to extricate itself from a carbon economy in favor of clean energy, Lee Ferguson is working to shed light on the potential environmental risks posed by bis-perfluoroalkyl sulfonimides, a primary electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries.

A new study on the impacts of prenatal exposure to toxic metals linked to artisanal gold mining and other sources in Madre de Dios, Peru, finds that mercury has no direct effect on a newborn’s birth weight or gestational age. It’s a different story, though, for lead, which may also be released by mining operations but more likely is consumed when people eat wild game that inadvertently still contains small bullet fragments.

As the world undergoes the great energy transition — from fossil fuels to alternative energy and batteries — rare earth metals are becoming more precious.

91�������� scientists have received a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to study molecular mechanisms that can help our bodies fight respiratory inflammation caused by air pollution.