91ÉçÇø¸£Àû

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.

For her senior thesis, former Climate Scholar Kendra Rentz studied how physiology affects heat exposure risk among Durham residents. She will continue examining the local impacts of extreme heat as a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University.

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.

Satellite records show spectacular vegetation growth coinciding with the first year of the pandemic. Researchers investigated whether lockdowns played a role.

Urban ecologists developed a new approach to understanding biodiversity patterns in cities. The work could inform efforts to improve access to nature’s benefits.

Meet the PlanetLab, learn more about its research focus, lab members' experiences in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers Duke students.

Duke study reveals low levels of common contaminants but high levels of other elements in waters associated with an abandoned lithium mine.

An international team of scientists has revealed high levels of toxic metals in global phosphate fertilizers using a variant of the element strontium to uncover such metals in soil, groundwater and possibly the food chain.

Meet the Vengosh Lab, learn more about its research focus, PhD students' experience in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers Duke students.

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

A new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû study finds that municipal waste incinerators' legacy of contamination could live on in urban soils.

Knowing voters have seen news reports about problems caused by failing or outdated public infrastructures in their district makes local officials who face competitive re-elections more inclined to support new spending to repair or replace the aging structures, a survey of city and county officials in 49 states shows. Findings from the survey by 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center underscore the continued importance of local media even as newsrooms shrink nationwide.

Mixing toxic coal ash into acid mine drainage may sound like an odd recipe for an environmental solution, but a new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû-led study finds that it can neutralize the drainage’s dangerously low pH and help reduce harmful impacts on downstream ecosystems—if you use the right type of ash. Using the wrong type of ash can create new contamination and not tame the drainage’s extreme acidity.

By distinguishing between lead from modern sources and lead from pre-1970s vehicle exhaust fumes and leaded paint, the new test may be especially useful for assessing the hidden risks of legacy contamination.

Clouds of smoke and ash from wildfires that ravaged Australia in 2019 and 2020 triggered widespread algal blooms in the Southern Ocean thousands of miles downwind to the east, a new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû-led study by an international team of scientists finds.