In the battle against plastic pollution, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and the materials science company Algenesis have developed a potentially groundbreaking solution: biodegradable microplastics that break down in under seven months. As concerns about the environmental and health impacts of traditional plastics and microplastics continue to mount, this innovation offers

California-based Seatrec Inc. has come up with the first energy source for underwater robots that is completely powered by the environment and allows the devices to operate in the open ocean indefinitely, without any intervention. For ways to generate power, the company's engineers settled on phase-transition materials - that is, substances that transition between phases - typically between a sol