Sam Miller

Cosmetics from waste? Microbial discovery unlocks greener route to high-value chemical products

Researchers at University of Toronto’s Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry have made a key discovery about how certain bacterial strains produce a set of economically valuable chemicals—opening the door to new, more sustainable production methods. The finding, published in Nature Microbiology, shows how a family of molecules used in everything from cleaning products…

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Inside the Kennedy Center as it prepares for a 2-year renovation

Inside the Kennedy Center as it prepares for a 2-year renovation

WASHINGTON — To President Donald Trump, the Kennedy Center is a “tired, broken, and dilapidated” building in urgent need of repair. To artists like Jane Fonda and Billy Porter, it’s a protest site symbolizing the administration’s effort to reshape the nation’s cultural institutions. For the Kennedy Center’s new leadership, it’s a gargantuan structure corroded by…

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This shoe is made entirely from mushroom ‘brains’

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The fashion industry is ecologically tacky, to put it mildly. Textile manufacturers guzzle around 200 million liters of water every year, while animal leather generates its own immense environmental burdens. But out of everything we wear on any given…

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