Today’s solution addresses the development of a potential vaccine to fight methamphetamine abuse. Methamphetamine abuse costs the United States more than 23 billion annually in medical expenses, law enforcement costs, and lost productivity.

Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions

Promoting Public health: Toward a vaccine for methamphetamine abuse

Today’s solution sounds a warning bell about the much-anticipated new era of nanoagriculture — using nanotechnology to boost the productivity of plants for food, fuel, and other uses.

Providing Safe Foods: Safety of nanoparticles in food crops is still unclear

A study in the American Chemical Society’s journal, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, reports that minced banana peel performs better than an array of other water purification materials and can do so in a sustainable way.

Developing New Materials: Using banana peels to purify water

Today’s solution addresses the development of a “green grid” to more efficiently deliver solar and wind-based electricity.

Our Sustainable Future: A “green grid” for delivering solar and wind-based electricity

A needle-in-the-haystack search through nearly 390,000 chemical compounds has led scientists to a substance that can sneak through the protective barrier surrounding the brain with effects promising for new drugs for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. They report on the substance, which blocks formation of cholesterol in the brain, in the journal, ACS Chemical Biology.

Promoting Public Health: Toward new medication for chronic brain diseases

Today’s solution is A first-of-its-kind nanogenerator that can produce electricity using energy from a gentle breeze, movements of a person walking and other sources and power wireless data transmissions.

Developing New Sources of Energy: Self-powered nanogenerator uses body movements to generate electricity, transmit data wirelessly

Today’s solution explains how manufacturers building hybrids that have excellent gas mileage, can create stronger, lighter, and more sustainable materials for cars and other products, made, in part, out of bananas or pineapples.

Our Sustainable Future: “Green” cars made from pineapples and bananas

Today’s solution is a new blood test that can quickly tell whether patients are infected with an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that’s become a global plague. This superbug is called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or simply MRSA.

Combating Disease: New rapid diagnostic test for MRSA Superbugs

A study published in the American Chemical Society’s journal, ACS Catalysis, reports that scientists have developed a new catalyst that provides an environmentally way to make acrylic acid without using petroleum.

Our Sustainable Future: A greener process for a key ingredient used to make paint, diapers, and other products

With continuing concern about plastic waste accumulating in municipal landfills, and reliance on imported oil to make plastics, scientists have created an ultra-light biodegradable foam plastic material made from two unlikely ingredients.

Our Sustainable Future: Biodegradable plastic from milk and clay

Scientists are reporting evidence that black rice — a little-known variety of the grain that is the staple food for one-third of the world population — may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma, and other diseases.

Promoting Public Health: Black rice bran may fight inflammation

Scientists are reporting development and successful initial tests of an inexpensive new filtering technology that kills up to 98 percent of disease-causing bacteria in water in just seconds without clogging.

Supplying Safe Drinking Water: Electrified nano filter promises to cut costs for clean drinking water

A new study published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology journal provides a compelling new reason not to waste food. It saves energy, lots of money at home and fights global hunger.

Our Sustainable Future: Saving energy by reducing food waste

New research suggests that just five minutes of outdoor activities, such as exercising in a park, working in a backyard garden or walking on a nature trail, will benefit mental health.

In the green of health: Just five minutes of green exercise optimal for good mental health

Bricks, blocks, and steel I-beams — step aside. That’s because scientists are reporting that a new genre of construction materials, made from stuff barely 1/50,000th the width of a human hair, is about to debut in the building of homes, offices, bridges, and other structures. The new report highlights both the potential benefits of these nanomaterials in improving construction materials and the need for guidelines to regulate their use and disposal. The report appears in the monthly journal ACS Nano.

Future Cities: Nanotechnology promises more sustainable buildings, bridges, and other structures

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

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