Solution-processable polymer membranes with hydrophilic subnanometre pores for sustainable lithium extraction.

Membrane-based separation processes hold great promise for sustainable extraction of lithium from brines for the rapidly expanding electric vehicle industry and renewable energy storage. However, it remains challenging to develop high-selectivity membranes that can be upscaled for industrial processes. Here we report solution-processable polymer membranes with subnanometre pores with excellent ion separation selectivity in electrodialysis processes for lithium extraction.

Microplastics in the bloodstream can induce cerebral thrombosis by causing cell obstruction and lead to neurobehavioral abnormalities.

Human health is being threatened by environmental microplastic (MP) pollution. MPs were detected in the bloodstream and multiple tissues of humans, disrupting the regular physiological processes of organs. Nanoscale plastics can breach the blood-brain barrier, leading to neurotoxic effects.

Antarctic and global climate history viewed from ice cores.

A growing network of ice cores reveals the past 800,000 years of Antarctic climate and atmospheric composition. The data show tight links among greenhouse gases, aerosols and global climate on many timescales, demonstrate connections between Antarctica and distant locations, and reveal the extraordinary differences between the composition of our present atmosphere and its natural range of variability as revealed in the ice core record. Further coring in extremely challenging locations is now being planned, with the goal of finding older ice and resolving the mechanisms underlying the shift of glacial cycles from 40,000-year to 100,000-year cycles about a million years ago, one of the great mysteries of climate science.

Observational determination of surface radiative forcing by CO2 from 2000 to 2010.

The climatic impact of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is usually quantified in terms of radiative forcing, calculated as the difference between estimates of the Earth's radiation field from pre-industrial and present-day concentrations of these gases. Radiative transfer models calculate that the increase in CO2 since 1750 corresponds to a global annual-mean radiative forcing at the tropopause of 1.82 ± 0.