A trove of lithium-rich brine exists underground in Bolivia. Researchers conducted the first comprehensive chemical analysis of wastewater associated with mining the resource.

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 Patino-Echeverri Lab, learn more about its research focus, lab member's experiences in the lab and the opportunities the lab offers Duke students.

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 endeavors to extricate itself from a carbon economy in favor of clean energy, Lee Ferguson is working to shed light on the potential environmental risks posed by bis-perfluoroalkyl sulfonimides, a primary electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries.

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 Duke University 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Knowing voters have seen news reports about problems caused by failing or outdated public infrastructures in their district makes local officials who face competitive re-elections more inclined to support new spending to repair or replace the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 Duke University and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center underscore the continued importance of local media even as newsrooms shrink nationwide.

Fossil-fueled electrical grid’s enormous water use is often overlooked.

Mixing toxic coal ash into acid mine drainage may sound like an odd recipe for an environmental solution, but a new Duke University-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.

The global supply chain impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. energy security and undercut the myth that the United States — or any major manufacturing economy — is truly energy independent, an analysis by researchers at the energy nonprofit RMI and Duke University finds