Rutgers-led studies find microplastics abound in freshwater environments. Generations of Rutgers students and alumni have sung lovingly about the “Banks of the Old Raritan,” but the 90-mile-long waterway is awash in microplastic pollutants, a problem that plagues many freshwaters in New Jersey. In a recent study, researchers from Rutgers University–New Brunswick and other institutions found high levels of tiny pieces of …

Distinguished professor and chair, Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology – (SEBS) – Rutgers, Max Häggblom has been appointed Guest Distinguished Professor at the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental Science & Technology (GDEST) for 2018. He will continue his collaboration on projects on the biogeochemical cycling of metals in soils and environmental pollution control, working with Weimin Sun (a former Postdoc in his …

Peter Strom was awarded the New Jersey Water Environment Association (NJWEA) Wastewater Hall of Fame Award at the NJWEA Conference earlier this month. The award recognizes people from NJWEA who have demonstrated dedication and competitive achievement in the wastewater field. Those that enter the NJWEA Hall of Fame are remarkable, dedicated members that have made an extraordinary contribution to the …

Adhering to Paris Accord could minimize damage, scientists say.  Climate change will force hundreds of ocean fish and invertebrate species, including some of the most economically important to the United States, to move northward, disrupting fisheries in the United States and Canada, a Rutgers University-led study reports. The study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, covers the North American continental …

Gravity of Jupiter and Venus elongates Earth’s orbit every 405,000 years, Rutgers-led study confirms. Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth’s orbit, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet’s climate for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the spread of dinosaurs, according to a …

Near-shore animal becomes plant-like after pilfering tiny solar panels and storing them in its gut. In an amazing achievement akin to adding solar panels to your body, a Northeast sea slug sucks raw materials from algae to provide its lifetime supply of solar-powered energy, according to a study by Rutgers University–New Brunswick and other scientists. “It’s a remarkable feat because …

Johnny J. Quispe, doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution in the School of Graduate Studies, has been selected by the Ecological Society of America (ESA) as a Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award Recipient (GSPA). This award provided graduate students with the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for policy experience and training. They learned …

Scientific diving is essential to Rutgers’ – and its students’ – worldwide leadership in oceanography. This class is helping to open doors for our undergraduates. Breathing through their Scuba gear, Ailey Sheehan and her classmates dropped a new and improved lionfish trap – a hinged net that will help scientists study that invasive fish in the Caribbean – into the …

Agreement between Rutgers and the University of Costa Rica is funded by the National Science Foundation. As of July of this year, the first six students who will work on the project called Geoscience Research at the Cordillera Talamanca (GREAT for its acronym in English) will arrive in the country, this project is part of an agreement between the University …

Didik Prasetyo is dedicated to understanding and protecting the endangered great apes. The great ape was one of several orangutans that Prasetyo and other researchers followed at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station in the Mawas Conservation Area in Indonesia. Prasetyo was skeptical when colleagues said orangutans always remember faces. But five years later, he spotted Jerry again in the same …