A newly engineered biochar material could offer a powerful and low-cost way to remove toxic pollutants from wastewater, according to a new study published in Biochar. By combining simple chemicals during production, researchers created a material that dramatically improves the performance of advanced oxidation processes widely used in water treatment.

As global agriculture struggles to feed a growing population, soils are under increasing pressure. Heavy fertilizer use has degraded soil quality, disrupted microbial ecosystems, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Now, a new review highlights a promising solution rooted beneath our feet: the powerful partnership between biochar, soil microbes, and plant systems.

Antibiotic contamination in water is a growing global concern, threatening ecosystems and human health. Now, researchers have developed a novel biochar-based nanocomposite that can efficiently remove the widely used antibiotic tetracycline from wastewater using a combination of adsorption and light-driven degradation.

A new study shows that combining water management with biochar application could transform drained agricultural peatlands from greenhouse gas emitters into powerful carbon sinks, offering a promising pathway for climate change mitigation.

A new study reports a breakthrough in sustainable energy materials by transforming biomass into a high-performance catalyst that could replace expensive platinum in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.

Uranium contamination is an urgent environmental challenge with serious implications for ecosystems and human health. A new review highlights how biochar, a carbon-rich material made from waste biomass, could offer a sustainable and cost-effective solution for removing uranium from polluted water and soil.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have uncovered a path to design superionic polymer electrolytes for solid-state batteries and other energy applications that could help ensure a future of abundant and reliable energy for the United States. The scientists demonstrated that by carefully controlling the chemical composition of a lithium salt-based polymer, they could create a material that enables superfast transport of ions in batteries and many other energy storage and conversion technologies.

A research team has uncovered the genomic basis behind why some vine tea varieties accumulate far more dihydromyricetin than others.

Microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer, which accounts for roughly 80–85% of cases, remains largely refractory to immune checkpoint inhibitors compared with microsatellite instability-high tumors. This review synthesizes current evidence on tumor-intrinsic and microenvironmental mechanisms underlying immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance in microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer—including low neoantigen burden and impaired antigen presentation, activation of Wnt/β-catenin and MAPK signaling that exclude T cells, an immunosuppressive cellular milieu (regulatory T cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, M2-like tumor-associated macrophages, cancer-associated fibroblasts), metabolic reprogramming, and gut microbiome dysbiosis—and evaluates translational strategies aimed at overcoming these barriers. Preclinical and early-phase clinical data indicate that rational, mechanism-guided combinations (vascular normalization, myeloid reprogramming, metabolic inhibitors, antigen-priming approaches, and microbiome modulation) can enhance immune infiltration and produce benefits in biomarker-defined subgroups. Moving the field forward will require biomarker-driven, adaptive clinical trials with embedded translational endpoints to optimize patient selection and manage toxicity.