Today’s good news story come from the TCD newsletter and is some further information on controlling microplastics. Noelle Granger sent this story to me. Thank you, Noelle

Fraternity brothers invent high-tech device that can solve dangerous issue with modern laundry machines: ‘We couldn’t be more proud’

“Finding solutions to reduce pathways of exposure to them is critical.”

Microplastics are a global problem, but three Case Western Reserve University engineering alumni have created a new device to tackle a major source of this pollution.

Max Pennington, along with Sigma Chi fraternity brothers David Dillman and Chip Miller, helped develop a washing machine filtration system called CLEANR that can remove over 90% of microplastic particles before they leave the washing machine and enter the environment, the New York Post reported.

The device was introduced in 2023 at the IFA Berlin appliance industry conference, where the company first showcased its VORTX filtration design that was inspired by the natural filtration system of fish gills.

That core technology employs a novel vortex filtration process that CLEANR says is 300% more efficient than other traditional filters.

The Shaw Institute, a nonprofit science research organization, put the company’s claims to the test and officially certified that it’s over 90% efficient at removing microplastic particles as small as 50 microns from washing machine wastewater.

“We couldn’t be more proud to have worked with CLEANR as part of our new program to validate innovative technology designed to greatly reduce plastic pollution,” said Dr. Charlie Rolsky, executive director of the Shaw Institute, in a press release.

Around 16% to 35% of microplastics in the environment originated from synthetic textiles, according to the European Environment Agency, with the majority of them being released during the first few washes.

Microplastics have even been discovered in remote ecosystems and are permeating our bodies, posing a massive threat to the environment and our health.

The good news in this story is there is another way to combat the release of micro[plastics into the environment. Today’s JohnKu talks about keeping the pressure on eliminating microplastics from our planet. I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

The War by John W. Howell © 2025

Each little battle,

Will add up to a final win . . .

On the plastic war.

Today’s good news story comes from the TCD newsletter and was sent to me by Noelle Granger

Experimental farm uses innovative method to save over a billion gallons of water: ‘If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere’

A cutting-edge farming technique being implemented on an experimental ranch in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert has already saved a billion gallons of water over five years, according to Civil Eats, a news site covering America’s food system.

The water conservation is impressive considering the region was experiencing well over 100 degree heat in spring along with a drought. The National Park Service reported that the average temperature during the three summer months has increased 4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950 because of the overheating planet.

On the 665-acre Oatman Flats Ranch, the team is using special techniques to sustain wheat, barley, and other crops despite the brutal conditions.

“I joke that this farm is a little better than Death Valley, but I’m not really joking,” farm director Yadi Wang said.

The ranch is implementing regenerative organic farming in answer to drying rivers and arid, nutrient-poor dirt. The goal is to improve soil health and biodiversity as well as to limit water use and capture planet-warming carbon with vegetation. Started in 2021, the project has earned accolades and is considered a learning site by the Regenerative Organic Alliance, per Civil Eats.

Regenerative farming uses a mix of strategies, including Indigenous methods dating back thousands of years, to better manage farmland. They include crop rotation, vegetative cover, rotational grazing, and eliminating toxic pesticides and fertilizers, according to the alliance.

Natural fertilizers, for example, have already proved successful at providing bountiful harvests as part of other projects, including tomato research in Italy.

In the Arizona desert, farmers are also dealing with unprecedented droughts. NASA and other experts have linked planetary warming, caused largely by burning fossil fuels, to increased risks for water shortages and extreme weather events.

That’s on top of the poor soil quality, resulting from decades of neglect and conventional farming practices. As a result, the Oatman team is rebuilding irrigation systems, clearing invasive trees, and using other regenerative practices.

Water-conserving crops were added to combat drought and overdraw from nearby farms that grow acres of alfalfa and corn for feed and fuels. The land also got a healthy dose of manure, all according to Civil Eats.

Sheep are natural mowers that also leave fertilizing droppings. Other species that have long been absent are returning, including dragonflies. Wang said the insects are proof of the advancements in water conservation.

“If we’re going to hold on to farmland, we need a significant change in how we farm and what we farm,” ranch owner Dax Hansen added.

It’s a mindset that can be applied in any environment at nearly any scale. At home, you can cultivate a sustainable backyard by letting nature take over. Natural lawns with native blooming plants can also boost local pollinator health. Government experts say that 35% of the world’s food supply is reliant on struggling pollinators.

In Arizona, the ranchers also have them in mind. They spent $100,000 on native hedgerows that also help to retain soil and provide habitat for bees, birds, and other species, according to Civil Eats.

The team intends to continue restoring farmland in the extreme conditions. The project has been bolstered by government funds, but the goal is for a sustainable, “financially viable” system, per Civil Eats.

“You’ve seen what the land looks like in five years; imagine it in 10,” Hansen said. “If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.”

The good news in this story is that regenerative farming methods work. Today’s JohnKu talks about taking care of nature. I hope you have a lovely week.

Nature by John W. Howell © 2025

Nature has a way,

To reward good stewardship . . .

She gives back in spades.

Today’s good news story comes from Twisted Sifter and was sent to me by Noelle Granger.

Anyone who has had their heart broken by images of dolphins or sea turtles struggling or even dying because they got tangled up in plastic waste will know exactly why single-use plastics are hated.

Not only are these materials wasteful, they are also highly polluting and difficult to dispose of. If it ever does break down, it can take hundreds or even thousands of years, after which time microplastics still remain.

And what’s worse is the sheer volume of plastic that isn’t properly disposed of, meaning that it often drifts out in our waterways and ends up in our oceans.

It’s no wonder that 99% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is comprised of plastic.

Plenty of plastic alternatives have been rolled out, and that’s definitely a good thing.

From paper and cardboard packaging replacing the plastic that has proliferated our stores for decades, to refill stores selling loose items with the ability to fill your own containers, it’s great to see manufacturers and retailers doing their bit to help our planet and its valuable, vulnerable ecosystems.

But there are still some situations in which plastic is needed, for example where liquids are involved. And thus, researchers in Japan have been working on creating viable biodegradable alternatives to plastic in order to fill this gap in the market.

And according to their paper, which has been recently published in the journal Science Advances, they’ve had a breakthrough.

Isobe et al/Science Advances

When it came to the creation of their replacement plastic product, the team were driven by the acknowledgement that even with the best intentions, some waste items are still likely to end up in our oceans. As such, they explain in their paper, they created a material suitable for this:

“To mitigate marine pollution from single-use plastics, it is crucial to transition to next-generation commodity materials that are derived from biomass and are recyclable and marine biodegradable even at abyssal depths in case of the accidental release to the ocean.”

Thus the product that they have created – known as transparent paperboard (tPB) – has been proven to fully disintegrate even in the most challenging of aquatic conditions in under a year.

But if this is the case, would it still be effective in holding liquids? Well, as the researchers explain, the transparent paperboard (which, like paper, is made of cellulose from plants) is capable of carrying boiling water for hours without leaking:

“The tPB is made entirely of pristine cellulose and compositionally identical to paper. A cup-shaped tPB can hold just-boiled water without an internal film coating because of its high wet tensile properties and anisotropic thermal properties.”

And with a thin coating, this transparent material can hold all kinds of liquids for even longer.

Isobe et al/Science Advances

The real cherry on top of their sustainable product is the fact that the product not only breaks down into harmless molecules in water, but that it is fully recyclable too:

“The spent tPB is material recyclable in a closed system, where all chemicals and water are also recyclable. Furthermore, the marine biodegradability of tPB across shallow to abyssal depths is confirmed by on-site degradation tests and metagenomic analyses. Hence, tPB is expected to serve as a key fully circular commodity material in sustainable societies of the future.”

There is one small downside to the recycling of tPB, and that is that the recycled material is a little less transparent that its predecessor.

But in a world in which our climate and all of our most vital ecosystems are at risk, is fully clear packaging really a priority?

Thanks to the hard work of this team, for whom further testing is underway, we might be a whole lot closer to being free from single-use plastics forever.

The good news in this story is that there is more work being done to eliminate single use plastics. Today’s John Ku looks forward to the day when single use plastics are a thing of the past. I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

Single Use by John W. Howell ©2025

Imagine the sea,

With no plastic any where . . .

Healthy is the norm.

Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network.

Envisioned as a way to provide water to communities whose groundwater is too brackish to drink, the device’s real trick is adjusting its desalination activity in response to the amount of solar power it produces.

Multiple times every second, the central control module takes readings of the strength of the sunlight and pumps correspondingly more or less water through the electrodialysis membrane stack. This innovation allows the whole package to skip the necessity for battery storage for times when the panels are producing more energy than the system is using.

No batteries means much lower costs and shipping weight, making it ideal for rural communities in arid parts of the Global South or southern United States with ample yearly sunshine and brackish groundwater.

Electrodialysis is one of two methods for desalinating water, with the other being reverse osmosis. Both have drawbacks at both the micro and macro scale, and in the case of electrodialysis, it requires electricity, which is typically produced by fossil fuels. Renewables have replaced them before, but challenges persist.

“The majority of the population actually lives far enough from the coast that seawater desalination could never reach them. They consequently rely heavily on groundwater, especially in remote, low-income regions,” says Jonathan Bessette, MIT PhD student in mechanical engineering and co-author on the project.

“[U]nfortunately, this groundwater is becoming more and more saline due to climate change. This technology could bring sustainable, affordable clean water to under-reached places around the world.”

For Bessette and the team behind the invention, their biggest challenge was establishing feedback mechanisms in the system that were sharp enough to detect minute changes in sunlight, for example, if a whisp of cloud passes by.

Over months of testing and improvements, their “flow command-current control” module gradually reached the point at which 94% of the solar power generated by the panels was utilized immediately to pump water through the desalination system without any lag and any transfer of power to a battery.

During a 6-month field trial at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the system produced 5,000 liters of water per day despite large swings in weather and available sunlight.

“Conventional desalination technologies require steady power and need battery storage to smooth out a variable power source like solar,” explains Amos Winter, a decorated professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “Being able to make drinking water with renewables, without requiring battery storage, is a massive grand challenge. And we’ve done it.”

Amos and Bessette are now looking to form a company to develop the technology into a product to help water-stressed communities worldwide.

The good news about this story is that fresh water can be made without using fossil fuels. Today’s JohnKu talks about chipping away at innovation. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Perseverance by John W. Howell © 2025

Big problems exist,

Continued working on them . . .

produces results.

Today’s good news story comes from the blog #PassItOn. 

It was sent to me by Monika, the head rancher at Tales Around the Ranch blog

Teen Helps Keep 655,000 Batteries Out of Landfills.

May 13, 2025 by By Cathy Stack

EDISON, New Jersey—A 10-year-old started a nationwide movement with a campaign to keep discarded batteries out of landfills.

After watching the news with his family and seeing a waste disposal plant fire that had been caused by a lithium-ion battery, Sri Nihal Tammana decided to do some research. He learned that people discard 15 billion batteries each year, and most end up in landfills. These batteries can create toxic chemical pollution and dangerous fires.

Motivated to tackle the environmental hazard, Sri Nihal began collecting batteries in his neighborhood. After recruiting volunteers to help, the effort soon laid the groundwork for developing a full-scale non-profit program.

When Sri Nihal began his environmental movement, he collected the batteries and then took them to a retail store that offered a recycling program. To his disappointment, the store notified him that he would have to discontinue his effort due to the bin’s limited capacity.

Determined to continue the program, Sri Nihal contacted Call2Recycle to form a partnership. Call2Recycle agreed to provide free, fire-proof recycling bins for school libraries and various business offices. Encouraged, Sri Nihal then contacted his school district’s superintendent for permission to place the bins in the school district’s 19 schools, which he received. Then he recruited students to volunteer their time to distribute the bins.

The program has now evolved into a non-profit organization, Recycle My Battery, which installs the battery recycling bins in strategic public places. To date, nearly 655,000 batteries have been deposited in these bins and kept out of landfills. The organization also educates millions about the importance of preventing environmental harm by recycling batteries.

“If I can make Earth a better place to live, you can!” encourages Sri Nihal. “If you can make Earth a better place to live, we all can!”

Battery recycling provides several environmental benefits. Keeping batteries out of landfills prevents harmful elements and chemicals, such as mercury and lead, from seeping into groundwater. Recycling these materials also conserves natural resources, which helps prevent further pollution from extraction processes. It also aids in the prevention of dangerous fires.

Recycle My Battery has grown to a team of 900 passionate student volunteers. There are 1,000 bins in schools, libraries, and businesses nationwide.

Students can start a school-based battery recycling challenge by signing up on the Recycle My Battery website. Individuals can also visit the website to request a battery recycling bin or to start a chapter in their own community.

“Earth gives us so much – oxygen, food, water – everything!”– so it’s important that we give something back when we can,” Sri Nihal said.

In 2022, Sri Nihal received the CNN Heroes Young Wonder Award for his work creating Recycle My Battery.

Now 16, he continues to spread the movement. Through media news outlets, school programs and corporate workshops, he increases public awareness about the program and its impact on the environment. He has delivered two TED talks in which he discusses the hazards of battery waste and solutions to address the problem. He and his team also set a Guinness World Record for laying out the longest line of batteries.

“Through education, innovation, and advocacy, I aim to mobilize millions more changemakers and ensure a cleaner, safer planet for future generations—one battery at a time,” said Sri Nihal.

The Foundation and PassItOn believe that Sri Nihal is a hero. His inspiring action is a great example of making a difference. His work provides a powerful reminder that through passion, dedication, and action, we can all make a positive change in the world.

Here is a link to learn more about this effort.

The good news is that a youngster started a movement to help reduce waste. The reason this is good news is recycled batteries are processed to recover valuable materials, including metals and plastics, which are then reused in new products, including new batteries. The process typically involves shredding, sorting, and then either melting or dissolving the components for materials recovery.  Today’s JohnKu talks about involvement. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks again for this inspiring story, Monika.

Action by John W. Howell © 2025

Some curse the darkness,

Others take action for light . . .

Which side are we on?

Today’s story comes from the Good News Network.

If the man on the street had to guess the best metric for healthy aging, they might say blood pressure, cholesterol levels, lean muscle mass, blood triglycerides, or even telomere length if they follow aging science closely.

But it turns out that one of the best is grip strength. According to Joshua Davis at the University of Derby, UK, this relatively underdeveloped conditioning area is increasingly recognized as one of the most reliable markers of human health.

Grip strength is associated with positive health outcomes, whether measuring for diabetes risk or depression, and you don’t need any expensive equipment to measure it. Davis recommends you simply pop the top off a can of tennis balls.

“Being able to maintain a maximal squeeze on something like a tennis ball for 15-30 seconds would be a good standard to strive for,” Davis told the BBC.

It’s not necessarily the case that being the one in the house whose hands are the most capable of opening a stubborn pickle jar means you’ll live the longest. Instead, it’s the case that grip strength is an efficient proxy for total muscle conditioning, which is itself an excellent proxy for overall nutrition, physical activity, and disease profiles. In other words, it’s a proxy for a proxy.

For example, the BBC report cites one study that found grip strength to be an effective predictor of sarcopenia, the decline in muscle conditioning associated with aging, strongly correlated with mortality. Another study found that of those in middle age who had their grip strength measured in 1965, the ones who lived to be 100 were 2.5 times more likely to have had grip strength results in the highest third.

Yet another paper found that grip strength has a prognostic value for human longevity that exceeds blood pressure, one of the vital signs controlled for in every hospital patient.

It’s almost certainly not the case that developing grip strength alone will protect against disease and early mortality; as mentioned above, it’s a proxy for overall muscle conditioning.

There’s an old saying in medicine: “Break your hip, die of pneumonia.”

Muscle mass is one of the best defenses against the ravages of age. It cushions the joints and bones and provides protection from falls and the subsequent fractures that gave rise to this ghastly adage. It also soaks up excess glucose in the blood to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance.

The BBC also spoke with Mark Peterson, a physical medicine and rehabilitation professor at the University of Michigan. Peterson conducted a 2022 study that found that deep down in our DNA, patterns of methylated molecules in those with weak grip strength indicated they were aging at an accelerated rate.

If you don’t have a grip dynamometer to measure precisely how much force your handshake can exert, you can always perform the tennis ball test.

The good news in this article is not the grip as an indicator of overall health, but the idea of the benefits of continuing exercises to maintain muscle mass. Is it worth it? Yes. Today’s JohnKu talks about health. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Our Future by John W. Howell © 2025

When it comes to health,

We are in charge of our own. . .

Don’t stop exercise.

Today’s good news story comes from the Good News Network.

No AC Needed in India’s Heat: Inside Gujarat’s Eco-Friendly ‘Cool House’

Western India is home to one of the hottest deserts on Earth, and the residents of the western states of Rajasthan and Gujarat have traditionally used architecture to keep cool.

Utilizing principles of thermodynamics, one house in the city of Bharuch, where temperatures can hover at 110°F for days during the summer, stays cool all day and all summer without ever needing the air conditioning switched on.

In fact, the building’s interior is a breezy, green, “introverted space” that passively cools the air inside by a whopping 18°F, all using simple science.

“We used the direction of the winds, design, and cooling materials to lower the heat of the house,” Samira Rathod, the principal architect of the ‘Cool House’ and founder of Samira Rathod Design Atelier (SRDA), told The Better India, reporting on the story.

“The plot had three buildings around it and a road on one side. The only view that the house would have was the neighbor’s building. An introverted house was a good choice in that sense. It is basically one where the house opens up when you go inside it. It would look like a rather closed structure from the outside,” she explains.

Indeed, it might even be called depressing, as its front door is hidden between two giant, 18-inch-thick facades of gray and black. But inside, a design reminiscent of a railroad track sees the rooms divided on either side of a giant split in the house, built to align with the current of the wind off the ocean.

Bharuch is situated on the Indian Ocean, and despite the scorching temperatures, a breeze is present throughout much of the city at various times during the day. The narrow slit in the house leverages the Venturi effect, which states that the narrower the space an element must pass through, the faster and colder it becomes.

The principle can be seen in human breath, which emerges hot through an open mouth but cool through pursed lips. The same effect can be seen in rivers, where narrow channels cause the water to speed up and form rapids, while wide, flat lands cause the water to slow down.

The wind from the sea enters the split and hits an interior courtyard where a pool of water cools it down further. Entering the 10,500 square foot home interior, a second courtyard aids in circling it around each room, where the family lives with three generations.

“The house looks inwards and we have created courtyards with trees so it feels like you are looking outside rather than inside,” said Rathod.

GNN has previously reported on Indian architecture in this part of the country. Natural designs like envelopes, air channels, and even “wind towers” could, and probably should, become standard designs in parts of the world where temperatures are predicted to rise, such as the southwest United States or Southern Europe.

In Rajasthan’s city of Bhilwara, a “House of Arches” ensures that no part of the building is exposed to the sun thanks to a building envelope that provides shade and air circulation.

The science lies in the separation of the envelope from the house itself. Even as the sun’s rays heat the envelope, wind and moisture evaporation can penetrate the space between the house and the envelope to reduce the radiant heat that enters the living areas.

The good news in this story is that it is possible to engineer structures with features that can reduce the need for electricity for cooling. Today’s JohnKu talks about new thinking. I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Progress by John W. Howell © 2025

Demand reduction,

May be the solution at hand . . .

To solve climate change.