Is there anything sponges can’t do? For many years, humans have used dried natural sponges to paint, clean up and take in water. They are good at catching tiny particles (颗粒) in their many pores. Now, as scientists around the world are beginning to show, sponges’ pore-filled forms mean that they could offer a solution to a big challenge of our time: microplastic (微塑料) pollution.

Recently, Chinese researchers published a study describing their development of a new man-made sponge. Tests show that when a plastic-filled liquid (液体) is pushed through the sponge, it removes the microplastics from the liquid. Though the effectiveness of sponges differed in experiments depending on the concentration (浓度) of the plastics and the nature of the liquid, researchers could remove up to 90% of the microplastics under the most favorable conditions.

These new sponges are made mostly from starch (淀粉) and gelatin (明胶), making them light and easy to transport. According to a materials chemist at Ocean University of China who got involved in the study, researchers can make sponges more or less porous—by changing the temperature when mixing the ingredients. This decides what size particles can be collected—highly porous sponges have lots of very small pores, which is good for catching very tiny particles.

According to the chemist, the sponges, if produced at an industrial level, could be used in wastewater treatment plants or in food production equipment to take away harmful chemicals. It would also be possible to use sponges like this in washing machines to collect microplastics produced when clothes are washed, suggests a chemist from Zurich.

Yet challenges remain. One of them is that starch and gelatin are important to the food industry, meaning that there could be competition for the key ingredients in the future. However, similar sponges can be made with different materials, such as the sugar taken from the shells of certain ocean animals.

Another challenge is that during the process of producing these new sponges, formaldehyde—a highly harmful chemical—is used. Scientists around the world are working to upgrade the production so that they can make a completely environmentally friendly sponge.

As microplastic pollution is getting more serious, these new sponges give us reason to be hopeful. It’s like giving the earth a helping hand to stay clean and healthy.

In the modern world, computers and the Internet are getting more and more popular. Most people think they are very useful in their studies and lives.

The first computer was made in 1946. It was very big and it worked slowly. Today computers are getting smaller and smaller but working faster and faster. At the same time, our world is getting smaller and smaller because of the Internet. The Internet came into the world about twenty-five years later than computers, but it is important, too.

Many students like the Internet so much that they would not like to do anything else. They make friends on the Internet, but maybe they have never seen these friends. Some of the students are cheated by the “online friends”. Because of the Internet, some students can’t work hard at their lessons. Many of them can’t catch up with others on the school subjects. A few of them have to leave school.

We can use computers and the Internet to learn more about the world. But please remember, “Not all good things are good for you.”

Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of all sea animals. About 850 million people depend on them for food and living. But 70%-90% of the world’s coral reefs may disappear by the year of 2050 due to ocean warming and pollution. The Allen Coral Atlas（ACA）, the first real-time global coral reefs map, has been recently created to help turn the situation around.

The map is named after Paul Allen, who provides financial support. With his help, the satellite remote sensing technology was first used to study coral reefs. A team of researchers have taken over 2 million photos of coral reefs around the world at the depth of 15 metres under the sea with this technology. Those underwater photos have been connected with GPS systems by a self-developed software. In this way, the global online map has been built. To make it more correct and detailed, the team reached out to over 900 scientists and organizations from around the world, generously sharing almost 500 of their own datasets of coral reefs. The datasets enable the team to mark the exact locations of the reefs on the map.

▲ . It is updated every two weeks, together with the position information from the GPS system. It allows experts to see real-time information about reefs and work on coral science activities. The ACA has also produced a bleaching monitoring system to make its datasets rich. So experts have an opportunity to monitor the bleaching degrees in the coral reefs and make early decisions to save them. For managers or policy makers, the ACA can help view and deal with geospatial data for decisions about which ocean area should be protected.

The ACA is free online for anyone. This user-friendly interactive platform has functional features such as zoom in, zoom out, mini-map and measure distance. Users are allowed to provide feedback to improve the quality of coral reef data.

In the future, the team hopes to use mapping technology of the ACA in inland areas instead of only focusing on coastlines so that we can better understand the interactions of land and sea.