From offices to classrooms: Air filters have been booming since the outbreak of the pandemic. They can be used to remove virus-laden aerosols from rooms and thus reduce the risk of infection. Ideally, filter materials should also be environmentally friendly. For this reason, researchers from the Zuse community have taken a close look at nonwovens made of bioplastics as filter materials and examined them for filter performance and durability.

Eliminating competing wild plants while minimizing the impact on the ecosystem: that is the promise of a newly developed sensor for use in crop protection. Arable plants are always in competition with wild plants for sunlight, water and nutrients. To maximize yields, farmers therefore control wild plants, mostly with herbicides. But pesticides impair soil fertility, accumulate in bodies of water and contribute to species extinction.

Surviving is more important than growing: This obvious insight has also been anchored in trees by evolution, as an international research team with the participation of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biogeochemistry now reports in the scientific journal "PNAS". According to the findings, the spruce trees studied prefer to keep their stores filled when resources are scarce, and even stop growing to do so.

Stress is unhealthy - for both humans and plants. Unlike humans or animals, however, plants cannot avoid stress, e.g., they cannot flee from heat into the shade or into cooler areas. That is why plant cells have a number of adaptation mechanisms. Researchers have now been able to show that the mechanisms in the shoot meristem are particularly effective if the plant has already survived heat.

Living organisms adapt to their respective environment as a result of evolution. This also applies to lichens, which are symbiotic communities of fungi and green algae or cyanobacteria.

What remains after harvesting usually ends up in the biogas plant and is used for energy. The resulting fermentation residues are often taken as fertilizer in agriculture because of their high nutrient content. Researchers from the German Institute of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf have now shown that the recycling chain for fermentation residues does not have to end in the field, but that they can be further processed in industry as a raw material.

Household sponges, mattresses, car seats or insulating walls: it is hard to imagine everyday life without foams, whether hard or soft. However, the production of the petroleum-based material is not very environmentally friendly. Researchers at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences think it's time for a change: Together with partners from seven countries, the team led by polymer chemist Sergiy Grishchuk wants to make foam and composite materials more sustainable.