The science of dishwashing: Changing habits for a greener world

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Schencking and Stamminger identify best practice tips for manual and electric dishwashing.

By making small changes to our domestic habits, we can make a big difference to global energy use and resource consumption. That’s the message from a new review report, which shows how rethinking the everyday task of washing up can help private households to become significantly more resource efficient. Led by Dr Lotta Schencking and Professor Rainer Stamminger from the […]

Urban water and sanitation reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Access to clean water is critical for human survival.

Many countries in the developing world have undertaken ambitious reforms of their urban water and sanitation. Unfortunately, few have achieved excellent, sustainable results. In his recent book, Empty Buckets and Overflowing Pits, Dr Roland Werchota describes his research into urban water and sanitation sector reforms in four Sub-Saharan African countries, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, and explains why these […]

That’s disgusting! How primates decide what not to eat

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Many species either avoid food contaminated with faeces or thoroughly handle the food, trying to clean it before eating.

All animals need to find a way to avoid contact with pathogens when they are eating. For primates, Dr Cécile Sarabian, based at Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in Japan, shows that many species either avoid food contaminated with faeces or thoroughly handle the food, trying to clean it before eating. For the researcher, this is proof that this behaviour […]