Just add iron: Stevens researchers develop a clever way to remove forever chemicals from water

Iron powder outperforms activated carbon as adsorbent for PFOS – even when it rusts  

Stevens Institute of Technology

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Doctoral student Meng Ji working in the lab with Stevens professors Xiaoguang Meng and Christos Christodoulatos.

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Credit: Courtesy Stevens Institute of Technology

Hoboken, N.J., May 27, 2025 — PFOS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are synthetic compounds popular for several commercial applications like making products resistant to stains, fire, grease, soil and water. They have been used in non-stick cookware, carpets, rugs, upholstered furniture, food packaging and firefighting foams deployed at airports and military airfields. PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate or perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) are part of the larger class of forever chemicals called PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.) Both types have been linked to a variety of health issues, including liver disease, immune system malfunction, developmental issues and cancer.  

Because of their widespread use, PFOS are found in soil, agricultural products and drinking water sources, presenting a health risk. Xiaoguang Meng and Christos Christodoulatos, professors at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. student Meng Ji working in their lab, wanted to identify the most efficient way to remove these toxins from the water.  

Most water filters use activated carbon to remove forever chemicals and other contaminants. Activated carbon removes PFOS through a process called adsorption, in which the PFOS molecules stick to the large, porous surface area of the carbon particles as the water flows through them.    

However, in the wastewater industry, iron powder — in scientific terms called microscale zero-valent iron or mZVI — is also used to remove contaminants from the effluent. “Iron powder is commonly used for water treatment and wastewater treatment, because it's cheap — it's cheaper than activated carbon,” says Meng. They wanted to compare the adsorption potency of iron powder and activated carbon.  

They found that iron powder was a better water purifier. “The iron powder was 26 times more effective than activated carbon per unit surface area,” says Ji. Researchers outlined their findings in the study titled Kinetic and Mechanism Study of PFOS Removal by Microscale Zero-Valent Iron from Water, published in ACS Publications on March 19, 2025.  

More interestingly, the team found that even when the iron powder rusted from being in the water, its adsorption properties weren’t affected much. “The particles’ surface is covered by iron oxide, but it's still very active,” says Meng — and that’s surprising. It means that the oxidized iron still contributes to PFOS removal. The unexpected findings made the study popular with other researchers, Meng says. Although published recently, the paper has already been viewed over 1000 times.  

 Meng and Ji are planning to investigate this phenomenon further. “Now we need to do more research to find out why,” Meng says. “Because this is important for the development of large-scale removal technologies.” 

 

About Stevens Institute of Technology 

Stevens Institute of Technology is a premier, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey, overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Since our founding in 1870, technological innovation and entrepreneurship have been the hallmark of Stevens’ education and research. Within the university’s schools, Stevens prepares its more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students for an increasingly complex and technology-centric world. Our exceptional students collaborate closely with world-class faculty in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment, readying them to fuel the innovation economy. Academic and research programs spanning finance, computing, engineering and the arts expand the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront the most challenging problems of our time. Stevens is consistently ranked among the nation’s leaders in ROI and career services and is in the top 1% nationally of colleges with the highest-paid graduates.

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Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Kinetic and Mechanism Study of PFOS Removal by Microscale Zero-Valent Iron from Water

 

Poop news: How does digestion affect molecular analysis of owl pellets?

Researchers examine popular method of studying elusive animals

University of Cincinnati

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University of Cincinnati graduate Maddie Greenwood works in Professor Brooke Crowley's lab.

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Credit: Jay Yocis

Scientists are using isotopes to answer a surprising variety of questions about the world, according to University of Cincinnati Professor Brooke Crowley.

Isotopes are different forms of the same element that researchers can use like a fingerprint to identify where and when something lived and even what that place was like.

“Isotopic analysis is coming into its heyday. In the last five to 10 years, there has been a tremendous explosion of research analyses.”

In Crowley’s Stable Isotope Ecology course, students come up with creative questions and applications for isotopic analysis and carry out small group projects.

“Does shade-grown coffee look different from sun-grown? Absolutely,” she said.

“What about cage-free eggs or free-range chickens versus the alternative? Yes,” she said.

“Does digestion affect the ratios of isotopes?” The answer is yes, according to a study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

“What goes in is isotopically different from what comes out,” researchers concluded.

The research was led by UC College of Arts and Sciences graduate Maddie Greenwood, initially as part of a class project, and then as a senior research project. The research team was completed by Rachel Reid, a research scientist from Virginia Tech.

They collected the droppings and regurgitated pellets from two captive animals at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden: a Eurasian eagle owl and red-tailed hawk, both of which subsist on a diet of frozen rats. The acidic digestive system of the hawk helped it digest more bone than that of the owl,  but both leave behind at least some bone in their pellets and droppings.

The researchers compared the ratios of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium isotopes in the rats to those found in the bird poop and pellets. And there were significant differences, Crowley said. They concluded that the influence of digestion on bone is large enough to affect interpretations of diet and ingested strontium.

“The results were not what we were expecting,” she said.

Increasingly, scientists are turning to isotopes in poop to non-invasively study wild animals that are rare or difficult to track like jaguars. They also use bones from small animals to help establish what environmental conditions were in the past. However, remains of small animals in archaeological and paleontological settings are often accumulations of bones regurgitated by birds of prey like owls.

“Researchers should use caution if using potentially digested bone to evaluate the diet of consumed prey, establish strontium baselines or infer past climate or environmental conditions,” the study warned.

“This is significant for anyone using rodent bones to identify prey locations or climate and other environmental conditions,” Crowley said. “But by no means is it the end of the story. More work needs to be done.”

UC's Greenwood said the results demonstrate how insightful isotopic analysis can be to answer questions about the natural world. 

“I think it’s incredibly rewarding. Just like anything in science, we figure out new ways to use this tool and new ways to make it helpful. I appreciate being a part of that,” she said.

  

Researchers studied droppings and pellets of a Eurasian eagle owl at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

 hawk. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati studied droppings and pellets from an eagle owl and a red-tailed hawk to learn how digestion in raptors affects isotopic analysis.

Credit

Michael Miller

University of Cincinnati Professor Brooke Crowley, left, works with student Maddie Greenwood in the professor's lab.

Credit

Jay Yocis

Journal

Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1002/ece3.71211 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Is What Comes out the Same as What Goes in? A Preliminary Investigation of the Isotopic Impacts of Digestion by Red-Tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) and Eurasian Eagle Owls (Bubo bubo)

Article Publication Date

26-May-2025

 

The silent force behind online echo chambers? Your Google search

Tulane University

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In an era defined by polarized views on everything from public health to politics, a new Tulane University study offers insight into why people may struggle to change their minds—especially when they turn to the internet for answers.

Researchers found that people often use search engines in ways that unintentionally reinforce their existing beliefs. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that even unbiased search engines can lead users into digital echo chambers—simply because of how people phrase their search queries.

"When people look up information online—whether on Google, ChatGPT or new AI-powered search engines—they often pick search terms that reflect what they already believe (sometimes without even realizing it),” said lead author Eugina Leung, an assistant professor at Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business. “Because today’s search algorithms are designed to give you ‘the most relevant’ answers for whatever term you type, those answers can then reinforce what you thought in the first place. This makes it harder for people to discover broader perspectives.”

Across 21 experiments involving nearly 10,000 participants, researchers tested how people search for information on major platforms. Whether users were researching caffeine, nuclear energy, crime rates or COVID-19, their search terms tended to be framed in a way that aligned with their preexisting opinions.

For example, people who believe caffeine is healthy might search “benefits of caffeine,” while skeptics might type “caffeine health risks.” Those subtle differences steered them toward drastically different search results, ultimately reinforcing their original beliefs.

The effect persisted even when participants had no intention of confirming a bias. In a few studies, fewer than 10% admitted to deliberately crafting their search to validate what they already thought, yet their search behavior still aligned closely with their beliefs.

The issue isn’t just how people search and how search engines respond. Most are designed to prioritize relevance, showing results closely tied to the exact words a user types. But that relevance can come at the cost of perspective.

This dynamic held true even for AI-based tools like ChatGPT. Although AI responses often briefly mentioned opposing views, users still came away with stronger beliefs that matched the slant of their original query.

The researchers tested several ways to encourage users to broaden their views. Simply prompting users to consider alternative perspectives or perform more searches had little effect. However, one approach worked consistently: changing the algorithm.

When search tools were programmed to return a broader range of results—regardless of how narrow the query was—people were more likely to reconsider their beliefs. In one experiment, participants who saw a balanced set of articles about caffeine health effects walked away with more moderate views and were more open to changing their behavior.

Users rated the broader results equally useful and relevant as the narrowly tailored ones. The findings suggest that search platforms could be crucial in combating polarization—if designed to do so. The researchers even found that most people were interested in using a “Search Broadly” feature—a button (conceptualized as doing the opposite of Google’s current “I’m feeling Lucky” button) that would intentionally deliver diverse perspectives on a topic.

“Because AI and large-scale search are embedded in our daily lives, integrating a broader-search approach could reduce echo chambers for millions (if not billions) of users,” Leung said. “Our research highlights how careful design choices can tip the balance in favor of more informed, potentially less polarized societies.”

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2408175122 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The narrow search effect and how broadening search promotes belief updating

 

Employees assigned more complex projects early in their work history had better outcomes later in their careers

Study highlights pivotal role of early assignments in career development

Carnegie Mellon University

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Employees’ early work experiences in an organization can significantly affect their socialization. Much of the research on this topic has documented how certain organization-wide practices succeed or fail in making newcomers so-called good citizens, but little is known about how different early experiences lead to varied socialization outcomes. In a new study, researchers examined the impact of early project team assignments on newcomers’ career kickoffs. They found that those assigned to more complex projects during this phase had better outcomes later in their careers.

The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Kentucky, appears in Academy of Management Journal.

“It is critical to explore organizational socialization practices that simultaneously support newcomers’ on-the-job learning and drive their status attainment, and to identify the conditions under which these practices yield optimal outcomes,” explains David Krackhardt, professor of organizations at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, who coauthored the study. “This is especially important in the dynamic and rapidly evolving high-tech industry, where early career experiences can have a profound and enduring impact on employees’ future performance and career progression, and the value they bring to their organizations.”

New hires are a growing part of many organizations’ workforce: Nearly a quarter of U.S. workers have been with their employer for less than a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The initial phase of an employee’s tenure is crucial because has the potential to exert far-reaching effects on careers over the long term.

In this study, researchers used longitudinal archival data from a private high-tech Chinese company focused on the research, development, and commercialization of new products in the space industry. Between January 2020 and December 2022, the firm randomly assigned more than 500 employees to projects during their first two years on the job.

The study sought to answer three questions: What features of on-the- job experiences generate early career benefits for newcomers? Through what mechanisms do these benefits occur? Who is best positioned to capitalize on these experiences?

New employees who were assigned to more complex projects obtained more professional certifications, reported higher levels of learning, and appeared more frequently in the company’s newsletters than did new employees assigned to less complex projects, the study found. These outcomes were associated with higher promotion rates, increased monetary rewards, and better supervisor evaluations.

The study also found that previous experience in a similar industry amplified the positive effects of project complexity on employees’ learning and status attainment. Researchers concluded that these two aspects of socialization—learning and status achievement—were fundamentally independent of one another.

“Our study is the first to consider status attainment as a key indicator of successful socialization by examining how on-the-job experiences during the entry period influence newcomers’ integration into an organization’s informal status hierarchy,” says Nynke Niezink, assistant professor of statistics and data science at Carnegie Mellon and an affiliated member of the faculty of Heinz college, who coauthored the study. “Our findings underscore the pivotal role of early assignments in shaping newcomers’ career development.”

“Being assigned to projects with high coordination and component complexity gives newcomers substantial learning and status benefits, which subsequently unfold as advantages to promotion and performance,” adds Shihan Li, assistant professor of management at the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics, who led the study. “And prior accumulated human capital plays a crucial role in enabling newcomers to effectively capitalize on their assignments to complex projects.”

Among the study’s limitations, the authors note that their measures of status may not fully capture the nuances that exist in all firms. In addition, they did not consider such factors as intrinsic motivation and a sense of meaningfulness in work.

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Journal

Academy of Management Journal

DOI

10.5465/amj.2023.1057 

Article Title

The Roles of Learning and Status Attainment in Successful Newcomer Socialization: Random Assignments to Complex Projects and Early Career Outcomes

Article Publication Date

27-May-2025

One in three US youth with mental health crisis spent over 12 hours in emergency department waiting for psychiatric bed

Youth with public insurance were more likely to experience prolonged ED stays, highlighting inequities in psychiatric care access

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

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Approximately one in three pediatric mental health Emergency Department (ED) visits resulting in admission or transfer exceeded 12 hours, and over one in eight exceeded 24 hours, according to estimates based on nationally representative data from 2018 to 2022. Seven in 10 of all kids staying in the ED over 12 hours were there for suicidal thoughts or attempt, and over half for aggressive behaviors. Findings were published in the Journal of American College of Emergency Physicians.

“Our study underscores significant issues with access to mental health care for children and adolescents, who often face prolonged ED stays because a psychiatric bed is not available,” said lead author Jennifer Hoffmann, MD, MS, Behavioral Health Medical Director, Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “As the youth mental health crisis continues, we have been seeing more severe psychiatric conditions in the ED. Most of these kids seek emergency care at adult hospitals, which often have more limited pediatric resources compared to children’s hospitals and might not be prepared to provide the necessary supports.”

The study sample was representative of all pediatric ED visits for mental health concerns in the U.S., with only 1 percent occurring at children’s hospitals. Dr. Hoffmann pointed out that given this situation, continued funding is essential for the Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC), a federal program that provides training to non-pediatric hospitals across the country in the efficient and effective care for youth in the ED.

Dr. Hoffmann and colleagues evaluated records that represented 5.9 million mental health ED visits by children 5-17 years old in a four-year period. An estimated 1.4 million of these visits resulted in admission or transfer.

The study found that youth with public insurance were more likely to remain in the ED for more than 12 hours waiting for a psychiatric bed, which highlights inequities in accessing mental health services.

“Differences in reimbursement rates for psychiatric services, which are often lower with public relative to private insurance, may contribute to inequities in care access,” said Dr. Hoffmann.

In addition to the needed improvements in Medicaid reimbursement rates for pediatric mental health care and sustained funding for EMSC, Dr. Hoffmann suggested several potential solutions to increase mental health care access for youth. These include greater use of telehealth, school-based mental health services and integrating mental health care into primary care. She also mentioned the emerging psychiatric urgent care clinics, as well as free-standing psychiatric EDs, which might help respond to the growing demand for these services in children and adolescents.

The study was funded by the Pediatric Pandemic Network.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is a nonprofit organization committed to providing access to exceptional care for every child. It is the only independent, research-driven children’s hospital in Illinois and one of less than 35 nationally. This is where the top doctors go to train, practice pediatric medicine, teach, advocate, research and stay up to date on the latest treatments. Exclusively focused on children, all Lurie Children’s resources are devoted to serving their needs. Research at Lurie Children’s is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, which is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children’s is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. It is ranked as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. Emergency medicine-focused research at Lurie Children’s is conducted through the Grainger Research Program in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.  

 

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DOI

10.1016/j.acepjo.2025.100180 

 

Yale launches Center for Civic Thought to promote thoughtful discourse

Yale University

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New Haven, Conn. — Immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, a group of 10 Yale students from a variety of backgrounds convened on campus to discuss the unthinkable.

Brought together by the university’s Civic Thought Initiative (CTI), which encourages open dialogue on difficult issues in small, seminar-style settings, the group included Jewish students with diverging views on Israel, students who were active advocates for Palestinians in Gaza, and a former childhood war refugee.

“Understandably, it was an emotionally charged and difficult conversation,” recalled Enza Jonas-Giugni, a recent Yale College graduate who at the time was a student fellow with the program. “And yet, instead of talking past one another, remaining entrenched in previously formed views about the conflict, or descending into hostility, we grieved, asked questions about parts of the conflict’s history that we remained ignorant of or uncertain about, and confronted the tough questions head on.”

In 2019, Yale political scientist Bryan Garsten created CTI in response to what he saw as a hunger among students to engage in intellectual discussions on important issues, but in an environment that encouraged them to try out ideas and hear from people with a range of political and philosophical perspectives. Now, six years later, Yale is building on that small initiative with the launch of a new nonpartisan Center for Civic Thought.

The mission of the center is “to encourage a thoughtful public discourse  and a civically responsible intellectual life,” said Garsten, a professor of political science and humanities in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the center’s director.

“We all have a stake in making our shared civic life more thoughtful,” said Yale President Maurie McInnis. “The new Center for Civic Thought acknowledges the important role Yale plays in helping to cultivate habits of thought and support free expression, on campus and beyond, that are so essential for the future of higher education and our nation.”

According to Garsten, the center will encourage civic thinking that draws on and integrates various forms of knowledge — academic research, practical experiences, history, classic texts of philosophy, literature, and political thought — to inform citizens’ practical judgements. It will provide the stimulus for this broad-based thinking by convening conversations, creating classes and curricula, and supporting research.

And when it officially opens on July 1, it will work on furthering these goals at three levels: on campus, in the broader New Haven community, and nationally.

“It’s a difficult moment for universities,” Garsten said. “We’re all thinking about their relationship to the rest of society, and we’re worried about the trust gap that has opened up. Work like this is strongly rooted in our home communities, and emphasizing the university’s core mission of researching and discussing fundamental moral and political questions is important to rebuilding trust.”

Working through disagreement

At the campus level, the center will build on the work of CTI, hosting events around certain themes every year, and inviting scholars, journalists, politicians, and authors from varying perspectives to participate in discussions. Importantly, Garsten noted, the aim is not to simply give these visiting experts a platform or stage a debate, but to bring them into open discussions with students and ask them to answer difficult questions.

“I think you need to give students the experience of talking with people who may come from a very different perspective and feeling the discomfort of the disagreement, and then working through that,” he said.

Pericles Lewis, dean of Yale College, which is supporting the center, said it reinforces the university's commitment to liberal education “by fostering the free exchange of ideas and encouraging students to engage in productive conversations across lines of disagreement.”

Its broader aim, Lewis added, “is to cultivate students’ intellectual and civic capacities and to prepare them to thrive in a complex and changing society.”

Indeed, one of the most important jobs of a university is to fuel curiosity and inspire challenging discussions, said Steven Wilkinson, dean of FAS. “The Center for Civic Thought will bring together students and faculty from across the disciplines to do just that, at Yale and beyond,” he said.

The center will also offer course-development grants and postdoctoral fellowships, and hopes to  invite visiting faculty who can add intellectual breadth to the Yale academic environment.

At the local level, the center will integrate Yale’s Citizens Thinkers Writers program, a tuition-free summer program co-founded by Garsten and Stephanie Almeida Nevin, a lecturer in Yale’s humanities program who serves as its managing director and is executive director of the new center. Citizens Thinkers Writers introduces New Haven high school students to foundational texts of philosophy, political science, and literature. Students live on campus, attending morning seminars taught by faculty and afternoon discussions with community leaders.

The program’s approach to civic education “prioritizes small, rigorous conversations, rooted in place, deepened by reading, and linked to practical expertise,” Nevin said. Now in its 10th year, that program has welcomed students from 13 high schools; nearly half of them are or will be the first in their families to either attend or graduate from a 4-year college.

Nationally, the center is partnering with the nonprofit Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society Initiative, which sponsors publications, events, and original research that grapple with contentious political and moral questions. The partnership with the Washington D.C.-based organization makes sense, Garsten said, since the two entities have similar goals and will establish a link with the D.C. professional communities, “bringing capacity for deeper reflection to the national stage, and fresh possibilities for practical engagement to Yale.”

During the 2025-26 academic year, the center will prioritize three areas of inquiry: constitutional democracy in America in its 250th year; the role of universities in civic life; and humanity in the age of artificial intelligence.

Higher ed and public discourse

Garsten has long been engaged with how institutions of higher education can encourage thoughtful public discourse. He is a former chair of Yale’s Humanities Program, a past member of the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education and the Harvard Higher Education Leaders Forum, and frequently presents at conferences about liberal education and its civic importance. He is a member of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy and of the Civic Collaboratory of Citizens University.

The center is supported by an external board of advisors consisting of Danielle Allen, the Conant University Professor at Harvard University; Samuel Kimbriel, the founding director of the Philosophy & Society Initiative at the Aspen Institute; Yuval Levin, the director of social, cultural and Constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute; and Josiah Ober, the Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences and a founder of the Stanford Civics Initiative at Stanford University.

At Yale, the center’s faculty advisory council includes Kerwin Charles, the Indra K. Nooyi Dean at Yale School of Management and the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Economics, Policy and Management; Robert Gooding-Williams, the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Philosophy in the FAS; Philip Gorski, the Frederick and Laura Goff Professor of Sociology (FAS); Daniel Greco, professor of philosophy (FAS); Martin Hagglund, the Birgit Baldwin Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature (FAS); Jennifer Herdt, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School and professor of religious studies (FAS); Hélène Landemore, professor of political science (FAS); Claire Priest the Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law at Yale Law School (YLS) and professor of history (FAS); and Keith Whittington, the David Boies Professor of Law at YLS and professor of political science (FAS).

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