Matter Industries founder Adam Root has developed a filter to trap microfibres at home and on an industrial scale. But is it just a drop in the ocean?
The dinky device slots seamlessly into the modest space above my washing machine. A pipe snakes down from it, drawing in wastewater from my clothes washes. At the end of each wash cycle, the machine makes a polite whirring noise: that’s the sound of the groundbreaking bit of technology working, according to its inventor, Adam Root. That invention is a microplastics filter.
“The most common thing we hear [from customers] is: ‘I cannot believe how much material is coming out of the washing machine,’” says Root. “Somebody sent me [photos of] dinner-platefuls.”
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/13/2026 - 03:00
05/13/2026 - 02:00
The naturalist is venerated as a cuddly Paddington Bear, but he’s more than that. Don’t let the superficial backslaps obscure the political critique he makes
The excesses the capitalist system has brought us have got to be curbed somehow. Ordinary people worldwide are beginning to realise that greed does not actually lead to joy. Our economic system has been based on the profit principle: you have to come out at the end of the year having made a profit, and the bigger profit you have made, the better it is. In the short term that works, but it ends with disaster.
At this point, I should make a confession. The above sentiments are not mine at all. In fact, they were pilfered, purloined, shoplifted from a far more erudite radical thinker than myself. So, quiz time: which incendiary leftwing firebrand spoke these words? Zack Polanski? Antonio Gramsci? Ash Sarkar? At the very least, you would probably assume that, in the current climate, anyone daring to utter these dangerous fringe sentiments would be cast to the margins of our cultural life, only occasionally being let out for the purposes of getting shouted at on the Jeremy Vine show.
Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist
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05/12/2026 - 20:57
The treasurer has shown economic reforms should not be left to the too-hard basket, and instead be pursued with a sense of urgency
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Finally, a budget of economic reform. It has been too long coming. At this stage of the economic cycle, the budget should be in surplus. It should not be adding tens of billions of dollars every year to the mountain of public debt. Sixteen years after the release of the tax review commissioned by the Rudd government, our tax system should be supporting much better budget outcomes. It should be underwriting much stronger productivity growth. It should be delivering a much better deal for young Australian workers. And it should be delivering to Australians a much bigger share of the resource rents being extracted by the foreign multinationals exploiting our finite natural resources.
So, this budget doesn’t fix everything.
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05/12/2026 - 18:02
Party held out prospect of act while in opposition but plan did not make it into election manifesto
Ministers should bring forward a new clean air act that would ban wood burning, clear diesel vehicles from the roads and force councils to cut pollution, a group of more than 60 charities have urged before the king’s speech on Wednesday.
Labour held out the prospect of a clean air act while in opposition in 2023, but this was dropped from the final election manifesto, and the government has made no move to reinstate it.
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05/12/2026 - 18:01
The behavioural cue of ‘flexible self-protection’ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say
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Do insects feel pain? Crickets certainly seem to, according to new research which finds they stroke and groom a sore antenna in much the same way as a dog nurses its hurt paw.
Associate Prof Thomas White, an entomologist from the University of Sydney, said the experience of pain was a “longer, drawn-out, ouchy feeling”, that differed from a hardwired nerve response.
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05/12/2026 - 08:36
South Florida fires that burnt through 45 sq km (11,000 acres) of land over the weekend spread on Monday as emergency crews worked to contain them.
Florida Forest Service said 'the growing fires were producing smoky conditions with reduced visibility'. No serious injuries or property damage have been reported.
Dry conditions have led to wildfires in other parts the country, including fires that destroyed dozens of homes in southern Georgia last month
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05/12/2026 - 07:00
Ethylene oxide (EtO) is about 60 times more carcinogenic than believed in 2006, research finds
A new Trump administration plan to rescind 2024 regulations for toxic ethylene oxide (EtO) pollution more broadly aims to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to strengthen public health protections around hazardous emissions and could result in more of the toxin being released into the air.
Recent research has found EtO is about 60 times more carcinogenic than thought when the last regulations were developed in 2006. In 2024, the Biden EPA passed a rule that strengthened the regulations to reflect the updated science, and required the nation’s EtO emitters to collectively cut their emissions by about 90%.
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05/12/2026 - 05:56
Sports carmaker extends lifespan of petrol-engined Emira, made in Norfolk, to continue to cater for US market
The boss of the luxury sports carmaker Lotus has called for government support for its UK factory as the Chinese-owned company insisted it will not abandon its British roots.
Lotus said it had extended the lifespan of the £80,000 Emira petrol-engined sports car, made by 900 employees in its factory in Norfolk, in order for the brand to continue to serve the US market.
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05/12/2026 - 05:00
It is the most extracted solid material on Earth – but this extraction can threaten ecosystems and livelihoods
Malé is one of the world’s most overcrowded cities, but it faces double pressure. As well as a growing population, the capital of the Maldives is also threatened by rising sea levels. Owing to climate breakdown, its living space is shrinking.
So the justification for a land reclamation project seemed clear. Take sand from elsewhere in the archipelago and use it to build up the land available for Malé’s people. What could go wrong? After all, it’s only sand, right?
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05/12/2026 - 04:59
With some long-awaited sanity on housing and taxes, including CGT and negative gearing changes, it’s one of the most important for good – but will still leave some out in the cold
Federal budget 2026 LIVE updates: Australia government budget announcement and speech – latest news
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This year’s budget is an odd affair. So much had been leaked and dropped to the media that there are barely any surprises. But that does not mean it does not live up to the billing of being ambitious – basically killing off the capital gains tax 50% discount is a huge deal.
The lack of changes on gas tax, an absence of increased assistance for the unemployed and renters, and cuts to the NDIS, however, show that this is still a government where ambition is not in surplus.
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