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Wastewater plant.

Spartans Making A Difference: Wastewater ARGs, recycled phosphorus, and viruses in MSU vents

This week's articles by MSU faculty, specialists and students making a difference feature sewage-tracked antibiotic resistance, phosphorus recovery from waste, and COVID detection in campus HVAC filters.
PFAS: Forever Chemicals.

PFAS: Forever Chemicals

What are PFAS, and how do they show up in Michigan’s water? This 2-minute video explains how these “forever chemicals” move through the environment, what researchers are doing to track them, and what it means for our communities.
LGBTQ+ flag.

LGBTQ+ Voices in Water Research: Jennifer Carrera

This Pride Month, the MSU Water Alliance is highlighting LGBTQ+ voices in water research—faculty whose work is reshaping how we understand equity, infrastructure, and public health.
Apple orchard.

Spartans Making A Difference: Fruit trees, sewer bots, and solar farms

This week's articles by MSU faculty, specialists and students making a difference feature AI-powered orchard mapping, soft robotics for pipe inspection, and sustainable solar development.
Tanker trucks.

Who pays for water? MSU researchers examine Karachi’s water mafia, local experts reflect on Michigan’s water woes

In the humid heat of Karachi—Pakistan’s largest city and home to more than 20 million people—a tanker truck connects to a fire hydrant and begins siphoning water. This is not unusual. These tankers are part of what’s known as the “water mafia”.
Water flowing from a pipe.

Spartans Making A Difference: Flushing out COVID, tech, and tide charts

This week's articles by MSU faculty, specialists and students making a difference feature virus tracking in wastewater, COVID-19 testing, AI forecasting, and U.S. ocean sampling.
Close-up of mushrooms in a forest.

Spartans Making A Difference: Microbes, machines, and the future of your food

This week’s articles by MSU faculty, specialists and students making a difference feature foodborne pathogen behavior and precision agriculture tools that detect crop disease risks.
Field of energy turbines.

Spartans Making A Difference: From farmland to faucet

This week’s articles by MSU faculty, specialists and students making a difference feature the food-energy-water nexus, freshwater fish distributions, greenhouse gas emissions, and PFAS.
Lake Michigan at sunset.

Spartans Making A Difference: Sea pests, smart tanks, and digital defense

This week’s articles by MSU faculty, specialists and students making a difference feature juvenile sea lamprey, aquaculture, and an Internet of Things-based disease forecaster.
The Electro Eels.

Michigan’s young engineers are using LEGO robotics to combat sea lamprey

A group of fourth and fifth graders from Wass and Hill Elementary Schools have traded in their backpacks for blueprints. Assisted by MSU Associate Professor Michael Wagner, an expert on aquatic invasive species, the team has designed a buoy to help protect the Great Lakes from a long-standing threat to the region’s ecosystem: the sea lamprey.
Toxic foam.

Toxic foam?

What are PFAS compounds? According to the State of Michigan, PFAS “are a large group of manmade chemicals that are resistant to heat, water and oil,” which have “been used in many industrial applications and consumer products such as carpeting, waterproof clothing, upholstery, food paper wrappings, personal care products, fire-fighting foams and metal plating.”
Beach in Michigan.

Spartans Making A Difference: Disappearing beaches and phosphorus overload

This week’s articles by MSU faculty, specialists, and students making a difference feature beach erosion and phosphorus fertilizer overapplication among Michigan corn farmers.