Crystalline sponges pocked with pores that are just the right size to trap carbon dioxide molecules could filter the fumes from power stations and cars. What's more, the trapped CO2 can then be sucked from the crystals and piped into containers and buried underground, allowing the crystals to be reused.

A high-throughput protocol was developed for the synthesis of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs). Twenty-five different ZIF crystals were synthesized from only 9600 microreactions of either zinc(II)/cobalt(II) and imidazolate/imidazoloate-type linkers.

The US Department of Energy has pulled out of a flagship project to build the first 'clean' coal-fired power plant in the United States, a move that will kill the project unless supporters can rouse Congress on its behalf.

The consequences of global climate change are profound, and the scientific community has an obligation to assess the ramifications of policy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing CO2 sinks in reservoirs other than the atmosphere. Ocean iron fertilization (OIF), one of several ocean methods proposed for mitigating rising atmospheric CO2, involves stimulating net phytoplankton growth by releasing iron to certain parts of the surface ocean.

One way to cut greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere may be to exploit a particular talent some plants have of locking away carbon. All we need to do is choose the right strains of crops to grow, and they will sequester carbon for us for millennia. That's the idea of two agricultural scientists in Australia, who say the trick is to grow grasses such as wheat and sorghum, which lock up large amounts of carbon in so-called plantstones, also known as phytoliths.