Researchers in the USA have found a simple way to remove carbon dioxide – a gas, or a special type of air – out of the air around us. Carbon dioxide is also known as CO₂.

Too much CO₂ in the air is a bad thing because it traps heat from the sun and makes the earth hotter.

The scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with colleagues at Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have developed tiny beads that can absorb CO₂ from the air.

The shell of the beads lets carbon dioxide through, and inside there’s a liquid (sodium carbonate solution) that reacts with and absorbs CO₂ to form sodium bicarbonate, which you’ve probably used to bake cakes and biscuits to make them fluffy.

Heating the beads releases the CO₂ so the beads can be used again.

Humans are putting more and more CO₂ into the air by burning fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and gas for heating, generating electricity, driving and cooking.

The CO₂ can make weather problems, such as too little rain falling where farmers want to grow crops and too much falling where it’s not wanted and making floods.

Read more: https://www.llnl.gov/news/microcapsules-capture-carbon-safely