Did you know that the word ‘loofah’ comes from the luffa plant? It's a gourd in the cucumber family that, when dried out, was the original shower scrubber. In other words, your loofah started out ...

In the past decade or two, we’ve seen the rise of a whole stable of environmentally friendly sponges—plant-based cellulose ones, recyclable silicone ones, natural loofahs—but here’s a different, and ...

A team from Northwestern University has developed a highly porous smart sponge that can selectively soak up oil spills in water. With an ability to absorb more than 30 times its weight in oil, the ...