Persistence (discontinuity)

Engineering

Geotechnical engineering

Chromatography

Variety (cybernetics)

Computer science

Soil water

Organic chemistry

Environmental chemistry

Environmental science

Artificial intelligence

Soil science

Mass spectrometry

Chemistry

Chlorine

Science

Perfluorocarbons' path into soils Covering carbon chains with fluorines has produced a variety of useful nonstick coatings. However, growing concern about the toxicity and extraordinary environmental persistence of the underlying compounds is spurring a search for alternatives. The precise structure of these next-generation alternatives often remains a trade secret. Washington et al. sampled soils in New Jersey and then used mass spectrometry to assign plausible structures—incorporating chlorine and ether segments into the CF 2 chain—to compounds that appear to have emanated from their manufacture (see the Policy Forum by Gold and Wagner). The data can inform in-depth studies of these compounds' environmental transport and persistence. Science , this issue p. 1103 ; see also p. 1066

Nontargeted mass-spectral detection of chloroperfluoropolyether carboxylates in New Jersey soils