Newsletter: Toxic lead still persists in Metro Manila air amid fuel crisis and despite interventions

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Danika Geronimo, Ateneo Research Communications

A hazy Metro Manila skyline reflects the persistence of airborne pollution in the Philippine capital. Ateneo de Manila University  researchers have recently found that toxic lead remains in the city’s air even decades after the phaseout of leaded gasoline, with major sources including local industrial activity, fossil fuel combustion, and legacy pollution. Much of this lead is carried aloft as particulate matter that can be deeply inhaled, posing particular risks to children and vulnerable individuals and communities. SOURCE: Aaron Vicencio, Ateneo de Manila University. CC BY-NC-SA

Counterintuitively, despite the ongoing fuel crisis and the over two decades since the global phaseout of leaded gasoline, toxic lead still lingers in Metro Manila’s air.

Newsletter: Ateneo VR escape room game teaches Martial Law to a new generation

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Danika Geronimo, Ateneo Research Communications

For young Filipinos, the Martial Law era—those dark years from 1972 to 1981 that cast a long shadow until 1986—is not a lived memory but a chapter in the nation’s history often encountered only at a distance. Bridging the gap between knowing and understanding the hard-earned lessons of that era to a new generation of Filipinos is a challenge.

Newsletter: Ateneo Press, Journal titles find a new home in the Manila City Library

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Danika Geronimo, Ateneo de Manila Research Communications

Building on initial talks with the Ateneo de Manila Press, the Manila City Library is set to carry a broad collection of books—from fiction, poetry, and other works of literature to academic publications and research journals—coming out of the University.

This initiative broadens the Ateneo de Manila’s efforts to make scholarly work and literature more accessible beyond the campus, to a broader public audience.

Newsletter: Ateneo de Manila research journals now available at Quezon City Public Library

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Continuing its earlier effort to bring academic work into public spaces, Ateneo de Manila University has carried out a second journal donation–this time placing its materials at the Quezon City Public Library.

Ateneo de Manila University Journals Support Supervisor Ramil Balubal and Journals Assistant Alexandra Jill Dela Cruz present selected research journals to Quezon City Public Library representatives during the turnover ceremony, highlighting the University’s publications and their expanded access for public readers, as Head of Technical Services Division Ms. Manica M. Cortes look on. PHOTO: OAVP-RCWI, 2026.

Through this initiative, selected journals are introduced into a public setting, allowing a broader audience to access research that explores themes in Philippine society, culture, history, and interdisciplinary studies—subjects that are typically housed within university spaces. Nearly a hundred copies were turned over, drawn from Ateneo’s renowned publications, including Perspective in the Arts and Humanities, Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture, Social Transformations: Journal of the Global South, Journal of Management for Global Sustainability, and Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints.

Newsletter: Ateneo robot explorers uncover Philippine islands’ ancient technologies

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Danika Geronimo, Ateneo de Manila University Research Communications

Long before the first Spanish ships arrived on our shores, the Philippine islands were already home to daring seafarers with technology that enabled them to cross vast stretches of open seas, hunt formidable marine life, and build lives in a world that was anything but forgiving. 

Newsletter: Scribbles of discontent - Graffiti and banyulatin as works of literature

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Danika Geronimo, Ateneo de Manila University Research Communications

Photo c/o Clem Onojeghuo via Pexels

The law often dismisses graffiti as “destruction,” “anarchy,” or even as mere “dirt.” But new research from the Ateneo de Manila University’s Filipino Department reveals what laws may not: that graffiti can be seen as works of literature emerging from unequal access to space and speech. Indeed, vandalism and bathroom graffiti—banyulatin in Filipino—beg us to ask why someone felt compelled to write them in the first place.

Newsletter: Ateneo de Manila convenes int’l symposium on AI

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Over 120 scholars and more than 70 AI-focused studies from researchers and academic leaders of Jesuit universities around the world come together this week at the Ateneo de Manila University for the Inaugural Symposium of the Global Research Alliance of Jesuit Universities (GRAJU), marking a major milestone in global collaboration among Jesuit institutions of higher education.

Newsletter: Ateneo machine learning lab opens doors to industry partners, collaborators

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Dr Pai Abu demonstrates how doctors carefully teach a smart visual system to identify patterns and features on the human body that are of potential medical interest. Such interdisciplinary partnerships between topic experts and computer scientists are invaluable towards developing practical real-world solutions. SOURCE: OAVP-RCWI, 2026.

Machine learning is one of today’s most important innovations because it allows computers to learn complex and subtle patterns that even the best human experts struggle with in a broad range of fields—from medicine to urban planning. 

Newsletter: Baring the ‘silent violence’ of Philippine jails

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Conversations about Philippine jail congestion often begin and end with statistics: thousands of case backlogs, cells built for 50 crammed with 200 bodies, and facilities straining at 300 to 400 percent beyond capacity. Yet these numbers barely capture the everyday human cost of overcrowding. 

What does punishment feel like when confinement overwhelms the senses?

Newsletter: Ateneo, Manila Observatory track down elusive rain-triggering ‘shear lines’

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Danika Geronimo, Ateneo de Manila University Research Communications

Much of the heavy rains that hit the Philippines during the Amihan northeast monsoon season between November and March are triggered by “shear lines”: kilometers-long bands of converging warm and cold air that are constantly shifting and difficult to spot even via satellite.

Newsletter: Between Earth and Sky: Sea salt plays key role in Metro Manila air pollution

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by Danika Geronimo, Ateneo de Manila University Research Communications

Researchers from the Manila Observatory at the Ateneo de Manila University have co-authored new research that highlights the complexities of air quality in coastal cities, particularly Metro Manila. PHOTO: Veida Isabelle Bongco

Taking advantage of the worldwide shutdown of  human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study co-authored by Ateneo de Manila University – Manila Observatory and University of Arizona researchers revealed surprising insights into how the naturally-occurring components of sea salt—sodium and chloride—combine with Metro Manila air and contribute to the city’s pollution.

Newsletter: Eating more but growing less: Stagnant Philippine farms linked to widening rice gap

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As of 2022 alone, Filipinos were eating 2.3 million metric tons more rice than the country produced—an 18 percent shortfall that has locked the Philippines into deeper dependence on imported rice despite years of government programs to boost local harvests.

Newsletter: Ateneo scientists research potential anti-ulcer vaccine

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Since ancient times, it was thought that painful stomach ulcers were caused by eating spicy foods or having an unhealthy diet. But since then, researchers have found that Helicobacter pylori—a common bacterium found in over 60% of the world’s population—was the real culprit behind most stomach ulcers and a high risk for stomach cancer. 

Newsletter: Hot days make for icy weather, Philippine study finds

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The Philippines, like other tropical countries, is known more for its balmy climate than for hailstorms. But a new Philippine study—the first of its kind—has found that the country’s hottest days are, in fact, more likely to produce hail.

The largest hailstones ever recorded in the Philippines fell in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, on May 8, 2020. An infrared image from the HIMAWARI-8 weather satellite taken at the time shows the convective system associated with this hail event. The inset panel on the upper right shows the corresponding radar reflectivity scan suggesting high amounts of precipitation in the area. In the lower right are photos of hailstones recovered from the event. SOURCE: Ibañez et al., 2025

Hailstorms are so few and far between in the Philippines that, even in an age of pervasive social media updates, they are still met with amazement and astonishment.

Newsletter: Scientists warn vs. ‘indirect’ effect of tropical cyclones during the monsoon season

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Tropical cyclones hundreds of kilometers away from the Philippines are often more responsible for heavy rainfall than those that hit the country directly during the annual “Habagat” or southwest monsoon season from July to September, according to new research.

Newsletter: Ateneo biologists warn against new alien fish in Laguna de Bay

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A striking, silver-colored fish commonly kept as an aquarium pet has been hiding in plain sight in the Philippines’ largest freshwater lake, renewing concerns over the unmonitored and unmitigated release of alien species into the country’s already strained ecosystems. 

Newsletter: Survey reveals bleak job prospects for Pinoy nursing, MD graduates

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Ateneo de Manila University researchers warn that young Filipinos graduating with a degree in nursing or medicine face an uphill battle for stable employment, fair pay, and meaningful roles in the local public health system.

Newsletter: Filipino scientists develop low-cost liquid lenses

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Water droplets maintain their spherical shape and optical properties when placed on a hydrophobic surface made by coating a glass slide with electrospun PVC fibers. The optical properties can be changed by simply adjusting the volume of water in the droplet. (SOURCE: Budlayan et al., 2025)

Filipino scientists have discovered a simple, affordable way to make dynamically adjustable water-based lenses that have a wide variety of potential future applications—from classrooms and research labs to cameras and even wearable gadgets. 

Newsletter: Tapuy rice wine fermentation yields possible anti-aging superfood

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Filipino researchers have found a way to optimize the traditional procedure for making Philippine rice wine or “tapuy” to produce a potential superfood rich in anti-aging compounds and antioxidants. 

“Tapuy” rice wine starts out as a mixture of black and white glutinous rice (A), which is fermented using a starter culture or “bubod.” After a month, the solid residues from the fermentation process or “lees” (B) are filtered out and usually discarded. CREDIT: Bragais and Medina, 2025

Newsletter: Pinoy scientists make aluminum transparent by using tiny acid droplets

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Transparent aluminum oxide (TAlOx), a real material despite its sci-fi name, is incredibly hard and resistant to scratches, making it perfect for protective coatings on electronics, optical sensors, and solar panels. On the sci-fi show Star Trek, it is even used for starship windows and spacefaring aquariums.