Water
Novel desalination devices use sunlight to provide fresh drinking water
It’s one of life’s most frustrating ironies that Earth’s surface is over 70 percent water, but most of that is undrinkable. Desalination is an important technology that may help unlock more drinking water, and now two independent teams have developed new types of solar-powered desalination Read More...
New Red Sea bacteria could be the key to developing saltwater toilets
Freshwater is a scarce and valuable natural resource. Humans couldn’t survive without it, so why do we waste precious freshwater to flush our toilets? Researchers from Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) are trying to solve this water-wasting dilemma with the Read More...
How planting trees saved an entire district of West Bengal
Twenty years ago, the Purulia district of West Bengal was facing a crisis. Water shortages, heat waves, erosion, lack of firewood, and biodiversity loss plagued the area until the 30,000 residents decided to invest in a permanent solution: the Green Mountain. The district transformed a barren Read More...
How rain gardens can help reduce polluted water runoff
If you live in a coastal city, you know not to swim in the ocean for several days after heavy rain. This is because water runoff can carry dirty and even harmful pollutants such as bacteria, chemicals, and sewage. Beautiful, planted rain gardens are a natural and effective way to clean water moving Read More...
Rooftop ‘hydropanels’ generate clean drinking water out of thin air
Globally, around 2.1 billion people don’t have clean drinking water at home, either because water infrastructure doesn’t exist or because the water flowing through pipes is contaminated. Enter Zero Mass Water, an Arizona-based startup aiming to become part of the solution of tackling the Read More...
This smart filter supplies your home with unlimited mineral water
With so many scandals around the quality of tap water in the US these days, many people are turning to bottled water to drink. But this requires single-use plastics that are wreaking havoc on the environment. While much of this will need to be addressed at the government level, there are Read More...
See the glorious way a desert grows when it rains
It has been nearly seven years since the residents of Sindh’s Thar desert, located in Pakistan, saw a decent amount of rainfall, but this year has been different. This year’s rains have transformed the harsh landscape and its inhabitants. Farmers are tilling their land, planting seeds, and Read More...
Spiny sea friends help treat Hawaii’s smothered coral reefs
For tourists, sea urchins may be an unwanted addition to a Hawaiian vacation, but these spiky little creatures are a welcomed habitat dweller for the islands’ coral reefs. The sea urchins, which are native to Hawaii’s waters, eat invasive smothering algae which threaten the health of the reef Read More...
This ancient Arabic technique is saving Alicante from floods
In Alicante, it never rains, but it pours. The city in southeast Spain goes without rain for months on end, but when it comes, it’s torrential, bringing destructive and sometimes fatal flooding - or, at least, it used to. In San Juan, a low-lying area of the city, authorities have built a new Read More...
Over 600 divers in Florida just set the record for biggest underwater cleanup
It’s amazing what people will do to break a Guinness World Record. Just this past weekend, for example, hundreds of scuba divers entered the waters of Deerfield Beach in Florida for the largest underwater cleanup the world has ever seen. The previous record was reportedly set in 2015 by a group Read More...