Water
The Californian craft beer brewed from waste water
In autumn of 2014 – three years into California’s devastating drought– architect, Russ Drinker became fixated on brewing beer from recycled greywater (that is, water that’s been treated after use in sinks, showers and washing clothes). He was increasingly frustrated that the Read More...
Researchers have a radical plan to freeze rising sea water and transport it to Antarctica
Since humans are responsible for changing the global climate, what lengths should we go to to mitigate the damage? A new study investigates one radical solution: 'geoengineering,' or reshaping the planet in a substantial way. In this case, by enlarging Antarctica's continental glacier via pumping Read More...
This nano material sucks water from thin air
A new nano-coating that can pull water out of the air might allow us to harvest water where there seems to be none, like the moisture farms in Star Wars. The coating is based on naturally occurring moisture-gathering mechanisms, such as the spines of a cactus and the bumpy shell of a desert beetle. Read More...
This $16 water filter is bringing clean water to the developing world
More than 650 million people around the world do not have access to clean and safe water, according to the United Nations. Contaminated water hides illnesses within it, with more than 100,000 deaths related to water-borne illnesses occurring each year in India alone. Safer water is getting more and Read More...
How evolution's innovations can help scientists yank water out of the air
If you learned that scientists have blended a darkling beetle, a cactus, and a carnivorous pitcher plant, you might imagine some unholy creation that’s all spines and scuttling legs and digestive enzymes. Instead, what Kyoo-Chul Park has made looks like … nothing at all. It’s not Read More...
Yemenis fight drought by harvesting fog and turning it back into water
Yemen is in crisis. The Middle Eastern country has become a failed state, ravaged by internal war and running out of resources quick, especially water. One resource though that Yemen has a lot of is fog, and the country has now successfully experimented ways to “harvest” moisture from the air Read More...
Sodium battery contains solution to water desalination
Much scientific effort goes into shoring up both our energy and water supplies for the future, but what if both problems could be addressed by the same technology? Researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a new battery design that not only relies on salt water to store and Read More...
What Kenya’s biggest slum can teach us about saving cities from floods
Originally published on Ensia. Try navigating the soggy, waterlogged slopes of Kenya’s largest slum, with its hundreds of thousands of ramshackle houses, and you’ll quickly realize why Kibera is named after a Nubian word meaning "jungle." Pasted and propped along the banks of the Read More...
The U.S. wants to dramatically reduce its water usage
At a roundtable discussion in Washington D.C., the White House announced that it will host a “Water Summit” for March 22, to spur innovation and conservation efforts for the world’s most valuable resource, and believes the U.S. can slash water usage by a third. Existing technology should make Read More...
Groundbreaking waterless toilet could help millions who lack access to plumbing
Currently there are still 2.3 billion people in the world without access to basic toilets. But hopefully this statistic will drop drastically after the Nano Membrane Toilet is brought to the areas which need it most. These areas do not have the infrastructure to support toilets that require running Read More...