/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, King's College London and the University of Fribourg have developed polymer water channels, similar to commonly used plastics, that can draw salt out of water, inspired by the body's own water filtering system. /news/2025-04-cell-membrane-biology-saltwater-filters.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Wed, 09 Apr 2025 11:12:03 EDT news663415921 When you drink a nice refreshing glass of water, do you ever think, "Gee, I'm glad that polymeric desalination membrane did its job!" Probably not, but maybe you should. /news/2025-02-accessible-membrane-filter-desalination-effectiveness.html Polymers Materials Science Wed, 26 Feb 2025 12:50:49 EST news659796643 Most of us are fortunate that, when we turn on the tap, clean, safe and high-quality water comes out. /news/2025-01-catchment-safe.html Environment Sun, 26 Jan 2025 13:00:01 EST news656938838 Würzburg chemists have succeeded in controlling the passage of halide ions by deliberately introducing defects into a two-layer nanographene system. Their results have been published in Nature. The paper shows new perspectives for applications in water filtration or sensor technology. /news/2025-01-graphene-ion-permeability-filtration-sensors.html Nanomaterials Wed, 15 Jan 2025 11:00:05 EST news656067181 A research team led by Prof. Wan Yinhua from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a dual-functional reverse osmosis (RO) membrane with enhanced antibacterial and antiadhesion properties. The membrane demonstrates broad-spectrum, sustained antibacterial activity, as well as resistance to various foulants. These properties make it suitable for water purification, seawater desalination, and high-salinity wastewater treatment, among other applications. /news/2025-01-reverse-osmosis-membrane-biofouling.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Mon, 13 Jan 2025 17:00:03 EST news656010001 Seawater electrolysis has long been seen as a promising pathway for sustainable hydrogen production but has faced significant limitations due to chloride ion (Cl-) corrosion, which can degrade a catalyst's performance. /news/2024-11-scientists-advanced-catalyst-driven-seawater.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 12 Nov 2024 11:00:02 EST news650623321 European scientists have teamed up with two startups in a pioneering experiment to tackle one of the major problems facing sea life—the depletion of oxygen in the ocean, causing the disappearance of fish and marine biodiversity. /news/2024-10-reoxygenating-oceans-startups-baltic-sea.html Environment Tue, 15 Oct 2024 04:30:01 EDT news648184909 In many coastal regions of Europe, tourism is an important cornerstone of a prosperous economy. This also applies to the Croatian island of Krk and the surrounding mainland, especially during the summer months. However, it is precisely during this hot and dry period that the local drinking water supply reaches its limits. /news/2024-08-sustainable-tourism-solutions-booming-holiday.html Environment Thu, 08 Aug 2024 07:44:00 EDT news642321836 In Jordan's cities, green tanker trucks supplying water are a common sight. The average Jordanian only receives one and a half days of access to piped water per week. When taps run dry, citizens and business owners pick up the phone to order a water delivery to fill their rooftop or basement storage tanks. /news/2024-06-climate-crisis-illegal-middle-east.html Environment Wed, 26 Jun 2024 13:50:01 EDT news638624193 From around 1996 to 2010, Australia was gripped by the millennium drought. As water shortages bit hard, most of Australia's capital cities built large seawater desalination plants—Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Remote towns have also built smaller desalination plants. /news/2024-05-desalination-australia-driest-states-super.html Environment Mon, 13 May 2024 13:30:02 EDT news634822733 In the effort to combat the catastrophic impacts of global warming, we must accelerate carbon emissions reduction efforts and rapidly scale strategies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and the oceans. The technologies for reducing our carbon emissions are mature; those for removing carbon from the environment are not, and need robust support from governments and the private sector. /news/2024-04-electrochemical-approach-ocean-acidity-carbon.html Environment Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:40:01 EDT news633094288 In the effort to combat the catastrophic impacts of global warming, we must accelerate carbon emissions reduction efforts and rapidly scale strategies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and the oceans. The technologies for reducing our carbon emissions are mature; those for removing carbon from the environment are not, and need robust support from governments and the private sector. /news/2024-03-electrochemical-technology-de-acidify-oceans.html Earth Sciences Environment Sat, 30 Mar 2024 16:10:01 EDT news630932878 I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Rodents eating herbal remedies. I watched a truck mistaken for an alien message. All those moments will be lost in time, like the Upper West Side under land subsidence. /news/2024-03-saturday-citations-rumbly-guts-alien.html Other Sat, 09 Mar 2024 08:50:01 EST news629124193 Land subsidence is a geohazard caused by the sudden or gradual settling (years to decades) of the land surface due to the removal of subsurface material. This can be due to a variety of factors, both natural (such as earthquakes, volcanic activity and compaction of fine-grained unconsolidated sediments) and anthropogenic (for example, mining and groundwater abstraction). It poses a major issue in urban zones where it can cause building collapse and damage to infrastructure that may be a hazard to life and a resource management problem. /news/2024-03-billion-people-globally-subsidence.html Earth Sciences Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:59:42 EST news629031576 Evaporation is a natural process so ubiquitous that most of us take it for granted. In fact, roughly half of the solar energy that reaches the Earth drives evaporative processes. Since 2017, researchers have been working to harness the energy potential of evaporation via the hydrovoltaic (HV) effect, which allows electricity to be harvested when fluid is passed over the charged surface of a nanoscale device. /news/2024-03-nanodevices-energy-evaporating-seawater.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:28:55 EST news628950532 The sinking of a bulk carrier off Yemen after a Huthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks as thousands of tonnes of fertilizer threaten to spill into the Red Sea, officials and experts warn. /news/2024-03-yemen-environmental-disaster-sunken-ship.html Environment Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:19:31 EST news628867165 If you stand at practically any point on Earth, there is water moving through the ground beneath your feet. Groundwater provides about half of the world's population with drinking water and nearly half of all water used to irrigate crops. It sustains rivers, lakes and wetlands during droughts. /news/2024-01-humans-depleting-groundwater-worldwide-ways.html Earth Sciences Environment Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:50:01 EST news625409065 After an Orange County resident flushes her toilet, the water flows through the Southern California community's sewer system, meanders its way to the sanitation plant, has its solids removed, is piped to a wastewater recycling facility next door and undergoes three different purification processes until it is clean enough to drink. /news/2023-12-flush-faucet-sewage.html Environment Thu, 14 Dec 2023 12:40:01 EST news621779252 A research team led by Professor Yongwon Seo in the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality at UNIST has unveiled a highly efficient method for desalinating seawater using hydrate-based desalination (HBD) technology. The breakthrough is expected to have far-reaching implications for the application of hydrate-based desalination techniques, with the ability to calculate optimal temperatures for enhanced efficiency. /news/2023-12-hydrate-based-method-desalination-technology.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 14 Dec 2023 12:39:05 EST news621779943 In Dubai, it's normal to leave your air conditioning running at all times, even if you go away for weeks. Qatar has the largest air-conditioned outdoor jogging tracks in the world. Across the United Arab Emirates, water is so cheap that some people run the shower just to listen to it. /news/2023-11-climate-goals-gulf-countries-overhaul.html Environment Thu, 16 Nov 2023 09:31:50 EST news619349501 In order to survive, organisms must control the pressure inside them, from the single-cell level to tissues and organs. Measuring these pressures in living cells and tissues in physiological conditions is a challenge. /news/2023-11-visualize-osmotic-pressure-tissue.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:43:04 EDT news618234182 Seawater intrusion is the movement of saline water from the ocean or estuaries into freshwater systems. The seawater that has crept up the Mississippi River in the summer and early fall of 2023 is a reminder that coastal communities teeter in a fragile land-sea balance. /news/2023-10-seawater-intrusion-hydrogeologist-shifting-fresh.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 11 Oct 2023 14:50:01 EDT news616250733 A team of NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) researchers has developed a new kind of self-cleaning, hybrid membrane that provides a solution that overcomes significant challenges that have, until now, limited desalination technologies. /news/2023-09-self-cleaning-membranes-efficiency-desalination-technologies.html Polymers Materials Science Wed, 20 Sep 2023 15:46:02 EDT news614443561 Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S., with an economy that offers many opportunities for workers and businesses. But it faces a daunting challenge: a water crisis that could seriously constrain its economic growth and vitality. /news/2023-09-arizona-drought-ridden-states-israel-strategy.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:43:04 EDT news613744981 The sun and the sea—both abundant and free—are being harnessed in a unique project to create vertical sea farms floating on the ocean that can produce fresh water for drinking and agriculture. /news/2023-09-sea-farms-solution-world-freshwater.html Biotechnology Agriculture Mon, 11 Sep 2023 13:04:04 EDT news613656241 Separating molecules is critical to producing many essential products. For example, in petroleum refining, the hydrocarbons—chemical compounds composed of hydrogens and carbons—in crude oil are separated into gasoline, diesel and lubricants by sorting them based on their molecular size, shape and weight. In the pharmaceutical industry, the active ingredients in medications are purified by separating drug molecules from the enzymes, solutions and other components used to make them. /news/2023-09-membrane-energy-expenditure-molecules-desalination.html Materials Science Sun, 10 Sep 2023 06:00:01 EDT news613392930 Korea is regarded as a "water-stressed nation." Although the country receives an annual precipitation of approximately 1,300mm, it is characterized by concentrated periods and specific regions, thereby giving rise to challenges stemming from water scarcity. The lack of drinking water extends beyond mere inconvenience, posing life-threatening implications for certain individuals. /news/2023-08-harvesting-death-valley-conquering-arid.html Environment Sun, 27 Aug 2023 06:00:01 EDT news611916755 Water scarcity is a basic problem in many regions of the world. The consequences of this are black markets for drinking water, unauthorized water extraction from private wells, and the uncontrolled decline of groundwater supplies. /news/2023-08-illegal-jordan.html Environment Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:00:01 EDT news611221474 In the scorching summer heat, an Israeli farmer tends to a dripline taking a mix of ground and recycled water to palm trees—an approach honed for decades in the arid country and now drawing wide interest abroad. /news/2023-08-israel.html Environment Thu, 10 Aug 2023 04:10:01 EDT news610859061 The Panama Canal, an engineering wonder allowing ships to travel between two oceans, is seeking to adapt to climate change after a biting drought has seen traffic and income dry up. /news/2023-08-drought-hit-panama-canal-die.html Environment Fri, 04 Aug 2023 18:46:15 EDT news610393565