Much of the world's energy actually comes from steam-coal power plants heat up water to produce water vapor,
But it could relatively easily be scaled up to make fresh water out of salt water via distillation for example, or to sterilize medical
This creates a pressure differential that sucks water from the bottom into the top where it vaporizes.
The latest project to take advantage of the benefits of marine drones theâ Robotic Exploration of Ocean Fronts by The british National Oceanographic Centreâ (NOC) is one of largest and most ambitious unmanned
ocean exploration missions to date. At the beginning of October a fleet of seven marine drones were launched from the Isles of Scilly for a three-week journey across the ocean.
The target area for exploration is an area of ocean marking the boundary between Atlantic waters and English channel.
These boundaries are called fronts and they separate water masses of different properties. The targeted fronts off southwest UK provide ideal conditions for abundant plankton growth which in turn can attract large numbers of fish seabirds dolphins and basking sharks.
The vehicles carry a range of instruments for observing these animals. As well as measuring the temperature of the water
and the weather conditions at the ocean surface they can detect the density of plankton in the water listen for clicks
and whistles of dolphins and porpoises and image seabirds using surface cameras. This data will help scientists map the distribution of the fronts and their associated fauna.
Built to operate in all marine environments C-Enduro uses solar panels a wind generator a lightweight diesel generator
It is fitted with surface and subsurface sensors to gather information such as water temperature and the atmospheric conditions above.
in order to cope with the demanding marine environment and to record different type of data. The Robotic Exploration of Ocean Frontsâ project is divided into two phases.
Phase one sees a fleet of seven marine drones being launched from a beach on the Isles of Scilly to travel up to 300 miles to the shelf edge and back.
During this time they will be taking measurements including chlorophyll temperature and salinity and also monitoring wildlife activity at the front.
which will be tracked using a new seabed and USV receiver. Further information about the project available at the project#s official page.
and cells forming tissues to ants building rafts to float on water and birds flocking to avoid becoming prey.
The team is working on an updated version that will be able to swim for around 30 minutes using water to inflate its interior channels rather than carbon dioxide.
and survive submersion in water up to two meters depth. Its robust body can survive a fall from a two meter height to a concrete surface being flung through a window and falling downstairs.
#Chinaâ#moon landing and rover tip of iceberg Yutu (Jade Rabbit#)China rover-like robot was landed soft on the moon earlier this month.
and unloading and the corrosive properties of seawater all take their toll on a vessel#structure.
which are filled with seawater to compensate for weight changes as cargo is loaded and unloaded. Located between the outer hull and the cargo holds
One will operate off the Alaska coast to survey ice floats and wildlife; the other will conduct commercial environmental monitoring in the Arctic circle assist emergency response teams in oil spill monitoring
Blue River Technology and their Lettuce Bot; Vision Robotics and their lettuce thinner (and orange harvesting bots;
This however was just the tip of the iceberg for the long list of requirements needed to successfully achieve our final goal.
A quadrocopter swoops through the air to serve a glass of water without spilling a drop.
water comes through--in your basements, in a parking garage. Secondly, if this water gets to the steel reinforcements--in concrete we have all these steel rebars
--if they corrode, the structure collapses.""But Jonkers has come up with an entirely new way of giving concrete a longer life."
if the concrete cracks and water gets in. Jonkers, a microbiologist, began working on it in 2006,
and the"healing"bacteria must wait dormant for years before being activated by water. Jonkers chose bacillus bacteria for the job,
water enters and open the capsules. The bacteria then germinate multiply and feed on the lactate,
#Water flows on Mars Potentially life-giving water still flows across the ancient surface of Mars from time to time,
"The existence of liquid water, even if it is super salty briny water, gives the possibility that
long suspected to be associated with liquid water. The investigation showed the streaks absorb light at specific wavelengths associated with chemicals known to pull water from the Martian atmosphere in a process known as deliquescence
said Georgia Tech doctoral student Lujendra Ojha, who first discovered the streaks while still an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona in 2011.
The chemicals allow the water to remain liquid at lower temperatures but also help keep it from boiling off in the thin atmosphere of Mars,
It remains unclear where the water comes from. Theories include deliquescence, melting subsurface ice or even a liquid-water aquifer that feeds the process.
Discovering what precisely is causing the phenomenon is a mystery for the next round of investigations,
This is not the first discovery of water on Mars. Researchers have known for many years that Mars has frozen water at its poles, in its thin atmosphere,
"But following the water is a critical element of that. We now have, I think,
Relief teams from around the world are still working to provide water, food and medical assistance to Nepalis following the quake.
and bending the arm around water-filled balloons to simulate human organs. Robot Rides Hoverbike, Nuff Said
When Water Gets Polluted Until now, there hasn been a simple, inexpensive and quick way to monitor water quality.
But a team of entrepreneurs from Calgary, Canada, has developed a solution. It called FRED, for Field-Ready Electrochemical Detector,
In either case, water is injected manually or automatically through tubes into the cartridges, which contain the genetically engineered sensing bacteria,
The device could be used to test water near mining sites, water treatment plants or just about anywhere clean,
fresh water is needed r
#Wireless Charger Powers Electric car In Drive or Park Today, charging an electric car requires a plug and an outlet.
The machine holds more than 2 million gallons of water pumped in from a reservoir at roughly 265 gallons per second.
By generating choppy waters, enormous waves and the like, scientists hope to better test standards for dykes, dunes,
which has implemented long other strategies such as constructing amphibious homes that can float atop rising waters and building homes on stilts.
with scientists predicting that the area will see rising tides and increasingly turbulent waters in the future u
Food and Water Watch Executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement. hrough a system of reditsand dubious and unverifiable offsets,
#Micromotors Could Help Reduce Ocean Pollution The buildup of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, is increasingly impacting oceans around the world, making waters more acidic and threatening sea life.
Nanoengineers at the University of California, San diego have made a splash in trying to overcome this obstacle.
Theye developed tiny motors smaller than the width of a human hair that can autonomously travel through oceans to remove CO2 and convert it to a usable solid form.
the micromotors removed up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from a solution of deionized water.
In a seawater solution the micromotors removed 88 percent of the carbon dioxide in the same timespan. n the future, we could potentially use these micromotors as part of a water treatment system,
like a water decarbonation plant, said Kevin Kaufmann, an undergraduate researcher and a co-author of the study.
The motors are six-micrometer-long tubes with an outer polymer surface that holds a chemical enzyme carbonic anhydrase designed to speed up the reaction between carbon dioxide and water and form bicarbonate.
generating oxygen bubbles that propel the motors through the water. However, scientists are currently exploring ways to cut back on the two to four percent of hydrogen peroxide used as they focus on alternatives to use water itself to fuel the motors.
Going Blue: Ocean Landscapes Need Protectiononce the moters complete their mission, they can be recovered from the water
and reused for future applications. f the micromotors can use the environment as fuel, they will be more scalable, environmentally friendly and less expensive, Kevin Kaufmann,
an undergraduate researcher and co-author of the study, said in a press release, adding that in the future, these micromotors could likely be used as part of a water treatment system,
like a water decarbonation plant e
#Better Batteries Through Mushroom Technology Mushrooms never cease to amaze. Theye one of the weirdest organisms on the planet,
which will be created under the coastline of Northern ireland County Antrim, will be funded with the help of a EU grant of 6. 5 Million euros ($7. 1 million).
and eject it into the ocean waters off Northern ireland coast. Theye concerned that it will raise the salinity
Yet the scientists found the environmental benefits of such a massive technological campaign were surprisingly small, especially in terms of protecting the ocean from the impacts of climate change.
One key impact of rising CO2 levels is seen in the ph of ocean watershe global sea surface has been acidified by roughly 0. 1 units
That approach restored ocean ph, but only by 2300.""I expected CDR would have a bigger effect,
but it cannot act on the carbon locked in the deep ocean, which takes thousands of years to return to the surface.
we will have a deep ocean that is hotter, more acidic, and with less oxygen than it would have been otherwise,
says Judy Van de Water, an internal medicine specialist at the University of California, Davis, who did not take part in the research. his study getting data that can begin addressing the connection more directly.
#Bubble, bubble, at the flick of a switch Boiling water, with its commotion of bubbles that rise from a surface as water comes to a boil,
is central to most electric power plants, heating and cooling systems, and desalination plants. Now, for the first time, researchers at MIT have found a way to control this process, literally with the flick of an electrical switch.
but these have required special fluids rather than water, and a thousandfold higher voltages, making them economically impractical for most uses.
The new feat was accomplished by adding surfactants to water essentially creating a soapy liquid. The surfactant molecules,
the bubbles formed by boiling water also require nucleation. Tiny irregularities on a metal surface can provide those nucleation points
who is the Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
and crowd funders are currently under water in their investments, "he wrote.""Because there is ZERO liquidity for any of those investments.
The excess heat is removed through a thermal medium, such as water or air, bringing the material back to ambient temperature.
The film is able to repel water-which means other potentially harmful molecules also bounce off.
"I think we have seen just the tip of the iceberg. Digital imaging is expected to enable many emerging fields including wearable devices, sensor networks, smart environments, personalized medicine,
#Oil spill leaves half million Mexicans without water The city of Villahermosa in Tabasco state closed schools on Wednesday to protect the health of students following the incident.
causing a spill that affected local rivers and forcing the city to shut down four water filtration plants.
and water service would return to normal during the course of the day. The two other facilities will not open until Friday
The Tabasco state government urged residents to ration water and estimated that it would take another 72 hours to completely clean up the rivers.
Stealing oil has become a lucrative activity among drug cartels, forcing Pemex to stop shipping finished fuel through its pipelines after discovering 3, 674 illegal taps last year.
"Such a system could be used to study the water splitting process in photosynthesis and other molecular processes,
#Antarctica Larsen B Ice shelf Will Disintegrate Before the End of the Decade A newly published NASA study reveals that the last remaining section of Antarctica Larsen B Ice shelf is weakening
California, found the remnant of the Larsen B Ice shelf is flowing faster, becoming increasingly fragmented
Khazendar said. lthough it fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it bad news for our planet.
This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone. ce shelves are the gatekeepers for glaciers flowing from Antarctica toward the ocean.
Without them, glacial ice enters the ocean faster and accelerates the pace of global sea level rise. This study, the first to look comprehensively at the health of the Larsen B remnant and the glaciers that flow into it
has been published online in the journal Earth and Planetary science Letters. Khazendar team used data on ice surface elevations and bedrock depths from instrumented aircraft participating in NASA Operation Icebridge,
a multiyear airborne survey campaign that provides unprecedented documentation annually of Antarctica glaciers, ice shelves and ice sheets.
Data on flow speeds came from spaceborne synthetic aperture radars operating since 1997. Khazendar noted his estimate of the remnant remaining life span was based on the likely scenario that a huge,
widening rift that has formed near the ice shelf grounding line will eventually crack all the way across. The free-floating remnant will shatter into hundreds of icebergs that will drift away
and the glaciers will rev up for their unhindered move to the sea. Located on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen B remnant is about 625 square miles (1, 600 square kilometers) in area and about 1, 640 feet (500 meters) thick
at its thickest point. Its three major tributary glaciers are fed by their own tributaries farther inland. hat is really surprising about Larsen B is how quickly the changes are taking place,
Khazendar said. hange has been relentless. he remnant main tributary glaciers are named Leppard, Flask and Starbuck the latter two after characters in the novel Moby dick. The glaciersthicknesses and flow speeds changed only slightly in the first couple of years following the 2002 collapse,
which, according to authors of the study, explains its comparative stability. his study of the Antarctic Peninsula glaciers provides insights about how ice shelves farther south,
which hold much more land ice, will react to a warming climate, said JPL glaciologist Eric Rignot, a coauthor of the paper.
he evolving instability of the remnant Larsen B Ice shelf and its tributary glaciers, Earth and Planetary science Letters, Volume 419,1 June 2015, Pages 19910;
excess water is released which reacts with titanium oxysulfate to form a solid shell of titanium hydroxide with a thickness of 3 to 4 nanometers.
Imagine two river crossings, one with tightly-packed stepping-stones, and the other with large gaps between stones.
Two water-filled hydrogels with very different properties are the key to the Mooney team method.
Tests also showed that a substantial amount of the Yale team sunscreen remained on the skin surface for hours, even after exposure to water.
The team members came from Boston Children, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard university, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS),
#Researchers Use a Small Electric charge to Control the Bubbles of Boiling Water For the first time, scientists from MIT have found a way to control the boiling process.
Boiling water, with its commotion of bubbles that rise from a surface as water comes to a boil,
but these have required special fluids rather than water, and a thousandfold higher voltages, making them economically impractical for most uses.
The new feat was accomplished by adding surfactants to water essentially creating a soapy liquid. The surfactant molecules
the bubbles formed by boiling water also require nucleation. Tiny irregularities on a metal surface can provide those nucleation points,
and then say that at that spotithin 500 metershere is black ice, says Steve Banfield, chief marketing officer for Inrix. t a much more focused warning than before,
The nanowires create a sea of electrons that produces lasmondensity waves, the oscillations in the density of electrons that are generated
because wee ugly bags of mostly water, and covering the plastic mannequin in tin foil makes it a close approximation to the real thing.
A sea change Advances from the mechanization in the 1920s and the Green revolution from 1940-1960 have largely been exhausted.
In response to the massive multi-year drought, Agtech companies are developing new solutions to use water more sustainably.
It hardware/software solution enables farmers to analyze every drop of water on their property,
and then rent out their surplus water needs to thirsty municipalities and industrials. On the other end of the spectrum, Hampton Creek, a vegan mayonnaise company, is attempting to formulate an egg-less egg product.
replacing lifeguards at beaches with drones carrying floatation devices that can identify people in distress.
the team is a who who from the biggest and most respected names in the water business.
The company CTO was formerly the head of 3m Worldwide Water Group. The director of technology came from Brita
It a membrane with pores of. 2 microns in width, small enough to eliminate microbial contaminants that make up the vast majority of water quality incidents.
On the effective side, chemicals like iodine and chlorine change the taste of the water
Then there is the at home purification market with the majority of those products doing nothing to improve water quality but simply improving taste.
or wait time required to move water through the membrane making the product hugely convenient to consumers.
These regions have poor infrastructure and water quality but increasing purchasing power. Many are already using some type of at home method of water purification but with little success. Ultimately,
#Y Combinator, Tim cook Back Nebia, A Shower That Uses 70%Less Water As a health spa owner in Mexico city, Carlos Gomez Andonaegui often fretted about the cost of water.
and 1970s elevate water by more than 3, 000 feet to reach the residents of the city.
Today, Gomez Andonaegui and his cofounder Philip Winter are unveiling the fruits of their work with a new shower head that uses 70 percent less water.
the shower creates millions of tinier water droplets with a surface area that is 100 times larger than the drops that normal shower heads produce.
e think we can have a very cool brand with the idea of conserving the world water,
Winter said. e want to change the way that people think about water in their day-to-day lives.
The shower is the most intimate part of your day that you spend with water. Nebia flat, circular shower head is made of a high-density polymer with nozzles that spray out micro droplets.
the team thinks there are long-term possibilities to build an Internet-of-Things model that could tell consumers how much water
and temperatures to make sure Nebia water flow hits the body at the right level of heat. he actual physics behind atomization are said pretty complex
so that the Nebia can come to developing countries where water is extremely scarce. f everyone in California were to switch over to this shower head,
we think we could reduce the state water use by 1. 5 percent, Winter said t
#Nasa Finds Liquid Water On Mars In a Mars-related press conference this morning NASA has announced that nder certain circumstancesliquid water has been found on Mars. ars is not the dry arid planet that we thought of in the past,
Previously it was known that H20 existed on Mars in the form of ice but scientists had thought the atmosphere of Mars was too thin for liquid water to be possible.
The scientists used a spectroscopy technique to analyze the chemical composition of dark streaks (which NASA refers to as Recurring Slope Lineae
These streaks had been noticed to vary following temperature changes on the surface leading to a hypothesis that the substance was water.
The presence of perchlorate in the Martian soil improves the stability of liquid water on the surface of Mars,
NASA scientists said today enabling the liquid water to exist for longer before either freezing as the temperature on the planet drops,
This means that Marswater is riny rather than ure The viability for life to exist in this water is ot clearat this stage,
NASA added although the presence of liquid water itself gives a huge boost to that search. y feeling
water is an essential ingredient for life This is tremendously exciting. We haven been able to answer the question oes life exist beyond Earth,
but finding water is critical to that. We now have, I think, great opportunities to be in the right locations on Mars to thoroughly investigate that,
The presence of liquid water on Mars could also help any future human mission to the planet
and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,
Another key difference comes from the use of a water-based electrolyte inside the battery.
Because water circulates inside it, the new design belongs to an emerging class of batteries called aqueous flow batteries."
and water as the solvent. In tests, the researchers compared the solar flow battery's performance to that of a typical lithium-iodine battery.
Another key difference comes from the use of a water-based electrolyte inside the battery.
Because water circulates inside it, the new design belongs to an emerging class of batteries called aqueous flow batteries."
and water as the solvent. In tests, the researchers compared the solar flow battery's performance to that of a typical lithium-iodine battery.
The technology has progressed to the point that experts need a machine to tell synthesized gems apart from those extracted from mines or rivers.
It is like dropping a stone into water and then watching the waves spread across the surface,
The biofuel is produced from draff the sugar rich kernels of barley soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production and pot ale,
The biofuel is produced from draff the sugar rich kernels of barley soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production and pot ale,
carbon dioxide and water into sugars. Instead of sugars, however, synthetic photosynthesis seeks to produce liquid fuels that can be stored for months
To do that, they need model systems to study nature's best designs, especially the catalysts that convert water and carbon dioxide into sugars at room temperatures."
#Signs of liquid water found on surface of Mars, scientists say Despite its reputation as a forebodingly dusty, desolate and lifeless place,
Scientists reported on Monday definitive signs of liquid water on the surface of present-day Mars,
"That's a direct detection of water in the form of hydration of salts,"Mcewen said."
"There pretty much has to have been liquid water recently present to produce the hydrated salt.""By"recently,"Mcewen said he meant"days, something of that order."
"Although young Mars was inundated by rivers, lakes and maybe even an ocean a few billion years ago,
Scientists have known long that large amounts of water remain but frozen solid in the polar ice caps.
There have been fleeting hints of recent liquid water, like fresh-looking gullies, but none have proved convincing.
In 2011, Mcewen and colleagues discovered in photographs from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter dark streaks descending along slopes of craters, canyons and mountains.
Scientists suspected that water played a critical role in the phenomenon, perhaps similar to the way concrete darkens when wet, with no change in the shape of the surface,
"It's very definitive there is some sort of liquid water, "Ojha said. The perchlorate salts lower the freezing temperature,
and the water remains liquid. The average temperature of Mars is about minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit,
For one, scientists do not know where the water is coming from.""There are two basic origins for the water:
from above or from below,"Mcewen said. The perchlorates could be acting like a sponge, absorbing moisture out of the air,
The other possibility is frozen underground aquifers solid during winter, melting during summer and seeping to the surface.
Liquid water is considered one of the essential ingredients for life, and its presence raises the question of whether Mars,
Christopher P Mckay, an astrobiologist at Nasa's Ames Research center in Mountain view, California, does not think the RSLS are a very promising place to Look for the water to be liquid
"But the water has got nothing.""Earthly life adapts to many hostile environments, but Don juan Pond is lifeless.
David E Stillman, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute's space studies department in Boulder, Colorado, said water for the streaks might be different in different regions.
suggesting that those waters might not be too salty for microbes.""If it was too salty,
#Ancient Mars had long-lasting lakes, rivers: Nasa Mars harboured long-lasting lakes and water streams about 3. 8 to 3. 3 billion years ago,
boosting the odds that life may have existed once on the Red planet, scientists, including one of Indian-origin,
have found. Using data from the Curiosity rover, Nasa's Mars science laboratory/Curiosity team has determined that, long ago,
water helped deposit sediment into Gale crater, where the rover landed more than three years ago. The sediment deposited as layers that formed the foundation for Mount Sharp,
and lakes existed at some point between about 3. 8 to 3. 3 billion years ago,
The findings build upon previous work that suggested there were ancient lakes on Mars, and add to the unfolding story of a wet Mars, both past and present.
Last month, Nasa scientists confirmed current water flows on Mars."It's clear that the Mars of billions of years ago more closely resembled Earth than it does today.
Others focused on the possibility that sediment layers were deposited in ancient lakes. The latest results indicate that these wetter scenarios were correct for the lower portions of Mount Sharp.
Based on the new analysis, the filling of at least the bottom layers of the mountain occurred mostly by ancient rivers and lakes over a period of less than 500 million years."
as well as places where streams appear to have emptied out into bodies of standing water, "Vasavada said."
"The prediction was that we should start seeing water-deposited, fine-grained rocks closer to Mount Sharp.
we're seeing finely laminated mudstones in abundance that look like lake deposits, "he said. The mudstone indicates the presence of bodies of standing water in the form of lakes that remained for long periods of time,
possibly repeatedly expanding and contracting during hundreds to millions of years. These lakes deposited the sediment that eventually formed the lower portion of the mountain.
The research was published in the journal Science e
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