if you throw a ball hard enough into water), while our other materials for the switch are deposited through sputtering or chemical vapor deposition,
In their Nature Communications paper, the six researchers explain that ound can levitate objects of different sizes and materials through air, water and tissue...
#A new material made from orange peels could remove mercury pollution from the ocean Since the Industrial revolution,
The upper ocean now has 3. 4 times as much mercury as it did Preindustrial Revolution
and petroleum industries and is capable of sucking mercury out of both soil and water. The dark red polymer material is made using limonene,
the university says the material is"dirt cheap"to produce meaning it could easily be used in widespread applications like lining pipes for domestic and waste water, large-scale environmental cleanup operations and even for reducing mercury levels in large bodies of water like the oceans.
The researchers found that the material can also remove other toxic metals from water and it safely stores the pollutants until it can be removed.
Titled as'Desalination of simulated seawater by purge-air pervaporation using an innovative fabricated membrane,
'the research paper had been published in Water Science and Technology. The new technology uses the method called'pervaporation'for removal of salt from water with minimal power usage.
Under the process, the untreated water is filtered first though a membrane to remove larger particles.
The filtered water is then vapourised under heat as the second step for purification. The vapour is condensed thereafter to produce pure water for drinking purposes.
The filter which is made of cellulose acetate powder and other components, has been designed to bind the salt particles as they pass through the membrane.
Developed by University of Alexandria researchers Mona Naim, Mahmoud Elewa, Ahmed El-Shafei and Abeer Moneer,
The technology is effective for water having high saline content as well as for water contaminated with sewage and/or dirt,
and water purifiers. The idea is that every household item that needs to be replenished frequently will get its own dedicated Dash button.
'The National Science Foundation-funded project is a collaboration between Shen University of Maryland atmospheric scientist Phillip A. Arkin and National oceanic and atmospheric administration climatologist Thomas M. Smith.
About eighty-four percent of all rain falls in the middle of the ocean with no one to record it.
New tool for climate change modelsfor example Shen referenced a region in the middle of the Pacific ocean that sometimes glows bright red on the computer model indicating extreme dryness
If you include the ocean's precipitation signal the drought signal is amplified Shen said. We can understand the 1930s Dust bowl better by knowing the oceanic conditions.
#Discarded cigarette ashes could go to good use--removing arsenic from water Arsenic a well-known poison can be taken out of drinking water using sophisticated treatment methods.
and industry-related arsenic contaminates groundwater at high levels in many countries including Chile China Hungary and Mexico.
While the technology for removing arsenic from water exists and is in widespread use in industrialized areas it is expensive and impractical for rural and developing regions.
and rice hulls for removing arsenic from water but these so far have shown limited efficiency.
The river cuts down through the rock creating the cliffs. The cliffs walk back by erosion so there's this spectacular staircase of stratigraphy that owes its existence and form to that general process.
and measured how microbes in the seafloor sediments consume the greenhouse gas methane as part of understanding how the Earth works.
These assemblages are also found in the Gulf of mexico as well as off Chile New zealand Africa Europe --and pretty much every ocean basin in the world noted Thurber an assistant professor (senior research) in Oregon State's College of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences The study is important scientists say
because the rock-based microbes potentially may consume a huge amount of methane. The microbes were less active than those found in the sediment
--and this number is so low due to microbes in the ocean sediments consuming some 60-90 percent of the methane that would otherwise escape.
The ocean contains vast amounts of methane which has long been a concern to scientists.
Dating ash deposits from windward volcanoes The new finding is based on measurements of the magnetic field alignment in layers of ancient lake sediments now exposed in the Sulmona basin of the Apennine Mountains east of Rome Italy.
The lake sediments are interbedded with ash layers erupted from the Roman volcanic province a large area of volcanoes upwind of the former lake that includes periodically erupting volcanoes near Sabatini Vesuvius and the Alban Hills.
and Volcanology measured the magnetic field directions frozen into the sediments as they accumulated at the bottom of the ancient lake.
Because the lake sediments were deposited at a high and steady rate over a 10000-year period the team was able to interpolate the date of the layer showing the magnetic reversal called the Matuyama-Brunhes transition at approximately 786000 years ago.
Renne is continuing his collaboration with the Italian-French team to correlate the lake record with past climate change.
The method is precise enough to help astronomers identify Earthlike planets in the habitable zone the orbital distance sweet-spot where water exists as a liquid.
It reminds me of Swan Lake Aksimentiev said. It's very acrobatic. We were surprised very by the variety of DNA conformations that we can observe at the surface of graphene
The researchers extensively used the Blue waters supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications housed at the University of Illinois. They mapped each individual atom in the complex DNA molecule
Having access to Blue waters was essential because with the sheer number of simulations we would not have been able to finish them.
Laboratory studies conducted in the University's School of Medical sciences have confirmed that changes in brain water channels over time play a critical role in traumatic brain injury.
For his Phd at the University researcher Dr Joshua Burton tested two compounds that alter the natural flow of water activity in and out of the brain.
The water channels normally function to protect the brain but in the case of traumatic injury or stroke they become a pathway of vulnerability that allows swelling.
Dr Burton has found that applying a drug that closes the water channels can inhibit initial water entry helping to close the window of vulnerability.
A second drug used later in the progression of the injury acts to enhance the water channel activity letting superfluous moisture out when needed.
This work builds on more than a decade of research conducted by the University of Adelaide's Professor Andrea Yool on the water channel proteins known as aquaporins.
This work also demonstrates for the first time that recently discovered drug-like compounds can be used in series to initially reduce water entry
and then enhance water exit over time Professor Yool says. Most current therapeutic approaches are limited in their ability to reduce injury-induced brain swelling
Kuosmanen's dynamic model enables the analysis of the development of nutrient stock over time and the distribution of the nutrient flows into water air and soil.
and Chinese researchers show how a unique nano-alloy composed of palladium nano-islands embedded in tungsten nanoparticles creates a new type of catalysts for highly efficient oxygen reduction the most important reaction in hydrogen fuel cells.
By advanced experimental and theoretical investigations the researchers show that the alloy is composed of metallic Pd-islands embedded in the Pd-W alloy.
The size of the islands are about one nanometer in diameter and are composed of 10-20 atoms that are segregated to the surface.
The unique environment around the Pd-islands give rise to special effects that all together turn the islands into highly efficient catalytic hot-spots for oxygen reduction.
It accumulates in an underground cave system and flows into the ocean unused. For several years now KIT scientists in cooperation with German industry partners have developed simple technologies to extract
and distribute this water under the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) project. They also implemented solutions for water processing quality assurance and sewage treatment.
The new technologies and concepts serve as models for other karst regions. Under the IWRM Indonesia joint project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education
For the first time they succeeded in completely filling a karst cave with water. In 2010 they handed the cave power station over to the Indonesian authorities.
The plant can supply 80000 people with water. For the water to reach the households in a clean state via the distribution network a team headed by microbiologist Ursula Obst who directs the partial project for water processing and water quality assurance developed methods for the central semi
-centralized and local processing of water. The water from the cave is filtered first with sand
in order to prevent turbid substances from entering the distribution network. In the next step bacteria in the tap water are reduced.
For this purpose the KIT scientists established a pilot plant at the hospital of Wonosari There bacteria in the water are reduced among others by UV radiation
and the addition of chlorine or by filtration using ceramic membranes. However these methods require high-voltage current
There animals and plants can pollute the water. We therefore recommend to cover the pool
The scientists also installed a sand filter that retains dirt and turbid substances when tapping the water.
Prior to use the inhabitants filter the water again with the help of a clay pot that is provided with very small holes.
The water released via these holes is potable. The pots are produced by Indonesian potters using local materials according to specifications made by the scientists.
For water quality control the scientists apply a rather simple method: Users take a small water sample
and mix it with an enzyme substrate a nutrient that activates certain enterobacteria Only if these enterobacteria are contained in the water they convert the substrate
and a clearly visible yellow color develops. If the water is contaminated the cleaning steps are checked
and the filtration system is repaired if necessary. A sewage system is still lacking in the region of Gunung Kidul.
In case of strong rainfall there is a high risk of the germs entering the groundwater especially in a karst region Fuchs says.
Ingber is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical school and Boston Children's Hospital as well as professor of bioengineering at Harvard School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS.
The idea for the coating evolved from SLIPS a pioneering surface technology developed by coauthor Joanna Aizenberg Ph d. who is a Wyss Institute Core Faculty member and the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials science at Harvard SEAS.
Reflecting the strong collaborative model of the Wyss Institute the cross-disciplinary team included researchers representing the Wyss Institute SEAS Harvard Medical school and Boston Children's Hospital
#Launch of new sensor device on Hudson river set to wire river for cleaner water In the race to find solutions to critical water issues the launch of a new cost-effective water quality sensor
device by Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries Clarkson University is the first step in overcoming hurdles of historically prohibitive costs for long-term water resource monitoring.
The installation of the Institute's newest generation of River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON II) sensor arrays signifies the passing of the baton from the science lab to the river as they run ahead complementing government capacity to invest in wiring the river for cleaner water.
The REON II device or Sonde deployed October 6 on the banks of the Hudson river in New Hamburg N y. is providing real-time data called for by scientists to better understand the complex relationship between humans the built environment and our fragile waterways.
It is one of 37 sensor stations currently in place in the Hudson and St lawrence river watersheds making REON one of the world's most robust resources of real-time data.
The goal of the REON research team to develop affordable scalable low-profile sensor networks
Applying world class research to water quality has to be viewed as a critical component for sustaining society as a whole says Clarkson University President Tony Collins. As healthy water becomes increasingly scarce establishing real-time data as the new standard for understanding water quality around the globe
"said Ranjan J. Perera, Ph d.,associate professor and scientific director of Analytical Genomics and Bioinformatics at Sanford-Burnham's Lake Nona campus in Orlando."
#Designing rivers: Environmental flows for ecosystem services in rivers natural and novel Last spring, the Colorado river reached its delta for the first time in 16 years,
flowing into Pacific ocean at the Gulf of california after wetting 70 miles of long-dry channels through the Sonoran Desert.
The planned 8-week burst of water from Mexico's Morelos Dam on the Arizona-Mexico border was the culmination of years of diplomatic negotiations between the United states and Mexico and campaigning from scientists and conservation organizations.
Now ecologists wait to see how the short drink of water will affect the parched landscape.
This year's spring pulse held less than 1 percent of the volume of the Colorado's annual spring floods before the construction of ten major dams and diversions to municipalities, industry, and agriculture.
and ease strains on fisheries in the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of california). Environmental flows for natural, hybrid,
and novel riverine ecosystems in a changing world There are two primary ways to achieve"environmental flows"of water necessary to sustain river ecosystems,
or reverse alterations to the natural flow of the river. For rivers like the Colorado, already much altered and bearing heavy demands from many different user groups, a"designer"approach is more practical than attempting to return the river closer to its natural,
pre-development state, say the authors. Designers work to create a functional ecosystem or support ecosystem services under current conditions,
birds and other life inhabiting the river, its banks and its marshes. Managers must plan to turn on the taps
lest water releases do more harm than good. Several decades of applied research guided the planning for the engineered"spring flood"on the lower Colorado this year,
Rebirth of the Elwha River For rivers with fewer economic and social demands, restoration guided by historical records of the natural dynamics of the river can be an effective restoration strategy
river systems need to fluctuate in natural rhythms of volume, velocity, and timing (to put it very simplistically).
At the end of the twentieth century, Washington state decided that the water of the Elwha River would be most valuable flowing freely through Olympic national park to the Pacific at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, supporting salmon trout, clams, and tourism.
Habitat and eroded coastline are recovering at an astonishing pace only one year after the demolition of two dams freed the river,
as Noreen Parks reports for her news story"Rebirth of the Elwha River"in ESA Frontier's October Dispatches.
Rivers of the Anthropocene? Outside protected wilderness, the Elwha's story may be more of an anomaly than a blueprint for future river restoration projects.
As nonnative species, land development, and climate change remodel river ecosystems, it is no longer easy to define what is"natural"for river systems.
But heavily used, regulated, and altered rivers have ecological value.""The future of freshwater biodiversity is linked inextricably to land
and water infrastructure management,"writes N Leroy Poff of Colorado State university in his guest editorial for ESA Frontiers, in
which he contemplates whether rivers have changed so much that we need to rethink some of our conceptions about restoration."
"We are rapidly entering an era where restoration interventions will be guided less by statistical deviations from historical reference conditions and more by"process-based"understanding of organism-environment relationships,
"it felt like water running across the back of my hand.""The system, which is limited to the lab at this point,
Findings from the new study will be published Oct 8 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Discovering the role that these invisible polymers play in disease transmission in the ocean is a tremendous step forward in helping us better understand
Contamination of coastal waters with disease-causing microorganisms is known to pose a threat to the health of both humans
and other ocean food sources they investigated why the sea snails might be particularly effective carriers of the parasite.
which infectious agents like the T. gondii egg cells can embed and more quickly settle to the ocean floor.
and because its hydrophobicity (how much it repels water) can be controlled chemically allowing them to build membranes on top.
It is insoluble in water but chitosan is porous so it is capable of retaining water.
Finally they evaporated a phospholipid molecule known as dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) onto the chitosan-covered silicon substrate
and death--food and water tainted with pathogens from fecal matter results in the deaths of roughly 700000 children each year.
It has good water holding capacity and it can be used in agricultural areas to hold in nutrients
A soil mixture containing 10 percent biochar can hold up to 50 percent more water and increase the availability of plant nutrients he said.
In late December tests at CU-Boulder showed the solar energy directed into the reaction chamber could easily boil water
CU-Boulder team member Elizabeth Travis from Parker Colo. who is working toward a master's degree in the engineering college's Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities said her interest in water
Tiny Eurasian exotic is upending watery ecosystems across the northern Great lakes The zooplankton never saw it coming.
These tiny eyeless water creatures recognize predators by their scent and zooplankton in the Upper Midwest have added never the spiny water flea to their stink list.
which is why the spiny water flea aka Bythotrephes (pronounced BITH-oh-TREH-feez) is devouring its way through the Great lakes and into the surrounding inland waters.
His group sampled the waters in dozens of sites from New york to northwestern Minnesota; they found 83 sites that were infested.
The scientists checked out Lakes Michigan Superior and many interior lakes and lingered two years in Voyageurs national park on Minnesota's border with Canada to examine Bythotrephes'long-term effect on the native zooplankton.
Three of the park's lakes--Rainy Kabetogama and Namakan--had significant densities of the spiny water flea.
Compared to nearby lakes with little or no Bythotrephes they had far fewer of the native zooplankton that support a food web topped by pike bass walleye--and of course fishermen.
and Lake michigan said Kerfoot. We expect it will have cascading effects up to the fish but right now we can see a major collapse of the plankton community.
Bythotrephes is no big deal in its native waters. The zooplankton communities in Scandanavia and Northern europe have adjusted to it Kerfoot said.
Since it can only live in fresh water the spiny water flea could never have crossed the Atlantic ocean on its own.
It came in ballast water no question Kerfoot said. Like many aquatic invasive species it was transplanted by ships loading ballast in one part of the world and dumping it in another in this case the Great lakes.
Since Bythotrephes needs cool conditions it has gained not a footing in more southerly waters. But it is having a field day in a band of inland lakes stretching from eastern Ontario to northern Minnesota and in the cooler Great lakes.
Oceangoing vessels can't be blamed directly for Bythotrephes in Voyageurs national park however. It is transported to inland lakes by recreational fishing said Kerfoot.
The spiny water flea has an enormous spine with barbs that attach to all types of surfaces (fishing lines nets anchor ropes)
and unless boats and fishing gear are cleaned thoroughly they can carry spiny water fleas and their resting eggs between lakes infecting one after another.
Bythotrephes resting eggs are exceptionally hardy. We discovered that the eggs are special: big round and thick shelled said Kerfoot.
That means that minnows taken from Bythotrephes-infested waters and used for bait elsewhere can poop viable eggs into the new lake.
Spot-tailed shiners are especially good at spreading spiny water flea eggs but there's a solution:
Right now there's no way to get Bythotrephes out of infested lakes. But boaters and anglers can stop it from spreading.
Drain all water from bilge live wells ballast tanks etc. before leaving. Dry everything thoroughly before you put your gear in another lake.
This usually takes about five days. If you want to use your boat sooner clean all surfaces with hot (over 104 degrees F.)water a high-pressure hose or a disinfectant like a household bleach solution.
Don't transfer fish directly from one lake or stream to another either whole or cut up for bait.
To assure that minnows are not carrying Bythotrephes eggs keep them for 24 hours and then transfer them to a container with clean water.
Or avoid lake spot-tailed shiners and use river emerald shiners which don't eat Bythotrephes or its eggs.
Some states such as Minnesota have launched Stop Hitchhikers campaigns to raise awareness and have installed spray units at public boat launches where boaters can clean their vessels and bait buckets.
Isle royale national park is one of the few regions in the Upper Midwest where his team found no Bythotrephes in inland lakes.
There boaters must disinfect all vessels before putting them in water and anglers are limited to artificial bait.
Unfortunately that doesn't stop the odd Typhoid Mary. In some places along Highway 41 in Upper Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula every lake we tested with a boat ramp had Bythotrephes.
The primary highway for invasive aquatic species the ballast tanks of oceangoing vessels entering the Great lakes is still open.
since the St lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 many freighters still release contaminated ballast water into the system.
They can pick up something in the southern Great lakes and pollute Thunder Bay or Duluth said Kerfoot.
We absolutely have to cut that conduit off. The study of Lakes Superior and Michigan was funded from National Science Foundation OCE-9726680 OCE-9712872 and OCE-9712889.
Geographic survey sampling and studies in the national parks during 2008-10 were funded by a grant from the National park service Natural resource Preservation Program GLNF CESU Task Agreement No.
Advances in sensor technology and increased understanding of plant physiology have made it possible for greenhouse growers to use water content sensors to accurately determine irrigation timing and application rates in soilless substrates.
Sensor-based irrigation systems substitute capital for water and associated inputs such as energy labor and fertilizer the authors explained.
and their bases are immersed in a solution of deionized water, ethanol, and a dissolved polymer.
the water-ethanol mixture streams upward, dragging chains of polymer with it. The water and ethanol quickly dissolve, leaving a tangle of polymer filaments opposite each emitter, on the electrode.
The researchers were able to pack 225 emitters, several millimeters long, on a square chip about 35 millimeters on a side.
#Engineers Develop a Computer That Operates on Water Researchers at Stanford university have developed a synchronous computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets.
Computers and water typically don mix, but in Manu Prakash lab, the two are one and the same.
and his students have built a synchronous computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets.
Then they carefully injected into the mix individual water droplets that had been infused with tiny magnetic nanoparticles.
thanks to a moisture mill a turbine engine driven by water evaporating from wet paper strips lining its walls.
Sahin Laboratory, Columbia University An immensely powerful yet invisible force pulls water from the earth to the top of the tallest redwood
Yet despite the power of evaporating water, its potential to propel self-sufficient devices or produce electricity has remained largely untapped until now.
it could one day produce electricity from giant floating power generators that sit on bays or reservoirs,
or from huge rotating machines akin to wind turbines that sit above water, said Ozgur Sahin, Ph d,
Inside the case, evaporating water made the air humid. The humidity caused the muscle to elongate,
A self-sustaining cycle of motion was born. hen we placed water beneath the device, it suddenly came to life,
Coupling that piston to a generator produced enough electricity to cause a small light to flash. e turned evaporation from a pool of water into light,
With its current power output, the floating evaporation engine could supply small floating lights or sensors at the ocean floor that monitor the environment,
#Safe drinking water Via Solar power Desalination Natasha Wright, an MIT Phd student in mechanical engineering, has designed a solar powered system that makes water safe to drink for rural, off-grid Indian villages.
she had no idea how to remove salt from groundwater to make it more palatable, nor had she ever been to India,
with a possible focus on filtering biological contaminants from groundwater to make it safe to drink. There are already a number of filters on the market that can do this,
Although the available filters made water safe to drink, they did nothing to mitigate its saltiness so the villagersdrinking water tasted bad and eroded pots and pans,
providing little motivation to use these filters. In reviewing the list of questions she had prepared for her interviews with locals,
Wright noticed that there were no questions about the water salty taste. o one had asked ever them about that.
Almost 60 percent of India has groundwater that noticeably salty, so later, after returning to MIT,
which uses a difference in electric potential to pull salt out of water. This type of desalination system has been around since the 1950s,
but Wright calculated that the amount of water used by a single farm is similar to the amount of water that a small village needs for its daily drinking water 6 to 12 cubic meters.
poor access to water pipelines often leads to a heavy reliance on well water. But some ranchers find that even their livestock won tolerate the saltiness of this water. t useful to install a small-scale desalination system where people are
so spread out that it more costly to pump in water from a municipal plant, she says. hat true in India and that also true in the U s. ource:
Julia Sklar, MIT Newsimage: Bryce Vickmar S
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