Nature of Water News

June 13, 2025

Top Headlines

Just Add Iron: Researchers Develop a Clever Way to Remove Forever Chemicals from Water

May 27, 2025 — Researchers find that iron powder, an inexpensive alternative to activated carbon, does a better job at filtering PFOS from water -- it's 26 times more ...

Mathematical Prediction of Seismic Wave Propagation in Magma Containing Crystals and Bubbles

May 22, 2025 — Researchers have mathematically elucidated how the presence of crystals and gas bubbles in magma affects the propagation of seismic P-waves. A novel equation was derived to describe the travel of ...

Developing a Pressure-Induced Water Producing Material

May 22, 2025 — Researchers have discovered a phenomenon -- applying pressure to a copper-chromium Prussian blue analog, which is a compound featuring crystal voids, causes the discharge of water retained within these voids. This material is expected to serve as a ...

'Green' Ammonia Powered by Sunlight

May 22, 2025 — Ammonia is a chemical essential to many agricultural and industrial processes, but it's mode of production comes with an incredibly high energy cost. Various attempts have, and are, being made to produce ammonia more efficiently. For the first time, ...

Engineers Discover a New Class of Materials That Passively Harvest Water from Air

May 21, 2025 — A serendipitous observation has led to a surprising discovery: a new class of nanostructured materials that can pull water from the air, collect it in pores and release it onto surfaces without the ...

A New Approach Could Fractionate Crude Oil Using Much Less Energy

May 22, 2025 — Engineers developed a membrane that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size, an advance that could dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed for crude oil ...

Remotely Moving Objects Underwater Using Sound

May 20, 2025 — A metamaterial is a composite material that exhibits unique properties due to its structure, and now researchers have used one featuring a small sawtooth pattern on its surface to move and position objects underwater without touching them directly. ...

Physics Advance Details New Way to Control Solid Objects in Liquid

May 21, 2025 — Researchers have detailed the physics behind a phenomenon that allows them to create spin in liquid droplets using ultrasound waves, which concentrates solid particles suspended in the liquid. The discovery will allow researchers to engineer ...

Cool Science: Researchers Craft Tiny Biological Tools Using Frozen Ethanol

May 20, 2025 — Imagine drawing on something as delicate as a living cell -- without damaging it. Researchers have made this groundbreaking discovery using an unexpected combination of tools: frozen ethanol, electron beams and purple-tinted microbes. By advancing a ...

Engineers Tackle Sunlight Intermittency in Solar Desalination

May 14, 2025 — A team of engineers has developed a system that could transform desalination practices, making the process more adaptable, resilient and cheaper. The new system is powered by sunlight and uses a creative approach to heat recovery for extended water ...

Handy Octopus Robot Can Adapt to Its Surroundings

May 14, 2025 — Scientists inspired by the octopus's nervous system have developed a robot that can decide how to move or grip objects by sensing its ...

Tapping a New Toolbox, Engineers Buck Tradition in New High-Performing Heat Exchanger

May 12, 2025 — A team engineers created a twisty high-temperature heat exchanger that outperformed a traditional straight channel design in heat transfer, power density and effectiveness and used an innovative ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:48pm EDT

Removing Selenium from Water Takes Iron Strength

May 8, 2025 — Environmental engineers have developed critical methods to remove toxic selenium from ...

Eco-Friendly Aquatic Robot Is Made from Fish Food

May 8, 2025 — An edible robot leverages a combination of biodegradable fuel and surface tension to zip around the water's surface, creating a safe -- and nutritious -- alternative to environmental monitoring ...

Robotic Dog Mimics Mammals for Superior Mobility on Land and in Water

May 8, 2025 — A team of researchers has unveiled a cutting-edge Amphibious Robotic Dog capable of roving across both land and water with remarkable ...

Okra, Fenugreek Extracts Remove Most Microplastics from Water

May 6, 2025 — The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer. Previously, researchers proposed using these ...

Development, Agriculture Present Risks for Drinking Water Quality

May 6, 2025 — Converting forest land to urban development or agricultural use can present risks to water quality when done near streams or river sources. This study examined data from 15 water treatment plants in ...

Are at-Home Water Tests Worth It? New Study Shows Quality Can Vary Widely

May 5, 2025 — For the cautious -- or simply curious -- homeowner, an at-home water testing kit may seem reassuring. But there are high levels of variability between test kits' abilities to detect potential ...

Manipulating Microbubbles to Control Fluids

May 2, 2025 — A watched pot never boils, goes the old saying, but many of us have at least kept an eye on the pot, waiting for the bubbling to start. It's satisfying to finally see the rolling boil, behind which ...

A Scientific Method for Flawless Cacio E Pepe

Apr. 29, 2025 — Researchers have developed a foolproof recipe for cacio e pepe, based on their findings studying the physics of mixing cheese in water and determining the mechanism that causes the cheese sauce to go ...

Smart Bandage Clears New Hurdle: Monitors Chronic Wounds in Human Patients

Apr. 23, 2025 — The iCares bandage uses innovative microfluidic components, sensors, and machine learning to sample and analyze wounds and provide data to help patients and caregivers make treatment ...

Scientists Have Found a Way to 'Tattoo' Tardigrades

Apr. 23, 2025 — If you haven't heard of a tardigrade before, prepare to be wowed. These clumsy, eight-legged creatures, nicknamed water bears, are about half a millimeter long and can survive practically anything: ...

A Cool Fix for Hot Chips: Advanced Thermal Management Technology for Electronic Devices

Apr. 17, 2025 — Researchers have demonstrated a significant performance increase in cooling technology for high-power electronic devices. They designed novel capillary geometries that push the boundaries of thermal ...

A Step Toward Harnessing Clean Energy from Falling Rainwater

Apr. 16, 2025 — When two materials come into contact, charged entities on their surfaces get a little nudge. This is how rubbing a balloon on the skin creates static electricity. Likewise, water flowing over some ...

Artificial Skin from Hydrogels

Apr. 15, 2025 — Growing cells in the laboratory is an art that humans have mastered decades ago. Recreating entire three-dimensional tissues is much more challenging. Researchers are developing a new hydrogel-based ...

Making Desalination More Eco-Friendly: New Membranes Could Help Eliminate Brine Waste

Apr. 15, 2025 — Desalination plants, a major and growing source of freshwater in dry regions, could produce less harmful waste using electricity and new ...

New Method for Detecting Nanoplastics in Body Fluids

Apr. 14, 2025 — Microplastics and the much smaller nanoplastics enter the human body in various ways, for example through food or the air we breathe. A large proportion is excreted, but a certain amount remains in ...

Rolling Particles Make Suspensions More Fluid

Apr. 10, 2025 — Materials scientists are measuring the rolling friction of tiny, micrometer-sized particles. These measurements permit them to better understand everyday products such as ...

Cross-Sectional Area Variation as a Key Factor in Pressure Wave Attenuation in Bubbly Flows: A Theoretical Analysis

Apr. 10, 2025 — Pressure waves propagating through bubble-containing liquids in tubes experience considerable attenuation. Researchers have now derived an equation describing this phenomenon, demonstrating that ...

Potable Water Happy Byproduct of Low-Cost Green Hydrogen Technology

Apr. 9, 2025 — Engineers have hit the trifecta of sustainability technology: A group has developed a low-cost method to produce carbon-free 'green' hydrogen via solar-powered electrolysis of seawater. A ...

Stronger Coffee With Fewer Coffee Beans

Apr. 8, 2025 — Researchers have worked to optimize the use of coffee grounds in pour-over coffee. They recommend pouring from as high as possible while still maintaining the water's flow. In particular, the ...

Exception to Laws of Thermodynamics

Apr. 4, 2025 — A team of researchers led by a physics graduate student recently made the surprising discovery of what they call a 'shape-recovering liquid,' which defies some long-held expectations ...

Study Tracks Chromium Chemistry in Irradiated Molten Salts

Apr. 2, 2025 — Chemists report that radiation-induced chemical reactions may help mitigate the corrosion of metals in a new type of nuclear reactor cooled by molten ...

We Know Nanoplastics Are a Threat -- This New Tool Can Help Us Figure out Just How Bad They Are

Apr. 1, 2025 — While the threat that microplastics pose to human and ecological health has been richly documented and is well known, nanoplastics, which are smaller than one micrometer (1/50th the thickness of an ...

Hypersonic Simulation in 3D Exposes New Disturbances

Mar. 26, 2025 — At hypersonic speeds, complexities occur when the gases interact with the surface of the vehicle such as boundary layers and shock waves. Researchers were able to observe new disturbances in ...

Engineers Redefine How Heat Transfers on Advanced Surfaces

Mar. 26, 2025 — Scientists have developed a new theory to explain heat transfer on advanced surfaces. The theory is critical to the researchers' work to develop innovative surfaces for applications such as ...

Cleaning Microplastics

Mar. 26, 2025 — Proof-of-concept work uses unique, safe particles to remove microplastics in a single ...

Hydrophilic Coating Makes for Unflappable Golf Balls

Mar. 25, 2025 — The condition of the grass on a golf course can drastically skew the chances of a winning putt regardless of a player's skill. Now, a coating that soaks up water molecules could slow the roll of ...

3D Nanotech Blankets Offer New Path to Clean Drinking Water

Mar. 24, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new material that, by harnessing the power of sunlight, can clear water of dangerous ...

Oxygen for Mars

Mar. 24, 2025 — To mitigate global climate change, emissions of the primary culprit, carbon dioxide, must be drastically reduced. A newly developed process helps solve this problem: CO2 is directly split ...

Sea Water Purification Technique Outperforms Commonly Used Materials, Even Activated Carbon

Mar. 21, 2025 — A research group has discovered a new technique for improving the electrodes that convert seawater into potable water using oxygen. Their improved material outperformed commonly used materials, ...

Producing Nuclear Fusion Fuel Is Banned in the US for Being Too Toxic, but These Researchers Found an Alternative

Mar. 20, 2025 — Lithium-6 is essential for producing nuclear fusion fuel, but isolating it from the much more common isotope, lithium-7, usually requires liquid mercury, which is extremely toxic. Now, researchers ...