https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. With desert cities like Phoenix and Tucson bracing for their allotments of Colorado River water to be slashed dramatically, San Diego County's water agency could for the first time sell some of its water to other states by drawing on its ample supplies from the nation's largest desalination plant. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-california-desalination-shortages-colorado-river.html Environment Wed, 04 Mar 2026 21:40:02 EST news691827708 The world is looking for more clean water. Intense storms and warmer weather have worsened droughts and reduced the amount of clean water underground and in rivers and lakes on the surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-reclaiming-contaminated-brine-environmental.html Environment Wed, 04 Feb 2026 12:07:35 EST news689429221 Chlorine is a fundamental input to modern industry, yet most of today's supply still relies on energy-intensive electrolysis. In order to reduce energy consumption, researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) and the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, both affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have developed an alternative approach to producing chlorine—by harnessing the osmotic energy inherently stored in chloride-rich brines. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-electricity-free-chlorine-production-brines.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 07 Jan 2026 12:17:42 EST news687010621 Sodium-ion batteries may be the answer to the future of sustainable energy storage and could be used to make drinking water out of seawater. Scientists at the University of Surrey have discovered a simple way to boost their performance—by leaving the water inside a key component rather than removing it. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-sodium-ion-battery-breakthrough-power.html Materials Science Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:10:01 EDT news680178521 Important tasks like water desalination, dehumidification, and nuclear waste processing all involve expensive separation steps. A team from North Carolina State University used PSC's Bridges-2 to develop a computer simulation force field that greatly simplifies the creation of metal-organic frameworks to separate substances. Their proof-of-concept work for their PHAST 2.0 force field holds the promise of less expensive, more efficient separation of waste products from useful chemicals. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-field-simulations-purification-treatment.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:30:04 EDT news678543871 A joint study by researchers from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Austin sheds new light on the structure of membranes used in water desalination. Published in ACS Nano, the study was selected as the journal's cover article. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-desalination-characterizing-membranes-dry-states.html Nanomaterials Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:10:01 EDT news675351033 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. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-cell-membrane-biology-saltwater-filters.html Polymers 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. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-accessible-membrane-filter-desalination-effectiveness.html Polymers 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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-reverse-osmosis-membrane-biofouling.html Biochemistry 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. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-advanced-catalyst-driven-seawater.html Analytical Chemistry 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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-electrochemical-technology-de-acidify-oceans.html Earth Sciences 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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-nanodevices-energy-evaporating-seawater.html Nanophysics 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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-humans-depleting-groundwater-worldwide-ways.html Earth Sciences 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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-hydrate-based-method-desalination-technology.html Analytical Chemistry 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. https://phys.org/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. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-visualize-osmotic-pressure-tissue.html Cell & Microbiology 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. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-seawater-intrusion-hydrogeologist-shifting-fresh.html Earth Sciences 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. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-self-cleaning-membranes-efficiency-desalination-technologies.html Polymers 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. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-arizona-drought-ridden-states-israel-strategy.html Earth Sciences Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:43:04 EDT news613744981