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. Hotter, drier weather threatens to double water bills by midcentury in some cities, according to a Stanford-led study. The research, published in Nature Sustainability, is the first to comprehensively model how climate change, infrastructure investment and household water demand can combine to compound an already growing affordability crisis. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hotter-drier-weather-bills-cities.html Economics & Business Wed, 08 Jul 2026 05:00:09 EDT news702638393 As cities across the nation and the globe increasingly turn to advanced water purification systems to expand their drinking water supplies, researchers at Texas A&M University have identified a critical environmental safety consideration. A new study from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering shows that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as "forever chemicals," accumulate significantly on the purification filters used in advanced treatment to recycle wastewater into drinking water. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-high-chemicals-wastewater-filters.html Environment Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:20:07 EDT news702556441 Researchers have developed a novel class of nanotube membranes that enable ultrafast ion transport. The findings open new pathways for high-efficiency clean energy generation, lithium recovery and molecular separation. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nanotube-membranes-reveal-unusually-fast.html Nanomaterials Sat, 20 Jun 2026 14:00:04 EDT news701017579 For more than a decade, a fundamental mystery has surrounded graphene—the one-atom-thick "wonder material" known for its exceptional strength, conductivity, and transparency. Despite its seemingly simple structure, one basic question has remained unresolved: Does graphene attract water, or repel it? https://phys.org/news/2026-05-machine-graphene-hydrophobic.html Nanophysics Mon, 11 May 2026 11:40:01 EDT news697713371 Research on graphene has made great strides in recent years. However, to fully harness its potential in applications such as desalination membranes, sensors, and energy storage and conversion, a deeper understanding of the interaction between graphene and water is required. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-graphene-mirror-droplets-dont.html Nanomaterials Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news695396701 As drought conditions intensify across the American West and the impact of climate change accelerates, cities such as Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas may face a sobering reality. While it certainly helps, water conservation may no longer be enough. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-qa-colorado-river-basin-strain.html Environment Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:40:10 EDT news695031541 When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city's first step is often to limit lawn watering and launch a campaign to encourage everyone to conserve. It might raise water-use rates or offer incentives for installing low-flow devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-climate-outpacing-phoenix-denver-las.html Environment Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:20:01 EDT news694867502 Clathrate hydrates are crystalline structures formed at the bottom of seafloors, created by water molecules trapping methane, carbon dioxide or other molecules. While these materials are underutilized in technology, a University of Oklahoma researcher is helping scientists better understand them through a trailblazing study. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-quasi-liquid-layer-growth-mechanisms.html Analytical Chemistry Fri, 27 Mar 2026 18:00:04 EDT news693836613 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 Over the past decade, southern Australia has suffered numerous extreme weather and climate events, such as record-breaking heat waves, bushfires, two major droughts and even flash flooding. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-upper-atmosphere-responsible-droughts-bushfires.html Environment Sun, 22 Feb 2026 14:30:02 EST news690809064 Despite a barren start to Colorado's ski season, Winter Park Resort opened on Halloween and served up holiday powder. The ski area's secret is a contraption a few miles upwind of the chairlifts that looks like a meat smoker strapped to the top of a ladder. When weather conditions are just right, a Winter Park contractor fires up the machine, burning a fine dust of silver iodide into the sky—a process known as cloud seeding. Ideally, the particles disappear into a cloud that is cold enough and wet enough to produce snow, but may need a nudge. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-resorts-drones-dire-drought.html Environment Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:50:01 EST news689848892 California doesn't have a water scarcity problem. It has a distribution problem, according to Nícola Ulibarrí, whose new research is reshaping how policymakers think about one of the state's most pressing challenges. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-california-scarcity-narrative.html Environment Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:47:53 EST news689593621 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 Researchers from Drexel University who discovered a versatile type of two-dimensional conductive nanomaterial called MXene nearly a decade and a half ago, have now reported on a process for producing its one-dimensional cousin: the MXene nanoscroll. The group posits that these materials, which are 100 times thinner than human hair yet more conductive than their two-dimensional counterparts, could be used to improve the performance of energy storage devices, biosensors and wearable technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-mxene-nanoscrolls-energy-storage-biosensors.html Nanomaterials Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:36:33 EST news688926961 Across the world, water scarcity is emerging as one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. Climate change is pushing rivers and aquifers into unprecedented extremes, droughts and floods are intensifying, and demand for freshwater is rising with population growth and economic development. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-aging-populations-global.html Environment Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:40:03 EST news688647645 Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate "honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality." https://phys.org/news/2026-01-world-era-global-bankruptcy-scientists.html Earth Sciences Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:00:01 EST news688054981 Imagine holding a narrow tube filled with salty water and watching it begin to freeze from one end. You might expect the ice to advance steadily and push the salt aside in a simple and predictable way. Yet the scene that unfolded was unexpectedly vivid. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-salty-reveals-dynamic-brine-migration.html Analytical Chemistry Sat, 13 Dec 2025 10:00:01 EST news684680245 A surprising discovery about how water behaves on one of the world's thinnest 2D materials could lead to major technological improvements, from better anti-icing coatings for aircraft and self-cleaning solar panels to next-generation lubricants and energy materials. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-discovery-2d-material-anti-icing.html Nanophysics Mon, 01 Dec 2025 10:56:02 EST news683808913 In industrial pipes, mineral deposits build up the way limescale collects inside a kettle ⎯ only on a far larger and more expensive scale. Mineral scaling is a major issue in water and energy systems, where it slows flow, strains equipment and drives up costs. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-lab-grown-diamond-coatings-shown.html Nanomaterials Sat, 22 Nov 2025 05:42:25 EST news683012538 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 The most cost-effective way to conserve the dwindling waters of the Colorado River may not come from building new reservoirs, canals, or wells, but from changing how water is used on farms that consume most of it. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-farm-economical-path-river.html Environment Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:52:04 EDT news678444722 Deep in Earth's past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern United States. Nearly 50 years ago, a U.S. government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see what it could find. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-secret-fresh-ocean-thirsty.html Environment Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:42:50 EDT news676305754 Under high-emission scenarios, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), a key system of ocean currents that also includes the Gulf Stream, could shut down after the year 2100. This is the conclusion of a new study, with contributions by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The shutdown would cut the ocean's northward heat supply, causing summer drying and severe winter extremes in northwestern Europe and shifts in tropical rainfall belts. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-high-emission-scenarios-amoc-shutdown.html Earth Sciences Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:21:03 EDT news675609661 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 Salt creeping, a phenomenon that occurs in both natural and industrial processes, describes the collection and migration of salt crystals from evaporating solutions onto surfaces. Once they start collecting, the crystals climb, spreading away from the solution. This creeping behavior, according to researchers, can cause damage or be harnessed for good, depending on the context. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-salt-crystals-surfaces-liquid.html Materials Science Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:01:51 EDT news673171292 On the drought-stricken plains of Morocco's Chtouka region, cherry tomato farms stretch as far as the eye can see, clinging to life through a single, environmentally contentious lifeline: desalination. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-drought-morocco-desalination-vegetable-bounty.html Environment Thu, 03 Jul 2025 04:50:01 EDT news670736262 The economic costs of drought could rise by more than one-third in the next 10 years without urgent reforms to water policies and irrigation systems, especially in resource-limited countries, according to new analysis. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-drought-investments.html Environment Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:10:04 EDT news670000620 Swathes of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia are in the grip of drought as they experience some of the lowest rainfall totals on record. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-southern-australia-drought.html Earth Sciences Mon, 19 May 2025 12:17:37 EDT news666875847 Natural and engineered systems have a whole world of chemistry inside their tiny pores—known as nanopores—that changes depending on the chemical functional groups inside. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-contaminants-nanopores-desalination-carbon-dioxide.html Nanomaterials Mon, 12 May 2025 11:13:04 EDT news666267182