Clay mineral waters Earth's mantle from the inside

The first observation of a super-hydrated phase of the clay mineral kaolinite could improve our understanding of processes that lead to volcanism and affect earthquakes. In high-pressure and high-temperature X-ray measurements ...

Small scale, big improvements

Methods to improve water purification or build better batteries are problems that have challenged scientists for decades. Advances have inched forward, but rising demand moves the finish line further and further away.

Nanocellulose sponges to combat oil pollution

A new, absorbable material from Empa wood research could be of assistance in future oil spill accidents: a chemically modified nanocellulose sponge. The light material absorbs the oil spill, remains floating on the surface ...

Study suggests space dust carries water and organic compounds

Researchers from the University of Hawaii-Manoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and University of California – ...

Clays can expand under pressure

It was always believed that water is "squeezed" out of the clay structure under pressure but physicists at Umea University in Sweden together with German colleagues show that this appear to be not always true if excess of ...

Curiosity Mars rover sees trend in water presence

(Phys.org) —NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has seen evidence of water-bearing minerals in rocks near where it had already found clay minerals inside a drilled rock.

page 5 from 11