Squeeze The Bacteria Out Of Water WIth A New Gel
Clean Water Jorge Barrios via Wikimedia Commons In an emergency, clean drinking water can be tough to find. Floods, earthquakes and hurricanes can make our usual sources of water potentially unsafe. After the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean left many without access to clean water, researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Colorado, Boulder decided to create a water purification system that could kill bacteria quickly without requiring a power source. They came up with a bacteria-killing, spongy polymer gel that absorbs water, then releases it in a purified form when squeezed. This could potentially be a super fast, convenient way to ensure access to clean water. Boiling contaminated water gets rid of nasty parasites like Giardia, but after a natural disaster, not everyone has the ability to boil all the water they need. Nor does everyone want to squeeze potable water from their own sweat. A...