Water

Tech reporter Austin Hess writes about the new Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab. Prof. John Lienhard, tapped to direct the lab, tells Hess that, “interest in water and food sustainability is strong.”

MIT researchers are developing a new more economic and efficient method to filter bacteria from water, reports Yao-Hua Law for Reuters. The new technique could help provide clean water to people in developing countries.  

Nature reporter Sid Perkins examines a new technique developed by MIT researchers that shows that how river boundaries are shifting over time. The work could be useful in reconstructing past landscapes and forecasting how Earth’s terrain will look in the future, writes Perkins.

NPR’s Joe Palca reports on MIT Professor Rohit Karnik’s work to develop a cheap and effective way to filter water. Karnik’s new solution is a filter made from a pinewood branch peeled of its bark.

Boston Globe reporter Carolyn Johnson writes that Professor Rohit Karnik has developed a, “promising next-generation water filter that might be effective, cheap, and biodegradable.”

“The function of xylem's filtration formed the basis of a paper published this week by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” Jason Tetro writes of Rohit Karnik’s work with water filtration in the Huffington Post. “The premise was that xylem could help to filter water and make it safe to drink.”

American Society of Mechanical Engineers reporter Nancy S. Giges features research by MIT Professor Thomas Peacock that could help predict where ocean pollutants will come ashore. Peacock’s research could be useful in coordinating better disaster response, according to Giges.