Writing for The Huffington Post, Peyton Fleming spotlights MIT alumna Kate Cincotta’s efforts to improve drinking water in northern Ghana. Fleming writes that through her startup Saha Global, Cincotta aims to empower “local women in extremely poor villages like Yepala to treat the contaminated water - and make a little money in doing so.”
Melissa Lott writes for Scientific American that MIT researchers have created a device that generates steam using sunlight and does not require mirrors or lenses to concentrate the sun’s heat. The device could provide an “inexpensive option for applications ranging from the large scale (e.g. desalination and wastewater treatment) to smaller applications (e.g. residential water heating).”
FOX News reporter Rob Verger writes that MIT scientists have created a new device that can boil water without electricity. The device can “heat water to 212 degrees under just the heat of the sun, and could be used for applications like sterilizing medical tools in settings without electricity.”
Researchers from MIT and the Masdar Institute of Technology have created a new bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that can turn water into steam using energy from the sun, reports Mary Beth Griggs for Popular Science. The researchers hope that the design “could one day be used as a component in small desalination or wastewater treatment plants.”
IEEE Spectrum reporter Charles Choi writes that researchers from MIT and the Masdar Institute of Technology have developed a new floating system that can boil water using energy from the sun. "Our demonstration shows a new approach to producing low-cost solar thermal devices," explains graduate student George Ni.
Writing for Science, Robert Service describes how MIT researchers have developed an inexpensive, bubble-wrapped device that could help purify water in developing countries. The device was able to “boil and distill water with no extra solar concentrator,” Service explains, which could pave the way for the development of “large-area solar stills for about one-twentieth the cost of conventional technology.”
Prof. Elfatih Eltahir speaks with the BBC’s Ed Butler about whether desalination could be an effective remedy for water shortages in the Middle East. Eltahir notes that current desalination methods use “a lot of energy to basically distill water…and could have very high costs and could contribute to the potential for global warming.”
A study conducted by researchers with the Singaore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology examines how coal use could cause water strain in parts of Asia, writes Audrey Tan for The Straits Times. The study’s findings suggest that higher coal use “could suppress rainfall in China, India and across South-east Asia,” explains Tan.
Tech reporter Karleigh Moore speaks with Matt Damon, MIT’s 2016 Commencement speaker, about technology, the film industry and how graduates can help make the world a better place. “Start with…what speaks to you and what feels like something you want to spend your time on,” Damon advised. “It requires so much work and so it helps if you love it.”
Hiawatha Bray highlights Prof. Amos Winter’s method for purifying groundwater as part of The Boston Globe's "Game Changers" section, which highlights innovators in a variety of fields. “We want to provide clean water to hundreds of millions of people throughout the developing world,” says Winter, “in a way that’s low enough in cost so it can be scaled up and sustained through free-market mechanisms.”
In this Reuters video, Ben Gruber reports that MIT researchers have found a risk of water stress across Asia by 2050 due to economic and population growth. "We are looking at a region where nations are really at a very rapid developing stage,” explains Dr. Adam Schlosser, “so you really can't ignore the growth effect.”
MIT researchers have found that countries in Asia may face water shortages by 2050, the Press Trust of India reports. The researchers found that “the median amounts of projected growth and climate change in the next 35 years in Asia would lead to about 1 billion more people becoming ‘water-stressed’ compared to today.”
Voice of America reporter Kevin Enochs writes that a new study by MIT researchers has found that large portions of Asia could face a high risk of severe water stress by 2050. Enochs writes that the researchers found that, “global climate mitigation efforts can result in a measurable decrease in the risk of water stress.”
MIT researchers have found that population and economic growth could lead to severe water stress across Asia by 2050, reports Robert Ferris for CNBC. "We simply cannot ignore the fact that growth in population and the economies can play just as or more important a role in risk," explains Dr. Adam Schlosser.
The Tangible Media Group created HydroMorph to examine water manipulation on smooth surfaces, writes Liz Stinson for Wired. The researchers say they “envision a world filled with living water that conveys information, supports daily life, and captivates us.”