Teeny tiny particles could provide an answer to a massive problem: how to provide enough potable water to sustain the global population of human beings. Researchers at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA have come up with one solution, a membrane made of a specially engineered nanoscale material that can purify water with far greater energy efficiency than current technology.
Not that we really could drink our way out of climate change and rising sea levels, but a more energy efficient way to desalinate seawater could enable the world’s population to use the oceans as a source of potable water on a far greater scale than is currently done.