Every evening during the summer of 2020, Xingyi Zhou went up to the roof of her lab building at the University of Texas at Austin to check on two plastic boxes containing radish plants. Plants in one ...

Engineers find the hydrogel polyethylene glycol (PEG) doubles its water absorption as temperatures climb from 25 to 50 C, and could be useful for passive cooling or water harvesting in warm climates.

Plants may have no muscles, but they can grow upwards against the strain of gravity and their roots can even shift soil and rocks – because their cells can absorb water to form strong structures. Now ...

Researchers from Duke University have created the first gel-based substitute for natural cartilage, which, according to them, is more durable than the original. The hydrogel material is made of water ...

The material at the heart of this technology is a blend of wood, lithium chloride, and a solar-absorbing surface made of carbon nanotubes. These ingredients form a strong, porous sponge that can ...

One of the biggest difficulties in helping people affected by natural disasters is transporting and providing them with essential resources like safe drinking water. Researchers at Australia's RMIT ...

Scientists unveil a new crystalline material that reversibly changes color from yellow to red when absorbing water, paving the way for chemically sensitive detectors that can work without electricity.

Clean water is all around us, and more literally than you might think – it's floating around in the air most of the time. Of course, it’s not particularly drinkable in that form, but now researchers ...

Researchers developed an atmospheric water harvester so effective it was able to extract moisture from the air in Death Valley—one of the driest places on Earth. Reading time 5 minutes An ...

A new study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has unveiled the first biomaterial that is not only waterproof but actually becomes stronger in contact with water. The material ...