A new paper showing how water actually travels through a plastic membrane could make desalination more efficient. That’s good news for a thirsty world.
Scientists believe they have solved one of the biggest mysteries about desalination — exactly how reverse osmosis membranes remove salt and other chemicals from water — a breakthrough that could help make the process more efficient and cheaper.
Elizabeth Royte, a contributing editor at FERN, writes about the long history of nitrate contamination in the water of Pretty Prairie, Kansas, a farming community just west of Wichita, in the latest issue of Harper's Magazine.
