Water Bottle Fills Itself From the Air 173
mbstone writes "The Namib Desert Beetle generates water from water vapor via its shell, which has alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic bumps which channel water droplets into its mouth. Scientists at MIT developed a self-filling water bottle using this technology, and have announced a contest for the best design of a countertop water-from-air generator."
Star Wars (Score:5, Insightful)
Now we know what Luke Skywalker was repairing.
The air is not clean (Score:1, Insightful)
How much bacteria and mold will this thing accumulate? Better flood it with UV lights
Re:Air Water Machine (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:3L per square meter per hour @ 75 percent humid (Score:4, Insightful)
OTOH, my roof could easily collect more water than I use in a day.
Re:The air is not clean (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Air Water Machine (Score:5, Insightful)
This is much more efficient than the fog net, principally because the arrangement of materials means that your collection surface is fouled with water less - the droplets roll straight off the hydrophobic surface, leaving the hydrophilic surface available to attract another droplet.
The same physical process is involved regardless of which air/water collection machine you use - it's all applied thermodynamics.
Like another poster said, it's like the difference between relays and transistors - they both perform the same job (being a switch) but one is a much smarter use of material science and much more efficient.
Re:Hydrophobic? (Score:5, Insightful)
I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States.
Him, you and all the people like you couldn't be more wrong. Science and mathematics has everything to do with the economic growth of the United States. How can the U.S. compete in biotechnology if what we learn in biology courses is that god created the beetle? How can we compete in oil production if all we learn is that fossils are there to fool the unbelievers and the earth is 6000 years old? Time and evolution created both: 4.54 billion years is a LONG time, animal species can change a lot over that amount of time.
Frankly, I think you people are all nuts, and I'd happily let you live in your bubble if not for the fact that you all are ruining my country. I think it's a real shame that our education system has failed so miserably to produce roughly 48% of the voting population who can't even do basic arithmetic (i.e., go read Ryan's or Romney's economic plans: they either don't add up or impossibly vague). This has nothing to with Democrat or Republican, you could have figure out who was the right person to vote for just by looking at which one could do basic arithmetic. This election, my vote went for logic and reason, and that fortunately prevailed, but only by 3.3% or so.
Re:3L per square meter per hour @ 75 percent humid (Score:5, Insightful)
And now imagine instead of being a bottle, it's a dense matrix made to maximize surface area and fresh air is pushed through with a solar-powered fan to accelerate the "condensation." Sort of like an evaporative cooling chiller in reverse. It could be really useful in humid tropical areas and a good alternative to desalination plants.