In a study published in Science Bulletin, researchers developed a high-performance contactless solar evaporation design with a 3D solar-heating and vapor-escaping structure, addressing challenges in the scalable and durable contactless solar evaporation. The 3D design significantly improves the vapor transport, achieving a laboratory evaporation rate of 1.03 kg m^-2 h^-1 under one-sun illumination, 110% higher than conventional methods and 1.21 kg m^-2 h^-1 in outdoor tests under dilute solar flux (589.98 W m^-2). The design demonstrated excellent scalability, with minimal performance variation (3%) between small and large devices, offering a robust, contamination-resistant solution for sustainable water treatment.

In a paper published in National Science Review, scientists present the first regional-scale assessment of the drainage effect on metal-organic carbon interactions in wetlands, an under-investigated mechanism mediating wetland soil carbon response to water-table drawdown. The team found that long-term drainage enhanced metallic protection of soil organic carbon in vascular plant-dominated (non-Sphagnum) wetlands in contrast to (Sphagnum) moss-dominated wetlands due to varied vegetational shifts.

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created nanostructured alumina surfaces which are strongly antibacterial but can be used to culture cells. They found that anodic porous alumina (APA) surfaces prepared using electrochemistry in concentrated sulfuric acid had unprecedented resistance to bacterial growth, but did not hamper cell cultures. The team’s technology promises to have a big impact on regenerative medicine, where high quality cell cultures without bacterial contamination may be produced without antibiotics.