This little box could save your life in the desert

Imagine an incredibly sophisticated sponge that pulls water molecules out of the cool night air

MIT and California-Berkeley researchers have built a water harvester.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and MIT have built a device that can harvest water from even the driest desert air, said Adele Peters at Fast Company. The small, solar-powered box contains a sponge-like material called a metal-organic framework. That material grabs and holds water molecules from the cool desert night air when the box is left open overnight.

"Essentially, it's tailored so that it's an exceptionally good sponge," said MIT's Evelyn Wang, coauthor of a paper about this invention. "It can capture a lot of water from the humid environment around it, and kind of soak it up in this material."

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