Engineering

Harnessing the sun to disinfect water

Poor access to safe drinking water is a major issue for a third of the world's population, especially for those living in rural areas. Because of the abundant sunlight in many of these regions, solar disinfection technology ...

Robotics

Smart robot can lend hospitals a big hand

Recently, researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a smart functional robot that realized simultaneous disinfection of both air and object surface.

Engineering

New technology: Hygienic beer caps

UV light inactivates germs in drinking water. Until now, the disinfection process relied on mercury-vapor lamps, which emit light in the UV spectrum. However, mercury is a heavy metal that affects human health and the environment. ...