Most membranes that are used to distill fresh water from salty are made of polymers, which are derived from fossil fuels. 

There is a reason that fossil fuels have stuck around for so long. No longer do they have terrific energy density in the form of gasoline but they make up many useful products. But many of those products can be difficult to recycle.

A new wood membrane takes a page out of the book of trees instead. In a limited sense, the intricate system of water circulating in a tree can filter it and a team of researchers have figured out how to use a thin slice of wood as a membrane through which water vapor can evaporate, leaving behind salt or other contaminants.

Whether you realize it or not, there’s a good chance that you are being exposed to bisphenol F (BPF). There’s even a fair chance that you are highly exposed. If so, should you be concerned and what should you do about it?

Gorilla teeth are large and high crested when compared to other great apes, believed to an adaptation to them spending a large amount of time chewing tough fibrous plant material - they have a vegetarian diet consisting almost exclusively of leafy vegetation and fruit.

The high crests on their molar teeth are at risk of damage if they eat hard objects, such as nuts encased in a woody shell, but they do it anyway. And an anthropology paper seems surprised a primate might engage in behavior that is not a force of evolution. 

For most aging people, their 90s are the most perilous time. But if you live to be 105, your chances of living to 110 basically level out after declining when people reach their 90s.

In 2016, Americans seemed to have waning trust in science. Back then, only 21 percent had "a great deal of confidence" in science(1) even though American adult science literacy leads the world.

Science has been doing something right in the last few years. That number is up over half, to 35 percent.(2)

Telepathic communication might be one step closer to reality thanks to new research from the University of Washington. A team created a method that allows three people to work together to solve a problem using only their minds.

In BrainNet, three people play a Tetris-like game using a brain-to-brain interface. This is the first demonstration of two things: a brain-to-brain network of more than two people, and a person being able to both receive and send information to others using only their brain. The team published its results in Scientific Reports after being posted on arXiv last year.

As France has drifted away from agricultural progress, it has become more reliant on imported food. What was once Europe's greatest ag engine has become the sick old man of of the continent. A new paper says it needs to get even worse if the EU is going to honor its other commitments to environmentalists.

The term "fake news" has been popularized by media due to President Donald Trump using it about corporate news outlets in recent years, it was even the plot of the recent Marvel move "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and while its precise meaning has been hotly debated, the spreading of false information to fulfill a political agenda is now a new concept. And it's not just an American thing.

People are rushing to buy supplements because of (correct) claims that the microbiome is important. While the science on helpful microbes is correct it does not mean yogurt or any other food - even organic, try as their trade groups try to claim that - is helping any more than that redox science in mitochondria means you should spend your money on antioxidant supplements.

There is no compelling evidence any of that has an impact and if it did, that it would be beneficial.

A new paper in JAMA Network Open takes using epidemiological statistics to support ideological goals to the next level. It suggests that since it seems to have happened in 2016, if a Republican even campaigns for President in 2020 Latina women will have more preterm births.