A recent discovery may add support to the theory that the water on Earth was brought by a rain of comets. Scientists have analyzed the comet Hartley 2, and discovered that ice found on it has the same composition as ocean water. The discovery was made utilizing an orbiting telescope on the Herschel Space Observatory, which can observe organic molecules by reading their far-infrared wavelengths.

The Herschel Space Observatory has recently analyzed the comet Hartley 2, and discovered that ice found on it has the same composition as ocean water (image by NASA).

“At the time of the Solar System formation there may have been a large reservoir of such comets with the correct ratio that bombarded the earth,” says Paul Hartogh of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

“Life would not exist on Earth without liquid water, and so the questions of how and when the oceans got here is a fundamental one,” added University of Michigan astronomy professor Ted Bergin, “It’s a big puzzle and these new findings are an important piece.” Bergin is a co-investigator on HiFi, the Heterodyne Instrument for the Infrared on the Hershel Space Observatory. Read more

Bike locks … they’re very necessary items, but are sometimes a hassle to carry when you’re riding. U-locks can be clipped into a frame-mounted bracket, but not everyone wants a big plastic bracket permanently installed on their prized two-wheeler. They can also be stuffed in a backpack, although that can be a challenge if space in said backpack is already at a premium.

The Kuat Racks Bottle Lock is a bike lock that has the form of a water bottle.

Alternatives include a lock that you wear like a belt, and a lock that straps onto the bicycle’s top tube. Now, there’s another option – a lock that has the form of a water bottle, so it can sit in your bottle cage. Read more

According to a joint World Health Organization/UNICEF report issued this week, an estimated 768 million people relied on unimproved drinking-water sources in 2011, with 185 million of these relying on surface water to meet their daily drinking-water needs. WHO and UNICEF have set a 2030 target for everyone to have access to a safe drinking-water supply and new water-purifying “nanoscavengers” developed by researchers at Stanford University could help achieve this goal.

New water-purifying synthetic nanoscavengers can be removed from water magnetically

There are various nanoparticles that boast different water-purifying properties. Silver nanoparticles act as an antibiotic, titanium dioxide nanoparticles trap heavy metals and pollutants, while others capture salt. Engineers call these kinds of particles nanoscavengers and in recent years they have been seeking ways to make use of them to disinfect, depollute, and desalinate contaminated water. Read more

Given that approximately one sixth of the world’s population lacks access to safe drinking water, it would obviously be a very good idea to create something that allows those people to easily and cheaply filter their local tainted water. That was the thinking behind the LifeStraw.

Developed by European disease control firm Vestergaard Frandsen, the simple device allows individual users to drink directly out of unclean water bodies, without ingesting pathogens or other pollutants. Now, the larger-scale LifeStraw Family is being introduced in Kenya, where it could potentially save millions of lives, reduce air pollution, and pay for itself in the process. Read more

A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is raising money for a new type of watersport. The Aqua Elliptica works like a cross trainer that is used on water. Users pump away on the footplates to turn a propeller and move the machine forward.

The Aqua Elliptica slots into the stand-up paddleboarding category of watersports. It’s made up of a number of parts that can be put together in different ways, to provide a variety of uses. The primary construction is a catamaran arrangement with two feet supporting a platform on the surface of the water. Read more