Water is arguably the most important resource on the planet. In celebration of Earth Day, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is showcasing three scientists whose research keeps water safe, clean and available for future generations. Geared toward elementary and middle school students, the "Chemists Celebrate Earth Day" series highlights the important work that chemists and chemical engineers do every day.
The series focuses on the following subjects:
- Transforming Tech Toys Featuring Aydogan Ozcan, Ph.D., of UCLA: Ozcan takes everyday gadgets and turns them into powerful mobile laboratories. He's made a cell phone into a blood analyzer and a bacteria detector, and now he's built a device that turns a cell phone into a water tester. It can detect very harmful mercury even at very low levels.
- All About Droughts Featuring Collins Balcombe of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Balcombe's job is to keep your drinking water safe and to find new ways to re-use the water that we flush away everyday so that it doesn't go to waste, especially in areas that don't get much rain.
- Cleaning Up Our Water - Featuring Anne Morrissey, Ph.D., of Dublin City University: We all take medicines, but did you know that sometimes the medicine doesn't stay in our bodies? It's up to Anne Morrissey to figure out how to get potentially harmful pharmaceuticals out of the water supply, and she's doing it using one of the most plentiful things on the planet: sunlight.
The videos are available at http://bit.ly/CCED2014.
Source: American Chemical Society