Eddy's Good News: Seawater into fresh drinking water via solar power and a 3D printed trachea

Virgin Radio

4 Apr 2024, 16:55

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio Anthems, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 2pm and 6pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Thursday 4th April 2024

​​An international team of researchers, including a team at Kings College London have developed a way to turn seawater into fresh drinking water via solar power and it’s so efficient it doesn’t even need the weather to be sunny to do it!

I’ve shared with you before a story about the invention of electrodialysis, a new way to separate salty brine from fresh water and this clever system is 20% cheaper than the traditional method and works sustainably and off grid. People who live in remote places, in poor countries, will be able to get a supply of clean fresh water to help eradicate water born diseases like cholera. 

Even better, the system works when the weather is cloudy. 1.6 billion people currently face water scarcity and that number is only climbing. Yet 56% of groundwater under the earths surface is saline, so this invention could be a game changer.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

An amazing tech breakthrough from Seoul Korea as a lady was the world’s first recipient of a 3D printed trachea. 

And this wasn’t just 3D printed it was bio printed using nasal stem cell and cartilage cells combined with a synthetic, semi crystalline polyester and a special ink made from living cells. 

The most brilliant thing about these amazing transplants is that immune suppressants - that is to say the drugs to stop your body from rejecting stuff - weren’t even needed. It fit, it was accepted perfectly and there are now living cells and new blood vessels all over it. The theory is that when this thing’s lifespan expires her body will have used it as scaffolding to build a new trachea which will last the rest of her life.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org