Industrial dyes used in textiles, plastics, paper, and cosmetics make wastewater vividly colored and potentially toxic. Many of these dyes resist normal treatment, threatening aquatic life and human health. Now researchers have harnessed machine learning to predict how well biochar, a carbon-rich, low-cost material made from plant waste, can remove these stubborn pollutants from water.

UC Riverside engineers have discovered a pontentially new method of solar desalination that uses deep ultraviolet (UV) light to separate salt from water without heat. Led by Luat Vuong, associate professor of mechanical engineering, the team showed that high-frequency UV light around 200 nanometers can break salt-water bonds more effectively than visible light. Using aluminum nitride ceramic wicks, the researchers achieved significantly faster evaporation of salt water under UV light compared to other wavelengths. Reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, the finding reveals an unexplored “deep UV channel” that could make desalination more energy-efficient and sustainable.

The WashU Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology is establishing the Center for Computational and AI-enabled Imaging Sciences in partnership with WashU’s McKelvey School of Engineering. The new center is dedicated to developing AI-based imaging tools to improve the diagnosis and precision treatment of numerous medical conditions.

University of Texas at Dallas researchers have developed biosensor technology that when combined with artificial intelligence (AI) shows promise for detecting lung cancer through breath analysis.