picture by jnlenter

The type of water conditions these programs are attempting to address, photo: McKay Savage.

XEROX/PARC Spiral Water Filtration Technology
A typical water-treatment plant is very big and very expensive. XEROX's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has come up with a new technology that could make the whole process cheaper and simpler, potentially making life better for millions.

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In Bottlemania, Elizabeth Royte concluded: “I come away from my investigations with at least one certainty; not all tap water is perfect. But it is the devil we know, the devil that we have standing to negotiate with and to improve."

photo: Pierre Holtz for UNICEF | hdptcar.net

The inner guts of Element Four's Watermill

Water for Life

Image: Flickr

photo: Liz via flickr

The very un-TreeHugger nature of the bottled water industry has graced this site numerous times, but there is some good news:

Image source: Getty Images

Apparently where you live and how much you make DOES influence how much mercury women contain in their systems. If you're in the Northeast, look out, because you are among the highest in the nation with one in five women of child-bearing age having enough metal in their blood to affect their fetus. Women in the Midwest fared the best with only 3% showing dangerous levels of mercury in their blood.