Solar nanofilters screen out antibiotics.

• Position: Contaminated Water - Brief article

Using the same devious mechanism that enables some bacteria to shrug off powerful antibiotics, scientists have developed solar-powered nanofilters that remove antibiotics from the water in lakes and rivers twice as efficiently as the best existing technology.

David Wendell, professor in the School of Energy, Environmental, Biological and Medical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio), explains that antibiotics from toilets and other sources find their way into lakes and rivers, with traces appearing in 80% of waterways. These antibiotics foster the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while harming beneficial microbes in ways that can degrade aquatic environments and food chains.

Filters containing activated carbon can remove antibiotics from effluent at municipal sewage treatment plants before their release into waterways, but activated carbon is far from perfect. So...