By Timon Singh, Source: Inhabitat

A new report by MIT researchers suggests that if you run out of drinking water in the woods, all you need to do is to break off a branch from the nearest pine tree. Next pour lake water through the branch and this low-tech filtration system can produce up to four liters of drinking water a day. A small piece of sapwood is reportedly able to filter out more than 99% of the bacteria E. coli due to the size of the pores in the xylem tissue.

Co-author Rohit Karnik, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, says that “sapwood is a promising, low-cost, and efficient material for water filtration, particularly for rural communities where more advanced filtration systems are not readily accessible.”

Read the full story at: Inhabitat