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Water Collector, Still A Ways To Go

Beetle juice

The Namib Desert along the Atlantic coast of Namibia in Africa is among the harshest places on Earth, averaging less than 0.4 inches of rain a year. Almost nothing grows or lives there.

One exception is the Namib beetle, which survives in part because it boasts an ingenious way to collect scarce water.

Most mornings, a marine fog rolls over the desert. The fog, however, is so light that airborne moisture doesn't easily condense on surfaces. To grab some of this water, the backs of the beetles are studded with tiny bumps surrounded by waxy channels.

Droplets of airborne moisture get stuck on the bumps. Eventually, enough accumulate to form a drop heavy enough to slide down into the waxy channels, all of which drain into the beetle's waiting mouth.

The design is so efficient and inspiring that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working to develop similar synthetic materials for harvesting water in arid regions

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