Times of India·3 min read·medium

He built device to make drinking water from air; 3 years later, won Chemistry Nobel

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He built device to make drinking water from air; 3 years later, won Chemistry Nobel
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Omar Yaghi, a Jordanian-American chemist, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work in material science. His research includes the development of a device capable of extracting liquid water from the air in extremely arid environments like Death Valley.

Why it matters

This innovation offers a potential solution to global water scarcity by providing a sustainable way to harvest water in desert climates.

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Between August 19 and 23, 2022, Omar Yaghi's team placed a thermos-sized cylinder in Furnace Creek, inside the Death Valley National Park. The device was not connected to anything and for three complete cycles of night and day the device extracted liquid water from the air of one of the driest and hottest places on the planet. Two years later, Yaghi's invention scored him a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the first to a Saudi national, according to a report by Vozpopuli.From humble beginnings to big solutionsOmar M. Yaghi was born in 1965 in Amman, Jordan, into a refugee family originally from Palestine. He grew up in a single room with his parents, eight siblings, and even livestock — a few cows. His father, who ran a butcher shop and raised cattle, insisted that his son pursue an education abroad.

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