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UnDisciplined: could this new technology ensure clean water for everyone?

Access to safe and affordable drinking water is one of the key goals of the United Nations for developing countries across the globe. But getting there hasn't been easy. One in ten people across the planet still don't have access to clean water – and that's in no small part because the infrastructure required to monitor water quality is expensive. But there may be a simpler way – a little trick of bioengineering that could assure safe water for all.

Kirsten Jaeyoung Jung received her PhD studying RNA engineering and biosensing at Northwestern University.

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Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling <i>Lifespan</i> with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning <i>Longevity Plan</i> with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, <i>Superlative</i>, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.<br/>