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Gloved hand holding a petri dish of radiative coating liquid robots An image of the structure of pure titanium with a nanotwinned structure. Each color (blues, greens, reds, pinks, oranges) represents a unique orientation of the grains. Artist’s illustration of hydrodynamical behavior from an interacting ensemble of quantum spin defects in diamond. (Credit: Norman Yao/Berkeley Lab) Illustration of a person analyzing brain cells in a Lab. The machine projects an image of another person's brain on the screen. magnet Michael Connolly (left) and Natalia Molchanova (right) preparing antiviral peptoid samples at the Molecular Foundry. (Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab) Artist’s illustration of pyrite mineral crystals. (Credit: Cagla Acikgoz/Shutterstock) UC Berkeley chemists synthesized a flexible polymer membrane incorporating nanoparticles called “porous aromatic frameworks.” The membrane selectively absorbs nearly 100% of metals such as mercury, copper, or iron during desalination, more efficiently producing clean, safe water. The membrane can incorporate a single type of tuned nanoparticle if the metal is to be recovered – or several different types, each tuned to absorb a different metal or ionic compound if multiple contaminants need to be removed in one step. (Credit: Adam Uliana/UC Berkeley)