Drinking

A fascinating study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health suggests people who don't drink enough fluids could be at greater risk of chronic disease and are more likely to die at a younger age.

Plastic straws are the poster child of waste, but alternatives also have issues. A start-up called The Ice Guys is crowdfunding an intriguing solution that fights the plastic boogeyman and keeps your drinks cool at the same time – the Ice Straw.

It’s a cruel irony that 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in undrinkable water. Scientists have now modeled the feasibility of a hypothetical system that can capture water vapor from ocean air and condense it into drinking water, at a large scale.

Everybody has their favored ways of carrying and consuming water as they go about their day and The Modular Bottle from New York outfit Ebite is as versatile a solution as you could hope to find, with swappable caps and tea infusion inserts.

VSSL expands its line of modular utility gear with a very different style of multitool, a packable party called the Insulated Flask. Not only does the double-walled vacuum-insulated flask keep your beverage close at hand and at an ideal temperature, it carries an integrated Bluetooth speaker to crank up the tunes from an accompanying smart device.

It’s hard to beat a draft beer, but we usually have to make do with bottles and cans when away from the bar. Enter the Cooler Keg, a new design for a draft beer dispensing system built right into a cooler.

A comprehensive new Oxford study has added to the growing body of research highlighting the health effects of alcohol. The large-scale genetic analysis suggests that alcohol consumption directly accelerates aging, by shortening telomeres.

A new Swedish "pre-drinking pill" went on sale in the UK today. Widely referred to as the "hangover pill," the optimistically-named Myrkl is claimed to break down alcohol before it reaches the liver, preventing the formation of toxic acetaldehyde.

Water scarcity is a major problem around the world, but with the right equipment drinking water can be wrung out of thin air. Researchers have now demonstrated a low-cost gel film that can pull many liters of water per day out of even very dry air.

It’s a cruel irony that huge amounts of water are floating around in the air, inaccessible. Researchers have now developed a salty hydrogel that can pull plenty of fresh drinking water out of air in relatively low humidity.

Engineers at ETH Zurich have designed a new device that can wring drinking water out of the air. The system works day and night, and doesn’t require any additional energy input, making it suited for use in remote or developing areas.

Engineers at Virginia Tech have developed a new, more efficient solar still design. Inspired by mangrove roots, the "synthetic tree" mimics the natural process of transporting water up through roots and stems into leaves.