MIT Technology Review Narrated This Nobel Prize–winning chemist dreams of making water from thin air
Jan 28, 2026
A Nobel-winning chemist turns porous crystals into tools that pull moisture from thin air. The conversation covers metal-organic frameworks, their huge internal surface area, and how they can harvest water at low humidity. Listeners hear about startups racing to build solar-driven, off-grid water machines and the challenges of scaling atmospheric water technologies for homes and cities.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
From Fetching Water To Chemistry
- Omar Yaghi grew up fetching water in Jordan where taps ran only a few hours every two weeks.
- His childhood chores and curiosity led him to chemistry and shaped his determination to solve water scarcity.
MOFs Can Be Designed To Capture Water
- Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) form repeating porous structures that can be engineered at the molecular level.
- Yaghi realized MOFs' tiny pores could be tuned to capture and later release water from air.
MOFs Offer High Surface Area Uptake
- One gram of a water‑absorbing MOF has an enormous internal surface area, enabling high uptake per mass.
- That property makes MOF-based harvesting promising in low-humidity environments where other methods fail.
