Damian Palin: Mining minerals from seawater

http://www.ted.com The world needs clean water, and more and more, we're pulling it from the oceans, desalinating it, and drinking it. But what to do with the salty brine left behind? In this intriguing short talk, TED Fellow Damian Palin proposes an idea: Mine it for other minerals we need, with the help of some collaborative metal-munching bacteria.

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  Science & Technology

[ChristopherJManess]

This is one of the best presentations. He was clear, direct and to the point. Excellent.

[stoikr]

bacteria = the best SCVs

[Suralin0]

After all, as any gamer will attest...

...we require more minerals.

B)

[Bandit King]

1:48 ???? He says 9 million but the slide shows 900 million. But great stuff :) Best of luck Palin.

[emforu]

SAdly, if you filter or remove ANYTHING living from the seawater, it STOPS being a free and useful food supply for our planet. INVESTIGATE..aguademar.us. Millions of people are drinking seawater for health. It is full of the plankton that fights cancer. Once you filter it, all good is lost. Might as well drink the tap water.....

[VoxNeruda]

So, reverse osmosis creates a damaging brine?

Doesn't seem to stop him from drinking Coca-Cola.

[Hhydrogen4Power]

Good talk but here i do all the work and he gets all the credit. I have undetstood this for a long time and it works. David A. Puchta

[595o]

compared to oil/coal/uranium it is pretty much, or do you think someone humanity manages to desalinate all of the sea?

[595o]

Nice pitch. Is this Dragon's den?

[BBQPeanut]

The water gets used, and it goes back in eventually through sewage with less minerals than before. Sure some minerals are loss in our bodily fluids for example, but not the same quantities as we removed. Also, you have to understand that it will be billions of litres which will add up.