The rose is one of the most iconic plants in popular culture, but now the flower could hold more than symbolic value.A new device for collecting and purifying water, developed at The University of Texas at Austin, was inspired by a rose and, while more engineered than grown, is a dramatic improvement over current methods, researchers say.

Each flowerlike structure costs less than two cents and can produce more than a half-gallon of water per hour per square meter.

A team led by Donglei (Emma) Fan developed a new approach to solar steaming for water production — a technique that uses energy from sunlight to separate salt and other impurities from water through evaporation.

Source: Origami rose inspires a new way to collect and purify water – ScienceBlog.com