Mixtures of oil and water can be efficiently separated by pumping them into thin channels between semipermeable membranes, paving the way to cheaper and cleaner ways to deal with industrial waste. Experimental prototypes managed to recover both oil and water with a purity greater than 99.9 per cent.

Various methods already exist to split such mixtures into component parts, including spinning them in a centrifuge, mechanically skimming oil from the surface and splitting them with chemicals, electrical charges or semipermeable membranes, which allow some substances through, but not others. Membranes are the simplest method, but are currently imperfect, leaving behind a stubborn mix of oily water or watery oil.

Now, Hao-Cheng Yang at Zhejiang University in China and his colleagues have developed a more efficient method that uses two membranes – one hydrophobic layer that allows oil to pass, and one hydrophilic layer that allows water to pass – in order to cleanly separate both.

Yang says the idea has been tried before with less-than-impressive results. This is because as oil or water is removed from the mixture, the concentration of the components changes, making the membranes less efficient.

To overcome this, the team pumped the mixture into a thin channel between the two layers. In this confined space, droplets of oil are more likely to collide and accumulate, which means they can then be removed more efficiently by the hydrophobic membrane. This, in turn, increases the ratio of water in the mixture, creating a beneficial feedback loop that ensures both clean oil and water are removed continually.

“When we put the membranes [close] together, they will affect each other, making the process continue,” says Yang. “There’s a feedback between the two processes.”

In tests, the researchers found that total oil recovery increases from just 5 per cent to 97 per cent and water recovery increases from 19 per cent to 75 per cent as the channel width is narrowed from 125 millimetres to 4 millimetres. The purity of the recovered oil and water is more than 99.9 per cent, with only small amounts of waste left, says Yang.

The team is in talks with industry and Yang believes that the process is so simple that it could easily be scaled up to suitable levels within a few years.

Monitor deals are rarely this inexpensive: Walmart just knocked $50 off the Onn. 24-inch FHD Gaming Monitor. Usually priced at $149, it’s down to $99, which is a steal of a deal for a gaming monitor with some great specs. If that instantly sounds appealing to you, keep reading while we take you through what the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor has to offer for the price. The deal is proving popular already, so don’t count on it sticking around for much longer.

Why you should buy the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor

While you might not think of Onn. as making some of the best monitors, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor. It’s a 24-inch 1080p/full HD monitor with an impressive refresh rate of 165Hz. That means even if you’re playing action-packed games that are moving quickly, you won’t have to worry so much about motion blur as your monitor will be able to keep up with it.

Alongside that, the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor uses adaptive sync technology so it works well with your graphics card. There’s a 1ms response time so input lag won’t be a negative factor here. It also has low blue light adjustments, and you can change the height, pivot, swivel it, and tilt the monitor through the adjustable stand. One of the best gaming monitors? Maybe in this price range, given how affordable the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor is.

On the back, the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor has two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort, so you can easily hook up your PC or your console to it. Eight different gaming modes also add to the potential of the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor — tweak things just how you like them. It all comes together to make the Onn. 24-inch FHD gaming monitor surprisingly feature packed for the price.

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Sony made some honest to god advancements to the game controller when it released the PlayStation DualSense alongside the PS5, and now it’s apparently looking to add some more innovation with the inclusion of a rewind feature.

The company has patented a new type of controller that comes with a rewind button. This would allow users to rewind gameplay with “user-triggered bookmarks.” The patent was discovered on Patentscope by Tech4Gamers (via TechRadarGaming). It appears to have been published as of October 31, 2024. The patent was applied for back in April of 2023. That might suggest that Sony is already working on this type of controller. Since the patent was applied for more than a year ago.

That does not, however, mean that Sony actually plans to release it. Sony could also just be securing the patent in case it ever wants to start developing a controller with such a feature.

Sony controller with a rewind feature would allow you to rewind gameplay

You can technically rewind a game now, although it depends on the game and it doesn’t really work like this feature that the patent is describing. However, any number of games will allow you to reset at a checkpoint after death. So in a sense, this would be a more advanced version of that perhaps.

The difference may lie in the ability to immediately hit the rewind button and go back to a very specific point of the player’s choosing. According to the patent, when the rewind button is pressed, it captures a series of frames and places them in sequential order. From there, users can pick out a frame and re-enter live gameplay from that point.

“The user is able to enter the rewind mode from the live gameplay using one or more controller inputs to view recent gameplay (e.g. rewinding, fast-forwarding, playing, etc.), and returning to live gameplay afterward,” the patent says.

The button could also allow for fast-forwarding

In addition to the rewind feature, the new button would also allow players to fast-forward. This could potentially let players skip past a particularly difficult portion or area of the game. It’s also noted that the button would be in the same location as the current share button on the DualSense. So it seems this would take the place of the share button. However, the rewind button would incorporate the share button features, so nothing would presumably be lost here.

The patent also describes additional features like a Highlight Reel mode. It’s unclear if this controller will ever make it into consumer’s hands. But, if it did it would be a nifty feature that could enhance gameplay on PlayStation consoles even further.

The November update for Google Pixel devices running Android 15 is rolling out now. This batch doesn’t include exciting new features, like the AI-powered theft protection in the October update, but it has bug fixes and the latest security patches to tighten things up.

The new software includes fixes for known intermittent issues with Bluetooth range, camera tilt when zooming between cameras and unexpected flashing or flickering of white dots or screen brightness. It also has fixes for adaptive brightness not activating, the keyboard dismiss button not working correctly and the performance and stability of some UI transitions and animations.

Android 15 arrived last month for Pixel devices, following the Pixel 9 lineup’s debut in August. The annual software jump focuses on security and privacy, like AI-powered theft detection lock and extra authentication requirements for removing SIMs and deactivating Find My Device.

Google says the November Pixel update is rolling out today and will continue in phases over the next week. You should see a notification when it’s ready for your device and carrier.