Speaker 0:  today, we're looking at a breakthrough that sounds like pure science fiction, a material that can pull drinkable water straight out of the bone dry desert air. it's called a mof. and after winning the nobel prize in 2025, it officially, being hailed as a silicon of a brand new materials age. metallic or metal organic frameworks or mofs are essentially molecular sponges that scientists can program to trap specific molecules like water, carbon dioxide, or hydrogen because they are incredibly porous with just a few grams covering the area of, size of a football field, they are likely the key to solving global water scarcity and stopping climate change. what do you think about this, john?

Speaker 1:  i think this is cool. and i like, as we started talking about it, i feel like we've covered something similar, but i don't know if it was organic and metal, merging, but this isn't that. but i anyways, we talked about water from the air in the past. but, anyways, this is something different. we're talking about metal organic frameworks. and so they're crystalline materials that are made by linking metal ions with organic, we'll call them linker molecules that, into a pattern, it's like a lattice like structure, and they have these huge internal cavities. so unlike traditional solids, most of an mof's volume, it's pretty much empty space. so it gives us this huge colossal surface area relative to its max. and so this internal porosity, that is what enables the mof to physically or chemically bind gases and liquids with high selectivity. and so other cool thing about this is that these pores can be tuned at the molecular level. so by selecting different metals, different linkers, and geometric arrangements, scientists can design mofs to target specific molecules. so for example, capturing carbon dioxide while letting other gases pass or, like you said, absorbing vapor efficiently even from dry air. and so this design flexibility, it's foundational to reticular chemistry, which is the field that yagi kind of founded, which builds complex materials from smaller components with engineered function. so i agree with him saying that, these are going to be a game changer, and they're going to change the world. i think if they're able to produce these at mass scale, and and get it into, third world countries and where we need. i think this could be a game changer for reducing carbon dioxide, and, enabling drinkable water for people. what do you think, craig?

Speaker 0:  i think this is an amazing evolution of, you know, material and a bunch of different things is gonna wrap, and they change some fields. i like to think of it as molecular lego sets. instead of plastic blocks, scientists use metal atoms and organic linkers to build tiny three d structures, with massive amounts of empty space inside. so if a normal material is like a solid brick, a mof is like a skyscraper where every single room is designed to hold a very specific guest like a water molecule or a c o two atom like you're suggesting. so the big deal is this is, you know, an unprecedented surface area. the internal floor space inside these materials is, you know, just mind blowing. and for the first time, you know, we aren't just finding materials in the nature. we're coding them at the atomic level to do specific jobs. so, you know, that's amazing. and this isn't just a lab experiment anymore with the nobel 2025, prize. it's recognized as a fundamental chemistry that will define the next century. so, yeah, i think this is crazy. and i see applications like we're suggesting cleaner air, using industrial plants, use mof filters to scrub carbon dioxide out of the air before it ever hits the atmosphere. better electric vehicles feature evs could store hydrogen or methane, much more safely and densely leading to longer ranges and faster refueling. water out of thin air, obviously, i mentioned, you could have a device at home that generates gallons of fresh water every day even if you live in a desert, using only sunlight. so, you know, just those are just some ideas.

Speaker 1:  yeah. and the thing about this is that well, i don't know if we touched on this, but he won a nobel prize for this. so the prize itself isn't about prestige. what this prize signifies is it signals that this isn't just fringe research. it's foundational science with real potential to alter how we address climate, water, and energy challenges. so his vision ties back to a social mission. material science that alters societal infrastructure and not just lab benchmarks, which i love. and so being positive, this is i'm being, really positive about this, but there's a few things. despite their promise, they're not a finished commercial product, product. and so the greatest challenges, like, i alluded to a little bit earlier was scaling synthesis to industrial volume. the other challenge is ensuring long term durability and also integrating them into processes that can compete economically with already incumbent technologies. so, the the positive on this is that the pace of research, which, obviously, they're including machine learning driven discovery, it suggests that there's gonna be rapid progress on this to a commercial viable product.

Speaker 0:  yeah. i mean, companies are already field testing water harvesters in places like the arizona desert. we'll likely see mofs appearing in specialized industrial gas sensors, and high end purifiers within the next couple of years. and then between the five to ten years, we'll see mass market consumer products like home water, generators or c o two, scrubbing hvac units are on the horizon as manufacturers starts to scale. there's still some concerns about cost. currently making the links for these frameworks is expensive, often, requiring a complex, chemical synthesis. durability, early versions were sensitive to moisture. it's kind of ironic, but, though newer, zirconium based versions are much tougher. and scaling, they need to go, from making grams in a lab to millions of tons in factory to truly save the planet and kinda reminds me of, you know, the football field in your pocket, a tiny nugget of mof five as more internal surface space than a full size football field. it's like, are we in the, frank pym the area age where we pull something out and go boom, and it becomes huge?

Speaker 1:  yeah. yeah. exactly. did you find anywhere where they talked about cost to produce this or our commercial cost or anything like that? i'm guessing not because it's still in the research feed today.

Speaker 0:  alright. the only thing i really have is that it's expensive right now. it's expensive to make them. yeah. because of, the links for these frameworks is expensive after requiring complex chemical synthesis. but once they kinda have it nailed down, i think it'll scale.

Speaker 1:  yeah. for sure. i it it it makes sense. it's not like they're inventing, new metals. it's not like they're they're creating, metals that need to be created, like, by combining others. like, it's not like they're doing things that aren't, viable or feasible, if that makes sense, with this technology.

Speaker 0:  yeah. and, like, it's really good at, say, detecting, differences between nitrogen and co two and being able to pull out the co two as an example if that's what we're aiming for. so it's really cool. and the previous versions, the, cofs, the difference basically was, they didn't have any metal, and the new ones, contain metal.

Speaker 1:  okay.

Speaker 0:  so we'll see how that goes. i'm just trying to see. do we miss anything? i don't think so.

Speaker 1:  no. we we covered everything. this is great. by the way, i think he won the nobel prize in 2025 for this. so we're this this isn't old news. this is new news. newer news, if that makes sense.

Speaker 0:  so is this the end of water scarcity or just an expensive lab dream given, the nobel win and the desert test results? i'm betting on the future. let me know in the comments. would you trust a device that makes water out of thin air? we'll keep watching this story closely.