Hacker News Reader

What about filtering particles which don't have a charge like plastics or biological matter?

I guess you can always just boil the water after it's been processed by the portable machine.

I didn't quite get this part either -

> The membranes repel positively or negatively charged particles — including salt molecules, bacteria, and viruses ...

Are bacteria and viruses indeed electrically charged? This sounds strange.

Yes [0], "Bacterial cell surfaces possess net negative electrostatic charge by virtue of ionized phosphoryl and carboxylate substituents on outer cell envelope macromolecules which are exposed to the extracellular environment."

[0] https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-7012(00)00224-4

Reply on news.ycombinator.com