![cds-flickr-vanessa-lynn](http://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/cds-flickr-vanessa-lynn.jpg?w=470)
Vanessa Lynn
Look under your bed. Among the dust bunnies, behind the sleeping bag, next the embarrassing photos from high school, there’s probably a pile of CDs. Some are worn out from use; some are freebies from AOL; some are blank CDs that you planned to burn the best of mixes on.
Let’s be real: You’re not burning any mixes, sport. You’re never going to use these CDs again.
But Din Ping Tsai, a physicist in Taiwan, could. His lab, reports FastCoExist, has developed a technique for purifying water — destroying 95 percent of contaminants — using nano rods, UV lights, and CDs. Watch it in action:
Why CDs? “They spin fast, and are durable and commonly available,” says FastCoExist. And nobody, nobody wants them anymore.
![](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sagrada.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=640)