IMDEA Water celebrated the European Researchers’ Night in Madrid
On September 29th, a new edition of the European Researchers’ Night in Madrid took place at IMDEA Agua in Madrid, an event that was held simultaneously in more than 350 European cities.
On this occasion, our researchers had prepared a variety of stands and workshops with the intention of showing how they approach water-related research from different fields.
At our stands, participants learned how we can treat urban wastewater in a sustainable way using electroactive microorganisms. They have also discovered how a microorganism is isolated from the environment and how we can determine if that microorganism is resistant to different antibiotics. In addition, they have understood what ecotoxicology is and how pollutants in the environment affect aquatic life, and with digital microscopes they have been able to observe some of the invertebrates and plants used in the tests and which are used as biological indicators of the water quality of rivers and lakes.
On the other hand, our researchers have explained what environmental problems some pollutants found in water are creating, and visitors have learned what membranes are and how they are recycled at the end of their useful life.
They have also learned how much water we consume, how we generate pollutants in our homes, how these can reach the environment and the food chain, and what nature-based water treatment solutions consist of.
They were also able to attend two workshops. In the first one, our researchers and technicians have shown how contaminants are transported through water/soil, how they are extracted and how they are detected in water, soil and plant samples. In the second workshop, participants were introduced to a very important molecular technique as a first step in understanding the microbial diversity living in water: “DNA extraction”.
In addition, Abraham Esteve, coordinator of IMDEA Water’s Microbial Ecology unit, participated together with the rest of IMDEA’s institutes in the activity “The 5 EU missions as seen by IMDEA researchers (II)”, held at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid.
The European Researchers’ Night is a pan-European event taking place the last Friday and Saturday of September. In Madrid it is managed by Fundación para el Conocimiento madri+d. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions -under Grant Agreement No 101.061.343
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