The American Southwest is running dry—literally. Lake Mead, the lifeline of Las Vegas, is shrinking at an alarming rate, and the city that defied nature is now facing one of its toughest challenges yet. But in true Vegas fashion, this city of reinvention is fighting back. From pioneering water conservation efforts to groundbreaking innovations like WAVR, a system that harvests water straight from the air, scientists and engineers are racing against time to secure the region’s future. Meanwhile, researchers are turning to an unlikely hero—cacti—as a potential solution for drought-resistant agriculture and even biofuel.

Imagine being severely dehydrated and water literally appearing out of thin air. In other words: The air you breathe could quickly become the water that wets your whistle. Well, that scenario is one step closer to reality thanks to University of Nevada, Las Vegas spinoff WAVR Technologies.

Southern Nevada is finding a way to supplement the Las Vegas Valley water supply through the air. A UNLV professor and his students are able to collect water from the atmosphere in their research.

A multidisciplinary team including scientists from the Texas Heart Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and the University of Nevada Las Vegas recently secured $600,000 to fund the next three years of research on their new device, the ReVolution pump.

Engineers have developed an atmospheric water capture device that efficiently generates drinking water from dry desert air, providing a sustainable solution to water scarcity in arid regions.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has been researching an innovative new approach to atmospheric water harvesting with improved water collection rates in arid environments.