Science of Water : Concepts and Applications

1 Introduction
When color photographs of the earth as it appears from space were fi rst published, it was a revelation:
they showed our planet to be astonishingly beautiful. We were taken by surprise. What makes the earth
so beautiful is its abundant water. The great expanses of vivid blue ocean with swirling, sunlit clouds
above them should not have caused surprise, but the reality exceeded everybody’s expectations. The
pictures must have brought home to all who saw them the importance of water to our planet.
—E. C. Pielou (1998, Preface)
Whether we characterize it as ice, rainbow, steam, frost, dew, soft summer rain, fog, fl ood or
avalanche, or as stimulating as a stream or cascade, water is special—water is strange—water is
different.
Water is the most abundant inorganic liquid in the world; moreover, it occurs naturally anywhere
on Earth. Literally awash with it, life depends on it, and yet water is so very different.
Water is scientifi cally different. With its rare and distinctive property of being denser as a liquid
than as a solid, it is different. Water is different in that it is the only chemical compound found
naturally in solid, liquid, and gaseous states. Water is sometimes called the universal solvent. This
is a fi tting name, especially when you consider that water is a powerful reagent that is capable in
time of dissolving everything on Earth.
Water is different. It is usually associated with all the good things on Earth. For example, water
is associated with quenching thirst, with putting out fi res, and with irrigating the Earth. The question
is: Can we really say emphatically, defi nitively that water is associated with only those things
that are good?
Not really!
Remember, water is different; nothing, absolutely nothing, is safe from it.
Water is different. This unique substance is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Water covers 71%
of the Earth completely. Even the driest dust ball contains 10–15% water.
Water and life—life and water—inseparable.
The prosaic becomes wondrous as we perceive the marvels of water.
Three hundred and twenty-six million cubic miles of water cover the Earth, but only 3% of this
total is fresh with most locked up in polar ice caps, glaciers, in lakes; in fl ows through soil and in
river and stream systems back to an ever-increasing saltier sea (only 0.027% is available for human
consumption). Water is different.
Saltwater is different from freshwater. Moreover, this text deals with freshwater and ignores
saltwater because saltwater fails its most vital duty, which is to be pure, sweet, and serve to
nourish us.
Standing at a dripping tap, water is so palpably wet, one can literally hear the drip-drop-plop.
Water is special—water is strange—water is different—more importantly, water is critical for
our survival, yet we abuse it, discard it, fowl it, curse it, dam it, and ignore it. At least, this is the
way we view the importance of water at this moment in time … however, because water is special,
strange, and different, the dawn of tomorrow is pushing for quite a different view.
Along with being special, strange, and different, water is also a contradiction, a riddle.
How?
Consider the Chinese proverb “Water can both fl oat and sink a ship.”
The presence of water everywhere feeds these contradictions. Lewis (1996, p. 90) points out that
“water is the key ingredient of mother’s milk and snake venom, honey and tears.”
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