100TH AUSSIE ISSUE! HOW FAR HAS TECH COME SINCE 2009?

DESAL
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THE HATE?)

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The
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Where weve
Could you live on fought and killed
just 180 litres a day? for the wet stuff

The
Dont Big Dry
Burn Coal What happens to
Drink through a city when its
it instead! glacier dies?

THE FUTURE
OF WATERNew technology will make water
Cleaner Fresher Cheaper
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EDITORIAL

One Hundred,
Editor Anthony Fordham afordham@nextmedia.com.au
Contributors Brooke Borel, Tom Clynes, Clay Dillow, Nicole Dyer,
Daniel Engber, Tom Foster, William Gurstelle, Lindsay Handmer, Mike Haney,
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Not Out
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DESIGN
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ADVERTISING
Divisional Manager For most magazines, reaching the 100th issue is a major
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Production Manager Peter Ryman

Circulation Director Carole Jones Figuring out how many issues about how humans have ruined
US EDITION
of Popular Science have been the environment and everything
Editor in Chief Joe Brown published over in the US isnt is terrible now? Our US colleagues
Articles Editor Kevin Gray
Managing Editor Jill C. Shomer exactly straightforward. There have that covered.
Senior Editor Sophie Bushwick
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Assistant Editors Dave Gershgorn, Matt Giles
Editorial Assistant Grennan Milliken 20th century, including a couple of effects of technology is important,
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Editorial Intern Annabel Edwards to mention the ongoing challenge to believe that technology has
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY of the internet. But its a lot. improved the life of the average
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We started the Australian what relief they do get is almost
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always believed that this country about this time last year, the
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has played a disproportionately US mothership has moved
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P O P S C I .CO M . AU 3
 CONTENTS
MARCH 2017

60 desalination
There isnt enough natural fresh water for
everyone. Desalination is a solution. We
visit Dubai, where it just has to work...

04 POPULAR SCIENCE
6
For daily updates: www.popsci.com.au

8
20 Goods
Your guide to everything

06 The Other Clean Coal

08 Water Bottles
10 A Perfect Sphere of Ice?
11 The Evolution of Ice Cubes
12 A Waterproof Home
14 Next-Gen Showerheads
15 A $10,000 Toilet
16 Whats In A Glass Of Water?

28 Charted
Important stuff for futurists

18 Water Stress: A Map

20 Moisture Misers
21 Flint: By The Bottle
22 What The Frack?
24 Drink Your Own Pee!
48 26
27
How Thirsty Is Your Dinner?
LAs Deep Roots
28 How To Die of Dehydration
30 Water From Thick Air

Features
Made for you, by you

32 The Water Wars

34 In Profile
36 La Paz Has No Water
48 My Water Week
54 A Brief History of PopSci

The Other Stuff

Worlds within worlds

03 Our editor rants

70 Tales from the Field
75 Comic: The Aquanauts
80 Retro Invention

36
82 Lab Rats

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 05
GOODS

A BETTER WAY THE DEVELOPED WORLDS CUP OVER-

floweth with potable tap water, but it doesnt
THE OTHER all taste quite so fresh. Soil impurities in some
regions make for a funky bore draught, while
C L E A N C OA L algae and bacteria in the dregs of drought-
depleted reservoirsand the chlorine used in
treatmentmake sinks smell like fish tanks.
 32,000
Ramona Bajema trauma of tap taint. Japan: activated nastiness for about
founder of Frustrated by ugly bamboo charcoal. a month. The coal
purification company and wasteful home Drop three pieces traps impurities right
Miyabi Charcoal filters (like those of the carbonised away, but it will take
and lifelong resident in plastic jugs), takesumi into your an hour for your drink
of ultra-dry Ojai, Bajema borrowed an favorite carafe, and to taste like precious The square footage in one
Californiais well- ancient, sustainable it will rid litre after nothing. $ 16 (THREE- teaspoon of activated charcoal.
acquainted with cleansing tool from litre of tap water of MONTH SUPPLY) Millions of pores grab impurities.

by Sara Chodosh / photograph by Brian Klutch P O P S C I .CO M . AU 7

 MORE THAN ONE WAY TO DROP-IN PURIFICATION LETS ANY VESSEL BECOME A
self-contained water-cleansing system. No matter who you areor
C A R RY what mountaintop, elliptical machine, or TPS report you need to
conquercrisp, fresh-tasting H2O can go right along with you. Just fill
WAT E R any of these fine flagons at the nearest tap, and drink up.

1
Desk Jockeys
Be an adult:
Drink from a glass.
The MIU Colour 1
550-ml is made of
borosilicate, which,
thanks to a makeup
thats about 5 per
cent boric oxide,
is durable and
stain resistant.

2
All-Day Toters
Most double-
walled bottles use
hefty endcaps to
close the chamber 2
between the steel
walls. Hydro Flask
seals with a glass plug
during the vacuuming
process, lightening the
vessels considerably. 3

3
Trail Trekkers
When climbing, it can
be hard to breathe,
let alone pull water
from a hydration
packs straw. The 4
Geigerrig Rig 700M
is pressurised: Bite a
valve to get H2O from
its generous two
litre reservoir.

4
Gym Rats
Swag canteens are
greatif youre into
lukewarm water
mid-workout. The
Camelbak Podium
PROP STYLING BY WENDY SCHELAH FOR HALLEY RESOURCES
Chill sport bottles 5
cell-foam insulation
keeps water cold
twice as long as
that freebie.
S
D
O
O

5
G

Light Packers
The HydraPak Stash
collapses from 180
millimetres tall to the
size of a hockey puck.
The 750-ml bottles
flexible centre stands
up to repeated
twisting between
the hard-shell top
and bottom.

8 POPULAR SCIENCE by Corinne Iozzio / photograph by Brian Klutch

 IN EXCESS

M I RAC L E
I N IC E

WHY FREEZE AN OCTAGONAL BLOCK OF ICE ONLY TO

shape it into a sphere with an $800 contraption? If watching the Cirrus
Ice Ball Press aluminium halves channel the ambient air temperature
to melt away everything but a perfect globe doesnt blow your brain
straight out your earhole, try some whiskey on these rocks. Spheres, of
all 3D shapes, have the lowest surface area, which means less contact
with ice-melting boozeand a drink thats cold but not watered down.
PROP STYLING BY WENDY SCHELAH FOR HALLEY RESOURCES

10 POPULAR SCIENCE by Joe Brown / photograph by Brian Klutch

 SELECTION THAT CUBE IN YOUR COCKTAIL HAS EVOLVED ALMOST
as much as the species that made it. The original drink chillers came
T H E ORIG I N from frozen lakes, hacked out and delivered to families whose great
grandchildren would someday mould it into tiny dinosaurs. Here are
OF IC E B L O CK S the highlights of its trip:

THE FUTURE

Is Clear
Transparent ice takes
time. You either carve
the clear centre of
a huge block or use
insulation to slowly
solidify so the water
comes out clear.

2000S

Going Soft
Slick silicone has a low
coefficient of friction
and a pliable nature.
Both let you create
otherwise impossible-
to-release shapes
with ease (mostly).

1980S

Topping It
Modern plastics dont
crack as easily as
the old stuff, but the
genius award goes to
lidded trays: You can
stack them before
the water sets.

1960S

Plastics
Injection-moulded
polymers changed
every industry. Trays
graduated from
skin-chilling metal to
twistable polypropyl-
ene and polyethylene.

1930S

DIY Cubes
With the advent of
refrigeration, you
PROP STYLING BY WENDY SCHELAH FOR HALLEY RESOURCES

could freeze your own

ice in aluminium trays;
the metal warmed as
it left the freezer,
releasing cubes easily.

MID-19TH CENTURY

Early Ancestors
Antique solid water
came as giant blocks
to chill your insulated
icebox. For a frosty
sarsaparilla, youd chip
the ol block with a
sharp pick. Murderous!

by Joe Brown / photograph by Brian Klutch P O P S C I .CO M . AU 11

 1

2
4

3
5

SYSTEMATIC WHOEVER SAID MONEY DOESNT FALL FROM THE SKY

hadnt mastered the art of harvesting precipitation. A carefully
R A I N, R A I N, coordinated system can ensure drizzles and downpours are safe to use
in all your indoor-plumbing fixtures and water-hogging appliances
S TOW AWAY and reduce your homes reliance on the utility company too.

1 2 3 4 5
Sift Store Pump Filter Reuse
Rain has a pesky From the downpipe, Nestled inside the Before it flows to Drain lines from
habit of knocking runoff enters the tank, the Grundfos fixtures, enough H2O showers, sinks, and
loose all kinds of 750-litre Poly-Mart SBA-3-45-AW passes through the washing machines
crud you dont want Rainwater Harvest- Automatic Pump Viqua 12GPM (no toilets!) flow into
flowing into your ing Tank, where a includes a floating Integrated Rainwater the Aqua2Use
tank. As a first line filter basket catches extractor buoy that Purification System greywater diversion
of defence, the Leaf any left-behind pushes cleaner, to feed about device (GWDD). A
Eater Advanced floaters. If enough more-oxygenated fivesimultaneous series of increasingly
pre-filter attaches drops fall to fill the surface water into showers. A carbon fine membrane
to your gutters drum, a pipe up top the home first. An filter removes some filters cleanse water
downpipe to keep sends overflow into integrated controller odours and flavours, of soap, some oils,
large debris out of your regular storm unit automatically while a UV disinfector dead skin, and hair,
the water supply. Its drains. At capacity, stops the pump stops disease-causing readying it to run
0.955 mm screen the barrel weighs when the tank is organisms from through your lawn- or
is fine enough to more than 900kg, empty, switching reproducing. The garden-irrigation
sift out everything so it needs to sit on your water supply resulting liquid meets setup. Warning: Its
from mosquitoes concrete or another back to the regular, most indoor water- safe for plants to
toleaves. solid surface. public works. quality codes. drink, but not for you.

12 POPULAR SCIENCE by Harlan Murphy / illustration by Lucy Engelman

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G O O D, B E T T E R, B E S T

U N DE R
P R E S S UR E
DECADES AGO, OUR SHOWERHEADS
blasted away suds with boom-time abandon.
Then, in the 90s, efficiency standards cut water
flow by half or moreto nine litres per minute.
Faced with ever-tightening laws, engineers are
getting crafty about turning drips into deluges.

14 POPULAR SCIENCE by Corinne Iozzio / photograph by Brian Klutch

 DO THE MATH OF A LL T H E T H I R S T Y N E C E S S I T I E S I N OU R HOM E S,
toilets rank among the worst offenders. They flush fresh water down
K I NG OF the drain, need regular rinsing and scrubbing, and filth up the whole
bathroomwhich means more to clean. The US$10,200 TOTO Neorest
T H RON E S 750H still flushes, but finds plenty of ways to save dihydrogen monoxide.

1
/2
ROLLS OF TOILET
PAPER SAVED PER
PERSON PER WEEK
Assuming a healthy
45
PER CENT DROP IN
WATER USAGE WITH
EFFICIENT FLUSHES
Dual nozzles turn
digestive system, three litres of water
opting to clean up into a vortex to wash
using the Neorests away number ones.
three bidet hoses will Sit more than 30
use just 15 litres per seconds, and presence
person per week. It and IR sensors infer a
takes 70 litres to number two, signaling
make half a roll of TP. a 3.5 litre flush.

4
WEEKS ONE OFFICE
WENT NOT CLEAN-
ING THE TOILET
0.5
LITRES (EST.) OF
WATER IN A BOTTLE
OF GLEN 20
Flushing sprays
To stop buildup, pre-
and post-squat mists bacteria and viruses,
of acidic, electrolysed but the Neorest keeps
water rinse the bowl. them on lockso youll
Then, zirconium in have to disinfect the
the glazeactivated room less often. When
by an underlid UV you leave, sensors tell
lightbreaks down the lid to close and the
any stuck-on gunk. toilet to flush.
PROP STYLING BY WENDY SCHELAH FOR HALLEY RESOURCES

by Sara Chodosh / photograph by Brian Klutch P O P S C I .CO M . AU 15

 W H A T'S I N A G L A S S O F W A T E R ?
Th ough i t's s uppos ed to be the defaul t, n o -flavour be verage, you migh t n o t reali s e h ow much varie ty exi s ts in
the seemingly consistent standard of tap water. Adelaideans know: this colourless refreshment can vary widely from city to city
house to h ous e, or e ven s ink to s ink. Here are s ome s urpri s ing i tems that migh t sh ow up in your H 2 O.
BY R AC H E L F E LT M A N / P HOTO G R A P H BY T H E VO OR H E S

PESTICIDES
Insecticides and herbicides
can wash into rivers and lakes CHLORINE
and seep into groundwater. Water-treatment facilities
The pesticide atrazine has add chlorine as a disinfectant,
been linked to hormonal and its safe at low levels. But
imbalances in lab animals but some disinfectants produce
probably isnt carcinogenic. byproducts that have been
linked to miscarriages. See
also: chloramine, a mix of
chlorine and ammonia, to
make the nasties extra dead.

FLUORIDE ARSENIC
As rocks erode, they naturally Arsenic occurs naturally in
release fluoride into soil, air, rocks and soil, and its linked
and most water sources. to increased risk of cancer.
Because it can prevent tooth A water-treatment plant
decay by rebuilding enamel, should remove the poison, but
many communities add private bore owners must
extra to the drinking supply. periodically test for it.

HYDROGEN
SULFIDE
Naturally occurring and
harmless, this chemical is still
a pain in the butt. Or out of
the butt? It smells
like rotten eggs, stains
clothes, and corrodes pipes.
Like your butt.
PHARMA
Everything from amoxicillin to
Zyrtec makes its way, via
your pee, into the rivers and
lakes that supply our water.
However, pharmaceuticals
only contaminate surface
water at extremely low levels.
COPPER
Youll notice a medicinal
tasteor even greenish
hairwith just 1.3 milligrams
of copper per litre of water.
But the metal, which leaches
from old pipes, is safe for
humans at those levels. Just
dont put it in your fishs tank.
LEAD
Old, corroded metal pipe-
lines can deposit this potent
neurotoxin into drinking
water, as they did in Flint,
Michigan and, well, Rome.
Children who ingest lead can
develop permanent learning
disabilities and/or experience
barbarian raids and collapse
of late-period empire.
ALGAE
Agricultural runoff or warm
water can stimulate fish-
killing algal blooms. But for
us, algae in drinking water is
just a nuisance: a musty,
fishy taste that persists even
after the treatment plant.
S A LT S
Salts are a normal part of
water, though a strong salty
flavour can indicate a waste-
water leak. And a high
concentration of sodium- or
magnesium-sulfate salts
might have a...laxative effect.
 WILD RIDE
IN OUR PART OF THE WORLD, CLEAN WATER FLOWS

stressed out: straight from a tap. In others, people trek for miles to reach a pota-
ble source. How do we measure the availability of this essential
gauging global resource? Compare the amount of water a region uses to the size
of its water supply. This ratio of supply to demand, known as water
water worries stress, often shifts over time. As populations grow or move around,
so too will demand. And as climate change redraws temperature and

1
Southwestern
United States
As climate change
pushes water supply
down, the bushfire-
plagued Southwest
grows even more
parched. A growing
1
population in the
region will drive up
demandand stress.

2
Coastal Peru
Shifting precipitation
patterns will slightly
increase rainfalland
thus water supplyin
Peru. But those same
weather patterns
could increase Chiles
water stress.

18 POPULAR SCIENCE
CHARTED KEY
rainfall patterns, supply will change as well. The nonprofit World
Resources Institute mapped how water stress will fluctuate around
the globe between now and 2040. Its estimate combines factors such
Drying Getting
as drought, flooding risk, groundwater levels, and access to water up wetter
thats safe for humans to drink. WRI predicts that, while some regions
will remain stableand a few can look forward to stress relief
many will face increasing demand and decreasing supply.

3
Germany
3 The water supply will
remain consistent,
but demand will likely
decrease thanks to
4 liquid-conserving
agricultural practices,
water-efficient
industrial techand a
shrinking population.
5

4
Middle East
Of the top 16
countries that face
increasing water
stress, 13 are in the
Middle East. Trends
show this already arid
area will get drier, and
shortages could
exacerbate armed
conflict in the region.

5
Northwestern
India
Agricultural irrigation
accounts for up to
80 per cent of global
water use, and
northwestern India is
the biggest user. This
practice will put
increasing pressure on
groundwater stores.

by Mary Beth Griggs / illustration by Sinelab P O P S C I .CO M . AU 19

 YOINK IN THE DRIEST PLACES ON THE PLANET, HYDRATION IS HARD TO COME BY AND
easy to lose. Every moist breath exhaled, every bead of sweat that drips
moisture off, and every emptied bladderful of urine means wasted wetness and
misers a greater risk of death by dehydration. Yet some animals manage to
survive in these places. They get by on almost no water at all, thanks
to adaptations that make them super savers and hydration scavengers.

1 2

4 6

1 2 3 4 5 6
Kangaroo Rat Dromedary Water-holding Thorny Devil Tortoise Sand Gazelle
The kangaroo rat Camel Frog The spikes of Central In the Mojave and Sand gazelles in the
never has to drink Camels dont actually During hot, dry Australias thorny Sonoran deserts, sweltering Arabian
waterit just gets it store water in their periods, this devil do more than several tortoise Desert have evolved
from the seeds it eats. humps, so they have to Australian frog ward off predators. species survive off the strange ability to
To survive in the dry conserve it. At night, secretes a waterproof The lizards absorbent their urine. During shrink their oxygen-
climes of the after the chilly Saharan mucus cocoon that skin and spines suck times of plenty, their demanding organs
American West, its air cools the camels prevents moisture up dew from cool bladders swell to hold when dry spells hit.
kidneys generate nasal cavity, mist in its from escaping its night air, rain, puddles, around 470 ml of aqua Downsizing their
super-concentrated breath condenses body. Meanwhile, the and any other vitaeuh, literal aqua hearts and livers by
urine, and it doesnt inside its nose, where it frog hibernates moisture it can get its vitae, not the powerful 20 and 45 per cent,
pant or sweat. Some gets reabsorbed. The underground, waiting dry little claws on. medieval liquor. The respectively, allows
species can even camels extra-twisty for another rainy Thin grooves in tortoise can later them to breathe less.
lower their metabolic nasal passages save up season. It can survive its skin help trap the reabsorb water from Taking fewer breaths
rates so they lose to 60 per cent of the for two years or more water, then route its urine to endure means less water
lessmoisture moisture it would have on the liquid stored it to the lizards a year or longer lost to respiratory
throughbreathing. lost during exhalation. in its bladder. mouth for a tipple. without a drink. evaporation.

20 POPULAR SCIENCE by Peter Hess / illustration by Michael Brandon Myers

 4
The number of
standard-size
14
The number of bottles
the state should give
(500ml) bottles of a Flint resident daily;
water an average the result of a lawsuit
adult needs to drink from the American
daily to prevent Civil Liberties Union,
dehydration. and others.

757
The number of
bottles it would take
100
The number of bottles
it reportedly took
to substitute all of a some Flint families to
standard Americans make Thanksgiving
daily water usage, dinner in 2016. One
including showering needed 24 bottles just
and tooth brushing. to thaw the turkey.

Flint, MI

IN 2014, THE GOVERNMENT

of Flint, Michigan, switched the
citys water source to the Flint
River, and youve probably heard
60
The number of bottles
needed to cookand
cleanper day for one
what happened next: Officials Flint family of three,
failed to add important corro- who tracked how
sion inhibitors to prevent water much water they
used, and for what.
from leaching metal out of the
citys ageing pipes. Soon, danger-
ous levels of lead infiltrated the
water system. To protect them-
selves and their children from

750
leads side effectsweakness,
developmental delays, and
seizuresconcerned residents
have turned to bottled water. Lots
of it. Heres a glimpse of what its
like to live life in the midst of a
water crisis, bottle by bottle.
The number of water
bottles that Flints
Durant-Tuuri-Mott
BREAK IT DOWN Elementary School
uses dailythats
MAP BY JUAN PABLO BRAVO

Flint:
a little more than one
bottle per student.

a day by the bottle

by Rachel Feltman / photograph by The Voorhes P O P S C I .CO M . AU 21
 WORD SLURRY

what the frack

OVER 370 BILLION LITRES THATS HOW MUCH FLUID FRACKING WELLS
inject into the US each year. The high-pressure slurry cracks underlying shale, releasing oil and
natural gas trapped inside. Should Australia go likewise crazy for fracking? Although scientists
have linked individual cases of contamination to fracking, a 2016 EPA report on its safety was
inconclusive. Companies dont have to disclose what is actually in the slurry. Like Coca-Colas
formula, these chemical cocktails are trade secrets, so it can be hard for scientists to gauge risk.
Here are some components, from run-of-the-mill to rare, squeezed out of cagey corporations.

METHANOL SODIUM CHLORIDE

An alcohol often found in
antifreeze that serves to winterise
fracking fluid. If you drink it,
you could go blind or die, but
unlikely to be necessary here.
2-BUTOXYETHANOL
This solvent keeps the slurry s table
at high temperatures. But dont
inhale: It can damage your lungs
and red blood cells.
Aka: table salt. It s tabilises
fracking fluids. Even small
amounts seeping into rivers and
lakes can kill freshwater fish. Carp
probably dont mind it. Bas tards.

SOURCE: IN 2011, A CONGRESSIONAL REPORT RELEASED THE TOP 100 CHEMICALS USED IN FRACKINGMINUS SECRET, PROPRIETARY COMPOUNDS

WALNUT HULLS DIESEL

Frack in g f l ui d i s nt a l l bad . I t m a k e s t h e f l u i d s l i ck ,
G ri tty s h el l s s h o w p ro mi s e as a lowering its friction. But its
fracking proppant they prop open cancer-c a u s in g c o m p o n e n ts
frac tures made in the s h a l e . UREA might contaminategroundwater.
Aus tralia has a walnut indus try, The urine component undergoes
so this should be a boon for them. a reac tion that makes ammonia,
using up water in the process. This
means less was te left behind.

22 POPULAR SCIENCE by Kendra Pierre-Louis / illustration by Chris Ballasiotes

 2
Catching the Big Stuff
Treatment plants employ a series of mesh screens to catch
rocks, sticks, and otherahemlarger refuse floating in
your former toilet juice. Finer debris sinks down to the bottom
of deep pools, while the top layer flows through. Some
municipalities also add chemicals that clump crud together,
which makes it easier to catch and remove stowaway stools.

1
Out with the Old
Your urine is more than 90 per cent water (and your poop is
about three-quarters). Each time you flush, the sewer system
ferries your wastealong with 6 to 26(!) litres of perfectly
good H2O used to swirl it down your porcelain throneto
a treatment plant designed to make it taste delicious.

the water
(re)cycle
T H E WAT E R YOU US E TO S HO OT YOU R P O O

out of the building is better quality than what billions of
people will drink in their lifetimes. But still we have his
aversion to recycled pee. If a litre of water has touched the
sewer it gets dumped, no exceptions. Yet the technology to
process and purify sewer water exists, doing what nature
does anyway. Thats right. Your precious no-sewer water
has been through somethings digestive system already.
This just lets us take control of the recycling process.
6
Homeward Bound
After sitting pretty in the reservoir for who knows how long,
the water gets yet another round of filtration before its
safe to drink again. Then a disinfectant like chlorine kills
microbes. The result whooshes out through your tap, into a
glass, and down your gulletand so the cycle begins anew.

24 POPULAR SCIENCE
3
Taking a Closer Look
Activated sludge sounds nasty, but this mushy mix of
bacteria actually helps break down organic contaminants.
A good stir swirls and sloshes the sludge through giant vats.
When it settles, it leaves behind purified liquid that can then be
disinfected for use in irrigation or other industrial applications.
But you wouldnt want to drink the stuff (at least not yet).

4
One Last Pass
After another round of filtration for good measure, the good
stuff makes its way through strawlike fibres. Pressure forces
H20 through pores so small that only individual molecules
can fit, ensuring that only pure dihydrogen monoxide crosses
over the membrane. This process, called reverse osmosis,
makes former bog juice pristine and drinkable.

5Back to Nature
Just to keep the squeamish chemistry naifs happy, the
now-pristine liquid goes back into natural reservoirs to mix
with droplets from rain and rivers. It can stay there indefinitely,
gathering minerals from rocks and soil, and going through
natural filtration processes until its called back into action.
378 Litres of wastewater, in millions, recycled
in Orange County, California, each day.

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 25

MEASURE UP
but how
much does
food drink?
WHEN YOU EAT, YOU USE UP
every drop of water your food
required to grow. And depend-
ing on your choicesroasted
broccoli versus a juicy steaka
meal might consume a few litres
of water, or a few hundred. Some
plants sip gingerly from the soil,
while others gulp; and animals
not only drink water, but ingest it
indirectly through the feed they
eat. In a thirsty world, we should
choose our foods wisely. To
help, Popular Science calculated
how much water goes into 100
calories worth of these staples.
CHARTED
26 POPULAR SCIENCE
10L
Broccoli
Broccoli seems like a wonder food, based on the
calories you get out for the water you put in. And
even though 100 calories of the veggie weighs in
at more than half a head, this crunchy snack
doesnt need a ton of flow to grow.
170L
Apples
Apple trees are picky growers: They dont thrive
in too-wet soil, but they do require irrigation in
too-dry soil. Yet, on the litrers-per-100-calories
scale, they use nearly as much water as chicken.
Thats because the fruit provides less energy.
0.089L
Crickets
Crickets are efficient little bugs. Sixty per cent
protein by weight, they require less than 10 litres
of water per kilogram of protein. Even
better, they reach adulthood in just six weeks.
The challenge is convincing people to eat them.
180L
Chicken
Chickens not only drink water, but they also
munch water-requiring feed. But they dont do
so for long: The average broiler takes a mere five
weeks to reach its market weight of 2.2 kilos.
After that, the eater becomes the eaten.
55L
Wheat Flour
Wheat usually grows in spring and autumn, so
farmers neednt water it during the blistering
days of summer. Wheat also has a deep and
efficient root system, and in ideal circumstances,
doesnt even require additional irrigation.
1,000L
Steak
Cattle are natural water guzzlers, drinking
nearly 130 litres a day. Whats worse, a 550-kg
steer can eat nearly 10 kg of feed while the sun
shines, which incurs an H2O penalty of
thousands of additional litres.
by Michael Koziol / illustration by Sinelab
 YOINK MORE PEOPLE LIVE IN THE SUNBAKED CITIES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
than the local water supply can support. Millions more. Whats a
a still los parched metropolis to do? Steal what it needs from other regions. Us-
angeles ing elaborate systems of concrete-lined straws and pumps, LA slurps
meltwater from the Sierras and flowing H2O from rivers hundreds of
runs deep kilometres away. OK, its not technically theftthe city secured wa-
ter rights decades ago. But that doesnt stop people at the sources
from grumbling. And as populations grow and environmental stress-
es take their toll, the city and its neighbours will only get thirstier.

San Joaquin- Eastern Sierra

Sacramento Snowmelt from the
River Delta Sierra Nevada,
Water enters this delivered via the LA
network of channels Aqueduct, is the citys
via two of Californias easiest and cheapest
largest rivers: the San imported sourcefor
Joaquin and the now. Recently though,
Sacramento. Some of more precipitation is
that fresh water then falling as rain, and
flows into the snow is melting
714-kilometre-long earlier, leaving less
concrete-coated snowmelt to get LA
California Aqueduct. through summers.

Local Colorado River

Groundwater Some 18 million
Some cities in LA Californians get water
County still extract from this river on
water from within Arizonas border.
sediment layers. They California gets to
take it from basins siphon off 5.2 trillion
overseen by litres every year, but
court-appointed the states been
water masters, blowing that budget
pump the liquid up to by some 750 billion
the surface, treat it, litres. The federal
and send it flowing government has kindly
into the system. asked them to quit it.

Desalination
With so much ocean
nearby, why does LA

16
import water at all?
Because desalination
guzzles a lot more
energy and money
than relatively passive
aqueducts. A fancy
desalination plant
opened in Carlsbad in
2015, but it supplies
Southern California a
relatively low volume.
minimum number of days
water requires to travel the length
of the California Aqueduct

by Amy Schellenbaum / illustration by Sinelab P O P S C I .CO M . AU 27

1 2
STAGE STAGE

Thirst Fainting
WATER LOST 2% of WATER LOST 4% of
body weight. For a body weight. For a
77-kilo person, thats 77-kilo person, thats 3
1.5 kilos. You might kilos. This is roughly
lose this much sweat equivalent to riding a
by kickboxing for an bike for three hours in
hour in a hot room, extreme heat without
without a drink. rehydrating, or going
EFFECTS When thirst without water for two
kicks in, your body entire days.
clings to all remaining EFFECTS Your blood is
moisture. Your kidneys so concentrated that
send less water to the resulting decrease
your bladder, in blood flow makes
darkening your urine. your skin shrivel. Your
As you sweat less, blood pressure drops,
your body tempera- making you prone to
ture rises. Your blood fainting. Youve
becomes thicker and basically stopped
sluggish. To maintain sweating, and
oxygen levels, your without this coolant,
heart rate increases. you start to overheat.

QUENCH YOUR CURIOSITY

the thirsty body

WATER MAKES UP ABOUT 55 TO 65 PER CENT OF YOUR BODY. ITS A CRUCIAL

CHARTED
ingredient in the chemistry that helps your brain think, your blood flow, and your muscles move.
But what happens after you sweat through a spin class, spend a day at the beach, or simply ignore
your thirst? Dehydration is different for everybodyit depends on how much youre exercising,
the temperature around you, and how much you typically sweatbut it can get dangerous quickly.

3 4
STAGE STAGE

Organ Damage Death

WATER LOST 7% of WATER LOST 10% of
body weight. For a bodyweight. For a
77-kilo person, thats 5 77-kilo person, thats
kilos. Tricky to lose in a nearly8 kg.This is like
single session. Maybe going forfive days, or
8 hours of being lost running for 11 hours in
on a bushwalk? 30-degree weather,
EFFECTS Your body is without rehydrating.
having trouble EFFECTS Congrats! Its
maintaining blood a medical ermergency!
pressure. To survive, it If its hot out,your
slows blood flow to uncontrollable body
nonvital organs, such temperature means
as your kidneys and yourvital organs risk
gut, causing damage. overheating; liver
Without your kidneys failure will probablykill
filtering your blood, you. But if conditions
cellular waste quickly are mild, toxic sludge
builds up. Youre builds up inyour blood,
literally dying for a andyour coroners
glass of water. report will more likely
read: kidneyfailure.

28 POPULAR SCIENCE by Claire Maldarelli / illustration by Michael Brandon Myers

ne mechanical watchmaking, from japan.

Trimatic symbolises three Seiko inventions

that ensure the highest levels of reliability
and durability in its mechanical watches.

seiko.com.au
 1

ANATOMY 2

a machine that pulls 3

water from
thick air. literally.
MORE THAN 660 MILLION 5

people lack regular access to

clean drinking water. And by
2030, half of humanity will live
in areas where the demand for
water outstrips the available
supply. Thats why entrepreneurs
Nancy Curtis and Don Zacherl
from Vici Labs are experiment-
ing with a device they call Water-
Seer, which pulls moisture out of
the air using nothing but wind
power and basic physics.
The air is full of water vapour.
Chill that vapour, however, and
the water will condensate into
a liquid. This principle makes
water bead up on the outside of
a frosty glassand it also drives
WaterSeer. The device sends air
underground, where cooler tem-
peratures turn the water from
gas to liquid. Field tests suggest
that WaterSeer can produce up
to 40 litres of fresh drinking wa-
ter per day in drier environments
like western NSW. It works even
better under humid conditions,
like in Sydney, where it can
provide 50+ litres a day.
4
Working with the National
Peace Corps Association, Vici
Labs aims to begin testing the de-
vice in up to 10 locations around
the world this year.
If all goes well, it could provide
safe drinking water to communi-
ties in developing countries, and
maybe even find a place on a few
Aussie properties...

HOW DOES 1 2 3 4 5
IT WORK? A three-bladed The second fan directs A filter prevents As the air cools, liquid A hand-operated
vertical turbine on top relatively warm air insects and debris beads up on the sides pumpno electricity
of the device spins in from the surface into from entering the pipe of the condensation requiredraises the
the wind, driving a the condensation so they dont chamber, which locals liquid, which is even
second fan in the PVC chamber, buried contaminate the can make from any cleaner than tap
body of the machine. 2 m underground. harvested water. available materials. water, to the surface.

30 POPULAR SCIENCE by Sarah Fecht / illustration by Felix Petruska

 595685 B.C.
Amphicitionic League
vs. Kirrans
Pilgrims visiting the Oracle at
Delphi had to pass Kirra, a coastal
city where thieves often robbed
the travelers. To end these
attacks, Greek tribes formed a
league to besiege Kirra. They
poisoned its water with hellebore,
a toxic herb that sickened
citizens until the village fell.
Whether were poisoning , drowning , or dehydrating our enemies into submission,
196 4
Cuban Government
vs. US Navy
After the US Navy detained
several Cuban fishermen off the
Florida coast, Cuban President
Fidel Castro cut off fresh water to
the US Naval base at Guantana-
mo Bay. The Navy started to
ration water there and built
a desalination plant to be free
of its reliance on Cuban agua.
32 POPULAR SCIENCE
51 B.C.
Romans vs.
Gauls
To conquer the Gauls in what is
now France, Roman troops had
to attack their last remaining fort
on the Dordogne River. During
the siege, archers shot any
Gaul trying to escape. Then, the
Romans drained a spring that fed
the fort its water. The thirsty
Gauls ultimately surrendered.
1962-1967
Brazil vs.
Paraguay
Brazil and Paraguay both claimed
hydroelectric development rights
to the Guaira Falls, which sit on
their shared border. Brazil
invaded and occupied the site for
five years. The countries signed a
treaty in 69, and both now get
power from an upstream hydro-
damwhich killed Guaira Falls.
30 A .D.
Romans vs.
Jews
When Pontius Pilate, the Roman
governor of Jerusalem, stole
funds from a Jewish temple
to build an aqueduct, thousands
protested in the streets. Pilate
sent spies armed with hidden
daggers into the crowds. The
spies massacred countless Jews,
and Pilate built his aqueduct.
1980-1982
Guatemalan Government
vs. Villagers
The Chixoy hydroelectric dam
forced thousands of Maya-Achi
from their land. Resistance led to
massacres by government troops
and militias. During a govern-
ment assault, 177 women and
children were killed. In 2014,
survivors were awarded a total of
US$154.5 million in reparations.
1187
Muslims vs.
Christian Crusaders
To destroy the Crusader
Kingdom of Jerusalem, Muslim
sultan Saladin lured them from
their well-watered and easily
defended camp at Sepphoris. The
Crusaders were defeated at the
Battle of Hattin. Three months
later, Jerusalem fell to Saladins
forces, and the rest is history.
1997
Malaysia vs.
Singapore
The island nation of Singapore,
once part of Malaysia, criticised
its former sovereign (and main
water supplier) during a policy
dispute. Malaysia vowed to turn
off the tap. Singapore began
conserving water and building
desalination plants to work
toward water autonomy.
icons by Hubert Tereszkiewicz
 16 42
Ming Dynasty vs.
Peasants
By 1642, foreign invaders and
rebellious peasants had nearly
overrun the rulers of the Ming
dynasty. To stop peasants from
capturing Kaifeng, a capital
along the Yellow River, a Ming
general smashed the rivers
dikes. The ensuing flood wiped
out the rebelsand the city.
we humans have long fought overand weaponisedwater. B Y
2000
Hacker vs. Australian
Wastewater System
Armed with a laptop and a
radio transmitter, a hacker in
Queensland, seized control of a
local wastewater system and
released sewage into parks,
rivers, and property. His goal:
revenge for not getting a job with
the local council. Authorities gave
him a new gig: prisoner.
1838-184 4
Canadian Settlers
vs. Mill Owner
A mill owner built a dam in
Lindsay, Ontario, flooding farms
and breeding malaria-carrying
mozzies. So settlers armed with
axes and pitchforks attacked the
dam, nearly destroying it. The
government stepped in, built a
smaller less malarial dam, and
reclaimed farms for settlers.
2002
Maoist Guerrillas
vs. Nepal
In its guerrilla war against Nepals
government, Maoists destroyed
several small hydrodam projects,
and even blew up a 250-kilowatt
one, cutting power to Bhojpur
(population: 6,000) and nearby
areas. The damage took six
months to repair. The war waged
on for four more years.
1863
Union vs.
Confederacy
After the fall of Vicksburg,
Mississippia major turning
point in the Civil War the
retreating Confederate troops
drove cattle, hogs, and sheep into
freshwater ponds and
shot them, poisoning the water
supply so pursuing Union
troops couldnt drink from it.
2016
Standing Rock Sioux vs.
Energy Transfer Partners
In spring 2016, the Standing
Rock Sioux set up a protest camp
to block construction of an oil
pipeline that crosses the Missouri
River, threatening their
sovereignty and the security of
their water supply. Despite
victory under Obama, the protest
must now carry on under Trump.
1924-1927
Los Angeles Bureau of
Water Works vs. Farmers
In 1913, LAs aqueduct began
diverting water from Owens
Valley farmers, parching their
crops. Led by Wilfred and Mark
Watterson, a group of farmers
bombed the aqueduct in several
places over three years, until
authorities arrested the brothers
for fraud and embezzlement.
K E L S E Y AT H E R T O N
KEY
CUT WATER SABOTAGE
DAM TREAT Y
MASSACRE WAR
POISON WATER SUPPLY
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 33

THE WATER
BANKER
OUTSIDE THE WINDOW OF HELEN DAHLKES OFFICE, AT THE
University of California at Davis, the clouds hang low, their
edges seeming to brush against the building. Its raining
intensely, an unusual event in a parched state suffering from
a five-year drought. It looks like the end of the world, says
Dahlkehappily.Asahydrologistandprofessorwhostudieshow
water flows over and through rock, soil, fields, and farms, she
knows H2O like few others. For the past two years, Dahlke has
been doing what water conservationists might find abhorrent:
standing in the rain, in knee-high rubber boots, opening
sprinklersonadormantfarmororchard,andlettingthemspray.
Shesgoodatit.Shecansprayabout170millionlitresin42days.
She admits: I was always fascinated by water
as a child. I always liked to play with it.
Dahlkes sprinkler-play could change the
way California thinks about its weather and
how we all save water. Her floods aim to find
out if humans can target and replenish drought-
depleted aquifersthe deep permeable rock
that holds our farming and drinking waterby
harnessing the winter rainy season.
Its a particularly poignant question this
SINCE 193O year, when winter storms sent as much as
CALIFORNIA 1.3 trillion litres into California reservoirs.
HAS LOST Officials had to literally open floodgates and
100 MILLION send the excess downriver, and eventually
AC R E - F E E T into the sea. Thats like burning money. And
( 1 2 3 , 0 0 0 G I GA L I T R E S ) weve been burning it for a very long time.
O F G R O U N D WAT E R Since the 1930s, California has lost 100
T H AT S 1 0 0 M I L L I O N million acre-feet (123,00 gigalitres) of
SOCCER FIELDS groundwater, according to Dahlke, who has
COV E R E D I N helped solve water problems in Ethiopia,
A FOOT South Africa, and Sweden. A native of
(3O.48 CM) Leipzig, Germany, she was amazed to learn
O F WAT E . this figure. One acre-foot of water is a soccer
34 POPULAR SCIENCE
IN PROFILE / H E L E N DA H L K E
field covered with a foot (30 cm) of water,
she says, pausing to let that visual sink in. So
imagine 100 million soccer fields of water.
Dahlke and others now want to bank those
soccer fields by diverting them to many of the
states 1.6 million hectares of dormant winter
farmland and orchardsusing the exact same
irrigation pipes and sprinkler systems that
already feed them in summersaving the
water, in effect, to pump back up on a sunny day.
Following one of her deliberate floods,
Dahlke deploys ground-penetrating radar,
remote sensors, and field chemistry kits to
measure such things as how much water
reaches the aquifer, how well plants and trees
handle the deluge, and how much fertiliser
leaches into the groundwater. She also
measures whether yields are affected. Her
three-year pilot study, begun in 2014 and the
largest of its kind, aims to calm farmers fearful
of crop damage, and health officials fretting
over potential groundwater contamination.
So far, among the many things Dahlke
has found: 90 per cent of her floodwaters
reach the groundwater table; in the right soil,
alfalfa can handle the equivalent of 7924
mm of rain; and pecan trees, which, she says,
naturally grow in riparian [riverbank] soils,
are well-adapted to having wet feet in winter.
Next for Dahlke: almond orchards, where
she and her team will monitor root growth and
tree hydration. I just hope we dont kill any
trees, she says. At least shell be having fun
soaking the place. When its raining, theres
so much happening, she explains. Its a
natural system. And its just fascinating.
Thanks to her fascination, we might soon
be saving rainy days for dry.
by Mary Beth Griggs / photograph by Cody Pickens P O P S C I .CO M . AU 35
 When the glaciers vanished, the citizens of La Paz, Bolivia
woke to dry taps, civil unrestand a Water Generals reign.

36 POPULAR SCIENCE B Y L E S L I E K A U F M A N / P H O T O G R A P H S B Y C H R I S T I N A H O L M E S / 36
 HIGH

AND

DRY

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 37
THE EARLY-MORNING SUNSHINE,
T.
sharp and unfiltered at this high Andean
altitude, flashes off the Water Generals
sunglasses. He poses next to a 9,000-litre
tank that his troops placed behind this market
of stalls in La Paz, Bolivia. The women who
sell hereshort, stout, and dressed in the
multitiered skirts favoured by many non-
Europeansline up with garlands of yellow
flowers. The Water General bends so they
may sprinkle petals on his head. A crowd of
media, assigned to the event, duly take note.
Suddenly a man breaks through the crowd.
He screams at the general and the Water
Minister, Alexandra Moreira, standing at his
side. It is not enough. You are disrespecting the
people! the man yells. As the generals troops
drag the man out by his arms, he adds, Its the
truth! Moreira, in her skinny jeans and a navy-
print blouse and suddenly looking far too young
for such a weighty position, winces.
At nearly 12,000 feet (3650m), La Paz sits in
a zonethe high tropicssuffering the effects
of climate change quicker than the rest of us.
The glaciers that once fed the city are in retreat;
the seasonal rains that should replenish the
reservoirs are increasingly unreliable. In early
November, the federal government declared
a state of emergency. Overnight, officials
cut water to 94 of the citys neighbourhoods,
leaving about half of its roughly 800,000
residents caught completely off-guard.
On television, the government promised to
turn the taps back on in a day or so. But when
the water did not return as promised, hundreds
of people protested. They commandeered
the cisternas, the tanker trucks brought in
to distribute the dwindling water supplies
street by street. In one instance, angry citizens

38 POPULAR SCIENCE
A Drop in
Their Buckets
Many residents
get water from
tanker trucks
that troops
drive through
the city daily.

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 39
 The General in
His Labyrinth
Brig. General
Mario Enrique
Peinado Salas
commands 113 wa-
ter trucks from
his one-room HQ.

questioned local water officials for several hours
at a rowdy meeting, refusing to let them leave.
Thats when the federal government sent in the
Water General, aka Brigadier General Mario
Enrique Peinado Salas, to suppress unrest and
enforce a rationing system.
But the drought, decades in the making,
isnt so easily solved. As temperatures rise,
rivers and lake beds that once nourished fields
and crops dry up. Countless farmers and other
rural people who relied on the land fled into the
cities. There, a woeful lack of infrastructurea
dearth of water-treatment facilities in La Paz,
aging reservoirs, leaky pipesfailed to keep
pace with the demand.
La Paz has now entered a post-water world,
where strict rationing is a way of life for many.
For months, some of the citys neighbourhoods
received water only once every three days for a
few hours. (In mid-January, it increased to every
other day.) When water does flow, people rush
to fill anything handybathtubs, buckets, trash
cansso they can drink and cook and flush
ITS NOT ENOUGH! THE MAN
SHOUTS AT THE GENERAL, AS
SOLDIERS DRAG HIM OFF. YOU
ARE DISRESPECTING THE PEOPLE.
until they run out again. The crisis has cut most
Bolivians meagre daily use (half the Western
average) by two thirds. To cope, people go
without things like laundry and bathing.
Evenwhenwaterflows,ittoooftenresembles
a failed urine sample; its streaked with angry
orange particles, thanks to pipe gunk and
reservoir sediment. Still, piss water is better than
no water, which is what you get in the higher-
elevation poorer neighbourhoods, where the
water pressure is just too low.
To survive, most everyone must buy at least
some bottled water, a once unthinkable luxury
for the poorest people in South America. And
they must also rely on the Water General.
Every morning, his troops drive to a
dwindling reservoir to fill their fleet of
113cisternas, each the size of a fuel tanker.
They dispatch it litre by litre to communal
tanks that have popped up on street corners
and in plazas. When they arrive, crowds
emerge from every doorway, every alley,
lugging blue, yellow, and white garbage cans,
and keep coming until the trucks are drained.
It doesnt take much of a leap to imagine a
scene from an Isabel Allende or Gabriel Garca
Mrquez novel where citizens wake to find
their land parched, a mustachioed general
holding their water captive. The surreal and
real have always co-mingled in Latin America.

40 POPULAR SCIENCE

But while government ineptitude has its place
in this story, losing water overnight can no
longer be dismissed as a bizarre plotline unique
to South American magical realism.
In fact, a world where generals deliver
wateror fight for itis probably not all that
far off for the rest of us. The same forces
causing La Pazs drought are taking their
toll on the planet, including in the American
Southwest, Central Europe, and China. The
great glaciers of the Himalayasthe planets
largest body of ice outside the polar caps and
Greenlandare slowly disappearing. With
them, an important water source for one-sixth
of the worlds population is drying up.
The lesson from Bolivia is that it is not
difficult to forecast. With a warming planet,
there is just not enough snowfall or rain to
replenish many of the worlds glaciers. As they
disappear, one by one, droughts and water
shortages will follow. They are coming,
and I dont see clear evidence that people are
developing policy proactively, says Martin
THE SAME FORCES CAUSING
LA PAZS DROUGHT ARE TAKING
THEIR TOLL ON THE PLANET,
INCLUDING IN AMERICA.
for her public-relations efforts.
Sharp. He should know. A professor of Earth
and Atmospherics at the University of Alberta
in Canada, Sharp studies glacier dynamics,
hydrology, and climate-driven changes. He is
frustrated that policymakers in Bolivia, Canada,
and elsewhere have been so unresponsive to the
science and to the coming challenges.
Glacial
Response
For 11 years, of-
ficials ignored
hydrologist
Edson Ramirezs
findings and
dire warnings.
Theyd better get moving, Sharp says.
These arent problems that you are going to
solve over a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Nor can you solve it quickly or elegantly
once youre in the midst of it. For weeks
after rationing began, Moreira remained in
semiseclusion; obviously now is not a relaxed
moment to be Water Minister.
Her foray to the quiet Sunday market with
the Water General is a kind of soft relaunch
We are working on the problem, she
promises. She also has good news.
The city, she says, has launched four
projects to fix its water woes, including an
additional dam and reservoir to capture more
rainwater and a pipeline to bring water from
a creek. But the weather, she adds, is not
helping. Her voice trails off as she gazes
upward, seeking signs of rain up past the
brown mountain peaks in the distance. Then
she gets to the real point.
Which is that the sky wont cooperate.
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 41
Brown
Diamonds
With its glacier
gone, Chacaltaya,
the worlds
highest ski
resort, now
sits on a barren
rock pile.

42 POPULAR SCIENCE
FOR YEARS, SCIENTISTS PREDICTED
F.
that climate change would cause a devastating
water shortage in the Andean plain. Like the
ominous rumblings of a movie soundtrack
before the Big Bad appears on-screen, there
were persistent warnings. Nongovernmental
organisations like Oxfam (2009) and then the
Stockholm Environmental Institute (2013)
put out increasingly dire pleas for water
management. Lake Poop, whose waters
sustained the indigenous Uru-Murato for
millennia, dried up last year. At the same
time, the normally robust winter rains shrank
by more than 25 per cent. And through it
all, a local paleo-glaciologist named Edson
Ramirez tried to get someone to act.
A soft-spoken professor at the Institute
of Hydraulics and Hydrology of the Higher
University of San Andrs in La Paz, Ramirez
did not want to be the Cassandra for this
catastrophe. But the science left him little
choice. In 1998, he began measuring
Chacaltaya, a glacier an hours drive from the
city, which held a world-famous attraction:
the worlds highest ski resort. Ramirez
expected shrinkage. But the reality surprised
even him: Just 15 metres thick, the glacier
was disappearing at a rate of at least a metre
a year. Ramirez calculated it would be gone by
2015. In 2005, he went to city officials to warn
them and discuss the consequences for a city
that relies on glacial runoff for water. He laid
out a dire timeline. The bureaucrats politely
listened but were unconvinced.
It turned out Ramirez was wrongbut only
in his optimism. By 2009, six years ahead of his
calculations, the glacier had vanished, leaving
nothing but a brown stain. The revelation hit
the worldwide media like a storm. But La Pazs

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 43

CLIMATE CHANGE QUIETLY
REDUCES THE RESILIENCY
OF NATURE UNTIL THERE IS
NO ROOM FOR HUMAN ERROR.
travails are greater than glacier melt. In recent
decades, temperatures on Altiplano rose by
about two degrees Celsius. In the past 15years,
annual rain and snowfall declined by 20per
cent. Local water officials say that will fall at
least another 10 per cent by 2030.
Ramirez seems neither righteous nor angry
44 POPULAR SCIENCE
that his long-ignored prophecies have come true.
Instead, he is intent on getting the government
to focus on reacting to what will come next.
Speaking without notes, he methodically
lays out the devastation to come. Bolivia is
responsible for .35 per cent of the worlds
greenhouse-gas emissions, compared with
the United States 14.4 per cent. But because
of Bolivias location and elevation, the Andean
nation is experiencing the impact of those
carbon emissions at a far more accelerated
pace than the US. The speed of temperature
increase has gone from .11 degrees Celsius
per decade 40 years ago to .33 degrees in the
last decade, he explains. (The global average
is .15 to .20 per decade.) Climate change has
also provoked an increase in the number and
strength of El Nio years in the Pacific Ocean.
In El Nio years, the country gets 20 to 30per
cent less rain than what was once the average.
But even in non-El Nio years, precipitation
comes less frequently and in more-intense
bursts, making it more difficult to capture, and
harder on farmers and their crops.
And all this leads back to the big ice. The
Andes glaciers are relics of the last ice age,
which peaked 18,000 years ago. Now these
rarities are disappearing rapidly. During the
rainy season, a small temperature increase
means that instead of snowing in the very
high altitudeswhich would recharge these
giantsit rains, accelerating melt. The result,
according to Ramirez, is that 37.4 per cent of
the tropical glaciers around La Paz liquefied
and slid away between 1980 and 2009.
While runoff might provide only 10 to
20per cent of the citys annual water supply, it
has historically played a crucial buffering role
during droughts. For example, La Pazs nearby
higher sister city, El Alto, which sits on the
towering 19,000-foot (5790m) Huayna Potosi
mountain, still has running water, despite the
drought. In the heat, runoff from Huayna
Potosi has increased, causing equilibrium in
the system, Ramirez explains.
A favourite among climbers, the mountain
has been reliably covered with snowpack for
thousands of years.
But even the glacier there, once a thick slab
of blue-white ice, is only half of what it was a
few decades ago. How long before it too goes?
Ramirez does some calculations. Maybe 40
years, he says. Maybe.
It is a devastating assessment of the regions
water futureand indeed, its entire future. Is
there a chance Ramirez would save himself,
move out of La Paz?
No. He shakes his head and smiles
gently. He has offered to help the government
address the crisis. Has the government
accepted? He again shakes his head.
The politics of water in Bolivia are touchy.
What Ramirez hints at but will not say is
that the government will tolerate only so
much criticism; if he is too public in his
condemnation and focuses on human
mismanagement instead of climate collapse,
he might lose grants or other financial
support. The silence of what is unsaid fills the
room. Nobody denies climate change in La
Paz. Its simply too obvious.
Ramirez suddenly pipes up and points
out a bright spot in the settling gloom. The
way people think about water is changing,
he says. Now people are trying to catch the
rainwater. I think this is very important.
Have Barrel,
Will Wait
Locals must miss
work to wait for
the city to turn
on the water, and
then fill their
storage tanks.

Wholl Start
the Rain?
Workers build
a new dam and a
bigger reservoir
to catch rain
which is not
likely to come.

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 45

A.
AFTER VISITING RAMIREZ, MY
local guide, Paola, takes me for a trip up to visit
the spot where the Chacaltaya glacier once
lay. At 17,115 feet (5216m), the glaciers old ski
resort perches far above the tree line. In fact, it
sits far above the line where anything grows.
Without its snow dressing, the barrenness
is absolute. The deserted ski lodge and the
lifts old winch add to a haunted atmosphere.
Paola, now 41, remembers vividly her mother
and grandfather taking her here as a child. I
try imagining the shrieking of children and
snowball fights instead of the desolate pit of
shredded rocks. My reveries are broken by
a shout of greeting from a day hiker. He has
stripped to a T-shirt because of the heat.
Paola is looking off in the near distance,
where Huayna Potosi looms. She is shocked
by its change in appearance. Huge grey granite
ridges jut from the snowpack. Perhaps, she
conjectures, Ramirez has been too optimistic
about that glacier as well.
Bolivia has both a tragic and triumphal
history with water. In the 1990s, many of
its cities, including La Paz, privatised their
water systems, hoping the American and
French conglomerates they hired would bring
efficiency and expansive service. It worked,
but prices climbed; the people rebelled. They
booted the corporations. Then, in 2009, Bolivia
got a new constitution, one that described water
as a fundamental human right. The move also
gave the Bolivian government, under President
Evo Morales, an international role as defender
of this new guarantee.
The reality is far more complicated and
shameful. One river that bisects La Paz is so
thick with raw sewage and industrial runoff
that people wont touch it, even in a drought.
46 POPULAR SCIENCE
The nationalised utility, ESPAS, which
replaced the French company in La Paz, is
awash in incompetence. A 2013 audit found
that millions of dollars of potential revenue
were lost due to leaking hardware. The citys
infrastructure, which is separate, has fared no
better. One audit revealed 45 per cent of all
its water escapes through faulty pipes. New
pipes and better oversight could improve the
situationbut maybe that is not even enough.
One of the insidious qualities of climate
change is that it quietly reduces the resiliency
of nature until there is far lessor noroom
for human error. La Paz seems perched on
that precipice of no return. And the citys
leaders still may not have accepted that.
WHITEBOARDS COVER THE WALLS
of the Water Generals headquarters, a single
vast room of planning and plotting. Here he
charts the progress and locales of each of the
113 cisternas at his disposal. He is proud of his
efficiency. He brags that the number of daily
requests for water have greatly diminished
since the height of the crisis. Things seemed
to have levelled out. The people are being
served. But when asked if his solutionusing
trucks to take water from the same source that
normally feeds the citys pipesisnt a bit like
robbing Pedro to pay Pablo, he shrugs. It slows
the pace of consumption, he explains. Asked
how much water is left, he says confidently:
We have 10 days. And soon it will rain.
Two days of dry weather later, and under
clear skies, the Water General and the Water
Minister lead a caravan of four-wheel drives
into the mountains to show reporters two
new construction projects. One is a pipeline
37.4 PER CENT OF THE ANDES
TROPICAL GLACIERS
LIQUEFIED AND SLID AWAY
BETWEEN 1980 AND 2009.
that will raid water from a nearby creek at
the rate of 200 litres per second. That creek,
however, is the water supply for local farmers.
As their land dries up, theyll move to La Paz,
further taxing the citys water system.
We leave the caravan to travel another
45minutes down a dusty and rock-strewn
road to a vast dam/reservoir construction
project that Moreira has told us about. Its
just upstream from the old dam and looks
like workers slapped it up overnight. It will
be operational by mid-January, Moreira
pledged. It seems improbable the government
will make that deadlineand irrelevant. The
evening before, Oscar Meave, the coordinator
of the technical unit of dams in the ministry
of water resources and irrigation, had already
explained the problem. While the new
reservoir will be capable of holding much
more water than the old one, it will probably
take two rainy seasons to fill it.
Being a technical man and not a politician,
he says what they will not: This season is a
disaster, down 40 per cent in its first month.
Back in the city, the people of La Paz do
what all humans do in the face of a slow-
motion disaster: adjust. On a Friday afternoon,
Katherine Sanchez Lopez, a 43-year-old public-
relations professional, sits in her two-storey
home in an upscale neighbourhood. Santa
Claus figurines perch on cabinets and a stairway
landing, ready to greet Christmas with a cheery
face. In other circumstances, the house might be
described as tidy. These days, buckets and pots
of all shapes and sizes, filled with water, perch
on counters, hide behind chairs, and crowd the
bathrooms. The seven people who live here use
them for flushing, cooking, and sponge bathing.
It is 1 p.m. on a workday. Before the crisis
began, Lopez would have been in her office
downtown. Now she sits at home hoping the
city will turn on her taps so she can do laundry.
Piles dot the floor. The city said it would turn
on her water at 9 a.m. and leave it on for five
hours. Lopez checks her taps again, turning
them uselessly. Still nothing.
Everything is totally, totally different,
she says. We have to spend so much time
waiting. She wears a pink sweater and a
festive red bow in her hair. But her demeanour
does not match her upbeat dress. I wish we
had been warned, she adds. We could have
acted more consciously about water. It is too
late now, she seems to say, with a shake of her
bow. Now, I think it is the way we will have to
live for a long time.
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48 POPULAR SCIENCE
 PARCHED.
A WEEK EXPLORING HOW WELL HAVE
TO LIVE IN A POST- WATER WORLD.
BY SARAH SCOLES
One Saturday morning in December 2016, I drank half
as much coffee as usual and then, dull-eyed, walked to a
hardware store to purchase the 70-litre storage container I
would use to take showers for the next seven days. Because
for one week, I was going to shrink my water footprint.
Much of my home state of Colorado is in a drought. Last
May, when I moved to Denver, where I share an apartment
with my sister, Rebekah, the locals promised me snow
by October. None fell till mid-November. Rainfall was
about half the amount normal for autumn. Id come from
California, where drought is so severe that lawns have
turned brown and swimming pools go unfilled. Colorado
isnt that bad yet. Neither is most of the US. But while weve
largely been spared, a big chunk of the world is struggling.
In some places, it is our carbon that is melting their glaciers
and shrivelling their lakes. So I decided to find out what an
average citizenme, youcould do at home.
How often I turn on the tap would hardly seem to make
a dent. Of the 1.3 trillion litres of water that wash through
American pipes daily, less than 10 per cent is for domestic
use. Thermoelectric power accounts for nearly half of the
total, while irrigation amounts to a third. Much of the rest
goes to livestock, aquaculture, and mining.
But did you ever think about how much water your shirt
uses? Not just to wash it, but the amount that went into
making it? Then theres the water that feeds the food you
eat and helps produce the fuel that makes your car go.
In other words, our individual choices add up to an
enormous demand as a society2.5 trillion litres per
day. In a 2014 Government Accountability Office study,
water managers in 40 out of 50 US states said they expect
shortages in the next 10 years. By late last year, nearly a
third of the contiguous US was in moderate to exceptional
drought, the latter defined as widespread crop loss,
shrinking reservoirs, and water-shortage emergencies.
I decided to see how low one person could go to ease the
problem, and whether that could make a difference.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the complicating factors,
I walked back to my apartment, big blue bucket in hand,
P HOTO G R A P H S BY M AT T NAG E R
and set it on the living room floor while I used an online
calculator to tabulate how much water I had consumed
directly and indirectlyin the heedless days before this one.
The result: 4,996 litres per day, compared with the
American average of 7,900 litres per day.
Well, congratulations to me.
I took the bucket into the bathroom, plunked it in the
tub, and got ready to go lower.
Then I headed to the kitchen.
YO U A R E T H E WAT E R YO U E AT
I knew that changing the way I ate would make the biggest
difference. It takes 4300 litres of water to produce a
kilogram of chicken. The same amount of beef needs
15,400 litres. A single egg floats on 200, while a 220g of
cheese can take as much as 1300.
Going vegan was the obvious solution. To help me plan, I
invited my friend Tasha Eichenseher, an editor who helped
create National Geographics water-use calculator, over for
dinner the first night. She gave me some general guidelines.
No meat or dairy, she said. Food should be locally sourced
to avoid transportation water footprints. An average tractor-
trailer positively quaffs 40 litres of fuel for every 100km
travelled. For every 10 kilometres cargo travels, it sucks up 50
litres of water. And then came more considerations: Small
portions so there is no waste, Eichenseher said. Minimal
cooking. Minimal packaging. No diuretics.
Diuretics? I simply googled drought-friendly
recipes. Luckily for me, television chef Nathan Lyon
has a tag on his blog called exactly that. I picked out his
eggless shakshuka, normally a dish of eggs poached
in a simmering spiced tomato-and-onion sauce. His
suggestion to include avocado seemed water unwise (1330
litres per kg), as did his call for goat cheese (very dairy).
So we decided to chuck bothmeaning wed basically be
eating tomatoes and onions sopped up with bread.
Later that day, recipe in hand, Eichenseher and I visited
Sprouts Farmers Market, a Denver mini chain with lots of
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 49
grass-fed, paleo, and raw foods on offer. But our attempts
to choose the best version of each ingredient faltered. Was
it more water-efficient to get tomatoes from California
because it was closer, or from Florida because it rains more
there? A small amount of spice from the bulk section cuts
down consumption but requires a plastic bag. I could get
pre-packaged versions in glass bottles, but glass is heavier
so it requires more fuel to transport. We talked circles
around each decision, trying to weigh conserving water
against other Earth-friendly factors.
Turns out we were not alone in our perplexity, according
to Christie Manning, a professor at Macalester College
in St. Paul, Minnesota, who focuses on environmental
issues. People frequently find themselves paralysed by
confusion, she writes in her handbook The Psychology of
Sustainable Behavior. They want to do the right...thing but
are not sure which of their options is the most sustainable.
Theyre all intertwined. If you want to recycle a
marinara jara water-friendly choiceyou have to face
up to the fact that rinsing the inside costs water. If you want
to wear synthetic fibres because theyre less water-costly
than cotton, you accept that youre using up fossil fuels.
You wont be perfect, but Manning suggests keeping
big-picture impacts in mind and then just doing your best.
For our part, we chose the California tomatoes and
spoon-them-yourself spices, and tried to be at peace with
our decisions. For the rest of the week, I would eat oatmeal
for most breakfasts, ratatouille and baked root vegetables
for dinners, and leftovers (largely) for lunches. This
wouldnt be so hardafter all, vegans do it every day.
But it did seem like a dietnot because the dishes
had fewer calories but because of the prescribed set of
restrictions. The rules made me want to break them and
have a Tuesday cheeseburger. And while I wouldnt
do that, the desire to shirk the self-imposed austerity
pervaded the whole experiment.
I N T H E WAT E R C L O S E T
On that first night, the shakshuka was delicious,
and I felt noble and thoughtful and full. There was
another dilemma, though, that I wanted Eichenseher
to advise me on. It was late into the evening, and
Eichenseher had not, as Id anticipated, used my toilet
maybe because we hadnt been drinking alcohol. So I came
right out and asked her: What would you think if you went
into my bathroom and had to look at a days worth of my
urine before you could add your own to it?
Without pause, she said, Id think that youd probably
lived in California.
Right. In California, about half the homes Id been in
had toilets tainted by their inhabitants pee. When Gov.
Jerry Brown declared a drought state of emergency in
January 2014, he asked residents to curb water usage by
20 per cent. One popular tactic was to flush less. Yellow
toilet bowls, in other words, have become the norm there.
So are short showers, another habit I adopted for the
week by halving my usual wash time. Every day, I turned
on a song (often Six Feet Under by The Weeknd, in case you
50 POPULAR SCIENCE
were wondering) before hopping in, and I made sure to be
out before the 3:57 track was over. I stood in the big blue
bucket, all the water, soap, and shampoo falling into it, and
greying up as it pooled around my legs. My showerhead
produced around 22 litres each time I washed up.
Despite the musical timer, turning off the stream of
steamy heat was a daily triumph of will. My experiment
coincided with a winter cold snap. I usually showered
each day after a run in the subfreezing morning. And while
my apartment wasnt cold, the shower was the only place
FOR ME, GUILT
where I didnt want to be under a blanket. The rational WAS A BIG
decision-maker inside mewhich told me I was helping
Earthfought the impulsive, sensory-motivated part of MOTIVATOR:
me that said being warm was nice.
Mannings handbook suggests finding ways to make EACH DAY, I
personal reforms seem simultaneously good and wise. I
told myself three minutes is not much shorter than six, and
HAD TO LOOK
that Id enjoy showers more if I didnt stay long enough to
get used to them. We know, after all, that the first few bites
AT ALL THE
of cake thrill our taste buds more than the last couple. LIQUID FROM
MY SHOWER..
Robert Jones of Missouri State University in Springfield,
who studies the psychology of sustainability, maintains
that the discomfort of short showers and other watery
sacrifices is modest. If you dont think you can undergo
even modest unease or resist the temptation to alleviate it,
change your routine. Create an environment that doesnt
expose you to those opportunities, he says. If you crave a
long shower, go for a walk until the feeling passes. Thats
a bit of a hard-line approach, but the argument holds in
less-extreme versions. Learning to stop overconsumption
is like quitting any other habit, and taking up conservation
is just like forming any other new routine.
For me, guilt was a big motivator: Each day, I had to look
at all the liquid from my shower. I also put a Tupperware
container in my bathroom sink to catch everything that
dribbled from my hands and mouthabout a litre by days
end. On day two, my younger sister proved an even bigger
Use This,
incentive, as she constantly checked in on how good a job Not That
I was or was not doing, and felt no compunction about Bad: Burgers and
commenting on my efforts. plastic. Good:
Unwashed jeans and
one daily coffee.
TRIPS AND HOMECOMINGS
The holidays were approaching, and Rebekah and I had
planned a midweek trip to federal land outside Denver
to cut down a Christmas tree to make our parents happy
during their upcoming visit. The US Forest Service lets
people remove a limited number of small trees that would
otherwise become kindling during the fire season, so I
felt little guilt about removing natures bounty. I packed a
reusable bottle of water, some leftovers, and a saw, and we
hit the road, headed toward the snow-covered mountains.
A couple of hours later, as we searched for the ideal tree,
my car got stuck in a particularly drift-covered back road.
Cardboard placed creatively under the tires got us out,
but at the end of the expedition, I was, predictably, tired,
cold, thirsty, hungry. We stopped at a gas station, where
Rebekah bought trail mix full of water-hogging nuts and
a plastic bottle of Gatorade. Want anything? she asked.
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 51
 Yes, I thought.
No, I said. I opened up my Tupperwared food and
gulped my tap water. The National Academy of Medicine
sets adequate intake of hydration, including from both
water and food, at about 15 cups a day for men and 11 for
women. If youre doing anything endurance-related, you
need morealong with electrolytesto replace fluid lost to
sweat and other bodily processes. On most days, adequate
was enough for me. But at that particular moment, my non-
electrolytic water was definitely not satisfying, nor were
my leftovers. Yet what Jones had said was true. The feeling
passed, at least as soon as my sister stopped crunching away
on her trail mix right next to my face.
When we got home, I p eeled o ff the outer-
wear I would continue to use to go running for the rest of
the week. How gross they were, sweaty and slightly smelly.
For supper I had a baked-potato and cabbage concoction,
while Rebekah made meatballs for herself.
Let me just smell them, I said to her, before heading to
an abbreviated shower.
52 POPULAR SCIENCE
It was then, my blue container nearly full, that I faced
the practical issue of what to do with all the grey water.
With no backyard, I had no good purpose for it. I decided
to use to flush: letting that bucketful of skin-cell-and-soap
water spill into the toilet bowl, forcing the appliance to
flush without using any tank water. Problem solved, right?
No. My toilet requires about 5 litres for each flush, and
I dont have 4.6 bowel movements per day, which is now
a thing you know about me. I had more grey water than I
could use. With this realisation, I felt as I had in the grocery
store. I wanted to do good, and well, but I didnt know
how. So I started pouring out the leftover litres to flush
the yellow I should have mellowed. But I didnt feel great
about it. And the occasional splash-back was gross.
In addition to being full of dirtied water, my apartment
was also full of dirty everything else. By the end of the
week, glasses and mugs that Id repeatedly reusedas well
as plates, pots, and pans that I hadnt pre-rinsed packed
the dishwasher. Its interior held an almost-fossilised
record of what Id eaten.
 And I needed to do laundry. All week Id worn the same
jeans (9,900 litres of water to make). I put them in the
freezer daily, which, like hanging them in the UV-filled
sunshine, is said to kill some of the odour-causing bacteria
(but there doesnt seem to be any science to back this up).
DID YOU EVER
And Id worn only two shirts: one, a thrift-store flannel
that had used up 2650 litres in the factorybut that was on
THINK ABOUT the original owners conscience; the other, an athletic top
whose synthetic fibres had a smallish water footprint but
HOW MUCH a sizable carbon one. My running clothes, also synthetic,
could probably have sprinted on their own. I realised how
WATER easy it had become to wear the same outfits repeatedly
almost nice, in the no-choices way of school uniforms. I
YOUR SHIRT work from home and hadnt seen anyone more than once
except my sister, and I could not care less what she thinks
USES? NOT of my fashion choices.
TO WASH IT. But even with the experiment nearing completion,
these garments did not amount to a full load of laundry.
THE AMOUNT According to good conservation principles, Id have to
mess up more clothes or add sheets to turn on my high-
IT TOOK TO efficiency washer. It was a source of pride to me that
Denver prizes sustainability-friendly appliances, giving
MAKE IT. FOR rebates for those certified by the Environmental Protection
Agencys WaterSense program, which is like the Energy-
ONE FLANNEL Star of water. Machines with this label use 20 per cent less
than do standard appliances.
SHIRT, THATS But still, my house left me feeling off-kilter. I like order,
2650 LITRES neatness, and cleanlinessand now I was surrounded by
evidence of all the messes Id made throughout the week.
R E C A L C U L AT I N G , R E C A L C U L AT I N G
Spit, Reuse
Everything that Friday morning, the final day of my experiment, I peed on
dribbled from top of my pee, pulled my jeans out of the freezer, drank
the authors
mouth went into one paltry cup of coffee, grimaced at my oatmeal, and
a bucket, for sat down to calculate how much more responsible an
toilet flushing. earthling I had become.
Adding up drinking water, showers, hand-washing,
tooth-brushing, and cooking, Id used about 23 litres every
day. My dishwasher had drawn about 11 for its single cycle,
bringing my direct use to 176 litres for the week, or just
under 26 litres per day. Denver water conservation manager
Jeff Tejral told me that efficient customers use around 75 to
100 litres per day. I patted myself on the back.
I had also done well in terms of indirect use. Id walked
everywhere except for two driving tripsto the mountains
for the tree and to the suburbs to pick up mail for a
vacationing friendtotaling 347 kilometres of travel and
guzzling about 287 litres of water.
The food for my vegan meals had been produced at a
cost of about 1800 litres of water a day; my diet before this
week had taken around 3270 litres per day (an omnivorous
one would have consumed 4000). The two beers and
half bottle of champagne Id drunkI finished writing
a book, OK? I deserved it!required 1550 litres of water.
After adding in 140 litres of water for each of the two cups
of coffee I had per day, my drinking totalled 3512 litres of
water for the week.
In sum, my footprint on the water world was 17,500
litres for the week, or 2500 per day, not including the wet
cost of electricity. When I checked my math using the
same online water calculator Id used at the beginning
which considers electricityI got 2760 litres per day. I had
decreased my water use by about 45 per cent, to just 35 per
cent of the national average consumption.
That sounds like it justifies bragging, but our national
average is actually terrible. My experimental footprint was
the same size as a Chinese citizens normal one. Over in
Norway, the per-capita use is just half a US citizens, and
right around the global average. Which is to say theres
room for improvement here at home. If everyone in the US
used 20 per cent lessstill more than twice what I did
they would each save 576,00 litres of water a year. Thats
185 trillion litres across the whole country. When you think
about it that way, each of us can make a huge difference
especially if our sustainable actions encourage others to
behave similarly.
And that is how large-scale water-use changes happen,
says Missouri States Jones. If enough people start
employing a particular conservation tacticleaving
liquids in the toilet, ripping out Bermuda grass and
putting in native plantsthat thing becomes the expected
behaviour. Its a culture change, he says.
The community flips its reward-punishment system.
Instead of shaming you for your brown-grass yard, friends
might instead criticise your lush landscaping. Conversely,
they might start telling you how great your cactuses look.
Were hard-wired to want to conform.
Essentially, we all want to think that we take action
based on personal choice or because we want to help the
planetnot because were following the crowd. But in
reality, if our social circle is water-friendly, chances are
much higher that we personally will be too.
And if not, not.
So while my individual sacrifices might not register at
my water utility, they can influence my family, friends,
and neighbours. Those one-by-one modifications create
collective change: They make conservation normal.
I knew that after dawn the next day, Id probably eat
eggs for breakfast and have a cheeseburger once in a
while. I would definitely wear more than two outfits. In the
shower, I would sometimes let myself have two songs.
But I would also turn off the taps more quickly. I would
evaluate my groceries for their origin and water usage. I
would let all yellows mellow. Sometimes Id gravity-flush
the toilet with grey water.
And before I would eat meat or drive or buy a new cotton
shirt, Id think about how much water saturated those
decisions. Id probably do less of all three.
And thats what really changed that weeknot the
choices I would make going forward but the thought
process behind them. For every action Id take, Id think
about how water factors in. And Id hope that the people
around me took notice.
Because water, water is not everywhere. But its pretty
much involved in everything. And after a long thirsty
week of remembering that 15 times an hour, Ill remember
it forever.
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 53
 100 AUSSIE ISSUES

A BRIEF HISTORY OF
POPULAR SCIENCE
The world has been reading a magazine called Popular Science since 1872, and
its been recognisable as the mag you know and love since 1915. Popular Science (it
will always be PopSci in our hearts) has seen the rise of everything from affordable
electricity to private cars to international air travel to colour TV to the nuclear arms
race to the Moon landings to the internet and more. Popular Science has watched as
weve doubled our life expectancy, killed millions with terrible machines of war,
saved the world with the green revolution, indelibly changed the chemical signature
of our atmosphere via nuclear testing, eliminated diseases like smallpox and
(almost) polio, and girdled the planet in high bandwidth fibre optic cables.But why?
Why publish a magazine like this? On the occasion of Australias 100th issue, lets see
if we can divine some kind of pattern in the often chaotic march of progress...

BY ANTHONY FORDHAM

54 POPULAR SCIENCE
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 55
 A Fantasy of the Future
In an age before colour photography,
cover illustrations were, lets say
unrestrained by reality

WHEN US SCIENCE WRITER AND LECTURER

Edward Livingston Youmans founded a jour-
nal called Popular Science Monthly, and pub-
lished the first issue in 1872, the human popu-
lation of Earth was about 1.3 billion.
Youmans, after a youth spent nearly blind
with ophthalmia, moved to New York city in
1840 for treatment. There he and his sister Eli-
za Ann Youmans (who worked as his reader)
studied chemistry and physics, and after some
early personal success in publishing, he became
obsessed with the idea of popularising science.
Back in the 1850s, most of the population
had little or no interest in science. Darwin
shook things up in 1859 with the publication of
On the Origin of Species: Very Long Subtitle, and
over the next few years the world saw some of
its first truly popular scientists - the old timey
equivalent of Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Brian
Cox - publish book after book.
Youmans took it upon himself to see that
this new evolution philosophy would be
read and heard right across the US, damnit.
He became a publisher, the kind of publisher
todays authors wish they had: the kind who
bullies and badgers the newspapers to write
reviews and tell everyone to buy books.
In 1871, the year before Popular Science
Monthly was founded, Youmans began pub-
lishing the works of the worlds great scien-
tists. Called the International Scientific Series,
these books are a big part of why youve heard
A High Impact Debut
The first issue was light on the illustrations, heavy on
of any scientist from the late 19th century.
articles by incredibly famous and important scientists. But it wasnt enough. Youmans knew the

56 POPULAR SCIENCE

Cutaways and captions
In the 1960s, weird architecture
deserved lovingly drawn cutaways
world was in the grip of a science frenzy. New
ideas, new theories, new discoveries were
coming thick and fast and the people had a
right - he would say a duty - to know.
THE FOUNDING
In May 1872 he founded Popular Science
Monthly. You can read those early issues on
Google Books today, but you probably wont
recognise the magazine.
The first Popular Science was very much a
science journal. It collected a modest num-
ber - usually fewer than 10 - of very well re-
searched and considered essays about, well,
whatever. It looked like a newspaper, with few
illustrations beyond necessary diagrams and
the odd equation.
The contributor list was a whos-who of
human intellectual achievement. Charles
Darwin, youve probably heard of him. Louis
Pasteur? He penned a thing or two. Edison of
course, you couldnt keep him away. There
were many others.
One of the most important contributors
was Herbert Spencer. Up here in the crazy
sci-fi distant future, Spencers fame has faded
in the shadow of later thinkers like Einstein.
But back in the late 19th century, he was one
of the most famous and important natural
philosophers in the world.
Like Darwin, he believed in evolution.
Theres good evidence that he wrote about evo-
lution before Darwin published Origin of Spe-
cies. He certainly coined the phrase survival
of the fittest (Darwins is natural selection).
While he was a polymath whose brain went
pretty much everywhere - from astronomy
to political theory - Spencer is important
for being one of the first writers to really
popularise the idea that maybe humans dont
need religion to be good.
Today we take the secular state for grant-
Wartime Years
Covers during WW2 often indulged mil-
itary fantasies. Like this... thing
100 ISSUES
ed, but this is something that had to, well,
evolve. Spencer and other contributors to Pop-
ular Science Monthly, in the last decades of the
19th century, did much to help people brought
up in the various sects of Christianity under-
stand that core scientific principles - even the
laws of thermodynamics and evolution - can
provide a basis for ethical and moral behaviour.
And you read him here first, folks.
THE SECOND FOUNDING
Well, thats maybe a bit of a stretch. Yes, the
magazine was called Popular Science Month-
ly but until 1915 it was, as described, a sort
of scholarly journal read by serious mut-
ton-chopped fellows in smoking parlours.
Veterans of the publishing industry may be
unsurprised to learn that Edward Youmans
essentially worked himself to death. He suc-
cumbed to evolutions ultimate solution in
1887. He burned himself out so we could take
articles about science for granted. And we all
owe him a debt of gratitude.
As so often happens after the departure of a
passionate and talented founding editor, Pop-
ular Science Monthly floundered around a bit
as the 19th century became the 20th.
This time of transition took its toll on more
than just the magazine. Even before the Great
Wartherewasasenseof,nowwhat?Wewatched
the numbers click over to 1900 and now?
Herbert Spencer fell out of favour. Ex-
tremely clever men telling everyone how they
had discovered some amazing truth of the
universe none of you dumb-dumbs could have
thought of, fell out of favour a bit in general.
By 1915, three cousins in Europe were well
into a destructive adventure that their mutual
grandmother, Queen Victoria, would never
have allowed as the Kaiser famously quipped,
after hundreds of thousands of young men
were gassed and blown to pieces. Chortle!
Popular Science Monthly was, obviously,
struggling. With a falling readership, then-
publisher James Cattell flogged the name
Popular Science to The Modern Publishing
Company, but kept the actual journal. After a
few years messing about, Cattell eventually
consolidated all his magazine properties into a
single title called Science Monthly. This in turn
wouldultimatelybemerged,in1958,withalittle
journal you may have also heard of: Science.
Meanwhile, back on the eve of the Great
War, the Modern Publishing Company had
been mixing and matching its stable of gen-
eral audience science mags, coming up with
such dime-catching names as Electrician
and Mechanic magazine, Modern Mechanics,
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 57
WHY POPULAR SCIENCE?
One of the challenges of convincing
companies to give us cool stuff to show off
to you, the reader, is that the name of this
magazine doenst immediately conjure the
idea of future tech. At least, to people
who arent familiar with it.
But back in 1872, the word technology
didnt mean a clever machine. For at least
200 years, a technology was a detailed
description of a specific art or craft (like,
a book that explains what teaching
systems masters use to help apprentices
learn to become skilled blacksmiths, or
leatherworkers, or goldsmiths etc).
In the mid-19th century the meaning
slowly changed to mean the study of
mechanical and industrial arts. So as
a word, it was more like theology or
geology. It certainly didnt mean what it
means today - an object that does a thing,
or the knowledge of how to build an object
that does a thing.
When the magazine was founded,
science was very academic. Ordinary
people might have had some idea that this
guy Charles Darwin was messin up the
natural order of things with his monkey
book, but in the 1860s and 1870s, unless
you were at university, you probably didnt
know much about the laws of physics, or
indeed that physics has laws.
Youmans mission, in those early days,
was to get normal people reading about
science. And not just super-hardcore maths
and physics and whatnot. The science of
ordinary things, the everyday science of a
changing world. A science of the people. A
kind of popular science, if you will.
Today, because of the nature of the
world we live in, Popular Science is largely
a technology magazine. But our scope
is bigger and broader than that. This
magazine is called Popular Science because
we believe that everyone can, and should,
be interested in science, technology and
everything that flows from both.
craftsmanship and home improvement. What
articles about how well rollerskate to the
airship station and fly to work. Robot maids!
Naive Technology
Between WW1 and WW2 ideas of future
weaponry were often, uh, wrong.
Worlds Advance and even Popular Electricity.
This is not a joke, there really was a magazine
called Popular Electricity.
After purchase of the name, the October
1915 edition was published as Popular Science
Monthly and Worlds Advance. It had Popular
Sciences volume and issue number (vol. 87,
no. 4) but the content was from the existing
Worlds Advance magazine.
As confused as existing readers
and subscribers may have been at the
overnight (well, month-on-month really)
transformation of their stuffy and important
journal into a mainstream mag packed with
gadgets and advice on how to build a deck, its
this magazine - October 1915 - that marks the
start of an unbroken chain of issues stretching
from that distant, warn-torn past to this often
stupid-seeming future.
DIY TOMORROW
The change may have been dramatic but it
proved extremely wise. The early 20th cen-
tury, for people not away fighting in a distant
and probably only half-real-seeming war (this
was all happening in America remember) was
a place where the constant change we now ex-
pect was just starting to really ramp up.
The early 20th century saw the creation
of the kind of middle class wed recognise.
People had their own homes, which they had
to run without the aid of servants. Appliances
were starting to appear in shops. Sure,
everything was a stupidly expensive half-
working beta version of the stuff we can buy
crazy-cheap at JB Hi-Fi - you should see 1915
fridges! - but the point is people needed to
know what this tech was and what it could do.
Those early issues had a big focus on DIY
tools should I buy to build my own furniture? Is
a drop-forged hammer worth the extra nickel?
How can I build a usefully sensitive shortwave
radio without electrocuting myself?
Mixed with these were the kinds of articles
we still run today. Bold, often in hindsight
hilarious, predictions of the future. Breathless
Cars that arent death machines! Amazing
tanks that will crush the Kaiser! An airport
built on the roof of a giant building in the
middle of New York City!
The circulation doubled.
And so the Popular Science weve been read-
ing our entire lives (the US mag even has some
FOURTH GENERATION subscribers!) found
its groove for the next hundred years.
THE FUTURE THEN
As the decades marched inevitably past, Pop-
ular Science gained a subtitle: the Whats New
Magazine. That was the tagline, right there
under the masthead. It became a guide to the
relentless pace of technological change in the
world, especially after World War 2. What was
next? Such things as television, cheap interna-
tional phone calls, flight and then jet flight and
then SPACE flight. The discovery of DNA, the
idea of genetics, genetic testing, genetic pro-
filing, then genetic engineering.
Codebreaking machines, then computers,
then desktop computers, then networking
and the internet. And of course flying cars...
no wait, not flying cars. Still waiting on those.
At some point, perhaps the millennium,
the pace of change overtook us all. The future
that a thousand terrible sci-fi films (and a few
good ones) had promised was here. Everyone
was walking around with a tiny supercomput-
er in their pocket, only a few taps away from
communicating with their friends or insulting
a stranger or misinterpreting a badly sourced
opinion of some aspect of human knowledge.
Spotting this change, Popular Science
took on a new tagline - The Future Now - in
October 2006. What does the future now
mean? It means that the amazing but perhaps
somewhat confusing and overwhelming

future the magazine had espoused for 91
years (at that point) needs a guidebook. And
the magazine aimed to be that guidebook,
making sense of everything from cosmology
(dark what now?) to carbon fibre.
By 2014 we figured everyone had gotten the
point, so the tagline disappeared. Probably for
good. But never say never!
In September 2008, this magazine youre
holding was born. The Australian edition of
Popular Science has always aimed to take that
rich dollop of US science and tech and mix it
generously with the best of what Australia can
do when it comes to science, technology and
innovation. Its been quite a ride.
Over the last nine years, weve covered ev-
erything from solar car races to hot rocks to
our tiny nuclear reactor to the debate over our
natural gas deposits, to auto-gyros, tactical
police helmets (now a skiing helmet), the or-
igins of Dick Smith Electronics, bees with tiny
computer backpacks, the seemingly doomed
dream of high speed rail, a guy who built an
PopSci has always celebrated the car, and the freedom it gives.
100 ISSUES
actual giant Tesla coil because working in the
mines is boring, and so much more.
While the fortunes of our scientists and
innovators ebb and flow with the political
tide, in the long term Australia seems to end
up punching well above its weight when it
comes to building humanitys future through
technology. Our existing list of achievements
is impressive, and we look forward to bringing
you news and in-depth analysis of Australian
achievements still to come.
The future depends on technology. Sure,
social change consolidates every step forward.
Tech by itself cant save the world. But with
7.5 billion people alive today, natural systems
under strain, and growing demand for, well,
everything, solutions will come from science,
and the machines (be they big, small or
microscopic) that science will build.
If you want to still be able to make sense
of the systems that run your life in 2025, keep
Tribute to a great
This Nick Offerman cover from 2014 reading this magazine. Well keep writing.
mimics a 1920s Norman Rockwell cover Thats not a threat. Its a promise.
Planes, Trains, Automobiles
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 59
 THE UNDRINKABLE OCEAN
WHERE THEY TAME
BY K E L S EY AT H E RTON / P HOTO G R A P H S BY S P E N C E R L OW E LL
One of the fastest-growing cities and the Arabian Desert, the Jebel
in the world is also among the driest. Ali desalination plant makes
Situated between the Persian Gulf the metropolis of Dubai possible.
 A Big Gulp Dubais population boom long ago outgrew its groundwater supply.
oftheGulf Today, it provides only 0.5 per cent of the citys demand. To meet
the other 99.5 per centa daily peak of 1.57 billion litres, on aver-
agethe Jebel Ali plant imbibes 10 billion litres from the Persian
Gulf every day, turning it into pristine drinking water. In the first
step, the sea passes through filtration baskets, which isolate large
materials including junk, seaweed, and occasionally marine life.

62 POPULAR SCIENCE
Separation At the reverse-osmosis facility, motorised pumps force salt water
Under Pressure through tubes filled with tightly wound membranes. The result? Highly
concentrated salt water on one side, and something youd actually want
to drink on the other. Reverse osmosis used to be notoriously expensive
and energy intensive. But over the past decade, major advances in
membrane technology let plants like this one treat more water faster.
Jebel Ali produces 113 million litres per day via reverse osmosis alone.

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 63
 Journey Through The rest of the seawaterabout 98.5 per centgoes through a multi-
the Vape Chamber step heating and cooling process called flash distillation. Turbines
send steam via pipelines to a series of evaporation chambers. There,
steam heats the salt water, and the resulting vapour cools and con-
denses into a collector. Leftover salt water travels to the next cham-
ber, which has lower pressure (and a lower boiling point). This repeats
many times until pure H2Oand a dense brineare all that remain.

64 POPULAR SCIENCE
P O P S C I .CO M . AU 65
 From the Ocean The water gets tested for pH, turbidity, and any chlorine dioxide left
to the Tap over from treatment. Then its transferred to reservoirs enroute to
the city. The Dubai Energy and Water Authority (DEWA), which
operates the plant, services 666,430 customers with water as of
early 2017, most of them residential. Currently, the total capacity of
the plant is 2.1 billion litres a day, but demand is growing, so an expan-
sion to accommodate an additional 180 million litres is underway.

66 POPULAR SCIENCE
Brack Despite all that work, only about 9 per cent of the total original intake
to the Sea becomes potable water (or goes to generate electricity). The restnow
with a higher salinitygets pumped back into the Persian Gulf. In 2015,
that translated to nearly 5 trillion litres of discharged brine. DEWA
keeps a close watch to ensure all that warm salt water doesnt harm the
local ecosystem. At multiple distances from the plant, workers routine-
ly test the sea for things like acidity levels and the health of marine life.

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 67
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 TALES F R O M T H E

FIELD
BOTTOMS UP

what its like

to drink
your own pee
JEFF WILLIAMS, NASA ASTRONAUT AND US
R E C O R D H O L D E R F O R T O T A L D AY S I N S P A C E

On Earth, not all the evaporation,

water tastes the clouds, and rain.
same. Some water is The natural water
delicious, but some cycle turns water
can leave a funny we might consider
taste in your mouth nasty into water we
the result of a par- consider drinkable; so
ticular mineral or do the ISSs systems.
metal. This doesnt And we test it almost
KA-BOOM happen on board the every single day,
International Space so were confident
that time i Station, even though
youre drinking
that our drinking
water is clean. NASA
bombed antarctica recycled sweat
and urine. You dont
has very strict
standards for it.
sense any unusual We joke about it a
N I C K H O L S C H U H , G E O P H Y S I C I S T AT T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y O F WA S H I N GTO N flavours. The lot, but we really dont
waterand the think much about
If you were to melt Antarctica, the global sea level would go up by beverages we make what our drinking
around 60 metres, which would obviously be pretty bad. But to from itconsistently water used to be. Ive
tastes pretty good. been on board with
understand how and when the ice sheet might melt, we need
The process of 55 or so different
to measure its physical propertiesthe material of the rocks treating wastewater people, and Ive never
beneath, the temperature of the ice, defects gliding through the up there isnt all that seen anyone hesitate
system. For an ice sheet completely covering a continent twice the different from the to drink it. We drink
size of Australia, thats a crazy-difficult task. natural water cycle the Russian water,
So how do we do that? Well, if you use a thermometer to measure on Earththe runoff, and they drink ours.
temperature, youre actually measuring the behaviour of alcohol or
metal within the thermometer itself. I used a similar principle to
measure temperature through the ice. We sent sound waves down
into the subsurface to get information on physical propertieslike
temperaturethat affected them on the way.
Explosives happen to be a great source of sound. First, we bored a
20-metre hole down into the ice with a hot-water drill. Then we stuffed
in half a kilo of Pentex H boosters and packed them in with snow. We
covered the surface in an array of microphones. Thenboom!
After the explosion, we listened for echoes. Logistically speaking,
its not the simplest method of measuring the properties of ice, but
having a variety of data-collection techniques at our disposal helps us
understand how human behaviour affects this massive system.
On quieter days, I use radio waves to peek through the ice sheets
to look at the configuration of the ice and the properties of the
material its sitting on top ofand I use satellite data to see how
the surface is changing over time.

70 POPULAR SCIENCE as told to Sophie Bushwick / illustrations by Mark Nerys as told to Sarah Fecht
 TA L E S F R O M T H E F I E L D

GEARED UP

look at
this trove,
treasures
untold Spear Gun Buoy
Kelly and her Never mind the
E M I LY K E L LY , E C O L O G I S T A T T H E S C R I P P S
colleagues like to sharksstray boats
INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY
get their fish-gut are a more threaten-
specimens from ing concern. To avoid
Among Hawaiis reefs, Eskies local shops when accidents, Kellys
Emily Kelly dives with The researchers possible. But if they team totes a float
surgeonfish and parrotfish. preserve specimens do go collecting, out to the water
By grazing on fleshy algae, on the way to the lab they rely on a to mark their
these underwater in an ice-filled esky. Hawaiian sling-style diving location.
lawnmowers make room A similar esky holds gun with a three-
for hard corals to grow. To snacks. The trick is prong spear tip.
study how the fish aid the remembering which
reef, and how to protect esky is which!
them from overfishing,
Kelly uses this collection of
gadgets and gizmos.

Waterproof
Paper
Kelly takes notes
GPS Unit about what algae
Scientists cant fish prefer, how they
exactly mark a fishs eat (nibbles versus
street address. chomps), and their
So they use a civilian roles in different
GPS unit to track ecosystems.
where they make
observations and
find specimens.
Seaweed
Samples
Parrotfish and
surgeonfish
sometimes graze on
seaweed, which Kelly
and her colleagues
store like flower
pressings. She
displays some in her
office, but theyre not
just decorative: Kelly
can always slice off
a piece, rehydrate it,
and examine its
cell structure under
Surgical Equipment a microscope.
Although the fish go to the lab for later study,
Wetsuit Kelly and her colleagues use razor blades and
Even in Mauis balmy forceps to dissect some specimens right in
23- to 26-degree the field. First they remove essential organs and
waters, up to eight collect the ear bone, whose tree-ring-like
hours a day in the structure can help determine a fishs age. Then
water saps Kellys they take out the guts and slice them open before
body heat. A wetsuit putting them into a vial of formalin, allowing
keeps her cozy. the preservative to permeate the organs.

by Peter Hess / illustrations by Mark Nerys P O P S C I .CO M . AU 71

TA L E S F R O M T H E F I E L D

KILLER JOB
Hydro-
battling a waterborne plague planing
and hail
R I C K G E LT I N G , U S P U B L I C H E A LT H S E R V I C E O F F I C E R A T
THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION are usually
scarier
than the
tornado
itself. Its
like driving
on black ice
in the
middle of
nowhere
with no
reception.
E M I LY S U T T O N ,
METEOROLOGIST
AND STORM CHASER
When youre in a water emergency, its really where local knowledge comes in handy. AT K F O R -T V I N
OKLAHOMA CITY
not the time to try something new. In 2010, For large community water systems, we
when the cholera outbreak hit Haiti, the local used locallyavailable materials to drip a liquid
government invited* us to help implement a chlorine solution directly into storage tanks, a
water-cleaning system. We had to work method that Haitis national water and
quickly to get clean water to small communi- sanitation agency (DINEPA) developed. But
ties fighting against the waterborne disease. some people were bringing in small batches
But we also couldnt introduce any new tech- of water from other places. In those cases,
nologies or products that local workers and special chlorine tablets and solutions let
residents might not be familiar with. individual households treat their own water.
Chlorine was our go-to: Its available, inex- Working with DINEPA was key because
pensive, and incredibly effective. Problem is, they knew the local conditions and communi-
there are different types of chlorination, so ties better than we did. Local knowledge
we had to trace where people got every drop ensures that what you build will sustain itself
of their waterwhether they piped it in, and make a difference in the long term
hauled it from wells, or got it elsewhere.This is because you will eventually leave.
*Diplomatese for "desperately beseeched" as told to Claire Maldarelli

STORMCHASERS When we fly Hurricane Hunter aircraft into cyclones, a lot

of the data we gather is to monitor for rapid intensifica-
flying tion. Thats when a storm increases in strength by 55 km
per hour or more within a 24-hour period, and its a big
into a concern for the forecast community. The nightmare
scenario is for this to happen to a Category 1 hurricane just
tempest before landfall on the US coast: It goes from a Category 1
to a catastrophic Category 4, and no one has any warning.
ROBERT ROGERS, Back in 2007, during Hurricane Felix, we flew into a
METEOROLOGIST
F O R T H E N AT I O N A L
Category 2. At 10,000 feet, I saw flashesat first I thought
OCEANIC AND someone took a photo, but then I realised it was lightning.
AT M O S P H E R I C When you see lightning in the core of a storm, its a sign that
A D M I N I S T R AT I O N its really intensifying. We wound up hitting such a strong
updraft, maybe 100 km per hour, when it let go we hit zero g
for a couple of seconds. My notebook started to float, and
drops of water from the cup next to me were hovering in the
air. At that point, the mission switched from collecting data
to just getting home safely.

72 POPULAR SCIENCE as told to Rachel Feltman / illustrations by Mark Nerys

 TA L E S F R O M T H E F I E L D

5 1
Test for Master Diver Join the Seabees
After 12 to 20 years, a Enlisted sailors learn
written test, and rigorous construction and
dive simulations in the Gulf demolition, without the
of Mexico, youre certified added pressure of doing
as one of the Navys best. it underwater.

WET WORK

becoming
a navy
master diver
JA M E S E M E R S O N , N AVA L C H I E F WA R R A N T
OFFICER AND MASTER DIVER

From salvaging wrecks to building aquatic

4 infrastructure, master divers like James
Go Back to Dive School
Five or more years later,
Seabee divers can try for
First Class level, learn-
ing project management
and how to treat injuries.
Emerson handle some of the US Navys most 2
complex subaqueous projectsbecause if
something is tricky on dry land, it can be Become a Seabee Diver
diabolical in the drink. Emerson is in charge of Now to perform those same
tasks in scuba gear.
turning Seabees (the name comes from the
Lessons include hydraulic
abbreviation for Construction Battalion)
cutting and weldingand
into underwater experts. Out of 160 Seabee
avoiding electrocution.
divers, fewer than ten will ultimately earn the
title of master.

3
Learn on the Job
One of Emersons first
tasks was to cut up a ruined
Virginia pier in some of
the coldest, darkest water
you can imagine.

ASTRONAUT DOUGLAS H.

Yesterdays coffee is tomorrows coffee. WHEELOCK TO THE NEW YORK

T I M E S O N D R I N K I N G R E C YC L E D
LIQUID ON THE ISS

by Michael Koziol / illustration by Mark Nerys P O P S C I .CO M . AU 73

TA L E S F R O M T H E F I E L D

MYSTERY

the case of the

cat-scented taps
A N D R E A D I E T R I C H , W A T E R C O N S U LT A N T
F O R U T I L I T Y CO M PA N I E S

About 25 years ago, some people would turn on their tap

and smell cat urine. It was one apartment in a building, o
one house in a neighbourhood. Residents would say, We
dont have a cat. We were stumped for more than a yea
until a utility employee said, Its not our water; it
residents new carpets. He was half right, anyway. At the
time, maybe 0.1 percent of utilities in the United State
disinfected their water with chlorine dioxide. But chlorine
dioxide isnt water soluble, so when people turned on the
taps, the gas would quickly fill the surrounding air. There, i
reacted with chemicals in new carpets to create th
signature stench. My colleague and I went to his church
which had a new carpet, to test the theory. We sprayed
chlorine dioxide into the air, and sure enough: cat urine.

as told to Sara Chodosh

PACKING LIST

how to
survive
the desert
K U M U D A C H A R YA , H E A D O F E C O L O G I C A L
E N G I N E E R I N G AT T H E D E S E R T
RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN LAS VEGAS

Kumud Acharya seeks out 1 2 3 4

the worlds hottest Reusable Bottles Skin Coverage A Small Tent Water Filters
conditions. Heres what he Acharya drinks from To prevent painful Its important to get For unclean H20,
brings to stay hydrated the tap when its safe, sunburns, Acharya out of the heat an UV Acharya uses one of
and alivewhile doing and bottled or applies spray-on, periodically, and the two methods to kill
science in the most purified when hes not waterproof sunscreen desert isnt famous bacteria: a small
scorching environments. accustomed to the copiously and often. for its shade-giving bag that combines
local aquatic flora. For He also wears trees. Acharya brings sunlight and a
a days work, hell long-sleeved shirts his own shelter. While photocatalyst, or
bring four to five litres and large-brimmed he rests, he reslathers potassium perman-
in reusable vessels in hats with neck covers the sunscreen and ganate and chlorine
an esky full of ice. for more protection. rehydrates. dioxide tablets.

74 POPULAR SCIENCE by Jason Lederman / illustrations by Mark Nerys

 RETRO INVENTION

The Snowy Mountains sell it off, or the fate of the platypus, or what.
But the Snowy Mountains Scheme remains
a rare example of a large infrastructure

Hydroelectric Scheme project, funded by NSW, Victoria and the

Commonwealth, that was actually completed
and does what they said it would do on the tin.
We didnt need it. We couldnt afford it. The government Given the state of politics today it seems
should sell it. It cant work in the market. Snowy Hydro has incredible that we, as a country, could start a
been accused of all these things, yet Australias biggest project in 1949 and finish it in 1974, without
somebody cancelling it as a dig against the
single renewable energy provider continues to power on...
opposition. Or the government.
Indeed the Scheme reads like a pie-in-the-
by Anthony Fordham
sky socialist fantasy, here in jaded 2017. For
a start, it employed 100,000 people from 30
DURING THE PRODUCTION OF THIS stations that combine to generate the Snowy different countries, and rewarded them with
issue of Australian Popular Science, our Mountains Schemes 4500 gigawatt hours per citizenship. It was so innovative, we had to
Commonwealth parliament engaged in a bit year, would have been more economically develop new techniques and technology for
of pantomime with a piece of coal. The point sensible, had they instead been a bunch of everything from concrete construction to
of the show was to claim that renewables are coal-fired station near a mine somewhere. computers (the Scheme used Australias first
terrible and dont work, and we challenge the Were just here to admire the engineering. transistor-based computer, Snowcom, from
opposition to show us just one example of where Even so, its a rare year when some 1960 to 1967).
renewables have been successful blah blah... controversy doesnt afflict the Scheme, It paid migrants a high wage to motivate
It is not within the scope of this magazine whether it be the point of building it in the them to join the project. The downside is
to say whether the seven hydroelectric power first place or whether the government should that, with 98 per cent of construction taking

80 POPULAR SCIENCE
place underground in tunnels, 120 men died
and thousands were injured.
So too did the Scheme sacrifice the Snowy
River in the name of progress. Not only does
the system capture snowmelt and divert it
into dams above the generators, afterwards
it sends that water into the Murray and the
Murrumbidgee Rivers, where it is picked up
by the various irrigation schemes. Today, the
Snowy River carries as little as one per cent of
the water it did before 1949.
Of course, since this was an unprecedented
25 year multi-state project plagued no doubt
with Commonwealth interference, the
Snowy Mountains Scheme finished years late
and millions over budget, right?
In fact, it finished on time and for its $820
million projected budget. In some ways,
thats the most impressive thing about it.
The Snowy Mountains Scheme is owned
by the government, or three governments
depending how your loyalties lie, but it is
operated by a company called Snowy Hydro. Turbines to speed And almost nobody seems to remember that
Like other power companies today, the Coal, gas and even nuclear power the Scheme also provides water to farmers on the
are all thermoelectric. Hydro
method Snowy Hydro uses to make its runs on pure gravity Murray (except the farmers, they remember). In
electricity is almost irrelevant. It generates fact, most people on the street probably think
a certain output, and then sells that output of the Scheme as a single, gigantic power plant
onto the national electricity market. One of seven sitting athwart a raging cataract. Not seven
Murray 1 is just one of seven
The company even owns gas-fired peaking individual power stations that stations and over 250km of tunnels.
plants in NSW and Victoria, ready for those days combine to form the Scheme Featuring the Scheme as a retro invention
when everyone switches on the AC at once. is a bit unfair, in some ways, since its still out
Meanwhile, back up there in the hills, there, making electricity and not putting out
the debates continue. Ecologists want very many emissions at all.
environmental flows into the Snowy. Certain, But if you think of it as an achievement of
uh, interest groups still insist the hydroelectric bipartisanship, as an engineering triumph
stations are a boondoggle, and NSW getting that cuts air pollution, as an institution that
10% of its energy from hydroelectric isnt welcomed immigrants and paid them not just
worth it. Aggressive environmentalists say a fair wage put a competitive wage, and acted
hydro is barely superior to coal, given how as a very real-world showcase of Australian
much it disrupts natural river flows and ruins technological innovation...
the ecology downstream from the dams. ...yep, sounds pretty retro to me.

EARLY ADOPTERS

First, for
tourism!
Australias first hydroelectric plant was
built in 1888 for the benefit of tourists
visiting Jenolan Caves. It supported the
increasing number of electric lights
being installed in the various caves for
tour groups. This stuff was absolutely
state of the art. Consider: Edison
patented his carbon-filament vacuum
bulb in 1879. By 1890, Jenolan Caves, on
the far side of the planet, had a small
but effective hydroelectric power
station. See? We used to get into stuff,
and before it was cool.

P O P S C I .CO M . AU 81
 L A B R AT S

QDC Cockatrice
The thrill of abnegated responsibility. The luxury of abandoned choice.
The intensity of ecstasy at the limits of quasi-autonomous dynamic control.

WHEN I ARRIVED AT THE CARPARK FULL OF
quasi-autonomous dynamic sports coupes, the very serious
and important test drivers regarded me with narrowed
eyes. A rake-thin one dressed all in black removed his
cigarillo and, exactly like that stoned caterpillar from Alice
in Wonderland, puffed out: Who - are - YOU?
I was all set to explain myself, but at that moment
Quadynacoups likewise quasi-autonomous and dynamic
engineering lead, Stanley Runner Blockade, erupted out
of a grey SUV and explained myself for me.
Hes a client of my brothers, said Blockade, through
teeth like bullets. A boner fie-day science guy. A scientist.
Hes the control. The one who isnt here to try and wrest
manual drive back from this car.
Blockade indicated the cars.
Myself, I knew very little about
some kind of excitement overload. Oh wow, he said. So
are you going to press the button?
Rather than engage with the question, I pressed the
button. The car rumbled into life. Maps and airflow
diagrams and other esoterica appeared on various displays.
A stern little robot called Mapshit had been suction-
cupped to the windscreen by the equally stern safety guys
who coordinated test drives like this. I had encountered
Mapshit - pronounced Maps-hit, thank you very much -
before. He was a miserable little prick, but also a GPS.
Youre driving to an eco-resort out the back of
Goulburn, snapped Mapshit. The road is goddamn
narrow so keep to the speed limit and watch out for roos.
Me? I said. Im not driving
anywhere. The car is.
Oh great , said Mapshit .

IT TOOK THE VERY SERIOUS

the QDC Cockatrice. It looked like Thats all I need.
a three-quarters-sucked butter Due to some kind of angry
menthol with windows. Id seen ads
for the thing on busses. Something AND IMPORTANT TEST disagreement among the very
serious and important test drivers
about all of the excitement and none
of the needing to actually be good at
DRIVERS SEVEN AND A HALF that left them in a tangle of reverse
lights and prematurely deployed
driving. Something like that.
Because most auto-drive cars are
MINUTES TO FIGURE OUT HOW active spoilers, Kilroy and I were the
first Cockatrice out of the carpark.
boring, right? said Blockade, flicking
ash from his charcoal linen suit. This
TO SWITCH OFF AUTO AND Thankfully, the car did not have
some kind of artificial personality.
one is exciting but at the same time ENGAGE MANUAL DRIVE It just drove. I guess it drove slightly
not dangerous in any way. more aggressively than some other
The very serious and important auto-cars? Hell if knew.
test drivers looked at each other. It took the very serious and
Then one of them stubbed out his durry and asked: Isnt important test drivers seven and a half minutes to figure
that like, a contradiction in terms? out how to switch off auto and engage manual drive. I know
Blockade grinned. Fancy words, meatbag. Why dont this because that was when the other Cockatrices all roared
you put your arse in that seat and press the big red button? past me and shrank into red dots in the middle distance.
Grumbling and moaning and stubbing out cigarillos, as Well? said Kiljoy, who to be honest Id forgotten was
if driving a $300,000 sports car months before rich people even there. Are you going to do the same or just let this next
issue!
could buy it was a massive imposition on their time and thing emasculate you?
dignity, the test drivers paired off and got into the cars. I scanned the dash for the speedo, and eventually found it
I was left standing with Runner Blockade and a guy in a crammed under the clock. How is 113 km/h emasculating? ISSUE #101
really shiny blue suit, the kind they dont make anymore. I asked. At that moment the rear window filled with red and APRIL 2017.
Hi! he said, very loudly. My name is Shane Kiljoy. I blue lights. The Cockatrice dutifully moved to the shoulder. ON SALE
am a pro-speeding advocate with a very popular YouTube The rozzers, said Kiljoy with a sigh. I really wish I 30TH MAY 2017.
channel! I will be your co-driver today! could just once go for a drive without getting pulled over.
THE DOOMSDAY
I looked at Blockade. Blockade shrugged. You should probably stop breaking the law then, I said,
CLOCK: Does it even
So I shook Kiljoys oddly sticky hand, and then climbed smugly. Then the cop came and arrested me for driving
mean anything? //
into the Cockatrice. The interior was all animal skin, shiny without a license. SUPERSONIC: The
bits, and an aesthetic denial of the reality of fingerprints. Shortly thereafter, as the cop and I were watching Kiljoy case for a new Concorde
As Blockade had promised, there was a large red button in burn off toward the horizon at well over 150 km/h, Runner // Porsche Panamera //
the centre of the console, marked START. Blockade screeched up in his grey SUV. What happened to
The suspension lurched as Kilroy poured himself into Theres always one, said Blockade, shaking his head hot rocks?
the passenger seat. He looked like he was going to have sadly. Then he rolled up the window and drove away. + HEAPS MORE!

82 POPULAR SCIENCE Story by Subject Zero