In October, I’ll be giving a talk at DtaS titled: Bottled vs Tap: How do we choose? It’ll be an in-depth discussion on the choices behind our water consumption (health, environment, safety, convenience, etc.). I’ve been giving the talk for a while, should be a fun translation to the science cafe format.
This past week on Science Friday, Elizabeth Royte discussed her new book
Bottlemania. The book details the rise of the bottle water industry and the subsequent decline in our public water infrastructure. In 1987, Americans drank about 5 gallons of …

I was listening to an interesting piece on Mercury’s history in the San Francisco Bay this past two weeks, courtesy of our friends over at KQED QUEST.
It’s an excellent 3 part series, focusing on how the problem has evolved and what lies ahead. One of the more interesting pieces is a short conversation with Dr. Jane Hightower, a doctor in San Francisco who specializes in diagnosing mercury poisoning cases. She published a paper in 2003 that garnered a lot of attention. She gathered a group of 89 individuals who had …

On May 8th, the three month discussion on Water in California concludes with a look to the future. With expected water pinches coming from population growth and climate change, the discussion is fairly pertinent. BASF is focused on creating an informed public as key ballot issues on water are pending.
The discussion will focus on the following strategies:

* Increasing surface storage through dam building.
* Desalination of sea water.
* Attempting to match water quality with usage, so that the cost …