Water Sciences & Insights | HomeExplorations 
Water is a topic that is addressed by a wide range of scientific disciplines and by an even broader array of nonscientific endeavors. This web page is updated periodically to include a sampling of the explorations (in the form of books, articles, and documentaries) into water and water-related phenomena that add to humanity's evolving knowledge of and experience. The explorations are categorized as general interest or technical/scientific.
Photos by Scott PortelliGeneral Interest
Tara Lohan (editor). Water Matters. AlterNet Books, San Francisco, CA. 2010. [mixed essays]
Walton, Brett. "Bulk water exports: Alaska city wants to sell the world a drink," Circle of Blue (2 June 2010): 3 pp. [commentary]
Amy Van Vechten. “The flow of ideas,” FLYP Discover 23 (13-26 February 2009): 6 pp. [technology]
Flow: For the Love of Water. A film directed by Irena Salina, Oscilloscope Laboratories. 2008. [documentary]
Tara Lohan (editor). Water Consciousness. AlterNet Books, San Francisco, CA. 2008. [mixed essays]
William E. Marks. Water Voices from Around the World. Water Voices Inc., Edgartown, MA. 2007. [mixed essays]
Michael Kanellos. "Energy on the high seas," New York Times (August 15, 2007). [alternative energy]
West Marrin. "The waters of chaos," Magister Botanicus (August/September 2007): 47-53. [science/myth]
David Helvarg & Jim Toomey. 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. Inner Ocean, Maui, HI. 2006. [commentary/activism]
Elizabeth Royte. "Drugging the waters," Onearth (Fall 2006): 26-31. [environment]
Jay Lehr & Jack Keeley (editors). The Water Encyclopedia. Wiley Interscience, New York, NY. 2005. [science/history]
Andreas Schulz. Water Crystals: Making the Quality of Water Visible. Floris Books, Edinburgh, UK. 2005. [naturalism/technology]
Matthew Lones. Water: embodiment of cultural, social and spiritual dimensions. M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, OH. 2004. [history]
Whose Water? Various authors present their views in the Winter 2004 issue of YES! Magazine. [mixed essays]
Bailagua Fronteriza (Dance of the Border Waters). A film produced and directed by Michael Bedar. 2003. [documentary]
Michael Stocker. "Ocean bio-acoustics and noise pollution," Soundscape (Spring 2003): 16-29. [science]
John Wilkes. Flowforms: The Rhythmic Power of Water. Floris Books, Edinburgh, UK. 2003. [naturalism/technology]
Nathaniel Altman. Sacred Water: The Spiritual Source of Life. HiddenSpring, Mahwah, NJ. 2002. [myth/history]
The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. BBC nature series produced by Alastair Fothergill (UK). 2001. [documentary]
Writing on Water. Edited by David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2001. [mixed essays]
William E. Marks. The Holy Order of Water. Bell Pond Books, Great Barrington, MA. 2001. [history/commentary]
Peter Warshall. “The unholy triumvirate,” Whole Earth Magazine (Winter 2001): 8 pp. [commentary/technology]
David Blake & Peter Jenniskens. “The ice of life,” Scientific American (August 2001): 44-51. [science]
Water: The Drop of Life. Public Television series produced by SWYNK (Netherlands). 2000. [documentary]
Craig Childs. The Secret Knowledge of Water. Sasquatch Books, Seattle, WA. 2000. [naturalism/adventure]
Ellen Prager & Sylvia Earle. The Oceans. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. 2000. [natural history]
Philip Ball. H2O: A Biography of Water. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, UK. 1999. [science/history]
Sidney Perkowitz. "The rarest element," The Sciences 39 (1999): 34-38. [science]
Masaru Emoto. The Message from Water. HADO Kyoikusha, Tokyo, Japan. 1999. [photography]
Water: Sacred and Profaned. Produced by Baylands Productions. 1998. [documentary]
E.C. Pielou. Fresh Water. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. 1998. [naturalism/science]
William Ryan & Walter Pitman. Noah's Flood. Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. 1998. [science/myth]
Barry Brailsford. Song of the Whale. StonePrint Press, Hamilton, New Zealand. 1997. [myth/history]
Robert Matthews. "Wacky water," New Scientist (21 June 1997): 40-43. [science]
Callum Coats. Living Energies. Gateway Books, Bath, UK. 1996. [naturalism/technology]
Roger Payne. Among Whales. Scribner, New York, NY. 1995. [science/history]
Peter Warshall. "The morality of molecular water," Whole Earth Review (Spring 1995): 5-11. [science/commentary]
Michel Schiff. The Memory of Water. Thorsons, London, UK. 1994. [commentary]
The Water Cycle. An educational video produced by Nancy Brink and Rick Jaffe. 1993. [documentary]
Paul Caro. Water. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. 1993. [science/commentary]
Sandra Postel. Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity. WorldWatch Institute, Washington, DC. 1992. [history/politics]
Theodor Schwenk & Wolfram Schwenk. Water: The Element of Life. Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY. 1989. [naturalism]
John Steele. "The message from the oceans," Oceanus (Summer 1989): 4-9. [science]
Patrick Flanagan & Gayle Flanagan. Elixir of the Ageless: Liquid Crystal Water. Vortex Press, Flagstaff, AZ. 1986. [technology]
Joseph Dillow. The Waters Above. Moody Press, Chicago, IL. 1981. [myth/religion]
Theodor Schwenk. Sensitive Chaos. Rudolf Steiner Press, London, UK. 1965. [naturalism]
Technical/Scientific
Adams, D.K., et al. "Surface generated mesoscale eddies transport deep-sea products from hydrothermal vents." Science 332 (2011): 580. [global functions]
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Plan to study the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water sources." Office of Research and Development, Washington DC (February 2011): 126 pp. [environmental technologies]
Hong, K.S., et al. "Direct water splitting through vibrating piezoelectric microfibers in water," Journal of Physical Chemical Letters (2010): 10.1021. [physical properties]
Sujay Kaushal, et al. "Land use and climate variability amplify contaminant pulses," EOS 91[25] (2010): 221-223. [global functions]
Thomas Elsaesser. "Ultrafast memory loss and relaxation processes in hydrogen-bonded systems," Biological Chemistry 390 (2009): 1125-1132. [molecular network]
Kate Ravilious. “Salt solution,” New Scientist (28 February 2009): 40-43. [environmental technologies]
Pollack, G.H. & J. Clegg. Unexpected linkage between unstirred layers, exslusion zones, and water. In: Phase Transition in Celll Biology. Springer, New York , NY. 2008. [molecular network]
Philippa Wiggins. "Life depends upon two kinds of water," PLoS ONE 3(1): e1406. doi:10.1371 (2008). [biological functions]
Daniel Sonntag & Charles Cole. “Determining the feasibility and cost of an ecologically-based design for a mitigation wetland in central Pennsylvania, USA,” Landscape and Urban Planning 87 (2008): 10-21. [environmental technologies]
Tobias Wheeler & Abraham Stroock. “The transpiration of water at negative pressures in a synthetic tree,” Nature 455 (2008): 208-212. [physical properties]
D.H. Sonntag and C.A. Cole. "Determining the feasibility and cost of an ecologically-based design for a mitigation wetland in central Pennsylvania, USA," Landscape and Urban Planning 87 (2008): 10-21. [environmental technologies]
G.A. Vecchi, A. Clement, & B.J. Soden. "Examining the tropical Pacific's response to global warming," EOS 89[9] (2008): 81-83. [global functions]
Roy van Boekel. "Water worlds in the making," Nature 447 (2007): 535-536. [cosmic functions]
Jenny Lindblom & Bo Nordell. "Underground condensation of humid air for drinking water production and subsurface irrigation." Desalination 203 (2007): 417-434. [environmental technologies]
Peter Agre. “The aquaporin water channels,” Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society 3: 5-13 (2006). [biological functions]
Kay Damen, Andre Faaij, & Wim Turkenburg. “Health, safety and environmental risks of underground CO2 storage-overview of mechanisms and current knowledge,” Climatic Change 74 (2006): 289-318. [environmental technologies]
Ruggero Maria Santilli. “ A new gaseous and combustible form of water,” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 31 (2006): 1113 -1138. [physical properties]
Martin Chaplin. "Do we underestimate the importance of water in cell biology?" Nature Reviews 7 (2006): 861-866. [biological functions]
Robert Matthews. "The quantum elixir," New Scientist (8 April 2006): 32-37. [molecular network]
J.R. Smyth & S.D. Jacobson. "Nominally anhydrous minerals and Earth's deep water cycle," In: Earth's Deep Water Cycle, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC. 2006. [physical properties/global functions]
Darrel Jenerette & Larissa Larsen. "A global perspective on changing sustainable urban water supplies," Global and Planetary Change 50 (1996): 202-211.
Robert Jackson, et al. “Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration,” Science 310 (2005): 1944-1947. [environmental technologies]
Thomas Stocker & Christoph Raible ."Water cycle shifts gear," Nature 434 (2005): 830-833. [global functions]
Sharon Kedar & Frank Webb. "The ocean's seismic hum." Science 307 (2005): 682-683. [global functions]
Junkee Rhie & Barbara Romanowicz. "Excitation of Earth's continuous free oscillations by atmosphere-ocean-seafloor coupling." Nature 431 (2004): 552-556. [global functions]
Yan Zubavicus & Michael Grunze. "New insights into the structure of water with ultrafast probes," Science 304 (2004): 974-976. [molecular network]
Dominik Marx. "Throwing tetrahedral dice," Science 303 (2004): 634-636. [molecular network]
Philip Ball. "How to keep dry in water," Nature 423 (2003): 25-26. [biological functions/physical properties]
P.D. Asimow & C.H. Langmuir. "The importance of water to oceanic mantle melting regimes," Nature 421 (2003): 815-820. [global functions]
Nancy Levinger. "Water in confinement," Science 298 (2002): 1722-1723. [physical properties]
J.R. Errington & P.G. Debenedetti. "Relationship between structural order and the anomalies of liquid water," Nature 409 (2001): 318-321. [physical properties]
Steen Rasmussen, et al. "Ansatz for dynamical hierarchies," Artificial Life 7 (2001): 329-353. [molecular network]
Walter Drost-Hansen. "Temperature effects on cell functioning----a critical role for vicinal water," Cellular & Molecular Biology 47 (2001): 865-883. [biological functions]
Dan Bergman. "Topological properties of the hydrogen-bond network in liquid water," Chemical Physics 253 (2000): 267-282. [molecular network]
Martin Chaplin. "A proposal for the structuring of water," Biophysical Chemistry 83 (2000): 211-221. [molecular network]
M. Colic & D. Morse. “The elusive mechanism of the magnetic 'memory' of water,” Colloids and Surfaces 154, sect. A (1999): 167-174. [physical properties]
Sander Woutersen & Huib Bakker. “Resonant intermolecular transfer of vibrational energy in liquid water,” Nature 402 (1999): 507-509. [molecular network]
H.G. Nagendra, N. Sukumar, and M. Vijayan. "Role of water in plasticity, stability, and action of proteins: crystal structures of lysozyme at low levels of hydration," Proteins 32 (1998): 229-240. [biological functions]
D.E. Jennings & P.V. Sada. "Water in Betelgeuse and Antares," Science 279 (1998): 844-847. [cosmic functions]
R.G. Curry, M.S. McCartney & T.M Joyce. "Oceanic transport of subpolar climate signals to mid-depth subtropical waters," Nature 391 (1998): 575-577. [global functions]
Martin Harwit, et al. “Thermal water vapor emission from shocked regions in Orion,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 497 (1998): 105-108. [cosmic functions]
Takeshi Oka. “Water on the Sun: molecules everywhere,” Science 277 (1997): 328-329. [cosmic functions]
Brian Tinsley. "Do effects of global atmospheric electricity on clouds cause climate changes?" EOS 78 (1997): 341-349. [global functions]
C.J. Morton & J.E. Ladbury. “Water mediated protein-DNA interactions: the relationship of thermodynamics to structural detail,” Protein Science 5 (1996): 2115-2118. [biological functions]
G. Wilse Robinson, et al. Water in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. World Scientific, Singapore. 1996. [review of current theories]
A. Luzar & D. Chandler. "Hydrogen-bond kinetics in liquid water," Nature 379 (1996): 55-57. [molecular network]
D.D. Sentman & E.M. Wescott. "Red sprites and blue jets: high-altitude optical emissions linked to lightning," EOS 77 (1996): 1-4. [global/cosmic functions]
Peter Webster. “The role of hydrological process in ocean-atmosphere interactions,” Reviews of Geophysics 32 (November 1994): 427-476. [global functions]
Water and Biological Macromolecules. Edited by Eric Westhof. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 1993. [biological functions]
Wallace Broecker. “The great ocean conveyor,” Oceanography 4 (1991): 79-89. [global functions]
R.L. Blumberg, et al. “Connectivity of hydrogen bonds in liquid water,” Journal of Chemical Physics 80 (1984): 5230-5241. [molecular network]
Frank Stillinger. "Water revisited," Science 209 (1980): 451-457. [physical properties/molecular network]
Cell-Associated Water. Edited by Walter Drost-Hansen and James Clegg. Academic Press, New York, NY. 1979. [biological functions]
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi. The Living State. Academic Press, New York, NY. 1972. [biological functions]
