Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff,
Dune was a big influence. I have my original paperback, falling apart. The story is really about drug lords trying to control the planet Arrakis, the only source in the universe of a drug called melange or spice, that prolongs life, and enables interstellar navigation. The book has everything: magic-type mind control, adventure, romance, and philosophy. But I was influenced for two other reasons. One was the clear, repeating guidance ‘Fear is the mind-killer’. That continues to seem right. The other was water. Arrakis is total desert - people there wear stillsuits, able to recycle all the moisture that leaves the body and return this to a handy water bottle with a straw attached to the suit. I still think the stillsuit is clever!
Earth has a lot more water than Arrakis, but water is often in short supply here, and its ownership often contentious. The Klamath River that flows through Oregon and California has been interrupted for a century by four hydroelectric dams. The river was once the third-largest salmon producer on the West Coast, but after the dams were constructed, Coho and Chinook runs dwindled to a tiny fraction of their former abundance. For more than 20 years, the dams have been at the center of a fight to restore the river, including native Yurok and Shasta tribes. In a historic ruling, all four dams will be removed to allow the river to flow freely again, and hopefully the salmon will return and thrive. The dams have become sources of sport and livelihood, and their removal will impact people who depend on this. But overall, it’s an extraordinarily hopeful project.
The Klamath project and the overarching landscape of water rights emphasize the value of water and beg the question, where did earth’s water come from, in the first place? I would say it’s unclear, but there are several reasonable theories. One is that as the earth was accreting from molten material and gas, water was trapped in rocks after they formed, and enough water to fill the oceans has been present from that early time. Another theory is that icy material from asteroid collisions with new earth was the original water source. Yet another is that chemical reactions between an early hydrogen atmosphere and magma (molten rock) in the outer mantle layer released massive amounts of water. In all cases, geological analysis indicates that water on earth has been here for more than four billion years. Although small amounts of water are used and generated in chemical reactions, and large amounts evaporate, condense and come back down as rain or snowflakes, there is no new water generation up here on earth’s crust. It’s thought that there are vast amounts of water stored in mantle rock, lower down, but we can’t access this in 2023. Indeed, some of the water we drink may have been recycled for millions of years! It’s a planetary stillsuit.
In the College of Science, we pay attention to water, habitat and sustainability. Many faculty in our outstanding department of Marine and Environmental Sciences conduct research that bears on preserving coastal watersheds, from rivers to oceans. Thank you and congratulations on this important work.
Thank you! all for your collegiality and collaboration amidst budget cuts. We are doing really well in our College of Science and at Northeastern University. Congratulations! Thank you!
Warmest wishes to everyone.