Told as an unfolding detective story, WATER ALWAYS WINS by award-winning science journalist Erica Gies follows experts who are obsessed with water as they use close observation, historical research, ancient animal and human expertise and cutting-edge science to understand how water really works, why efforts to control it are failing and how to create more resilient water systems in the urgent race to mitigate the catastrophic effects of climate change.
WATER ALWAYS WINS:
Collaborating with Nature for a More Resilient Future
by Erica Gies
University of Chicago Press, 2022
WATER ALWAYS WINS makes clear that we need to fundamentally rethink our relationship with water. We must embrace the reality that we are an integral part of nature and need learn to live in harmony with these forces that we cannot conquer. This requires humility, not arrogance; collaboration, not aggressive control and setting a goal, which is to determine what water wants and figure out a how to make way for it, while protecting and securing our lives. The overarching theme is that such a mindset is essential in all our dealings with every aspect of nature, if we want our planet to survive. As Erica Gies so beautifully states, water is life, it “flexes with the rhythms of the earth, expanding and retreating in an eternal dance upon the land.”
WATER ALWAYS WINS follows the scientists and engineers who are recovering this lost knowledge and also new understanding of water and then finding ways to let water be water, a kind of un-engineering that reclaims space for water to stall on the land for cleaning, capture, and storage – a “slow water” ethic with many of the same attributes as the slow food movement. WATER ALWAYS WINS takes us along on this great journey, from Peru, where scientists are restoring a 1,500-year-old aqueduct system created by a pre-Incan civilization to Chennai, India, where the technology of ancient Dravidian temple tanks is being introduced to control flooding to San Francisco, where urban planners are mapping the original “ghost” waterways under the city to find improved methods of water management. Animal researchers are studying the ways creatures from beavers (who built a continuous dam twice as long as the Hoover dam) to elephants naturally “engineer” water systems that renew and replenish the land.
This is a riveting and eye-opening “big idea” book that will do for water what The Hidden Life of Trees did for forests or what The Sixth Extinction did for animal genocide.
Erica Gies is the perfect person to write this book. She is an independent journalist who writes about water, climate policy, urban planning, plants and animals for Scientific American, Nature, The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, The Economist, with a proven track record of bringing science alive for the general public. Erica has appeared on NPR’s Science Friday and they are eager to have her on when the book comes out. She holds a master’s degree in literature with a focus in eco-criticism, which brings a wide-angle, narrative lens to her science reporting.
The smartphone. How could a small device have become so life-defining so quickly? Can we change this situation without having to do without too many things? Christoph Koch says, yes, we can. For many years he has been dealing with the topics of internet abstinence and online addiction. With scientifically supported findings, he explains what is behind all this. Why are apps so addicting? What is happening in the brain? Why is almost no one resistant to it? Which business models are based on this? And what do experts say? Koch’s 30-day challenge shows why it is worth reducing online consumption and how one can benefit both physically and mentally through a more aware interaction with digital media. Motivating, entertaining, easy to implement – a guide for creating a digital balance.
The nose sits in the middle of the face, yet most people know surprisingly little about it. Yet our ENT department manages a large part of our perception – apart from breathing. Next to the eyes, the nose, ears and throat form our most important connection to the outside world. Dr. Christine Löber explains in best pop science manner how smelling works, where the voice comes from and why cotton swabs have no place in the ear. She makes us impressively aware of the influence the ENT area has on our psyche. And she gives tips on how to keep the throat, nose and ears healthy. The great knowledge book about the throat, nose and ears.
In HOW TRUST WORKS, Dr. Kim will explain the two most powerful determinants of trust (perceived competence and perceived integrity) and why those determinants can be weighted so unevenly when we are deciding whether to trust or forgive someone—or not. We as humans are bad at determining the trustworthiness of other people, and we are even worse at defending our own trustworthiness when it comes under fire. Yet despite this shortcoming, and the fact that we are all keenly aware of how important trust is in all of our personal and professional relationships, surprisingly little substantive research had been done on the topic before Dr. Kim began his inquiries. In fact, the majority of our institutional knowledge at the time seemed to rely almost entirely on case studies and other anecdotes. Dr. Kim was forced to develop his own set of rigorous scientific tools that would help him analyze how people interact with one another in the face of conflict.