When you see me in your bottle, do you ever wonder where I come from? Here is my story.
I am a little droplet. I come from a mix of billions of H2O molecules. My distant ancestors are the hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms. Hydrogen atoms formed themselves about fifteen billions years ago, a few days after the creation of the Universe, and they account for 70% of its mass. As for the oxygen atoms, they only appeared one billion years later, after the birth of the first stars, and they only represent 1% of the Universe’s mass. Hydrogen and oxygen then gathered in order to form molecules of water at the rate of two atoms of hydrogen for one atom of oxygen per molecule.
Head in the clouds:
I must admit that without the warm welcome the planet has made to water molecules, I may have never been here. But let us skip the complex theories explaining this good entente. Nowadays on Earth, water molecules participate in a giant cycle run by the Sun. Thanks to its thermal energy this star activates the big water masses formed by the water molecules and keeps them constantly moving. Thus, the precipitation coming on Earth can evaporate in the atmosphere, trickle down or infiltrate in the continents.
Here is a video for you to follow the first part of my journey :
From the bowels of the Earth:
My arrival in a bottle is the result of a patient infiltration of the snow and the rain in the subsoil of the Earth after a long trip at the core of the mountains. These two elements then form large and ground-water tables at a low depth. In those peaceful unpolluted places, we are billions of droplets waiting to be pumped via the water plants drills. Here we are! We get back to the surface through ducts which cleanness has been thoroughly controlled beforehand.
Splash! With my comrades, I fall in a bottle which is immediately closed so as to limit contact with the air. Out of the bottling rooms comes the labeling. The pretty bottle which welcomes us is decorated with two external labels: the first one carries the logo of our group and the other one indicates the mineral composition that me and my little friends form. Today we are bicarbonate-rich and low in calcium.
Cheers!
Our journey continues on pallets. Ouch, what is happening? I can’t see anything! A learned droplet explains to me that all bottles are covered with an opaque cover in order for us to be protected during our transportation by train or truck. It is a pity since I would have liked to admire the landscape… Without really knowing how, I find myself on the shelves of gigantic place were the noise is ceaseless. I am shaken once more on conveyor belts then I hear at a distance “I am thirsty!. I feel myself transported in a totally different place: the human body. Deep inside this body, a cell welcomes me: “I was waiting for you. Let’s get to work!”
To marvel a little more at water:
Extend your aquatic journey thanks to two books that will take you to the core of the water universe.
Itinéraire d’une goutte d’eau
Photographs by Jean-François Hellio and Nicolas Van Ingen
Text by Fabrice Nicolino
Editions Plume de Carotte, 2011.
200 pages, 34 euros.
A thousand photos tell the great journey of a droplet, from the sky to the ocean and through the heights of a mountain, the slopes of a forest or the point of a bird’s beak. This book reminds us that water is vital for all forms of lives on our planet and that therefore, it deserves respect and admiration.
Les messages cachés de l’eau
Masaru Emoto
Editions Guy Tredaniel, 2004.
180 pages, 22 euros.
The research made by this Japanese doctor come close to surreal by unveiling the most hidden face of water : the crystals formed by frost. The photographs of the book are far from monotonous because water crystals have this fabulous power to change form according to the environment they are in. Thus, pollution, negative thoughts, dirty pipes or on the contrary peaceful music and lyrics transform the water crystals either in shapeless or in absolutely wonderful structures.
Photographs : Mimu_13, E. Bazin on Flickr