Nuisance and necessity - exploring our attitudes to water
Posted on 15 June 2010
Dr Barry Thomas, from the Department of Chemistry, will discuss how water is a necessity and yet often thought of as a nuisance, as well as how concerns over limited supplies co-exist with ambivalence towards a substance that is a key to life.
In his lecture, “Water, water everywhere and lots of it to drink”, Dr Thomas will also look at how water has dictated how and where people live today.
He said: “Water is more than an essential ‘food’. It has shaped the regions we live in and is responsible for many of those areas we consider most attractive.
“Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the area around York. We are extremely lucky in this city to have such a plentiful resource available to us. Yet, the United Nations classes the Vale of York as being ‘semi-desert’.”
Dr Thomas’s lecture is the latest in the “Science in the city” series hosted by the University examining environmental issues facing the York area.
The lecture, on Thursday 17 June, will start at 7pm in room C/A/101 in the Department of Chemistry. Admission is free and open to all.
Further details about the lectures in this series and other public lectures hosted by the University of York on a wide range of topics can be found at www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/public-lectures/.
Notes to editors:
- The Department of Chemistry was ranked in the top ten in the country in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and was recently placed in the top five in the Times Good University Guide, the Independent Complete University Guide and the Guardian University Guide.
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