What is this industrial solvent that seems to be everywhere at the same time? That soda you’re about to drink is full of it, as was the coffee you had this morning, and the ice cream you had last night.

Moreover, why is it in our food?

We use it in mining, construction, power generation, and manufacturing. We add it to cosmetics and spray it on our crops. It is so widely used that the EPA has issued thousands of pages of regulations just to govern its production and disposal.

If you consume too much of it, you die. If you do not consume enough of it, you die. If you suck too much of it into your lungs, you die, yet bakers still use it as a dough conditioner.

In some parts of the world, it lies on the earth’s surface, just for the taking. In other regions, we must extract it from deep underground. Surprisingly, science cannot agree on its origins. Some geologists claim it did not exist on the early earth; it arrived millions of years later. Perhaps on asteroids, on comets, or during a near collision with Jupiter. Others believe it has always been here, locked in the earth’s rocky core.

Regardless of its origins, society demands ever-greater quantities of it. Ancient civilizations featured it prominently in their art, literature, and mythology. Nations have gone to war to secure access to it, and today, we spend billions of dollars to possess it.

In IUPAC nomenclature it is called Oxidane. However, it is known by many noms de Guerre;  such as Dihydrogen monoxide,  Hydric acid, Hydrohydroxic acid, Hydroxic acid, Hydrol, and μ-Oxido dihydrogen.

“What’s in a name? That which we call water: By any other word would taste as sweet.” (to paraphrase Shakespeare)

For you see, by any other name, this industrial solvent, is still water.

Yep – good ole’ H₂O, and I challenge you to name a commodity, product, or foodstuff produced without it.

So sip that soda, and consider, if you will, from whence did your water cometh?

David L Dahl.

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