Hey Bill Nye, 'Can We Desalinate Water for Human Consumption on a Massive Scale?' #TuesdaysWithBill

Hey Bill Nye, 'Can We Desalinate Water for Human Consumption on a Massive Scale?'

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The ability to desalinate water on an industrial scale would change the world, says Bill Nye the Science Guy, bringing fresh water to populations all over the globe that currently going without. While nature creates membranes that desalinate water, creating the right balance of salt to fresh water, humans must rely on synthetic membranes. While our current prototypes work, they are energy inefficient. The particle graphene, however, might provide a streamlined way of brining fresh water to the world.

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BILL NYE:

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.

In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.

While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children’s books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye’s Great Big Book of Tiny Germs.”

Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries” airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye” airs on PBS stations across the country.

Bill’s latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens.” It’s about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you’ll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There’s also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It’s fun for him; he’s an engineer with an energy conservation hobby.

Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest space interest organization.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Amy: Hey Bill. This is Amy from Minnesota. I was wondering if — when I was five years old I did this science experiment where we stuck a stick in salt water and it made a crystal. I was wondering if there was, in terms of desalinating water for human consumption, if there is a chemical compound that could work as a catalyst for some sort of reaction and if we could do this on a massive scale?

Bill Nye: Amy, that is a fabulous question. Desalinization of water could be the key to the future for so many of us humans. I'm fascinated with this question. So you use the word catalyst, this would be a chemical that would enable another chemical reaction, in general doesn't affect the catalyst so you could reuse the catalyst. Right now, as far as I know, there is no such thing. But two aspects of this that are really important right now. The first one is not real and I cannot help but hearken to a book by Kurt Vonnegut in which the characters creates something called Ice-nine where you get water molecules to rearrange themselves. And the chemist who does this is fascinated with the way cannonballs are stacked in statues or in memorials to people who fought wars with cannons.

That's fictional but it is kind of a cool idea. I won't tell you what happens at the end of the book; it's big fun. The real thing that's going on right now is people are able to take the salt out of salt water by forcing the water backwards through a very fine filter, which generally is called a membrane, and right now we call it osmosis. And osmosis is an old Greek word that means kind of happens on its own. And so the classic example is to take an egg, take the shell off with vinegar and then put the membrane contained egg in salt water and the water will go into the egg and the egg will swell if it's in salt water. If you put that...

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