Imagine a day without water. No shower, no morning cup of coffee. No commerce flowing along rivers or crossing oceans. No swimming, skiing or boating. No ice in your soft drink — no soft drink. No rain, no rainbows. No Monet, no Moby Dick. No you.

Water is literally everywhere. It’s omnipresent in mythology, religion, literature, art, philosophy, recreation and business. In biology, it is king: Seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by seawater, and it fuels a cycle that keeps the planet and all its thirsty inhabitants alive. Even if you're in the middle of a vast desert, water is never far away: You're 60 percent water.

Yet, most of us take it for granted — a turn of the tap, a few coins slipped into a vending machine, a quick trip to the store, and voila! There it is. In this issue of Nikon Horizons, however, we’re going to pop the top off H2O, revealing its secrets, its bearing on our lives and its future.

Everybody knows “H2O,” but what, exactly, does that mean? Water is such an integral part of our lives that few of us ever stop to think about it. Where does it come from? How does it behave? What role did it play in the formation of the Earth and life? Some of the answers may surprise you.

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When you look at a picture of Earth from space, you can see a lot of water. It would seem logical, then, that there’s enough potable, or drinkable, water for everybody. However, the truth is that fresh, clean water is a precious commodity for billions of people. But thanks to advances in engineering, we're able to turn ocean brine into fresh, pure, life-giving water.

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Traditionally, water is distilled, purified and filtered before we drink it. Today, however, there’s a bit of a role reversal going on: Water itself is becoming the filter. In a bath of supercritical water, hazardous materials are literally attacked and pulverized until they disappear. Come enter this fascinating world of intense heat, pressure and destruction.

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Water enables a breakthrough in microfabrication Nikon has once again developed a groundbreaking technology for the manufacture of LSI circuitry. See how Nikon uses purified water in its immersion scanners to achieve cutting-edge results in ultra-microfabrication.

We introduce profiles of contributors.

• Details

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Wetlands, Oceans & Watersheds
  The U.S. government’s official clearinghouse of information about water-related topics, including environment, recreation and conservation activities. The site includes databases, mapping and conservation resources.
• World Water Council
  For more than a decade, the World Water Council has worked to promote awareness about pressing water issues and inspire action at all levels of society, including government. Its goal is to foster efficient, sustainable water management on a global scale.
• The World Conservation Union Water Programme
  A worldwide alliance of governments, scientists and private-sector partners working to find ways to preserve water resources. Sustainable use, equitable sharing and protectionism are key elements of its program.
• National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)
  Visit NIOT website to learn about India’s desalination projects that Saga University in Japan is supporting with its Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technologies.

Updated November 15, 2007