Blue gold, strange brew, cosmic juice

Blue gold, strange brew, cosmic juice - just a few of the descriptors for water used by the author in this extensive - better still, exhaustive - biography of that most common and familiar of substances. Ball elevates water, and rightly so, to a mighty position as giver and sustainer of life on earth and possible harbourer of life on other worlds. Perceptively constructed and beautifully written, Ball's book guides the reader through water's role in the spawning of life, describes its position in the theology and cosmology of past civilisations, delves into the chemistry, physics and quantum mechanics of it and describes how it moderates the processes inside living cells. If one wanted to nit-pick, then one of the few criticisms to be levelled is: did he really need to go into such detail about something so familiar?

For this is what Ball intends to present, an all-encompassing examination of water and its role in our lives. So the volumes of detail are no real criticism of his wonderful accomplishment. He is an engaging writer and his greatest success with this book is that even the most scientifically backward reader will have no difficulty digesting the explanations of awkward scientific concepts. But it's not that you are presented with a morass of "technicality" - this book is at least as much about the history of the world and, more particularly, the history of scientific discovery from alchemy to relativity. Ball carries us from the Greek philosophers, through the great European discoveries of the 17th and 18th centuries and right up to the present with a look at some of the odder claims made this decade - such as cold fusion and its false promise of a boundless supply of free energy.

There is no subject, no concept, no place in the universe safe from Ball's relentless pursuit of references to water. He describes its arrival within days of the Big Bang that sparked the creation of the universe, he searches for it on Mars and the Moon, he discusses its presence on Saturn, Jupiter and their associated moons, and he even finds it in the sun's impossibly hot atmosphere. He strips dozens of quotes from the Bible's Book of Job, which seems in particular to be dedicated to the theme of water. He weaves geology, climate change, glaciers and the polar ice sheets into his narrative, stumbling only once in the first 10 pages or so of the book, where he gives us just a little too much of the protons, electrons and neutrons of this world. Don't, however, let these few pages put you off this biography, for it is the scope and richness of his canvas that makes this book a winner.

His position as an established science writer and senior editor with the international scientific journal, Nature, was undoubtedly the key that allowed him to unlock so much science and free it from its chains of jargon. Not all is sweetness and light in Ball's story, however. The earth presents a watery-blue face to the universe, but only a small fraction is of the sort suited to humankind. The oceans happily recycle 30 trillion gallons of fresh water from the sea to the land each day - about 40,000 cubic kilometres - but two thirds immediately rush back as flood water. The remainder still sounds like enough to satisfy our thirsty needs, but much of this falls on deserts or lands unsuited to agriculture and is unfairly shared among the nations, with some getting more than they need and others going short.

Most depressing is our indifference to this wonderful resource, our willingness to squander fresh, potable water in order to clean cars, scrub the streets and quench lawns. Nearly 80 per cent of water withdrawn for domestic and municipal supplies ends as waste rather than being consumed, Ball tells us, "and this is before you consider the huge quantities - an estimated 30 per cent or so for England and Wales - squandered as leaks before it even reaches the tap". By comparison, Asians consume about 62 per cent of the water they draw down for these purposes.

Dick Ahlstrom is the Science Correspondent of The Irish Times