Dance of the Droplets: Earth's Freshwater Carousel and How It Is Changing

Professor Helen Czerski is speaking at Barnard's Inn Hall on Thursday 28 January, with her lecture Dance of the Droplets: Earth's Freshwater Carousel and How It Is Changing running from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. It's part of Gresham College's current programme, The Threads of Our World, Woven into a Beautiful Whole.

The talk is all about Earth's water cycle and how it's shifting. Czerski draws on the latest understanding of how water moves around the planet, and she'll be talking about the new technologies that are letting us trace the journeys of individual water molecules — especially the hidden groundwater that usually stays out of sight. The other side of the coin is climate change, which is altering those journeys and bringing floods and droughts to places that aren't used to them.

Czerski is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment, a physicist and oceanographer who describes herself as having a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life. That's the kind of person you want leading a talk like this — someone who can take a huge, planetary system and make it feel concrete and human.

Barnard's Inn Hall is in Holborn, EC1N 2HH. The session is free of charge, and you can either attend in person or watch it live online. The college has been offering free public education for over 400 years, thanks to its supporters, so this is one of those London things that costs nothing to see. It runs from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Thursday 28 January.