[thedoc (OP)]

On this week's Naked Scientists, we tackle your questions.  We find out what creates a 'Moonbow', how much water there was on Earth over one million years ago and what happens to milk in the freezer.  Also, how butterflies could remember what caterpillars learn, why electric cars may stress stretched water supplies and how the 'smell' of a coral reef attracts fish from miles around.  Plus, we speak to Marc Abrahams, creator of the Ig Nobel awards for science that makes you laugh, then makes you think!  And in Kitchen Science we try to strike a balance between two balloons!
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If you want to discuss this show, or ask a question, this is the place to do it.

[Mikeblanco]

I was catching up with Pod Casts and I just heard the 11/3/08 with the story about electric cars using up scarce water supplies.  This is not a very well thought out study and offers up another excuse not to keep using gasoline powered cars.  That the study was from University of Texas, a state where the oil industry is very powerful, is no surprise.

The statement was made, "an electric car uses three times as much water as a gasoline powered car."  Possibly true while at the same time meaningless.  My current gasoline powered car had 6 liters in the radiator when I bought and 40,000 miles later has had no water added. Three times a very small number is still a small number.

During the recent drought electric generators had trouble getting water because there was none to get, not because they used so much water.  Far more water is used for agriculture than is used in electrical generation. 

Speaking as an American, the last thing we need is another excuse to keep wasting gasoline.