A number of people have asked what my next book will be--this is why I have not been blogging, as I have been working hard on finalizing it. Bloomsbury Press (New York and London) will publish Elixir: A History of Humans and Water in May or June 2011. This is the story of how people have used water over the past 10,000 years. It's really about gravity and how you distribute water without fossil fuels. The book is global, covering everything from Mesopotamia, Iran, and India, to Europe, Islamic water, China, and the Inca. This was a real challenge to write, but the publishers are pleased and I think it holds together, much of it having considerable relevance to today's water challenges.