Inspired by the impossible illustrations of M.C. Escher, particularly the famous Waterfall, inventor and entrepreneur James Dyson created this remarkable fountain that appears to defy the laws of nature.

To the observer, it looks like the water is making its way up each triangular segment, then spilling off into the corners below, and the illusion is hard to shake even once you know how it works.

Essentially, water is being pushed out of the top thanks to pumps below, then flowing back down both off the edges and along the backs of the triangles. Because the eye sees the waterfall at the end, and due to bubbles observed within the tanks, the brain infers the flow of the triangle-top liquid to be in the same direction.

Called the Wrong Garden, Dyson created this masterpiece for the a flower show hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society. Set flush with the ground, one would never guess at a glance that a hidden mechanism is driving the entire trick from below the surface of the landscape.

The post Reverse Physics: Anti-Gravity Fountain Seems to Flow Uphill first appeared on Gajitz.

To address to rising drought emergency in California, San Diego is building the largest desalination plant in America – while construction will cost $1 billion, it will provide drinking water to over 300,000 people in the southern part of the state.

Opening in November near San Diego, the Carlsbad Desalination Project (and project of Poseidon Water) takes advantage of ever-lowering costs to purifying the copious amounts of saltwater readily available to coastal cities.

Using a reverse-osmosis processing system, the approach still has high energy demands and may have environmental consequences as well, so while it can address the serious and pressing issue of water availability in Southern California it is not an entirely green project and should still be considered a part of a larger plan for conservation and smart usage.

Critics also note that the plant could become unnecessary if the rains return, but even without climate change factors in the mix the state has long had issues with water and this could be just the diversification it needs to weather (a lack of) future storms. 50,000,000 gallons a day is not nearly enough to supply the whole state, but could be used in conjunction with other measures to address regional lack of water.

The post Coastal Desalination Plant to Produce 50MM Gallons a Day first appeared on Gajitz.