In 1893 Sir William Armstrong placed a cotton thread between two wine glasses filled with chemically pure water. After applying a high voltage, a watery connection formed, and after some time, the cotton thread was pulled into one of the glasses, leaving a rope of water suspended between the two glasses. Although being a very simple experiment, it is of special interest since it comprises a number of phenomena currently tackled in modern water science like electrolysis-less charge transport and nanobubbles. This work gives some background information about water research in general and describes the water bridge phenomenon from the viewpoint of different fields such as electrohydrodynamics and quantum field theory. It is shown that the investigation of the floating water bridge led to new discoveries about water, both in the macroscopic and microscopic realm – but these were merely “hidden” in that sense that they only become evident upon application of electric fields.

Drinking water plumbing systems appear to be a unique environment for microorganisms as they contain few nutrients but a high mineral concentration. Interactions between mineral content and bacteria, such as microbial calcium carbonate precipitation (MCP) however, has not yet attracted too much attention in drinking water sector. This study aims to carefully examine MCP behavior of two drinking water bacteria species, which may potentially link scaling and biofouling processes in drinking water distribution systems. Evidence from cell density evolution, chemical parameters, and microscopy suggest that drinking water isolates can mediate CaCO₃ precipitation through previously overlooked MCP mechanisms like ammonification or biosorption. The results also illustrate the active control of bacteria on the MCP process, as the calcium starts to concentrate onto cell surfaces only after reaching a certain cell density, even though the cell surfaces are shown to be the ideal location for the CaCO₃ nucleation.