This TED Talk features organic chemist Tina Arrowwood, recorded live at TED at DuPont 2019.

Growing up in northern Wisconsin, I've naturally developed a connection to the Mississippi River.

When I was little, my sister and I would have contests to see who could spell M-I-S-S-I-S-I-P-P-I-P-I, the fastest.

When I was in elementary school, I got to learn about the early explorers and their expeditions,

Marquette and Juliette and how they use the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River

and its tributaries to discover the Midwest and to map a trade they use the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River and its tributaries to

discover the Midwest and to map a trade route to the Gulf of Mexico. In graduate school, I was

fortunate to have the Mississippi River outside my research laboratory window at the University of

Minnesota. During that five-year period, I got to know the Mississippi River.

I got to know its temperamental nature

on where it would flood its banks at one moment,

and then shortly thereafter, you would see its dry shorelines.

Today, as a physical organic chemist,

I'm committed to use my training to help protect rivers like the Mississippi from excessive salt that can come from human activity.

Because you know, salt is something that can contaminate freshwater rivers.

And freshwater rivers, they have only salt levels of 0.05%. And at this level,

it's safe to drink. But the majority of the water on our planet is housed in our oceans.

And ocean water has a salinity level of more than 3%. And if you drink that, you'd be sick, very

quick. So if we are to compare the relative volume of ocean water to that of the river water

that's on our planet, and let's say we're able to put the ocean water into an Olympic-sized

swimming pool, then our planet's river

water would fit in a one-gallon jug. So you can see it's a precious resource. But do we treat it

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