That means building futuristic structures that use wastewater and solar power to produce hydroponic (grown in a nutrient-rich water, without soil) and aeroponic (grown in water-saturated air) crops.
All told, dozens of Midwestern rivers were well over their banks after rains that began Wednesday dumped up to 6 inches of new water on already saturated soil.
Without such particles, clouds would be rare: the air would need to be freakishly saturated with water vapour or strangely cold for condensation to occur.
On Thursday I reported from the CEH on the latest findings about how much water has soaked into the ground - and saw a bore-hole used for measuring water levels actually spouting out water because the ground was so saturated.