As a child he grew up playing in puddles in his native Republic of Maya, famous for its tropical rain forests and monsoon season. ‘I remember first becoming interested in how wet water could be while I was still in diapers,’ Heychtuo reminisced under an umbrella one rainy afternoon on the UT campus. ‘But my interest was really sparked while partying in university and having to lift crates of beer.’
Heychtuo has his PhD in water wetness from the University of Technical Sciences and has recently joined the UT. ‘Water is heavy and difficult to move around. By taking the wet out of water, which we call the AR Project, we can make it drier and lighter,’ he said.
‘Have I wetted your appetite?’ he laughed, but then immediately became serious. ‘The scientific theory is simple. Ordinary water contains isotopes of hydrogen and when they are electrolyzed the gas produced is enriched with deuterium which has a composition and a maximum density of about 0.2743 x 10-14. What’s important to understand is once the water wetness reaches a dielectric constant, it can then fit into many iconic crystal lattices, yielding fewer hydrates.’
‘Its benefits are potentially enormous,’ Heychtuo continued. ‘Besides moving the captured wetness to drier regions, there are promising medical applications as well. Human beings are made up of 70 per cent water and, with the AR Project, we might be able to reduce obesity.’
‘I really believe,’ he said, ‘that without practical applications, science is just an expensive hobby. Another possibility we are exploring would benefit Olympic athletes who compete in swimming and diving events. With the AR Project they could receive their winning medals and not worry if their hair was dripping wet.’
Heychtuo lives in Enschede with his wife Mizu who is a water-color painter. ‘I love the opportunities here in the Netherlands,’ he said. ‘There’s so much water to use as raw data. And not like at home where we have to wait for the monsoon season. Here it rains constantly and all year round. It’s a dream come true for a water wetness engineer like myself.’
In Heychtuo’s spare time he enjoys playing water-polo and taking baths. ‘My hero is Archimedes’, he said. ‘My hope is to make my greatest discovery while sitting in hot water.’
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| Hetchtuo carefully prepares the water wetness dehydration cylinder in his Horst lab. 'One slight miscalculation and the roof could go sky high.' (Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk) |
