ONE SHEIK...

Faisal was, until recently, in charge of Saudi Arabia's water desalination program, but is now in business for himself. He predicts that an iceberg will be towed to Saudi Arabia by 1980, at a cost of $100 million. Thereafter, he declares, "I would be willing to sell water to any country in the world that needs it," and his assurance is somewhat superfluous, for no one doubts Saudi Arabia's magnanimity in selling liquids.

The last time Iowa saw an iceberg was when the last glacier backed off some 200,000 years ago, but it saw one again last October, for Faisal had a 4,785 lb iceberg pried off an Alaskan glacier, and brought in by helicopter, airplane, refrigerated truck and (at this point the venture almost failed) by forklift and construction crane, at a cost of $11,000. The 10,000 year old ice was then used to chill the drinks of the 200 conventioneers from 18 nations.

Not all of them were scientists. The human mind can not only solve problems, but with equal serendipity it can dream them up. Thus, the inevitable lawyers and experts on international law came up with a problem whose solution is, no doubt, eagerly awaited by mankind's millions in breathless apprehension:

How do you insure the towed icebergs against piracy?

[Sources: Preprints of some papers given at a conference, as yet unpublished; Science 10/21/77; and articles in the daily press. For information on individual papers, we suggest contacting Prof. A. Husseiny, College of Engineering, Iowa State Univ., Ames, Iowa.]