Water; required for life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 13, 2015, 18:02 (3450 days ago)

It is a very strange substance, two gases make a liquid that can take many forms. Its strangeness explored:-http://nautil.us/issue/25/water/five-things-we-still-dont-know-about-water-"1) How Many Kinds of Ice Are There?-"At latest count, there are 17 different crystalline forms of solid water. However, only one form—Ice Ih—exists commonly on Earth outside of the laboratory. A second crystalline form called Ice Ic is present in very minor amounts in the upper atmosphere, and another 15 forms occur only at very high pressures. (There is also a lot of water in interstellar space, but it is usually an amorphous, non-crystalline, glassy ice frozen onto dust grains.)-"The remarkable variety of crystalline ice forms results from the tetrahedral network of strong hydrogen bonds formed among neighboring water molecules. In the condensed phases of water, each molecule optimizes its hydrogen bonding capacity by forming four hydrogen bonds at near-tetrahedral angles. The hydrogen bonds inside Ice Ih form an open, three-dimensional structure with a low density.-"2) Are There Two Kinds of Liquid Water?-"3) How Does Water Evaporate?-"4) Is the Surface of Liquid Water Acidic or Basic?-"5) Is Nanoconfined Water Different?"-Read more to find out