Water is pretty neat stuff

[Charles Lindsey]

Water is pretty neat.

Interesting article from the LA Times. It's actually titled "Seeking Life as We Know It" and talks a little about possible ammonia based life or silicone based life.

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"We even have trouble understanding what's alive and what's dead," Zare said. "People still wonder what a virus is."

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Then it goes into a a fairly good description of water. Stuff I had forgotten or never known.

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All life as we know it is spun from carbon-based threads swimming in water solutions. Both carbon and water have unique ÔÇö some say magical ÔÇö properties. Indeed, physics and chemistry strongly suggest that life might not have had a choice.

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On the face of it, water seems a rather silly molecule ÔÇö two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen atom in a way that looks like the head of Mickey Mouse. Even children know its chemical formula: H2O.

But the bonds it forms with itself and other molecules are anything but ordinary.

Atoms normally bond by sharing the negatively charged electrons that buzz around their positively charged nuclei, like people sharing popcorn at a movie.

In water, the oxygen shares one electron with each of its hydrogens, leaving four extras. These clump together as "lone pairs" that can grab onto other molecules like prehensile feet.

At the same time, the two positive hydrogen nuclei stick out the other side like arms. The "feet" of one water molecule grab the "arms" of the other, forming abnormally strong networks. Where one water molecule goes, the others tend to follow. Thus, water can climb tall trees ÔÇö hand over foot, as it were ÔÇö in defiance of gravity, carrying nutrients from the soil to the leaves.

Chemists say they would expect water to be a gas at room temperature because it's made up of just a few light atoms. But the strong bonds make the molecules stick together in a liquid form.

Luckily, the bonds aren't so sticky that they form a viscous gel ÔÇö something that Boston University physicist Eugene Stanley initially found perplexing. Water flows freely, he and others discovered, because water molecules stick to each other only briefly, let go, grab another partner ÔÇö whirling an ever-changing cast of partners around in a molecular square dance.

The upshot is that water stays watery over a remarkable range of temperatures (32 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact).

This is a liquid bonanza for life, which seems to need some form of fluid to transport things from place to place. In solids, molecules stick together and can't go much of anywhere. In gases, the molecules don't get close enough to interact.

Water's unbalanced geometry ÔÇö positive charges on one side, negative on the other ÔÇö also gives it a distinctively schizophrenic personality (although chemists, like psychiatrists, prefer the term bipolar). This makes it an excellent solvent.

One side of a molecule grabs on to negative charges; the other side grabs the positive. This pulls most things apart, so water can dissolve almost anything. (If things didn't dissolve, they'd sink to the bottom, or rise to the top ÔÇö not good for a free flow of chemical reactions.)

Why doesn't life just disintegrate altogether in water then? While water is one of the most strongly bipolar molecules, it is not the most reactive ÔÇö meaning it can make things fall apart (dissolve) without changing their composition (react). So the parts can be endlessly rearranged.

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There's more but didn't want to make a huge post. But I love little factoids like this.

[Epsilon 5]

very good article.

[Darkling]

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Originally posted by Cmdr Chavik:

Water's unbalanced geometry ÔÇö positive charges on one side, negative on the other ÔÇö also gives it a distinctively schizophrenic personality (although chemists, like psychiatrists, prefer the term bipolar). This makes it an excellent solvent.

One side of a molecule grabs on to negative charges; the other side grabs the positive. This pulls most things apart, so water can dissolve almost anything. .... Why doesn't life just disintegrate altogether in water then? While water is one of the most strongly bipolar molecules, it is not the most reactive ÔÇö meaning it can make things fall apart (dissolve) without changing their composition (react). So the parts can be endlessly rearranged. ....

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This is one of the problems that I have with the whole "Theory on Orgins". If wanter is a solvent, which means that it breaks things apart, then how did the first living thing supposedly bring itself together in something that's supposed to make it come apart? Also, keep in mind that the first living thing (an amoeba) isn't as simple as once thought. The unique combination of chemicals that made up the ameoba's DNA was the right ONE out of a Billion, Billion combinations (20 Zero's) that those chemicals could have come together in. Odds that are WAY too far fetched to claim that it could have happend by chance.

[Grizzle]

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Originally posted by Darkling:

The unique combination of chemicals that made up the ameoba's DNA was the right ONE out of a Billion, Billion combinations (20 Zero's) that those chemicals could have come together in. Odds that are WAY too far fetched to claim that it could have happend by chance.

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Considering there were millions upon millions of years for chemicals to interact and combine in various ways, it's not so hard to believe that sooner or later the right combination was hit.

[Charles Lindsey]

That's my favorite section. Water is life giving yet destructive as well. I have always thought that water was a mild acid. But I kept that to myself for fear of getting jumped on by science majors. Turns out I was pretty darn close.

I think that article talks about the probablilities. Did ya'll read the whole thing or just my quote? It's really good. Go back and read it if you didn't. I checked the link and it still works as of today.

[Darkling]

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Originally posted by Grizzle:

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Originally posted by Darkling:

The unique combination of chemicals that made up the ameoba's DNA was the right ONE out of a Billion, Billion combinations (20 Zero's) that those chemicals could have come together in. Odds that are WAY too far fetched to claim that it could have happend by chance.

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Considering there were millions upon millions of years for chemicals to interact and combine in various ways, it's not so hard to believe that sooner or later the right combination was hit.

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Wrong,

It's like saying that if you get everyone in the world to flip a coin every minute of every hour of the day, eventually, they would all get heads. While we say that the odds are a Billion, Billion to 1, the truth is that when the odds are THAT high, it becomes what we call an IMPOSSIBILITY. It will NEVER happen. To a Mathematician, anything over a 100 Billion to 1 odds, is called a mathematical impossibility, but this isn't a hundred billion to 1, it's a Billion, Billion to 1, just for the combination and to top it off that it happened in a SOLVENT!? Not going to happen.

Let's see what are the odds of my watch assembling itself.. Hmmm.

[Charles Lindsey]

It doesn't talk about the probabilities. I was mistaken.

And I didn't think water was an actual acid but that it destroyed stuff similiar to an acid (and even that is a very loose interpretation). Just wanted to clarify that.