Water is one of the most unique substances in the Universe. Even nowadays we can’t reveal all its secrets and realize its great influence on our lives. Many centuries ago people thought water is simple and indivisible. Only in the second half of the 18th century it became obvious that the molecules of water consist of two elements: oxygen and hydrogen (“giving birth to water”). Their combination seemed almost impossible. Unique hydrogen bonding forces and an ability to form clusters combined with distorted tetrahedral arrangement of atoms (Do you know that water is the only 3-atom substance in the world which molecules correspond to the principle of golden proportion?) had no chance to exist according to all laws of physics.
But the properties of water turned out to be even more incredible. There are certain physical characteristics that can be defined for all substances on our planet. One of them is “specific heat” (удельная теплоемкость) - a certain amount of heat that’s required for warming a unit mass of a material. The fact is that there are only two substances on our planet that have minimums for specific heat – water and mercury. And the minimum for water is around 37 degrees above zero – that’s normal temperature of human body! The usual temperatures of other warm-blooded animals vary from 32 to 39 degrees – that’s also very close to water specific heat minimum. This water peculiarity helps mammals and birds to keep their body temperatures stable and unchanged at day and at night.
Another unique water property is its maximum density at 4 degrees above zero. We know that water freezes at zero. In winter water in small ponds, lakes and rivers starts to chill. When the water on the surface freezes till 4, it goes down, because it’s heavier that the rest of the water. The same repeats again and again until the whole river or lake are filled with water of 4 degrees above zero. Now the surface starts to freeze and ice covers water. But near the bottom the temperature stays about 4 degrees all the time and it helps water creatures to survive in any frost.
Also ice is white. Ice-caps on the poles reflect sunrays and contribute to preventing our planet from overheating and protect us from epic floods.
By the way, the world ocean contains more oxygen than the atmosphere. In the years when large forest areas are destroyed by cutting down or fires, the missing amount of oxygen travels from water into air. On the contrary, when there are more oxygen molecules on the Earth than we need, the ocean saves it for the future.
Water is an ideal dissolvent. It’s bad on the one hand, because it makes all attempts to find and get pure water useless. Water will always contain infinitesimal amounts of gas, silica, ions. But on the other hand this unique property of water makes it easy for blood and lymph inside living creatures to transport all kinds of useful molecules and ions.
As we see, water is really the main source of live (due to unique physical and chemical characteristics). The cells of all living creatures contain water. But its mysterious and supernatural powers are still widely discussed.
As for me, I think it’s not randomness that in all known religions and religious systems water plays a very important role. It may be a real world incarnation of a god or goddess, a holy symbol or an irreplaceable attribute of many essential rituals.
I’ve always believed that water has an ability to receive and transmit information. After I’ve seen in the movie how water crystals react to music and words, I’m confident that the structure of water in our food, in the bodies of animals we breed and plants we grow and, of course, in our own organisms is affected by our emotions and utterances.
I was also amazed by the idea that each year the amount of natural calamities connected with water rises because we, people, become worse and swear more and more. The water becomes “dirty” and “tired” and takes revenge.
