Related papers: Understanding the Unusual Properties of Water
Water is necessary both for the evolution of life and its continuance. It possesses particular properties that cannot be found in other materials and that are required for life-giving processes. These properties are brought about by the…
It is undeniable that life as we know it depends on liquid water. It is difficult to imagine any biochemical machinery that does not require water. On Earth, life adapts to the most diverse environments and, once established, it is very…
Water is a complex structured liquid of hydrogen-bonded molecules that displays a surprising array of unusual properties, also known as water anomalies, the most famous being the density maximum at about $4^\circ$C. The origin of these…
While the water molecule is simple, its condensed phase liquid behavior is so complex that no consensus description has emerged despite three centuries of effort. Here we identify features of its behavior that are the most peculiar, hence…
Water is the most important liquid in the Universe. At the same time it is the most anomalous liquid. It demonstrates several dozens of anomalies, among which are density anomaly, diffusion anomaly etc. Anomalous behavior of water is a…
Water offers a large temperature domain of stable liquid, and the characteristic hydrophobic effects are first a consequence of the temperature insensitivity of equation-of-state features of the aqueous medium, compared to other liquids. On…
The peculiar structuring of liquid water stems from a fine-tuned molecular principle embodying the two different interaction demands of the water molecule: The formation of hydrogen bonds or the compensation for coordination defects. Here…
Water keeps puzzling scientists because of its numerous properties which behave oppositely to usual liquids: for instance, water expands upon cooling, and liquid water is denser than ice. To explain this anomalous behaviour, several…
Water, a subject of human fascination for millennia, is likely the most studied substance on Earth, with an entire scientific field -- hydrodynamics -- dedicated to understanding water in motion. However, when water flows through…
It is not currently possible to create a living organism ab initio due to the overwhelming complexity of biological systems. In fact, the origin of life mechanism, this being how biological organisms form from non-living matter, is unknown.…
Tetrahedral interactions describe the behaviour of the most abundant and technologically important materials on Earth, such as water, silicon, carbon, germanium, and countless others. Despite their differences, these materials share unique…
Liquids under confinement differ in behavior from their bulk counterparts and can acquire properties that are specific to the confined phase and linked to the nature and structure of the host matrix. While confined liquid water is not a new…
Water is vital for life, and without it biomolecules and cells cannot maintain their structures and functions. The remarkable properties of water originate from its ability to form hydrogen-bonding networks and dynamics, which the…
A complex of until now unknown phenomena ongoing in water was discovered in laboratory experiments, where it made impossible gravimetric measurements with the necessarily extreme precision. This behaviour of water, which we call…
Water is essential for the activity of proteins. However, the effect of the properties of water on the behavior of proteins is only partially understood. Recently, several experiments have investigated the relation between the dynamics of…
The origins of life stands among the great open scientific questions of our time. While a number of proposals exist for possible starting points in the pathway from non-living to living matter, these have so far not achieved states of…
The anomalous properties of water in the supercooled state are numerous and well-known. Particularly striking are the strong changes in dynamic properties that appear to display divergences at temperatures close to -- but beyond -- the…
Liquid water, besides being fundamental for life on Earth, has long fascinated scientists due to several anomalies. Different hypotheses have been put forward to explain these peculiarities. The most accredited one foresees the presence in…
Here I show that experimental and simulation data on liquid water using vibrational (infrared and Raman) and X-ray (absorption and emission) spectroscopies, as well as recent data from X-ray scattering, are fully consistent with a two-state…
Water is a ubiquitous liquid with unique physico-chemical properties, whose nature has shaped our planet and life as we know it. Water in restricted geometries has different properties than in bulk. Confinement can prevent low-temperature…