WHAT IS WATER?

At least since 1805, when Gay-Lussac and Humboldt discovered that water is comprised of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, people have been trying to figure out exactly what is water. What we commonly know is that water can be a liquid, a solid, a gaseous vapor and even a supercritical fluid having properties of both a gas and a liquid.

But the discovery beat goes on. Recently, researchers at MIT have been examining the transition of water between two liquid states. According to MIT's press release, the lead author of a paper on their findings, Yang Zhang, stated that water is "probably the most weird substance on Earth."

The study found that water can be "supercooled" so that it remains a liquid well below the normal freezing temperature. Or, it can be "superheated" to well above the normal boiling temperature without boiling. "Normalization"-freezing or boiling at the normal temperatures requires a nucleation point, such as a bubble or ripple, to start the expected freezing or boiling.

The research appears to suggest that it may be possible to lower the transition points of the various states of water so as to protect animal and plant life as well as certain types of buildings and roads.

So, what is water? It can be in the sky and come down as rain, snow and hail; it can be in the air as fog; it can be on the ground as oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds; it can be in the ground as aquifers. It is in us and all other life; it makes our food; heats our homes; runs our industry; and puts out our fires. What is water? A gift.