Water has a number of unique properties, making it vital for organisms to survive. Without it, life would not ever have evolved. It provides surface tension, allowing many organisms to support themselves

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Water

Water is essential to life itself; with out water life on earth would not exist. Water is a major component of cells, typically forming between 70% and 95% of the mass of the cell. This means that we are made from approximately 80% water by mass and some soft bodied creatures such as jellyfish are made of up to 96% water.

Water also provides an environment for organisms to live in, 75% of the earth is covered in water. The properties of water are essential for organisms to live in for a variety of reasons. The one that is most evident is its transparency. The fact that light can travel through it allowed marine life millions of years ago to develop a more sophisticated detection device other than sonar, sight. This is evident with many types of fish using visual effects to deter predators, like schools of fish in a large mass to make it seem as though they are bigger than they actually are. Coupled with the fact that light can travel through water, so can heat; which is essential for aquatic plants to photosynthesise.

Water has a molecule of oxygen contained within it; this means that aquatic

Organisms such as dogfish are able to extract that molecule for respiration using a series of vascularized gills. Water is kept flowing over these gills by a specialized pumping system. And it is due to the density of water, in comparison to air, that prevents the gills from collapsing on top of each other. This is shown when a fish is taken out of water.

Water is a simple molecule made up of an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, H2O. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms are bonded covalently. The two hydrogen atoms form a bond with the oxygen at the angle of 104.5 degrees. A pair of electrons is shared between an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom, these electrons are not shared equally, the oxygen has a slight negative charge and the hydrogen's have a slight positive charge. This leaves an unequal charge of distribution, known as a dipole. When water molecules are close together the positively charged hydrogen atoms are attracted to the negatively charged oxygen atoms, to form a weak hydrogen bond. The bonds are weak but a large number of the molecules put together provide a large enough force to keep the molecules together.
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Water is a polar molecule meaning the distribution of electrical charge creates centres of positive and negative charge. These centres are separated by a short distance and the unequal distribution causes the polarity. This polarity makes water a very good solvent. It attracts other charged particles such as ions and other polar molecules. These particles become much more reactive in solutions as they are free to move about and react with other chemicals. On the other hand, non polar molecules such as lipids are insoluble in water. When they are surrounded by water, the water molecules tend to ...

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