Page 106 - A Chain of Miracles

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A A Chain of Miracles

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THE CHEMICAL MIRACLE IN WATER
Along with its physical properties, water’s chemical charac-
teristics are also extraordinarily conducive to life. For one thing,
it’s an ideal solvent, in as much as most chemical substances are
water-soluble.
One important consequence is that a vast array of beneficial
minerals and other substances reach the sea via river systems. It
has been estimated that five billion tons of chemical substances,
vital for aquamarine life, flow into the seas in just this way.
Water is a catalyst for almost all known chemical reactions,
and its ideal tendency to join in chemical reactions is yet another
one of its important chemical attributes.

Water is not extremely reactive nor corrosive like sulfuric
acid, nor—on the other end of the scale—is it as inert like argon
and other “noble” gases. As Professor Michael Denton states, "It
seems that, like all other properties, the reactivity of water is ide-
ally fit for both its biological and its geological role." 46
New research into water’s chemical properties reveals ever
more details and aspects of its idealness for life. In this regard,
Harold Morowitz, a renowned Professor of biophysics at Yale
University, states the following:

The past few years have witnessed the developing study of a
newly understood property of water (i.e., proton conductance)
that appears to be almost unique to that substance, is a key ele-
ment in biological-energy transfer, and was almost certainly of
importance to the origin of life. The more we learn the more im-
pressed some of us become with nature's fitness in a very precise
sense… 47

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