Scribd
Upload
14 views1 page

Water: Planetary Habitability Circumstellar Habitable Zone Water Distribution On Earth

Organisms are primarily composed of chemical elements, with oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen making up 96% of their mass. Water, essential for life, serves as an effective solvent and has unique properties such as cohesion, adhesion, and a higher specific heat capacity. Biochemistry and molecular biology study the chemical processes and molecular interactions that sustain life within organisms.

Uploaded by

Varun Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
14 views1 page

Water: Planetary Habitability Circumstellar Habitable Zone Water Distribution On Earth

Organisms are primarily composed of chemical elements, with oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen making up 96% of their mass. Water, essential for life, serves as an effective solvent and has unique properties such as cohesion, adhesion, and a higher specific heat capacity. Biochemistry and molecular biology study the chemical processes and molecular interactions that sustain life within organisms.

Uploaded by

Varun Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

All organisms are made up of chemical elements;[32] oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen account

for most (96%) of the mass of all organisms, with calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, sodium, chlorine,
and magnesium constituting essentially all the remainder. Different elements can combine to
form compounds such as water, which is fundamental to life.[32] Biochemistry is the study of chemical
processes within and relating to living organisms. Molecular biology is the branch of biology that
seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells,
including molecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions.

Water

See also: Planetary habitability, Circumstellar habitable zone, and Water distribution on Earth

Model of hydrogen bonds (1) between molecules of water

Life arose from the Earth's first ocean, which formed some 3.8 billion years ago.[33] Since then, water
continues to be the most abundant molecule in every organism. Water is important to life because it
is an effective solvent, capable of dissolving solutes such as sodium and chloride ions or other small
molecules to form an aqueous solution. Once dissolved in water, these solutes are more likely to
come in contact with one another and therefore take part in chemical reactions that sustain life.[33] In
terms of its molecular structure, water is a small polar molecule with a bent shape formed by the
polar covalent bonds of two hydrogen (H) atoms to one oxygen (O) atom (H2O).[33] Because the O–H
bonds are polar, the oxygen atom has a slight negative charge and the two hydrogen atoms have a
slight positive charge.[33] This polar property of water allows it to attract other water molecules via
hydrogen bonds, which makes water cohesive.[33] Surface tension results from the cohesive force due
to the attraction between molecules at the surface of the liquid.[33] Water is also adhesive as it is able
to adhere to the surface of any polar or charged non-water molecules.[33] Water is denser as
a liquid than it is as a solid (or ice).[33] This unique property of water allows ice to float above liquid
water such as ponds, lakes, and oceans, thereby insulating the liquid below from the cold air above.
[33]
Water has the capacity to absorb energy, giving it a higher specific heat capacity than other
solvents such as ethanol.[33] Thus, a large amount of energy is needed to break the hydrogen bonds
between water molecules to convert liquid water into water vapor.[33] As a molecule, water is not
completely stable as each water molecule continuously dissociates into hydrogen and hydroxyl ions
before reforming into a water molecule again.[33] In pure water, the number of hydrogen ions
balances (or equals) the number of hydroxyl ions, resulting in a pH that is neutral.

You might also like