Biological Importance of Water
Water is essential to life itself; without water, life on earth would not exist. Water is a major component of cells, typically forming between 70 and 95% of the mass of a cell. This means that humans are made from approximately 80% water by mass and soft bodied creatures such as jellyfish are made of up to 96% water. Water also provides an environment for organisms to live in and 75% of the earth is covered in water. In a single water molecule, two covalent bonds join a single oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms together. Water is not a linear molecule; the two hydrogen atoms form a bond with oxygen at an angle of 104. ... Water has two lone pairs of electrons which allows hydrogen bonding to take place. Water is a unique substance, mostly due to its hydrogen bonds, its properties allow it to act as a solvent, a reactant, as a molecule with a cohesive properties, as an environment and as a temperature controller. ... Substances that dissolve in water are known as hydrophilic substances. When salts such as sodium chloride dissolve, the sodium ions and chloride ions separate and become surrounded by water molecules. The positively charged charges sodium ions (cations) are attracted to the negatively charged oxygen atoms of the water molecules and the negatively charged chloride ions (anions) are attracted to the positively charged hydrogen atoms.