Biology › Section A · The study of life and its chemistry › Topic A.4
Water and its properties
Life happens in water — every cell on Earth is roughly 70 to 90 percent of it. That is not a coincidence: water's bent, polar structure makes it a heat reservoir, a near-universal solvent, and a molecule whose solid form floats on its own liquid — a set of quirks biology exploits at every turn.
In this topic
- The bent molecule behind everything
- The anomaly of floating ice
- Cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension
- A thermal flywheel
- Water as the universal solvent
- Acids, bases, and the pH scale
- Buffers: the pH bodyguards
- Worked example: reading pH as powers of ten
- Worked example: why the lake survives the winter
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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