Two Liquids Called Water

Genesis 2:10
“A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four heads.”

Popular science information websites sometimes reveal fascinating facts. The Science Daily website recently published an articled suggesting that water is not one, but two liquids.

One would have thought that we knew everything that there was to know about water. It covers 70% of the Earth’s surface. Up to 60% of the human body is made up of water. It is essential for life, and we are familiar with it in our everyday life, in ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and so many different bodies of water worldwide.

However, we are also familiar with the fact that water has many anomalous properties, which set it apart from other liquids. A team of researchers at Sweden’s Stockholm University have discovered, using X-Ray analysis, that there are two different arrangements for water molecules in liquid water, especially at low temperatures, just above the melting point of ice. We know that if water had a melting point, consistent with the small size of its molecule alone, its melting point would be very low. However, water molecules associate together, in different formations, because of the so-called hydrogen-bonding between molecules. Apparently, at low temperatures, this can cause such a high association between molecules, that the liquid, or at least portions of it, can become a thick, viscous liquid, just as it freezes into ice.

That such a seemingly simple material can still have properties for us to research shows something of the creativity of God. At once simple and highly complex, molecular and inter-molecular arrangements in water cause this common, yet mysterious liquid, to do so many things for us, that we tend to take for granted.

Prayer: Thank You, Father, for Your gift of water to us. Your word describes cold water as something that refreshes a thirsty or weary soul. Thank You that You made this unusual material so well. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Stockholm University. “Odd properties of water and ice explained: Water exists as two different liquids.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 June 2017. , accessed 06/20/2017. Image: Willamette Falls, OR; license: Creative Commons Share-Alike 2.0 Generic