A humble glass of water out of the kitchen faucet — nothing special there, right? Nothing like, oh, a glass of fine wine, to be admired and savored. Think again!
Read chemist Marcos Eberlin’s book, Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose, and you will never look at a glass of H2O the same way again. Dr. Eberlin was in Seattle recently and I asked him what’s so special. Water, he explains here, is nothing less than a “supernatural liquid”:
With 74 distinctive chemical properties, it does things we take for granted but that, were they tuned a little differently, life on Earth would be impossible. The fact that ice floats, as just one example, goes against what you would expect, yet without it our lakes would freeze solid. Water moderates the surface temperature on Earth to about 65 degrees, which is very pleasant. It melts on pressure, providing a lubricant that makes ice skating possible.
And much more. The foresight here, as Dr. Eberlin puts it, is both “extravagant and stylish,” intelligently designed for life’s thriving, and even for fun.
Photo credit: manu schwendener via Unsplash.