Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Core Concepts: Biological Molecules
- Water
- Water is a Polar molecule, with a slight
electro-negative charge surrounding the Oxygen
and and slight electro-positive charges
surrounding the Hydrogens.
- This causes water molecules to be attracted to oppositely charged ions,
surrounding the ions and dissociating them from their usual giant ionic lattice.
This makes water a useful solvent for polar and ionic substances and a medium for
both their transport and chemical reactions involving these substances, such as
the formation of Phospholipids using phosphate ions (PO4^-1)
- This causes water molecules to also be attracted (between the negative oxygen and
positive hydrogen ends) to each other forming Hydrogen "bonds". This quality is called
Adhesion and is responsible for water's surface tension as well as its liquid state at room
temperature.
- The fact that water can exist as a liquid in temperatures ranging from 0 to 100 degrees
celsius makes it useful as a medium for the transport of substances through it, forming
the majority of a cell's mass as cytoplasm and being a major constituent to most bodily
fluids.
- The surface tension and adhesion that water exhibits provides it with
interesting and highly useful properties for life. For example, due to the
process of capillary action the tall columns of water found in trees are able to
form or in the case of surface tension certain insects such as pond skaters
can move across the surface of bodies of water.