Doc has been immersed in water for most of this calendar year. He has read some awesome books - The Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald Pollack and Living Rainbow Water by Mae-Wan Ho. Each has added insight into the physical chemistry of the weigh that we are developing here. Last spring, Doc blogged an eight volume post 'On The Nature of Water'. This series is somewhat important and might serve the readers well to republish in its entirety. Enjoy ...
Sometimes, the things we know best are the things we
know least. As we shift into a world that has different meanings,
the time has come to rediscover what we believe we already know. The
simple substance water is not nearly as simple as we profess and the
thyme has come to explore water at a deeper level. Let's make a swan
dive into the deep end, then swim back to the surface level to
integrate the picture.
Water is a molecule that consists of three atoms – a
central oxygen atom attached to two hydrogen atoms. In basic
chemistry, we learned that hydrogen has a weight of one atomic mass
unit per atom and oxygen has a weight of 16 atomic mass units. This means that
water weighs 18 amu – thus it has 18 grams per mole. This mole is
a furry rascal who does chemical accounting – he keeps track of
atoms on a small ratio basis.
The nature of chemical geography suggests that bound
atoms arrange their shapes to give all other atoms enough breathing
room. The nature of chemistry is such that atoms repel each other
based on the arrangements of electron pairs about a central nucleus
which is made up of protons and neutrons. Each nuclear subatomic
particle, proton and neutron, contributes one amu to the weight of an
atom. Electrons have no mass on the atomic mass unit scale, however they
govern the arrangement of atoms in space.
Let's talk about atoms in space. We know what space
is, because we are all stardust and space cadets who stare up at the
sky at night and ask what it is all about. We can see the stars and
they are far out there way far away from us – and we wonder
sometimes. On the scale of chemistry – the space units are likely
just as far away from each other as the stars are away from each
other on this scale. When we consider all that we know on many
frames of the scale, we tend to draw parallels between the things we
know and the things we don't know. This is convenient, but not
proper.
We need to say, 'I don't know' when we really don't
know, instead of making things up as we go along based on other
things that we think we know. Adjacent fractals have to be similar
to each other in order to get a blend in continuity, but as you move
between Fibonacci numbers, you find that the transitions are sharper
at lower numbers. Chemistry and sociology both work best when
following group theory, which is a math method of setting point
groups in space. Sacred geometry holds many answers to the questions
of nature at all levels of scale – the systems look the same but
act very differently – based on relative weight of participants.
Now getting back to water – water has a bent shape
where the angle between the HOH bond is 109o . This is
quite different from the CO2 linear arrangement that has
an OCO bond angel of 180o. This is because water is based
on a tetrahedral shape – the same basic structure as carbon has in
organic chemistry with four bonds available. Water uses the extra
two bonds available to attach to adjacent water molecules. Water
molecules tend to cluster with other water molecules, because, we
water molecules are little guys in the total scheme of things. Water
is not called the universal solvent because of its charm – but
because of its strangeness – its quarks have quirks – but that
pertains to physics more than chemistry. Let's just say that water
is ant sized in relation to most biological entities that it deals
with.
The chemical composition of the ocean and the chemical
composition of the blood stream are very similar in the 'as above, so
below' sense of things. Each has many dissolved salts that are ions
conducting an electric flow path that integrates entities that rely
on the water for sustenance. Water comes in swarms and attracts
based on the polarity of molecules – the distribution of extra or
fewer electrons to distribute balance between ions. A negative ion,
called an anion, has extra electrons that balance out atomic charges
within a molecule, while a positive ion, called a cation, has donated
the electron to the anion and does not wish to receive it back.
Water surrounds these ions and allows them to separate
from each other, as long as the electrostatic charge between the two
(or more) ions allows for the dissolution. There are measured tables
of activity constants and electrochemical potentials that suggest the
relative inorganic chemistry – the solubility product of an ionic
compound can be looked up conveniently. Aqueous chemistry is a field
that deals with mostly ionic compounds and is the basis for
qualitative analysis – the idea of analyzing the composition of a
mixture of things.
We conveniently call these ions minerals and stop our
chemical investigations because we fear to tread into areas of
biochemistry and medicine. This is foolish because we assume that
doctors actually understand chemistry before they learn biochemistry
– in reel life that happens and we are addicted to movies. This
life is just like a movie and you are the supreme director – the
more truth that you really know, the better equipped you are to make
good decisions that affect your immediate future. This is enough
chemistry for one sitting – if you integrate the concepts here –
the next edition of the world of water will be more illuminating.
Namaste' doc 040813
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