There’s a world of chemistry in water

Our planet and everyone on it has an intimate connection with water. Life on Earth began in water and liquid H₂O is generally considered a sine qua non for its possible existence anywhere else. All of the reactions in living things have water somewhere in the equation; it’s the very solvent of life in which all of our biochemistry bathes. And among all those lives teeming and swimming in our wet blue planet, it’s the chemists who know water better than anyone.