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My question to you is, can there ever be a man
made substitute for water that give us the same
benefits of water? I thought of this question
because I once heard that if water did not have
exactly what it has right now, we would not be
able to rely on it and we would not be able to
live. I wanted to know if that was true and if we
could use an alternative for every single molecule
that water has. In my opinion, it would be awesome
if people that did not have access to fresh water
could have another option to gain the nutrients
and hydration that water provides |
Question Date: 2017-09-12 | | Answer 1:
The quick answer to whether there can be a
man-made substitute for water that gives US the
same benefits is no, but it's worth
elaborating why to get an appreciation for this
simple but astonishing molecule and material.
A water molecule consists of just three atoms,
and pure water has many, many of those molecules.
Many people know the formula for water,
H2O, which tells you that two of those
atoms are hydrogen, the lightest of all atoms, and
one is oxygen. Probably the main reason that
water is irreplaceable for humans and most other
organisms is that it is involved in the huge
number of chemical processes that are part of and
required for life. Even so-called "heavy
water", where hydrogen is replaced with
deuterium, is not able to sustain the life
of higher organisms. They die once a significant
portion of the hydrogen of their molecules is
replaced by deuterium. (Deuterium contains a
neutron and a proton in its nucleus, whereas
hydrogen just has a proton; that approximately
doubles the weight of the atom because hydrogen is
so light; other atoms can add a neutron without
that affecting how they can sustain biological
processes i.e. life).
Here are some other crucial properties of
water, which are really quite amazing to all be
packed into such a small molecule:
water is one of the best solvents,
especially for things like salts, sugars, and
other "polar" molecules
water does not dissolve oils, which is
crucial for life - cells separate themselves from
the environment, and separate processes and
structures within themselves with membranes, which
rely on the fact that oils separate from water
solid water has a lower density than liquid
water; in other words, ice floats on water.
This is the opposite of what is the case for most
other materials, but since it means that something
like a lake freezes from the top and not the
bottom, it has been crucial for the development
and sustaining of life.
Best,
| | Answer 2:
I read your question as being two questions:
1) can humans make water ourselves?
and 2) can humans use a compound other than
water to sustain life?
For the first part, yes, humans can
synthesize water. Water is made of two
hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. However,
the molecule H2O doesn't form just
by mixing those atoms together. In fact, the
electron orbits must link together, which causes a
release of energy. Since hydrogen is extremely
flammable and oxygen is high energy and promotes
oxidation of other materials (i.e. promote
combustion), the two mixed together would cause
the hydrogen to spark when the energy from bonding
was released. Water would form in that
explosion, but an explosion would be caused all
the same. To create enough drinking water to
sustain Earth's human population, would require a
large scale operation that was extremely
dangerous.
Instead of creating water, some scientists
work on "capturing" water where it already
exists, such as from water vapor in the air by
condensing the liquid or causing rain through
cloud seeding. As to the second question, no,
humans cannot rely on a different compound than
water. The human body is made up of about 60%
water, and every living cell in your body
requires water to function.
Despite that Earth is made up of 70% water,
only 3% is freshwater and less than 1% is actually
available for human consumption. This is why
it is so important to use water conservatively and
protect lakes and rivers from pollution. While you
may think of drinking juice or milk as an
alternative, the reality is that fruit tree and
cows also need to drink water to make those
products. So without water, Earth would not be
able to support human life.
| | Answer 3:
Water is one of the most common molecules in the
universe. In order for us humans to have a
chemical that would serve the same role as water
but be something different, it would have to be
rarer than water. Additionally, you would need to
do such re-engineering of the human animal to the
point where it wouldn't really be much like us at
all, like a robot or something. Unless your intent
is to replace humans with computers by uploading
human minds into becoming computer programs, I
don't see how you could ever divorce us from
water. Water is the solvent of all life, and in
requiring water humans are like any other living
thing.
| | Answer 4:
I agree that we need water, exactly, to live.
Life evolved to live in water, and there's
nothing else life can live and grow in. Some
scientists wonder if there might be another form
of life in a world without water. Steve Benner is
a famous scientist who says liquid ammonia has
some of the advantages of water, but of course we
couldn't live in liquid ammonia now!
Besides normal water, H2O, there's
water with Deuterium instead of Hydrogen:
D2O. That's the only liquid I can
imagine where some life might be able to live,
some of the time. But someone on the internet
says cells can't divide in D2O, even
though it's only slightly different from
H2O.
Here's something about the useful things water
does that make life possible:
"Liquid water has many peculiarities which confer
special properties. The most important among them
probably are the ability to establish hydrogen
bonds, a high polarity and a high dielectric
constant . In the presence of liquid water,
large organic molecules have to manage the
conflict between hydrophobic groups and
hydrophilic groups.
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