When we think about the essentials of life, water is one of the first things that comes to our minds. When we find water and wherever we see water flowing we are sure to find life and so the question that has come up many times over the years in regard to the essentials for life is: Why is water essential to life? Most scientists agree that water is a building block and foundation of life [3]. We’ll be exploring the reasons why we ‘follow the water’ in the quest to look for extra-terrestrial life on other planets particularly Mars but to do this, we must learn why astrobiologists think that water is the most important requirement for life.
Water is a polar molecule consisting of 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen atom. Due to this, it is considered the “universal solvent”, that is everything dissolves in water to some degree, thus allowing nutrients to be integrated into the water with relative ease. The composition and structure of the water molecule allow it to be easily attracted to other molecules. The attraction between water and a substance’s molecule is strong enough that it can potentially break the bond between the substance and its molecule resulting in it being dissolved. [5]. The dissolving property of water is significant as it can dissolve the necessary chemicals for life and also transport the chemicals to an organism [4]. The latter point is very important, as water allows ions and molecules to move into cell membranes, which are layers forming the “shell” of a cell, through the process of osmosis, which is crucial in biological systems[7].
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One unique thing about water is that all 3 states it (liquid, solid, and gas) exist naturally in nature. This allows the water cycle to occur in nature which replenishes water around the world. The thermal properties of water are very important as it is essential for life to survive. The specific heat of water, which is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of water by one degree Celsius, is significantly higher than other substances. As a result, the amount of heat required to reach boiling point is very high and allows water to survive the intense heat variation that Earth has without evaporating at once. This makes water a relatively stable environment for many ecosystems, as water is resistant to changes in temperature, and also changes in state.
Another important property of water that shows that it is a prerequisite for life is that it is denser than ice. As liquid water is denser than its solid form, ice floats on top of liquid water. This prevents it from displacing water and causing ocean levels to rise and thus allows Arctic and Antarctic life to thrive. A positive consequence of this property is that when ice begins to melt, the water near the surface becomes denser, and then causes a vertical drift in the water. This causes the water at the bottom, which is rich in nutrients to move to the top, providing resources for other lifeforms [6].
With these properties of water, we can see that, compared to other substances and liquids, why water is the most important requirement for life. It has properties that at the right conditions, could foster and spread lifeforms around this planet.
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