Zoe Bell

There is a massive chasm between something having unique properties and "defying physical laws"
Water's unique properties are as a direct result of " physical laws"

I'm not disputing anyone's right to whatever spiritual beliefs they may have but there is no excuse for inaccurately ascribing documented scientific phenomena as " defying natural law"

iaink

Even this planet didnt pop into existence "just the way it is". 2 billion years ago you would not have been able to breathe the atmosphere and all the continents were one land mass.

The universe is constantly changing, all be it in a way that follows prescribed rules that we are slowly figuring out. Maybe not so slowly given the progress we have made in the last 500 years of our 200000 year existence as modern man.

Many things have fallen into place in order for us to be here discussing this.

iaink

So why does nothing else follow waters particular set of laws?

iaink

I have no truck with new age mysticism, pyramid power, holistic medicine or any of that, I am mearly struck with wonder at how we come to be here, stardust, thrown together by unfathomable good fortune over incredible periods of time, aware of our place in the universe, and able to look into the future to see the extinction of all life on our own planet, sooner or later.

Zoe Bell

Because water is quite an interesting molecule in such that it is quite polar. Thus allowing quite strong hydrogen bonding between adjacent molecules.

I've given you a clue as to what to research.

In the same vein mercury is unique because it is a metal but liquid.
Carbon is unique because its electron structure allows for very stable compounds.

Water has interesting properties. They affect us for sure but it is hardly unique in having "unique properties"

iaink

I have a degree in this stuff, no need to google.
Still waiting for an example of one other compound out of all the near infinate possible combinations of atoms that happens to behave in a way that makes it float and hold in the heat of the water underneath. If that didnt happen then all the water on the planet would long since have frozen. No atmosphere, no protection from solar radiation. No life. For us anyway.

Jolly good luck for us. One of many bits of good luck for us. like our planet being the right distance from the sun so we are not too hot or cold, and having a satellite moon that stirs up the oceans contents rather than letting them stagnate.

A lot of things came right for us.

Novocastrian

Grandma, eggs, suck.

Universes plop into existence, once that happens planets and elephants are inevitable.

Alan2005

This is the banana argument isn't it?

Sally Redux

It's painful.

iaink

If you guys are so jaded and cynical that you have no wonder at the fact that our existence is far more amazing and unlikely than simply being fashioned by some bearded supernatural body and left unfettered by his reappearance for thousands of years, then I actually feel a little sorry for you.

Zoe Bell

And again you make an incorrect assumption.
Just because you strive to understand things does not make them any less wondrous to me.

I never said that the universe wasn't incredible, beautiful , fantastic. I just take exception to you assigning near supernatural properties to well documented scientific phenomena.

Understanding the underlying principles behind things adds beauty not detrac s from it.

I personally feel sorry for people who are willing to dismiss the wonders of science as gods will. They are missing out on so much beauty

iaink

I was simply hypothesizing about why some people might see within this information room for god to have figured. I am as agnostic as the next man, but my sense of wonder at the circumstances of our existence is undiminished.

Sally Redux

Exactly how I feel. It's so amazing.

MikeUK

Because of the spacing of the two protons in the orbits around the oxygen atom, lots of this has to do with the proximity and the filling of the electron orbits

Way beyond the understanding of engineers, but basic high school (‘o’ level) chemistry

iaink

so why not Li2O, or Na2O and so on.