Water Cluster Conclusions

Overview of the structure of liquid water
Introduction to water clustering
The icosahedral water cluster, (H₂O)₂₈₀
Evidence for the icosahedral cluster model

low density icosahedral (H2O)280 cluster, ES

The icosahedral water cluster is a highly symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing structure, but is it important? In this site, I have shown that there is a sufficient and broad evidential base for its existence, including the ability to explain all the 'anomalous' properties of water. The icosahedral cluster model offers a structure, not possible with other models such as a random network model [261] on which large molecules can be mapped in order to investigate their interaction with water within a three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network, and offers new insights into the ways biological and non-biological ions and macromolecules interact with each other in aqueous solution. It also offers explanations concerning some strange dilution effects and the way some organisms produce low-density water to protect against desiccation [278] and high temperatures [279] and pressures [280].

'water is the source of all life'

attributed to Thales of Miletus (634-546 BC)

'...we may ask why all trees and bushes - or at least most of them - unfold a flower in a five-sided pattern, with five petals.... Some botanist might well examine the sap of plants to see if any difference there corresponds to the shapes of their flowers.'

Johannes Keplar (1611) [366]

'We live in the hope and faith that, by the advance of molecular physics, we shall by-and-by be able to see our way as clearly from the constituents of water to the properties of water, as we are now able to deduce the operations of a watch from the form of its parts and the manner in which they are put together.'

T H Huxley, On the Physical Basis of Life (1869)

'Water is H₂O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third thing, that makes it water and nobody knows what it is. '

D H Lawrence (1885-1930)

'We live by the grace of water'

National Geographic Special Edition, Nov. 1993