On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:33:02 +0000 (UTC), "Robert Karl Stonjek"
 wrote:

>Structured Water Is Changing Models
>Large water-molecule clusters may be crucial to cellular processes
>By Bennett Daviss
>
>Courtesy of Martin Chaplin
>
>Researchers are beginning to glimpse water's secret social life. Evidence is
>mounting that water in living systems naturally gathers into frameworks of
>14, 17, 21, 196, 280, or more molecules. Some say that the clusters'
>apparent existence necessitates redesigning simulation models of life
>processes. And support is growing behind the idea that these intricate
>structures play key roles in operations ranging from molecular binding to
>turning on and off basic cell processes.
>
>Such huge clusters certainly exist under some conditions, according to
>Richard Saykally, professor of chemistry at University of California,
>Berkeley. Saykally has spent years studying isolated water clusters using
>laser spectroscopy techniques that he developed. "There is no theoretical or
>practical limit on the size that these clusters could grow to," he says,
>adding that their life spans are limited only by their collisions with other
>molecules, an event that, within the stormy cell interior, usually occurs
>every few picoseconds.
>
>EVIDENCE AMASSING Using infrared spectroscopy, two research groups recently
>added to the evidence that clusters of dozens or even hundreds of water
>molecules exist in nature. Many chemists are intrigued by the uses nature
>might have for such structures. A team led by William Royer at the
>University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, has shown
>experimentally that 17-molecule water clusters can serve as a communications
>medium between protein subunits. Chemist Martha Teeter at Boston College has
>found that clusters of 30 or more water molecules mediate some protein
>binding. Martin Chaplin at London's South Bank University posits an even
>more radical model for how cluster dynamics may make it possible for cells
>to maintain ion gradients without spending energy. Further, he contends that
>collapsing water structures may serve as signaling switches in the cell.
>
>Full Text at The Scientist.com
>http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/nov/research_041108.html
>
>Comment:
>Could this structure have also been a precursory form of life in, say, the
>ancient sea?
>
>Posted by
>Robert Karl Stonjek

Does anybody remember "polywater"?


>
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