Nautilus

Five Things We Still Don’t Know About Water

What could we not know about water? It’s wet! It’s clear. It comes from rain. It boils. It makes snow and it makes ice! Does our government actually spend taxpayer money for you to study water?”

This excerpt is from one of the last conversations I had with my dear late mother, who passed away some seven years ago, still remarkably frugal at age 99. Her words reflect a view seemingly held by half the world’s population: Water is boring.

The other half of the world, though, fanned by pseudoscience and new-age gurus, seems to buy into magical properties like homeopathy, structured water, polywater, and water memory.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, water is common—in fact, it is the

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