H20: A Biography of Water

H[subscript 2]O begins by transporting us back to the Big Bang and the formation of galaxies to witness the birth of water’s constituent hydrogen and oxygen. Philip Ball shows how these two elements spread through unimaginable expanses of space before combining to form seas and rivers, clouds and snowflakes, cosmic ice, the cytoplasm of cells and the matrix of life itself. He explains how the oceans were formed four billion years ago; where water is to be found on other planets; why ice floats when most solids sink; why, despite being highly corrosive, water is good for us; why there are at least fifteen kinds of ice and perhaps two kinds of liquid water; how scientists have consistently misunderstood water for centuries; and why wars have been waged over it.
Philip Ball’s offbeat and intelligent book conducts us on a journey through the history of science, folklore, the wilder scientific fringes, cutting-edge chemistry, physics, cell biology and ecology, to give a fascinating new perspective on life and the substance that sustains it.