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107 Stories About Chemistry
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Ice has a crystalline structure. But, generally speaking, water is also a liquid crystal. Its molecules are not in complete disorder, but form a strict openwork skeleton. Of course, the structure of the latter differs from that of ice. When ice melts its structure persists for a fairly long time. Outwardly melt water is a liquid, but the molecules in it remain in "ice formation", For this reason the chemical activity of melt water appears higher than that of ordinary water. It participates readily in a multitude of biochemical processes. When taken up by an organism it combines with various substances more easily than ordinary water. Scientists believe that the structure of water in an organism greatly resembles the structure of ice. When ordinary water is assimilated by an organism, its structure has to be rearranged. Melt water already has the right structure and so the organism does not have to spend any extra energy on rearranging its molecules. Evidently, the role of melt water in life is very great..
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