The Peculiar Familiar

As we all know, water is essential to life. I was just reading Strange Universe by Bob Berman and he explained the peculiarity of this necessary resource. First off, almost all other substances in the universe contract and thus get denser when going from liquid to solid. Water however expands into a structure that takes up more space then its liquid form and therefore becomes less dense.
     Its freezing process is also unusual because, although water freezes at 32°F, water is the most dense when it is precisely 40°F. This explains why large bodies of water such as the Great Lakes do not freeze over despite temperatures that are far below freezing. Water on the surface of such bodies of water get cold first (especially since water is a poor conductor of heat). So the water on the surface will reach 40°F before the water below, thus becoming denser and sinking to the bottom. This cycle prevents the surface from freezing until the entire body of water has been cooled to 40°F, which happens in small bodies of water. This process is what allows fish to survive in frozen lakes.
     Water also possesses an odd property called regelation in which ice melts sooner when under pressure despite being at temperatures below zero. Snow in snowballs stick together because the pressure from packing the snow into a ball lowers the melting point. Once the pressure is removed the snowball instantly refreezes.
     Water is extremely common throughout the universe due to hydrogen's abundance and oxygen's eagerness to bond with it. However scientists have not found liquid water on any planet other than Earth--although signs that liquid water may have existed were found on Mars. Water in the universe exists in the form of ice, which many planets are made of, or water vapor. It is extremely rare that Earth consists of the precise temperature range that allows for liquid water. Liquid water also can only exist under pressure (Earth's gravity).
     And what I find the most significant, Berman explained the unique formation of water molecules. I will quote directly from the book because otherwise I don't think I could convey the same sense of importance that the author did. The hydrogen atoms are bound to the oxygen atom at a 105° angle creating "a kind of polarity, giving the oxygen a net negative charge and the hydrogen a positive one. These opposite charges create a network of weak but significant connections--so that instead of being a loose mixture of individual molecules, water is a latticework that behaves like a much bigger structure. This arrangement has tremendous significance. Without such hydrogen bonding, water would be like all the other molecules of its size and weight--a gas" (34 Berman). Therefore, the unique structure of water allows it to be in the liquid form that we require to survive.

The Paradoxicality