I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
123becca, i could fill pages and pages about why water is important.
The shortanswer is….
As babies we are approximately 75 to 80% water and as we grow older this percentage decreases until the percentage is reduced to approximately 60 to 65% for men and 50 to 60% for women. The human brain is about 85% water and our bones are between 10 to 15% water.
Being just 2% dehydrated can seriously degrade physical and mental functions and being 15% dehydrated is likely to kill you.
It’s in every cell in the body, and we couldn’t live without it. That’s why it’s important.
0
I ran across this answer from an astrobiologist (now THAT’S a cool job!):
Every known form of life on earth, from the largest mammals to the smallest microbes, relies on water. Why? Because water is an extraordinarily versatile molecule – it’s the perfect liquid medium in which to dissolve nutrients for ingestion or wastes for excretion, to transport important chemicals or even be used as one. Water has two particular physical properties that are unique among natural molecules: it remains liquid over an extremely broad range of temperatures, and it decreases in density when converted to solid phase (frozen). While this may seem a relatively minor point, its consequences (that ice floats) are critical to the evolution of life. If ice were more dense than water and the earth cooled slightly, ice formed on the oceans would sink and push the already cold water from the bottom to the surface, where it too would freeze and sink, repeating the cycle until all water on the planet was frozen. Not all scientists believe that the presence of water is “concrete” evidence of life, but liquid water certainly improves the likelihood of life taking hold and finding a hospitable environment. This should not be confused with ice, however, which we know is present in many planets and moons in the solar system. Remember that ice may not be only frozen water, but perhaps vapor from other gases – in either case not as conducive to life.
1
It’s a part of what we are. Without it, life as we know it wouldn’t exist.
The ladies have given more detail…
0
Hi 123becca – Hannah and Carina have explained it in detail- most biological organisms on Earth have evolved to need water for their cells to function properly.
Water is especially important because it exists in 3 states (gas,liquid, solid) over a small temperature range (0-100 degrees), it is a solvent- dissolving other things like salts, metals, etc. and supports a large proportion of life on Earth (although exactly how much is unknown- many species have not been discovered yet!)
0