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Nature 423, 25-26 (1 May 2003) | doi:10.1038/423025a
Chemical physics: How to keep dry in water
Philip Ball1
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Abstract
What does water look like close to biological surfaces? The question has provoked heated debate for decades. Experiments suggest that this 'vicinal' water may be markedly different from the bulk liquid.
Water is notorious for behaving strangely, but it is possible that we don't yet know the half of it. Amid the crush of biological macromolecules and membranes in a cell, the water of the cytoplasm rarely achieves thicknesses of more than a few molecular layers.
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