Molecules
Interacting With
Water
Molecules
Many materials, when put in water, will be influenced by it.
This is because the water molecule has strong, localized charges that can "pull" or "repel" a charged molecule coming close to it. The water molecule is known as the bipolar molecule, because it has a positively charged region and a negatively charged region.
Does this matter? Yes! Life, and hence organic molecules, evolved in water and was shaped by water. When biopolymers are described in the DNA blueprint, and produced by the cell's factory, they then enter the world of salty water as those beaded threads described earlier. What happens to the biopolymer threads depends partially on the way the threads respond to the charges of the water molecules.
