Posts
Two elements: air and water. At first glance, they seem about as different as they could be. They’re entirely different states of matter, after all. Even so, consider the surprising number of similarities:
• They’re both classical elements—those believed by ancient Greek, Indian and
other cultures to constitute all matter in the universe.
• Neither has a fixed shape.
 |
| PHOTO: CK-12.org |
• Both flow.
• Both are subject to gravity.*
• Each is rendered visible just by the stuff
it carries, and by certain kinds of light.
• Both are vital for life.
• Each infuses the other.**
• Both suffocate denizens of the other.
• Both refract light.***
• Both acquire new properties when
heated or cooled—including changing state.****
• Each, unless contained, spreads to fill whatever space gravity compels it to.
• Both are harmed by abuse from the only creature capable of destroying them.
The fascination comes down
to part science, part magic.
So…if water and air are so similar, why is the interface between them—think the surfaces of lakes, streams or oceans, of raindrops buffeted in a storm, of the glass of water on my desk—so complex, so fascinating?
A decent answer would require volumes. But, at least to this inexpert witness to wonder, it comes down to part science, part magic.
 |
| ILLUSTRATION: ConceptVis.app |
THE SCIENCE
The first and perhaps most obvious impact of this air/water junction is their interaction’s generation of weather and climate. You know, evaporation, conden-
sation, precipitation…and repeat. But there’s more
than that going on.
Turns out the water cycle melds with a carbon cycle, which finds carbon dioxide at the water surface—defined as a one- to two-nanometer membrane—transforming into bicarbonate and carbonate ions. †
 |
| GRAPHIC: Journal of Physical Chemistry |
Atmospheric scientists have also found that these ion-to-ion interactions become ‘stickier’ near the air-water interface, resulting in proteins unfolding, aggregating, or assembling into significantly different structures. ††
The compendium of scientific findings continues with the discovery of mind-boggling processes like peptide synthesis, phosphorylation, oligomerization, colloid mobilization, protein unfolding or aggregation †††…I’ll spare you the rest.
To unlock the mystical properties...it took
a ten-year-old with a cane fishing pole.
 |
| ILLUSTRATION: Norman Rockwell |
It took lots of science and technology to discover those arcane properties. To unlock the mystical properties of the air-water interface, though, it
took a ten-year-old with a cane fishing pole.
I’d throw an angleworm deep into the lake, this hidden, alien world, connected by a thin filament held between my fingers. Then I’d wait. If there was life down there in that cold, dark, liquid place, it eventually sent me a message through the fiber.
If I was lucky I’d get to meet the sender. ‡
That cryptic contact seemed to me no less otherworldly than receiving a faint message from deep space.
 |
| PHOTO: Warner Brothers |
What other substance can…bathe an
infant’s head and carve the Grand Canyon?
ICEBERG IN MY COFFEE
As this insight might suggest, when it comes to air and water, I’m partial to water. For one thing, I spent nine months submerged in it just before I was a kid.
For another, air seems almost too easy to take for granted—except, I suppose, when one’s flying…or suffocating. I mean which wakes you up faster, a cool breeze or a splash of cold H2O?
I love the capricious relationship water has with other elements. With light, it can bend it like a prism, absorb it like a sponge or reflect it like a mirror. Absorbed in earth, water provides the nectar of life for nearly 300,000 species of plants.
 |
| ILLUSTRATION: FreePic |
What other substance can both render a Winslow Homer masterpiece and torture a suspected terrorist? Transform itself into the exquisite intricacy of a snowflake and the Titanic mass of an iceberg? Bathe an infant’s head…and carve the Grand Canyon?
 |
| PHOTO: FreePic |
While I realize the Law of Conservation of Matter holds for all the elements, I’m especially captivated by how it applies to water. Essentially, it’s the possibility that an atom of water melted from that iceberg that sank the Titanic might reside, for now, in the coffee I’m sipping.
THICK WATER
As with most of my musings here, digging up answers about the seam between water and air also uncovers more questions:
• Is a splash caused by something falling into the water the obverse of that
caused by something like a fish jumping out?
• If water can vanish into thin air, could one say that air—also absorbable by
its counterpart vanishes into thick water?
• Why does water as a mist cool us, while as humidity it makes us feel hotter?
• When we refer to the surface of a lake, isn’t it just as true to call it the sur-
face of the air above the lake?
• Is the only difference between swimming and flying the speed at which you
can do it?
 |
| IMAGE: Medium.com |
When you let loose your child-like sense of wonder, what do you notice about air, water and their interaction? I and the couple of thousand people who stop by here every day would love to hear your thoughts! Just click on the “comments” link below.
* Because air has mass, it is attracted by Earth's gravity, which gives it weight and creates atmospheric pressure. Gravity keeps the atmosphere from drifting into space and pulls air towards the ground, making it denser at lower altitudes.
Google AI Overview
**Air absorbs water vapor (humidity) from liquid water (evaporation), with warmer air holding much more, while water absorbs gases like oxygen from the air (dissolving), a process enhanced by surface area and turbulence, both crucial for the water cycle and aquatic life – Google AI
*** Air bends (refracts) light just as water does, though generally to a much lesser degree. Both media bend light due to changes in speed caused by density differences, a process called refraction. Air bends light significantly when there are sharp density changes, such as that of hot air above pavement (the cause of mirages).
****Air freezes solid, but only at –362 degrees Fahrenheit at standard atmospheric pressure. This, of course, is not possible in our planet’s natural conditions, but it’s commonly seen in scientific and industrial labs. – Google AI
† Jin Qian, Staff Scientist, Chemical Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab.
†† "The Promise and Intrigue of Where Water Meets Air" – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
June 5, 2014
††† “Colloid mobilization and transport in groundwater”
Joseph N. Ryan and Menachen Elimelech – ScienceDirect.com
‡ Over the past few years, the wonder of communicating with fish has tarnished considerably as I’ve realized that those “cryptic” tugs and jumps, which since childhood have felt like fun, are no such thing for the fish. I now believe I have no right to enjoy the pain and terror of another of God’s creatures.
