Hydrogen Bonding, or Why Water Behaves Like Water

Science Fridays

      Almost any middle school child can tell you that the chemical name for water is H2O.  It is two atoms of hydrogen, and one atom of oxygen.  Water is essentially both a base (hydrogen hydroxide), and an acid (hydroxyl acid), as it can also be viewed as the chemical compound H-OH.  It works as both too, for it dissolves minerals from even the toughest rocks.

      Because hydrogen has only a single electron in its shell, it is highly reactive, and will react, or bond readily with other elements, especially to other hydrogen atoms.  This is what gives water its surface tension.  It's why water naturally sticks to itself, and seems to climb up other objects.  This is why there is a surface to a lake, and why you can skip rocks on a lake, and why mildly crazy people can rev up their snowmobiles and ride them out onto lakes in the summertime (yes, I have seen people do that).  This same surface tension created by the hydrogen bonding is also what water walkers and other aquatic insects can walk on the water.
      Hydrogen bonding is also the reason that water just floats around in big amorphous balls when "spilled" in outer space, such as on the Space Shuttle or the International Space Station.  So what happens if you try to wring out a wet towel in the absence of gravity?  How will the hydrogen bonding affect the process?  In the following short video, a NASA scientist aboard the ISS will show you just that.