I originally wrote this in like 2006. It was published in one of my Spandrel zines, but I decided not to include it in my e-book, so I’m posting it here for posterity’s sake.

1. Water is the only substance that naturally exists is gas, liquid, and solid form outside of a laboratory setting.

2. The adult human body is about 70% water. This is roughly the same percentage of the planet Earth that is covered in water.

3. 97% of the Earth’s water is oceanic. 2.4% is locked in glaciers and ice caps. Less than 0.6% of water is found in bodies of land (i.e., rivers, lakes, streams)

4. Water is found on meteors. It has also been detected on five of the eight planets in our solar system, as well as one of Saturn’s moons and several of Jupiter’s.

5. Given the right conditions, water can flow uphill. Water molecules adhere to each other via a hydrogen bond (this is why water has such strong surface tension and tends to stick together when it’s, say, running down your windshield in a rainstorm), and because it is a polar molecule. In plants, water is constantly evaporating out of the leaves. The evaporation of one water molecule pulls another to the surface, and so on and so on, so that water from the roots flows uphill via capillary action.

6. Given enough time, water can dissolve anything.

7. Water moderates the Earth’s climate. It can absorb large amounts of heat.

8. Water becomes less dense and expands upon freezing. This is why melting ice does not raise the water level in a glass.

9. Water is a byproduct of a forming star.

10. Ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapor before melting into liquid first.

11. Blood is, in fact, thicker than water. But if you get dehydrated, your blood gets thicker, which is generally considered a bad thing.

I like water.