WATER FOR FUNCTION NOT LUBRICATION

To suggest that the dance of water round protein molecules that has been observed is for lubrication, as reported in an earlier post, must at best be a very limited description of why water is needed for life.

A lubricant is just a passive element in mechanical function. Water is obviously far more than that. It is part of the function. Without its presence the protein machinery could not work. It is as vital, in every sense of the word, as the chemical structure of a protein and its folding. The many different forms--physical, ionic, chemical, temporal, vibrational, etc--that the water molecule can take in different circumstances and proximities must also be bound up with the proper functioning of invidual molecules and their inter-functioning.

Water is part of the processing of bio-machinery, it is part of its logic, it is part of its logical power, it is part of its input and output. Without it nothing vital could work.

That dance shows it to be active, not passive.

Water is not only active for each molecule, it is active for the working together of all the molecules. A lubricant eases the working together of different parts; water enables them to work together.