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Molecules and Water in the Living Cell
An Introduction
to the “Transient Linear Hydration Hypothesis”
J.
C. Collins, PhD
For many
years, water has been recognized as exercising spatial control over the
interactions of the molecules within living cells - for dramatically
limiting freedom to provide for high efficiency and control. And yet,
little progress has been made in our understanding of the structuring
nature of water. In the 70’s, a number of proposals were advanced,
including one from Linus Pauling, who received a Nobel Prize for his
work, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, but water is so
ubiquitous and its properties so unique that it has been extremely
difficult to validate the proposals. Without a viable interpretation of
the ordering properties of water, it has been impossible to understand
how it is involved in regulating molecular shape and motion.
In
1993, the “Transient Linear Hydration Hypothesis” was presented
by the author at the 67th Annual Meeting of the
American Chemical Society in Toronto Canada and, since that time, two
books and two web sites have been published on the concept. The
hypothesis was so contrary to prevailing views that it gained little
attention but, within the past few years, high speed analytical
techniques have provided definitive evidence that prior views are in
question and that the proposal presented in 1993, indeed, may be valid.
The premise is that water molecules within living cells simply have too
much kinetic energy to form ordered structural cages, temporal clusters
and complex matrices as proposed in the past. Instead, spatial order is
not based on thermodynamic states but on the kinetics of water molecules
interacting with each other in a dynamic fashion to form transient
linear segments that last for about a billionth of a second. At any
instant, three-dimensional space is essentially quantized by these
dynamic linear elements that propagate along surfaces and between charge
centers. Integrated over time, all parts of living cells are tied
together by instantaneous aqueous lines of communication and order.
But water not only is involved in regulating molecular interactions, it
was the patterning medium in which cells evolved and must have been
intimately involved in the selection of functional molecules as they
first formed. For example, regulator molecules, such as hormones and
neurotransmitters, which bind to critical sites to regulate function,
mimic the dimensions of linear, hydrogen-bonded segments of water
molecules. This permits water to reversibly open binding sites and
assist these molecules in and out with minimal change in dimension and
energy. Also, phospholipids that compose the inner surfaces of axonal
nerve membranes assemble spontaneously in precisely the proper positions
to align surface water and permit positive proton pulses to propagate
down nerve fibers in an extremely rapid rate with very little
resistance.
What is needed at this stage in history is a mathematics that can
simulate the environmental role of water. Molecular Dynamics has
been used successfully to simulate the interactions of atoms within
molecules but its application to environmental water, in terms of the
polarizability of water molecules and their hydrogen-bonding properties,
has just begun. Nanotechnology has begun to view electronic
systems on the molecular level but, until there is a viable theory for
water in the living cell, we will not be able to understand how
biomolecules can function with such extremely high efficiency.
Hopefully, the THL Hypothesis, as presented here, will hasten the day
when Biotechnology will be able to use the molecular systems of
plants to efficiently convert sunlight into electrical energy, to use
the capacitors of the electric eel to store energy and the molecular
motors and circuits in plants, nerves and muscles to perform extremely
unique and efficient functions. |
