An extraordinary substance. Anomaly [not what you would naturally expect] in almost all physical and chemical properties, the researchers say. Are you talking about a recently discovered exotic chemical?
No, they're talking about clean water!
What makes the water so special? On the one hand, the shape of the water molecule. The two hydrogen atoms hold on to the oxygen atom like the ears of a teddy bear, so the molecule is out of balance. This causes each water molecule to act as a small magnet, with its negative pole passing through the oxygen atom and its positive pole passing through the hydrogen atoms.
When you magnetize things, they can stick together like water molecules. This gives the water a high "surface tension". Because of this, the water pearls turn into pearls on a smooth surface and form small mountains of water that seem to defy gravity. Try another liquid with a lower surface tension, e.g alcohol
Heat causes all molecules to vibrate and separate from each other, but "sticky" water molecules can absorb a lot of heat without being "stripped", ie evaporated. Let's say you can get all the heat out of an ice block and a gold block by freezing them at absolute zero, which is 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-273 degrees Celsius). Now heat the gold and ice in the same proportion. The same amount of heat raises the temperature of gold much faster than ice. When the gold melts, the ice is still "frozen" at 300 degrees below -184 degrees Celsius!
Because water can absorb a lot of heat, we can be happy that it covers most of our planet. During the day, a large amount of heat bombards the earth's surface. When it gets dark, the heat supply suddenly stops. These drastic changes every 24 hours can make life miserable here if the seawater does not absorb most of the heat and release it gradually, reducing the effects of the sun.
The shape of the water molecule also affects how it freezes. Frozen water therefore takes up more space than liquid water, which means that ice flows.
Imagine what would happen if water were not unusual in this regard. Every winter, more and more ice sank to the bottom of the ocean, where the sun's rays could not melt it next summer. Soon the oceans may freeze in a thin layer of water in the summer. With less water available for evaporation, land areas would suffer from drought. There would be some life left.
In many ways, our lives depend on the unusual shape of the water molecule.