Life's matrix: Water in the cell

Water is a profoundly unusual liquid, and its peculiarities may make it uni quely suited to act as life's matrix. Even if this were not so, however, we should expect the effects of nanometre-scale confinement and inhomogeneiti es owing to surface effects to alter the liquids properties in die cell rel ative to those in the bulk. Whether water's unusually high degree of local structure makes such influences even more marked than for 'normal' liquids remains an open question, with potentially important consequences for biomo lecular interactions.