Water key to the temperature

The fact is that the water wets, but not much, something we can check to wash our hands without using soap. One of the tasks of detergent is precisely reduce surface tension so that water wet out garments and act more effectively. For this same reason, to moisturize skin creams are used instead of water.

Another peculiar property of the famous fluid element is its high heat capacity, that is, we must provide a large amount of heat to increase its temperature. In fact, is the second substance after ammonia which has the largest known calorific capacity. Therefore, if we make a bowl with warm water and another with alcohol, we will need more time to keep it so that the temperature increase in both equally.
This not only affects the time that we expect in the kitchen to prepare a soup, but something much more important: the effect of the global circulation of the oceans on the Earth's climate.
It should be borne in mind that a high heat capacity also means that the water cools more slowly, therefore must lose large amounts of heat to lower the temperature significantly. Thus, sea currents are capable of delivering a colossal amount of energy around the globe.

Thus, the Gulf Stream helps keep northern Europe warmer than the Labrador Peninsula, although they are the same latitude. Not only that. The "ability" to regulate the water temperature inside it has proven to be essential if we are here today.
Some sea ice, or sudden changes in temperature have prevented the chemistry of life.

This and more is water. Perhaps the best way to describe it are these words of one of the greatest experts in water chemistry and its relation to ecosystems, biophysicist Felix Franks: "Of all the known liquids, water is probably the most studied and least understood. "