Episode One – What is Water?
In this very first episode of H2whOa!, guests Dr. Richard Saykally from UC Berkeley’s chemistry department and water-inspired artist Moses Hacmon answer the BIG question of “What is water?”
Guests
Dr. Richard Saykally is the Class of 1932 Endowed Professor at the University of California-Berkeley. Born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin and educated at UW-Eau Claire and UW-Madison, Saykally has been a professor at the University of California, Berkeley since 1979. His recent work includes X-ray spectroscopy of liquids and interfaces, nonlinear optical spectroscopy of liquids and interfaces, and chemical reactions at liquid interfaces. He continues to focus on problems involving liquid water and aqueous interfaces.
- Richard Saykally
- The Saykally Group
- Article on Saykally’s continued quest to find universal first-principles of water
Moses Hacmon is an artist and architect who completed his B.Arch with AIA honors from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Following his studies, Hacmon spent a decade exploring the composition, properties, and movement of water, all in an effort to capture the elusive movement of the transparent liquid. Hacmon’s series, ‘Faces of Water’, uses a self-developed, analog method to capture the movement of water, before the light that is reflected off the water is registered. In exposing water’s plethora of diverse and wondrous complexions, Hacmon hopes to deepen the audiences connection to the substance.
Helpful Definitions
H2O – the chemical formula for water
Avogadro’s number – a measurement of molecules or atoms, also referred to as a mole
Isotope – two or more forms of a chemical element that has the same atomic number and has a different number of neutrons
Deuterium – is one of two isotopes in hydrogen, has one proton and one neutron while normal hydrogen only has one proton, aka “heavy hydrogen”
heavy water – water that constraints deuterium
strong tetrahedral hydrogen bonding – a set of unpaired electrons pushing two hydrogen molecules closer than they want to be
