This new special topics course will take an in-depth look at one of the most common substances on Earth. Water is the source of life, but it can also be deadly. Biomolecules self-assemble largely because of water, and scientists are tying to discover new ways to split it for energy storage. With nearly every experimental and computational advance, chemists, biochemists, and biophysicists gain new insights into water’s remarkable properties. This course will take a primarily physical chemistry approach to understanding water—the molecule, the liquid, the reagent, the solvent—in a very wide range of contexts. We will also use our unique vantage point as residents in Michigan—the state with the second longest coastline, and the longest freshwater coastline in the world—to consider the relationship between human society and its need for water. Unfortunately the public health disaster in Flint, MI, serves to highlight just how important it is to manage water responsibly, even when it is plentiful. 

We are reading the Philip Ball book “H2O: A Biography of Water” and the Felix Franks book: “Water: a matrix of life”

Here is a tumblr for the course.