I rarely salute water that flows from my kitchen faucet.  Yet, one of the great unsung achievements of technology and science is the ability to produce huge and dependable quantities of potable water. In sharp contrast is the scene in the Third-World, where most every day, in a village somewhere, people rejoice in that first gush of safe water from some pipe in their village.  Benjamin Franklin, in the January 1746 version of his Poor Richard’s Almanac, said it well:  “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” Even though they rarely are potable, I do occasionally salute our natural waters.  I rejoice that the water molecule has certain physical properties that make life much easier for the many aquatic forms that call these waters home.  In fact, even terrestrial organisms, all with their relatively high water content, receive blessings from these same physical properties.Water molecules form loose hydrogen bonds with each other.  This bonding greatly slows what we call evaporation, thus helping to extend the lives of streams and impoundments during dry times—or water in the commode during long vacations!  The transparency of water permits certain aquatic plants (and a few animals), requiring light for photosynthesis, to live and evolve in habitats at surprising depths. Water is a great solvent; a wide range of chemical types will dissolve in it, “go into solution.”  Instead of just sinking to the bottom and becoming much less available, these chemicals will remain “floating” in the water and be useful to organisms taking water and nutrients into their bodies.  And water ranks high among solvents in its ability to absorb a large amount of heat before warming up just one more degree and in its ability to slowly lose heat as air cools.  Water warming much more slowly than air in spring and cooling much more slowly than air in fall makes the aquatic realm a much more stable habitat. Water displays a marvelous quirk as it cools. Water continues to shrink and become increasingly dense as it grows colder, reaching its densest state at four degrees Centigrade—39.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Growing colder, the water then crystallizes to ice, expands, and floats!  We’ve all seen damage from expansion of ice.  But ice on our pond’s top instead of the bottom is very good news for the pond’s aquatic life.  This common, non-dramatic “moving part” of Nature’s arsenal in our pond definitely deserves a frequent nod of gratitude.