As a Humboldt prize winner, he spent nearly a year in Munich, Germany. Scientifically, Robinson s interests have taken him from the structure and spectroscopy of small gas-phase molecules to condensed matter physics. His most recent interest is in obtaining a realistic, molecular level understanding of water. Water By G. Wilse Robinson Water, Air, Earth and Fire were the four ancient elements . These properties describe some of the characteristics of this liquid that have been familiar to scientists for a long time.
Water however behaves differently.
It becomes less viscous, that is more fluid , when pressure is applied to it. It is also more difficult to freeze water under compression, when in other liquids pressure promotes freezing. Unusual, too, is the fact that the solid form, ice, floats on the liquid. This has certainly been good for fish, but it was not so great for the Titanic. One may well ask how these unusual properties of water might have affected the evolution of early creatures whose primary habitat was in seas and lakes where ice floats and pressures near the bottom can be very high.