ABSTRACT
Also in nonliving (natural) systems, for instance, in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and the agri-food sectors, most (nanostructured) objects owe their existence to their aqueous environment. Not only their existence but also their shape and spatial structure is to a large extent determined by the interaction with water. Two questions arise immediately: (1) which properties make water so special, and (2) how can these properties be explained and understood on a molecular level?
