Based on detailed studies of vital molecules and the results of ultra-high-speed studies of water on super-cooled surfaces, water on the lipid surfaces of proteins and the ionic surfaces of nucleic acids appears to form transient linear elements of hydration in ice-like cubic conformations. Since the linear elements last only about a million millionth of a second, they are not there long enough to establish thermodynamic equilibria but long enough to be detected spectroscopically and to affect the motion and interaction of neighboring molecules. In evolution, it appears that molecules with structures which positioned surface water in random and spatially-ordered positions around them similar to those in liquid and ice-like water, assembled spontaneously and produced the living cells.
