The Fourth Phase of Water

4th Stage of Water

You can tell me the three known stages of water, right? Liquid, gas, and ice (solid). Did you ever think there might be a fourth? Would you be a bit surprised if I ventured to suggest that multicellular life on planet earth might depend on that fourth phase? Let's dig in just a little.

Here is a basic nerdy science. The water molecule is 2 hydrogens and one oxygen bonded together. The two hydrogens aren't exactly on opposite sides of the oxygen, they are off 180 degrees. By a lot! They are at 104.5 degrees. They carry an ever so slight positive charge as their electron is pulled into the stronger oxygen. That makes the molecule a tiny little "di-pole" with a teeny, tiny, electrical and therefore magnetic charge. That's the genius of it all. Therein lies the fourth phase. You can imagine what would happen if you had thousands and thousands of little tiny magnets and what they would do. You've seen that with those magnetite rocks in rock shops that hang together and make cool shapes.

It's a bit tricky to measure, which is why it hasn't been accepted by all the fuddy-duddy physicists in the world just yet. Who, after all, would make a whole career around looking at water, bubbles, and such. Well, Gerald Pollack would, at the University of Washington. His book, "The Fourth Phase of Water" is a great read, if you want to go the full Monte and dive in.

Here is what happens. Any surface with a small negative charge on the surface will start a "fourth phase". The water molecules make a six-sided hexagon sheet that spreads out. We know that happens because hexagons will absorb UV light at 270 nm (UV) just like other hexagonal shapes. The hexagon allows the electrons to race around the circle and be shared. They can really be shared if the sheet expands to many hexagons, like a tile Roman floor. Now, make layer upon layer, all offset by 60 degrees from the sheet below and you make an impervious barrier to intruding ions. Sodium and chloride can't penetrate.

Guess what happens when you have a healthy glycocalyx lining your arteries! Bingo...you create a 4th phase with an "Exclusion Zone", as Dr. Pollack would argue. That exclusion zone builds up and has a strong little electrical charge across it. Red cells have a surface coating with a potent little electrical charge themselves. Negative against negative repel each other. You knew that. You also have seen capillary action when you put a tiny glass tube into water and see the water climb in it against gravity. That's happening because the water is making an EZ layer and the force it generates is enough to pull it up.

Guess what happens when you have a healthy glycocalyx in your capillaries and have red cells enter them? Remember, a red cell is about 25% bigger than the smallest capillary. How on earth can it slip through? Easy, peasy! The fourth phase making an electrical charge combined with the capillary action force actually propels the red cell. The red cell folds over but its electrical charge on the surface makes it slither right through the capillary with frictionless flow. One could make the argument that blood flow through our bodies is propelled and pushed by that capillary action. Like a MagLev train, that magnetic exclusion, just a few millimeters, in fact, nanometers, is all it takes. The heart is just there to suck the blood out of the capillaries and expose it to oxygen in the lungs, and then push it back to the capillaries.  The capillaries do as much work as the heart, effortlessly because of the fourth phase of water.  Hence, life on earth beyond just a single-cell organism can exist.

Maintaining a healthy glycocalyx is critical. Without the fourth phase of water, we couldn't circulate our blood and supply our cells with the oxygen they need to make energy.

www.What will Work for me? I've always wondered how the heart could actually "pump" blood through those hundreds of millions of capillaries. It doesn't have to. The real lesson for me is recognizing the processes that keep my glycocalyx healthy. That is one of the new frontiers of healthy living. Start with less saturated fat, less processed meats, less sugar, and more vegetables. And more vegetables.

References:The Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald Pollack, McMaster University, Steven Hussey Podcast, Rev Brat Hemat, Biodiversity for a Living Planet,

Pop Quiz

1. What is the fourth phase of water?                               Answer: The structured development of hexagonal sheets of water that build up dozens of layers of water.

2. Can anything penetrate those layers?                        Answer: Nope. Albumin, a tiny protein, can't.

3. Pollack has a name for those layers of structured water. What is it?                   Answer: Exclusion zone or EZ. (phrase first coined by John Waterson from Australia)

4. What makes the EZ so electrically charged?                                    Answer: When you make the lattice, you always end up with -1 charge for each hexagon. With an extended sheet, there can be a lot of charge. You are making quite a battery with lots of potent energy in it.

5. Can you buy the conclusion that EZ zones with fourth-phase water combine to make capillary pressure, that builds up to make humans exist? Answer. Well, you decide. Pollack is building to that conclusion.