I would guess that everything underwater is accelerated because of the oxygen in the water feeding all the cells. think of how fast blood cells divide in your blood? this nurtures the living things inside of the water.
What is the origin of the bond rotation barrier? The bond rotation barrier is due to the polarisation of the atoms in the chemicals that are mentioned, obviously? If they were to meet a barrier, it is because they don't gel? if they don't gel, that is because they repel each other, and that is because they find the [H] polarised by the [CH3] and find them staying as far away as possible from the [H], while still keeping the 'ideals' of the bond.
Can you be more specific in what you are attempting to convey . What you mean by gel? are talking the sigma bond in ethane rotating that prevents from a chemical reaction ?.
They might react in water if they are soluble otherwise they will repel if you think about inter phase the system have to be polar , even in the case of an aromatic compound might slightly interact because of a electron saturation in the ring. But explain yourself a little more in detail what is your interest .
I wanted to put open problems in science out there, and then get my say in what I think the solution is, and then hope others do too. I will be back with more soon! also on this thread as this is like a melee of open problems?
What melee and what problems? It's not clear to me what this is about. You seem to be addressing the role of water in biochemistry more than general organic chemistry. If this is about the role of water in abiogenesis, for example, there's certainly a lot to say about transport phenomena as much as the chemistry of reactions. But the fact is, both water and air are crucial to the various metabolic processes that sustain cells and gave them favorable odds of success. If the only question is why does this persist today, then the answer is that it's been hard coded in DNA since the Archaean. Obviously water dissolves both organic and inorganic compounds, thus the role of Iron in blood, Phosphorus in ADP/ATP cycle, or Chlorine and Magnesium in photosynthesis stem from the nature of such compounds and the potential they offer for endowing the functions of life by random reactions in the primeval sea, atmosphere, and mineral/solar/thermal energy sources. Organic compounds dovetail into this functionally as well, by their facile polymerization, as a platform for growing cells, tissues and organs. Fat, enzyme and protein synthesis owe their existence to this facility and of course to special functionality that arises by assembling polymers the way cells do.
The acceleration of reactions at water-organic interfaces is because of the extra free energy provided by the water. Water at organic interfaces creates surface tension. Picture high tension water wires at the organics surfaces, spread over the surface like nylon stockings over a dancer's shapely legs. Like a nylon stocking, if you make a small cut, a run will form in the stocking. This run in the water increases molecular entropy, providing free energy to the local reactions. Any entropy increase needs to absorb energy. When the runs in the stocking starts to form there is like a suction for free energy, pulling the reactants up and over the energy hill like a siphon. The water quickly resets due to surface tension. If you do any energy balance template reactions on the DNA could not occur without changes in water entropy since ATP alone is not enough energy. The main value of ATP, is ATP acts like a bolt cutter on the nylon stocking (water shroud), when it absorbs water to form ADP and phosphate. The run in the stocking releases all that extra water punch to the enzyme. ATP has the energy of a very strong hydrogen bond. While a run in the nylon stocking of water may involve the movement of hundreds of water hydrogen bonds but only one ATP; manhandle the enzyme. Hydrogen bonds can form cooperative bonding. This is loosely analogous to resonance structures, like in benzene, but using hydrogen protons instead as the connectors. Like resonance, the sharing within the cooperative makes all the bonds stronger so any bond in the cooperative is really strong. Like a chain under tension, the tension makes the chain almost appear solid; so you can walk on it. But if we cut one link, anywhere, the whole chain snaps and recoils before it goes limp. The recoil energy can move enzymes around.
Reactions often are accelerated at the interface because this is often where compounds soluble in two different solvents can meet. (ie. compound A is soluble in water, compound B soluble in organic phase --> AB).
