The polar nature of water and the way different solutes respond to it has a great deal to do with the shapes of cellular molecules and cellular structures. As we’ll see next time, many large molecules, like proteins and phospholipids, have both polar and nonpolar regions. These large, complex molecules will twist, bend or aggregate in such a way as to maintain conformations that minimizes the contact between water and nonpolar regions.

Read that sentence again. That’s a big chunk of biochemistry and biophysics, right there. And it all comes down to the structure and behavior of water.