Water is a matter that we all claim to be very familiar with, yet it is the most difficult one to understand. In fact, all the properties of water are anomalous, and the liveness of our planet just arises from the anomaly of water. In this talk I will try to provide a detailed introduction to the anomalous properties of water and its role in various processes, and to explain why the research on the fundamental problems involving water is hard to be dispute-free.

水是人们以为最熟悉的物质，但偏偏水最难理解的，几乎它的所有性质都是反常的。水让地球这颗行星的表面充满活力，甚至形成了人这样的高等生命。本报告从多个角度介绍水的反常性质及其表现，它对这个星球和其上生命的意义，以及那些困扰科学家的关于水的基础性难题。

Prof. Cao Zexian, born in 1966, is currently a senior research scientist at institute of physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor and master degrees of physics from University of Science and Technology of China, and got the Ph.D degree in 1997 at department of physics, University Kaiserslautern, Germany. His research interest includes film growth and surface analysis, materials science, water science, mathematical physics, etc. He has published over 100 papers on peer-reviewed international journals and some books including Thin Film Growth, Etymologicon for Chinese Physics Learners (four volumes;物理学咬文嚼字，四卷), Quantum mechanics for juniors (量子力学少年版), Theory of relativity for juniors (相对论少年版), Eureka Moments in the history of mathematics and physics(一念非凡), Un beaucoup dans l’histoire de la mathematique et de la physique (惊艳一击), etc. He is also a freelance writer of physics in Chinese, and teaching professor at various universities.