Water near hydrophilic surfaces

Water is essential for the stability and function of biological macromolecules. In living systems, essential water-related phenomena occur in restricted geometries in cells, and at active sites of proteins and membranes or at their surface. In this review paper, we present the more recent up to date account of the structure and dynamics of water confined in pores of porous glass and at surface of a soluble globular protein. The experimental results obtained by neutron scattering are compared with data of bulk supercooled water. The retardation of the translational motions of water molecules is discussed in light of some model of alpha relaxation familiar in the theory of kinetic glass transition in dense supercooled liquids.