It's All About Water

Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy can tell a lot about molecular dynamics. Quite diverse examples will be discussed, highlighting the importance of water as a very special substance: the ultrafast dynamics of bulk water and concentrated salt solution studied by THz photon echo spectroscopy, the catalytic cycle of an artificial photosynthetic system for light-driven water splitting, and the response of an allosteric protein whose dynamics is dictated by the water solvation layer.