The atoms

So far we have regarded each water molecule

as an autonomous entity which experiences
its "adventures" undivided.

Πλαίσιο κειμένου: This may be true.

It may actually be that ever since

the material of the earth was cooled off,
a water molecule which is then formed
is left intact after four and a half billion
years and merely changed its place.
One time in the atmosphere, another time
in a glacier, and another time in a cell in
the body of a dinosaur.

But it may be that chemistry played a part to.

It may have been split for example during photosynthesis

(which dissociates a large quantity of water each year)
and later have been re-formed by combustion.

Not necessarily from the same atoms which were originally

joined but from other hydrogen atoms each of which
has its own "history" and an oxygen atom that perhaps
never until now was in a water molecule.

Πλαίσιο κειμένου: The fact that chemistry is basically nothing but collisions between molecules is not something which 
we really need to analyse.

Since chemistry interferes

it would be even more correct if we consider
the atoms as the fundamental components
of our droplet

so that we can follow the story back
to the beginning, to the Big Bang.

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