Semiheavy water is the result of replacing one of the protium in light water to deuterium. It exists whenever there is water with light hydrogen (protium, 1H) and deuterium (D or2H) in the mix. This is because hydrogen atoms (hydrogen-1 and deuterium) are rapidly exchanged between water molecules. Water containing 50% H and 50% D in its hydrogen actually contains about 50% HDO and 25% each of H2O and D2O, in dynamic equilibrium. In regular water, about 1 molecule in 3,200 is HDO (one hydrogen in 6,400 is D). By comparison, heavy water D2O occurs at a proportion of about 1 molecule in 41 million (i.e., one in 6,4002). This makes semiheavy water far more common than "normal" heavy water.
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“The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)