Oil and water -- the yin and yang of life. The interaction of oil and water is indeed critical to life. In addition to many metabolic processes in an organism, the oil/water relationship is necessary for cell integrity. A cell membrane is composed of non-polar phospholipids (essentially oil), and the contents within that membrane is almost entirely water, which is polar. The repulsion of water and oil here is critical -- otherwise water, the ';universal solvent,'; would dissolve its membrane, and cells would not be possible.
Furthermore, many neat things happen entirely within the cell membrane (check into proton pumps, receptor proteins, and ';G Proteins'; for examples). :Likewise, many reactions occur within the water-based cytoplasm. By having two distinct environments in a single cell (polar environments and non-polar environments), a cell can function in both an intercellular and intracellular fashion: The cell membranes, non-polar environments, can interact with one another due to their chemical sililarity. This facilitates the INTERcellular processes. The isolated polar (water-based) environments, facilitate INTRAcellular processes.
Water/oil. Polar/Non-polar. Yin/Yang. This is one of the most critical balances in biology!
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