Confining water molecules in nanometer-size pores has provided new evidence that, in addition to its many other oddities, H2O may exist in two distinct liquid phases at ultralow temperatures.
Nicolle Rager Fuller
Posted on 02/01/2008 2:10:20 AM PST by neverdem
You wouldn't expect to learn much about the properties of water by watching a square dance. But think again. Following the caller's lead, the dancers meet, separate, weave, and swing in a perfectly fluid manner.
It turns out that similar coordinated maneuvers—with water molecules taking the places of the dancers—may be responsible for some of water's most puzzling features, an array of recent research findings suggest.
As liquids go, water is a radical nonconformist—differing from other liquids in dozens of ways (see the latest count at www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/anmlies). Most famous among water's peculiarities is its density at low temperatures. While other liquids contract and get denser as they cool toward their freezing points, water stops contracting and starts to expand. That's why ice floats and frozen pipes burst.
Confining water molecules in nanometer-size pores has provided new evidence that, in addition to its many other oddities, H2O may exist in two distinct liquid phases at ultralow temperatures.
Nicolle Rager Fuller
Water gets even weirder at colder temperatures, where it can exist as a liquid in a supercooled state well below its ordinary freezing point. Recent evidence suggests that supercooled water splits its personality into two distinct phases—another oddity unseen in other liquids. And last year, water surprised scientists yet again, when they found that at –63 degrees Celsius, supercooled water's weird behavior returns to "normal."
That discovery, scientists say, may help explain some aspects of water's peculiar personality, such as its ability to transition from gas to liquid to solid and back to liquid again. Findings from related experiments have important implications for understanding how water interacts with biological molecules, such as proteins, and may lead to better ways of freezing and storing biological tissues such as sperm and human oocytes.
Plunging ahead...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
I’m suddenly thirsty, for some reason.
dude, got oocyte?
What are we going to do about it? We need a multi trillion dollar program. This could free us from Middle East oil and make our dolt kids jump faster. Or something.
Liquid water is colder than ice ping.
Bump for later.
A little Boku Maru, anyone?
And why the oceans are not frozen solid from the bottom and why life exists on the Planet Earth.
This behavior of water is so bizarre and so necessary, it is almost as if God said, "Wait a minute... I am going to need water to expand as it freezes in order for this whole Earth thing to work out... OK, it is so."
It’s George Bush’s fault.
I learned this as a kid from my pastor in confirmation class.
I had to look that one up, and ... quite frankly ... I have no idea how you connected this thread to boku maru.
It’s the Ice Nine.
Water vapor is a greenhouse gas and thus a pollutant that needs to be regulated.
God gave us the original subsidy of $80/hour plumbers?
God presumably saw in advance how mankind's dealing with water, e.g., Roman aqueducts, sewage conveyance, dams, fishing, power generation for mills and electricity, Dutch girls with yoked buckets, ice boxes, ice cream, canals and tow paths, portages, dikes against the seas, plumbing, ship transport, ice breakers, aquariums, Cokes with ice cubes, Titanic deck chair re-arrangers, irrigation systems, etc., would be necessary to propel society's foundational advances.
HF
If the article is in Science News, why did you put the NYT as the source?
I should have been sleeping.
bmflr
God is a great chemical engineer. Among other qualities.
Proof that we really need to ban this dihydrogen monoxide.
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