Chemistry Physics

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Shaking Ordinary Ice (Very Hard) Transformed It Into Something Never Seen Before
The research illustrates how much scientists still have to learn about a molecule as simple as water.

By Kenneth Chang
Feb. 3, 2023 Updated 11:46 a.m. ET

Shaken and chilled — but not stirred — ordinary frozen water turns into something different: a newly discovered form of ice made of a jumble of molecules with unique properties.

“This is completely unexpected and very surprising,” said Christoph Salzmann, a chemistry professor at University College London in England and an author of a paper published on Thursday in the journal Science that described the ice.

Water is a simple molecule that has been intently studied by scientists for centuries: two hydrogen atoms jutting off at a 10.5-degree angle in a V-shape from a central oxygen atom.

The new discovery shows, once again, that water, a molecule without which life is not known to be able to exist, is still hiding scientific surprises yet to be revealed. This experiment employed relatively simple, inexpensive equipment to reveal a form of ice that could exist elsewhere in the solar system and throughout the universe.

In day-to-day life, we encounter three forms of water: a vaporous gas like steam, flowing liquid water and hard, slippery ice. The ice of our everyday lives consists of water molecules lined up in a hexagonal pattern, and those hexagonal lattices neatly stack on top of each other. The hexagonal structure is not tightly packed, which is why ice is less dense than liquid water and floats.

With permutations of temperature and pressure outside what generally occurs on Earth, water molecules can be pushed into other crystal structures. Scientists now know of 20 crystalline forms of water. The 20th form of ice was discovered last year.

In addition, researchers also have documented two types of ice with jumbled molecules, what they call amorphous materials. Because one of the amorphous ices is denser than water, it is known as high-density amorphous ice; the other, with a density less than that of water, is low-density amorphous ice. Amorphous ices are not found on Earth, but they could be prevalent in outer space, in comets, interstellar clouds and icy worlds like Europa, a moon of Jupiter.

There is even a type of water that is both liquid and solid. In 2018, scientists announced the creation of “superionic water,” which was simultaneously solid and liquid.




https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/scie ... glass.html

Gift Link https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/scie ... =share-url

[Flatpoint High]

Not certain this is the proper Physics forum, but here goes:

“How are matter and energy distributed?” asked Peter Schweitzer, a theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut. “We don’t know.”

Schweitzer has spent most of his career thinking about the gravitational side of the proton. Specifically, he’s interested in a matrix of properties of the proton called the energy-momentum tensor. “The energy-momentum tensor knows everything there is to be known about the particle,” he said.

In Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which casts gravitational attraction as objects following curves in space-time, the energy-momentum tensor tells space-time how to bend. It describes, for instance, the arrangement of energy (or, equivalently, mass) — the source of the lion’s share of space-time twisting. It also tracks information about how momentum is distributed, as well as where there will be compression or expansion, which can also lightly curve space-time.

The rest of the story: https://www.quantamagazine.org/swirling ... -20240314/

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