Science
Related: About this forumExotic crystals of 'ice 19' discovered
By Tom Metcalfe - Live Science Contributor 8 hours ago
Transparent ice block on Lake Baikal on Olkhon island, Siberia, Russia, winter 2018.
(Image credit: dataichi - Simon Dubreuil via Getty Images)
Scientists have identified the 19th form of water ice. The exotic, four-sided crystals of this rare ice variety, now dubbed ice XIX, form at ultra-low temperatures and ultra-high pressures.
It only exists in laboratory experiments, but researchers say it reveals more about other forms of ice, which can be found deep in the Earths mantle and on very cold planets and moons.
"To name a new ice form, one needs to elucidate exactly what the crystal structure is," said lead researcher Thomas Loerting, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. That means figuring out the simplest repeating structure of the crystal, where all of the atoms are located within that structure, and what the symmetry of the crystal structure is, Loerting said.
"Only if all of these are known, you are allowed to name your ice
Ice XIX is now the name for the new ice phase discovered in our work," he told Live Science in an email.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/exotic-ice-19-discovered.html?utm_source=notification
Ocelot II
(115,900 posts)soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,110 posts)Thank you for educating me today.
Ocelot II
(115,900 posts)Great stuff.
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)First read it when I was 8 years old. It had a huge affect on the World view I developed as a young human.
(Sorry Dr. Suess - I outgrew you when I was 3. Very precocious kid as far as reading comprehension goes - got my 1st 'adult' library card when I was 5 as I had read everything in the children's section by my 4th year on this globe. Mom had to get a special dispensation from the librarian.)
Funny, scary, and wildly creative, it taught me what pessimism was, but also how to overcome it and turn it into healthy skepticism.