A new form of frozen water? Scientists reveal new ice with record-low density . Ice's molecular configuration. Credit: Yingying Huang and Chongqin Zhu Amid the season known for transforming Nebraska into an outdoor ice rink, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln-led research team has predicted a new molecular form of the slippery stuff that even Mother Nature has never borne. The proposed ice , which the researchers describe in a Feb. 12, 2016 study in the journal Science Advances , would be about 25 percent less dense than a record-low form synthesized by a European team in 2014. If the ice can be synthesized, it would become the 18th known crystalline form of water—and the first discovered in the United States since before World War II. "We performed a lot of calculations (focused on) whether this is not just a low-density ice, but perhaps the lowest-density ice to date," said Xiao Cheng Zeng, an Ameritas University Professor of chemistry who co-auth...
Feel the Science it in its own Backyard