Scientists Witness Water Transforming Into a Weird ‘Glass’ Instead of Ice
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Researchers have made a remarkable discovery about water’s behavior at extremely low temperatures, revealing that the substance can transform into a glass-like state rather than traditional ice. This unusual phase of water exists in nature within polar stratospheric clouds and helps certain cold-resistant organisms survive harsh conditions, yet scientists have struggled to observe this transition directly until now.
A team led by physicist Raffaele Mezzenga at ETH Zurich solved this challenge by confining water molecules between lipid layers, preventing crystallization and allowing detailed observation of the liquid-to-glass conversion. Using advanced techniques including X-ray scattering and neutron spectroscopy at Australian research facilities, the scientists tracked water’s molecular behavior across a temperature range of -63 to -20 degrees Celsius, revealing changes occurring over trillionths of a second.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, showed that water transitions through multiple stages as it cools. Between -35 and -21 degrees Celsius, water molecules dramatically slow their movement, while the glass-like structural transformation occurs between -74 and -64 degrees Celsius. At even lower temperatures, the water-lipid sample becomes brittle and develops visible cracks.
Beyond fundamental scientific understanding, these discoveries hold practical implications for cryopreservation of biological materials and food freezing techniques. The research demonstrates that water, despite covering most of Earth’s surface and comprising a significant portion of living organisms, continues to reveal surprising properties about its molecular structure and behavior.
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Originally reported by Sciencealert →
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