
Newly Discovered Form of Water Ice Is ‘Really Strange’ - rbanffy
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/superionic-water-neptune-uranus.html
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gwerbret
"Newly discovered"? This is from the Nature Physics page for the original
article [1]:

Received: 27 October 2015

Accepted: 01 November 2017

Published online: 05 February 2018

That has got to be the longest stretch between submission and acceptance I've
ever seen for a single paper. I wonder how many rounds of review that took.

[1]:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-017-0017-4](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-017-0017-4)

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smn1234
" The superionic ice could help explain the lopsided, off-center magnetic
fields of Uranus and Neptune, the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets
that are known as ice giants and were visited briefly by NASA’s Voyager 2
spacecraft in the 1980s. Instead of Earth’s magnetic field generated at the
core of the planet, the fields of those icy bodies may originate, in part,
within shells of superionic ice inside their mantles. "

cool!!

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zbentley
> cool!!

Was that a pun?

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jacquesm
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-nine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-
nine)

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markshiz
My mind went immediately to Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle as well.

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itronitron
Yeah, in the hopes of this not being a candidate 'Great Filter' event I hope
the scientists are dipping each ice form into a small cup of water before
continuing on to the next stage.

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HarryHirsch
Just saying that solid electrolytes ("superionic conductors" is just a
synonym) have been around for a long time:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_ion_conductor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_ion_conductor)

There's the zirconia oxygen-sensitive electrode in your car's exhaust system,
beta-alumina (used in various high-temperature batteries), the high-
temperature modification of silver iodide, and others. Fascinating subject,
some of these are almost as conductive as metals!

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anigbrowl
Nice science writing for a mainstream publication - accurate yet accessible,
informative yet succinct.

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acsowerby
Incorrect science in explanation of "normal" ice:

>Water is a simple molecule — two hydrogens attached to one oxygen. The three
atoms normally form a V-shape. In the usual ice found on Earth, the Vs connect
in an airy structure. (That is why water, unlike most every other substance,
expands when it freezes.)

Not quite, the "airy structure" (overlooking the fact that there is no air
between the molecules) is caused by hydrogen bonding, not the V shape.

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m3kw9
How does it taste?

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rev_null
I'd suggest going to Philly to taste the water ice, but from what I understand
it was recently sacked.

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labster
I'm pretty sure Tom Brady was the one who got sacked, not Nick Foles.

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Infernal
I believe GP meant sacked by vandals.

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dogma1138
If the ice forms under high pressure would the crystalline structure remain
intact under normal pressure?

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Severian
I too always assumed that once pressure was released that other forms of ice
revert to more mundane forms. This changes my thinking quite a bit.

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PhasmaFelis
The article is a little unclear, but I _think_ they're saying that it was
compressed between pieces of diamond, then transported still pressurized
within the diamond cell.

