
4th State of Water - kingsidharth
http://news.discovery.com/earth/new-water-super-cool-below-zero-111111.html#mkcpgn=fbdsc6
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hugh3
Just to clarify, this isn't a fourth state, this just seems to be a different
liquid phase. Water has a hugely complicated phase diagram -- there's fifteen
phases of water ice known experimentally and a few more predicted in theory.

I haven't been able to find the original paper (damn you discovery.com) so let
me know if you find it.

~~~
ggchappell
Couldn't find it either, but after looking around, it appears to me that the
research discussed in the posted article is not so ground-breaking as the
writer suggests (of course, it hardly ever is, y'know). Papers about liquid-
liquid phase transitions in water go back a number of years.

For example, here is a paper from 1997 that speculates about such a phase
transition.

<http://iopscience.iop.org/0295-5075/42/2/161>

And here is a recent paper about such a phase transition found in a computer
model (which seems to be what the posted article is talking about). This paper
is not by Kumar & Stanley, but it cites a number of papers of theirs.

<http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5295>

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listrophy
Is this just an addition to the already-known 15 types of ice?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice#Phases>

~~~
hugh3
Yes, except it's a new liquid phase rather than a new solid one.

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ajray
As someone who did computational modeling of water, this strikes me as kind of
odd. The "hello world" of computational molecular dynamics is simulating water
in different phases, phase changes, etc. (including the different ices). I'm
interested to hear more, but incredulous.

~~~
figure8
Can this kind of molecular dynamics simulation by done on a simple desktop
machine? What system and software do you recommend if I want to experiment
with simulation, starting with this "hello world" project? Do you recommend
starting from scratch or using some specialized framework? (For context, I'm a
professional programmer and mathematician by training.)

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brlewis
Why is water thought to have only 3 states? Is it impossible to transform
water into a plasma state?

~~~
cjensen
Water is a molecule, not an atom. There are no molecules in plasma since the
electrons have all wandered off. So if you heat water gas enough, it becomes a
plasma of hydrogen and oxygen.

~~~
brlewis
You are almost 100% right. There are almost never any molecules in plasma:
<http://physics.aps.org/story/v22/st17>

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mcdaid
Celsius please, or at least have both.This is supposed to be science not a
localised weather report.

~~~
davyjones
Better yet, Kelvin. I cringe when science-y things don't use that.

~~~
cjg
Perhaps, but given that we are discussing water, using Celsius seems a
particularly appropriate choice.

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bediger
Looks like people have known about many phases of water for ages:
<http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/phase.html>

Oddly, it appears that Ice XIII and Ice X exist, but not Ice IX.

~~~
hugh3
Look closer, Ice IX is on that phase diagram. Temperatures below 200K, and a
very narrow pressure range just above I and XI.

~~~
Daniel_Newby
> very narrow pressure range

On a logarithmic scale.

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sukuriant
This article is EMPTY of details, and for someone actually interested in this
new phase of water, I am severly annoyed.

~~~
brokentone
I genuinely hope that "someone actually interested in this new phase of water"
is on your business card, resume, or at least your Twitter profile.

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jastanton
4th state of water is a slushi... good observation scientists. good
observation.

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gyom
From the looks of the article, it seems like it's meant for people who are
interested in popular science, but then the author uses degrees Fahrenheit
everywhere.

