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Scientists Create a New Form of Matter: Superionic Water Ice (sciencemag.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the best-of-both-worlds dept.

According to The New York Times, scientists created a new form of water that simultaneously acts like a solid and liquid. "The substance, which consists of a fluid of hydrogen ions running through a lattice of oxygen, was formed by compressing water between two diamonds and then zapping it with a laser," reports Science Magazine. "That caused pressures to spike to more than a million times those of Earth's atmosphere and temperatures to rise to thousands of degrees, conditions scientists had predicted may lead to the formation of superionic ice. This kind of water doesn't exist naturally on Earth, the scientists report in Nature Physics, but it may be present in the mantles of icy planets like Neptune and Uranus."

62 comments

  1. One step closer... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Funny

    To Ice 9, and then we are all fucked.

    1. Re:One step closer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I was thinking that they should collect all the water they compressed, pour it out into a large swimming pool, and fund their future research by selling bottles of pool water as new and improved superionic homeopathy. Slap a sticker on there saying "Now with 100% More Quantum" and they'll never have to write another NSF grant again.

    2. Re:One step closer... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

      Or they could have a very full cup of Ice 9 suspended above the ocean via a ramshackle contraption maintained by a team of tweakers with shaky hands and stained lab coats and point out what a catastrophe it would be if any escaped and raise funds to improve their containment.

      The Indiegogo video would have a cool animation of the Ice 9 apocalypse happening should containment fail. An investigative reporter would grill the scientists, all of whom would seem to be completely loopy. The scientists would point out the great but ill defined promise of the research 'free energy! a cure for cancer!'. When shown the animation of the catastrophe the scientists would find it hard to hide their glee at the POWER of heir work, some going full on Davros. The reporter would end with 'You spent some much time thinking how you could do it you didn't think to ask if you should'.

      Ice 9 - Next on SyFy!

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  2. 4th Phase of Water by js290 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Fourth Phase of Water: Dr. Gerald Pollack at TEDxGuelphU https://youtu.be/i-T7tCMUDXU

    --
    "Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
    1. Re:4th Phase of Water by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 4, Funny

      Every German knows that the fourth phase of water is Dutch tomatoes.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    2. Re:4th Phase of Water by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      It would be the fifth phase after ice, liquid, vapour and plasma. Unless you want to argue it is not water plasma but a mix of oxygen and hydrogen plasma.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    3. Re:4th Phase of Water by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      From wiki's plasma page:

      The word plasma comes from the Ancient Greek [..unprintable..], meaning "moldable substance" or "jelly", whose usage describes the behaviour of the ionised atomic nuclei and the electrons within the surrounding region of the plasma.

      You can't have water plasma. Once you have ionised nuclei, you no longer have water.

      --
      I come here for the love
    4. Re:4th Phase of Water by Picodon · · Score: 1

      In this case, isn’t it simply a liquid crystal?

    5. Re:4th Phase of Water by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I forgot that hydrogen has only one electron and oxygen only two free to bind too.
      Do if you strip a water molecule a single electron it breaks apart.

      However I do not agree that plasma is consisting of ionized nuclei ... an ionized molecule also forms a plasma. However, I agree again, plasma physics would find that probably super boring.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  3. Sounds like a movie. by CptLoRes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's compress water between some diamonds to extreme pressure and see what happens.. Nothing, now what? Fire the laser at it!

    1. Re:Sounds like a movie. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mad science! The best kind.

    2. Re:Sounds like a movie. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

      Let's compress water between some diamonds to extreme pressure and see what happens.. Nothing, now what? Fire the laser at it!

      Sharks in lab coats. We live in interesting times.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:Sounds like a movie. by sg_oneill · · Score: 5, Funny

      Revised definition of science;-

      "the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment and........... ah fuck it, fire some lasers at it"

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    4. Re:Sounds like a movie. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      (Shamelessly stolen from some message board)

      Spheres of Science

      Chemistry - A natural science that can be broken down into two major categories: "blowing stuff up" and "making drugs"

      Physicist - An atom's way of knowing about atoms.

      Research - What you are doing when you don't know what you are doing.

      Engineer - A person who solves problems that you didn't know you had, using methods you do not understand.

      Programmer - An organism that most efficiently converts caffeine and pizza into software.

    5. Re:Sounds like a movie. by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      Let's compress water between some diamonds to extreme pressure and see what happens.. Nothing, now what? Fire the laser at it!

      It was a theoretical state, which was expected based on quantum theory calculations, which is even more significant then the experiment itself, i.e. the predictions of the existing theories were proven correct in such exotic environments. Scientists new what conditions are needed to test the theory and the novel way was to design the experiment so that they achieved this new form of water (!) and were able to collect some data (it all lasted about 20ns after which both diamonds and the sample were vaporized from shock-waves created by the laser impulse).

      BTW, I do not think "... a New Form of Matter ..." is a correct expression here, seems little like a clickbite, it's for sure a new form of water though.

    6. Re:Sounds like a movie. by neoRUR · · Score: 1

      So is this something Nobel worthy?

  4. The meaning of this? by KingAlanI · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems like this could be useful for studying Uranus and Neptune as well for potential innovations in materials science.

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
    1. Re:The meaning of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What would be really neat is if they could get enough data out of it to do a uranus/neptune life sim and see what emerges. We've already seen life organize from pools of nucleic acid in a lab environment in a few 100k generations (or maybe I'm off by one order of magnitude), but anyway, modern computer clusters can handle 10e20 generations in short work these days, so long as your input conditions are precise enough.

    2. Re: The meaning of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whatever. I just want to know if I'm supposed to eat it or drink it.

    3. Re: The meaning of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Modelling chemical interactions is still computationally difficult in normal, Earth like conditions, more so for larger molecules in the simplest of proto-biology systems. Computational chemistry is making progress, but is still in it's infancy.

      Computers can sift through possible chemical interactions and create a short list of hopeful choices, but usually not with with much confidence. That means struggling to get even a single generation, not 1e20 generation (unless you short cut/ignore the chemistry and just use what we already know about RNA and DNA).

      Under these extreme conditions, it is still a struggle to model even what water does, let alone stuff in solution. We have some idea about transitions that can occur in ice structure, but often the conditions necessary have rather large uncertainties until constrained by experiment.

      Tldr, what is proposed by the parent is probably still several decades away.

    4. Re:The meaning of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      this could be useful for studying Uranus

      Keep your superionic water ice away from my anus.

    5. Re: The meaning of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you are proposing is the equivalent to âoeA Neanderthal was able to generate a spark, so with enough data from that spark he should have been able to determine what all can be burned and maybe even how to build a fuel injection engine.â

  5. So you can find this ice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in Uranus?
    Try Loperamide?

  6. Weekly event by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "A new form of matter" happens so often in sci news nowadays that soon there will be a form of matter for every gender.

    1. Re:Weekly event by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I ionify as Liquid.

  7. Science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hundreds of thousands of PSI, squashing things between diamonds, and then exploding all of it with lasers.
    There is nothing in that summary that isn't utterly badass.

    1. Re:Science! by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

      I took my superionic ice for a ludicrous mode drive in my Tesla with my katana and pit bull.

    2. Re:Science! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hundreds of thousands of PSI, squashing things between diamonds, and then exploding all of it with lasers.
      There is nothing in that summary that isn't utterly badass.

      So it's a bunch of 12-year-old boys, just with better things to set fire to/blow up?

      Any group of three or more boys will act as if they all have the IQ of the stupidest member of the group divided by the number of boys in the group.

  8. misread title by advocate_one · · Score: 5, Informative
    I took it to be 'supersonic' water ice...

    anyway, here's a link to the real article which OP neglected to use

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    1. Re:misread title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      i read super tonic water ice,
      wonder if that's tasty.

    2. Re:misread title by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      It is if it has a good gin in it too.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  9. Pretty soon, I expect to see... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [...] conditions scientists had predicted may lead to the formation of superionic ice [...]

    Science Beverage Co. is excited to announce, New, Super-Ionic Ice... LIME! Now you can get your buzz-on from an exotic form of matter only theorized to exist anywhere in the universe besides SciBevCo's labs; clean, refreshing, and simultaneously both a liquid, and a solid!
     
    (You guys saw that coming a while back, right?)

  10. The big question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How does it taste?

  11. TFS Is Missing an Ingredient by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Where is the promise that this will do one of the following:

    1) Increase battery capacity 1000 times, finally making electric cars practical?
    2) Solve so-called anthropogenic global warming?
    3) Silence non-liberal points of view?

    Without one of these three promises, it is not a proper slashdot summary.

    1. Re:TFS Is Missing an Ingredient by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They could probably achieve #3 if they repurposed their science-grade laser.

  12. Wooder Ice by Bohnanza · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not as good as Rita's

    --

    -----

    Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.

    1. Re:Wooder Ice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you pronounce it "wooder" ice, you're probably going to a parade tomorrow.

  13. Waterwonder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't that what my $1299 superionic water zapper makes?

  14. Can it have waves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not ice and it isn't liquid. It is a mix.

    Liquid water has waves, ice does not.

    What about superionic water?

  15. Are there any practical applications for this.... by mark-t · · Score: 2

    ... beyond just sounding effing cool?

    Or is this one of those really neat sciency things that people figure may someday learn some practical application for but for the moment and the foreseeable future, nobody has any idea what we could actually do with this that will be actually useful?

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  16. Re:Are there any practical applications for this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe it can be the basis of an interplanetary propulsion drive.

  17. I read that as "supersonic" by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

    Guess I need new glasses.

  18. They have this at 7/11 it is called a Slurpee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The liquid and solid at the same time water exists at Kwiki-Mart and 7/11. Nice try science... we already have it and we don't need lasers for it.

  19. One Single Malt Please by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    ...make the ice superionic please and do it supersonically, I'm thirsty.

  20. Old news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Philadelphia been making water ice for years...

  21. Superionic Water Ice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Probably doesn't taste as good as Italian Water Ice

  22. So the left wing fake news did a study by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Findings are that all fake news is right wing. This is journalism in 2018 folks.

  23. Re:Are there any practical applications for this.. by crow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This allows scientists to study new forms of matter. This means better calibrating the models that predicted this, and a better understanding of exactly what is going on. Whether this particular form of matter is ever useful or not, the improved understanding may lead to forms of matter that are quite useful.

  24. Re:Are there any practical applications for this.. by slew · · Score: 2

    ... beyond just sounding effing cool?

    Or is this one of those really neat sciency things that people figure may someday learn some practical application for but for the moment and the foreseeable future, nobody has any idea what we could actually do with this that will be actually useful?

    Proton conductors (one of the properties of this super-ionic ice) appear to be used by sharks and rays for remote sensing. Specifically, the proton conductor (keratan sulfate) is present in a jelly-like membrane and appears to enable sensing of electric and magnetic fields in water w/o being electrically conductive.

    A more industrial proton conductor called Nafion has been a used for proton-exchange Fuel Cells. Currently proton-exchange fuels cells are limited to lower temperatures because of the limitations of Nafion.

    Proton conduction also is important in photosynthesis.

    Maybe there's some future application to these areas, but it seems the environmental conditions to create this stuff are quite extreme for anything on earth... Perhaps the conditions on distant icy planets might mean that some alien life-form based some photosynthesis processes or perhaps some hydrogen energy cycle on something like this? Could be part of a sci-fi short story? Who knows...

  25. old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    John Ellis is already advertising it in the back of Popular Mechanics

  26. Uranus by neoRUR · · Score: 1

    That explains it, I knew Uranus was a cold as ice.

  27. Just asking by louden+obscure · · Score: 1

    "was formed by compressing water between two diamonds "

    So are fluids compressible or is this just a bad bit of paraphrasing?

    --
    Serenity now, insanity later.
    1. Re:Just asking by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

      Water is said to have "low compressibility", but still it is compressible. Sound wouldn't travel in water were that not the case. Amazing though that at 4 km of depth with 400 atmospheres of pressure, water compresses less than 2 percent!

  28. update the phase diagram by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now all we need to do is wait for the wikipedia phase diagram to get updated
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Phase_diagram_of_water.svg

  29. Stupid and incorrect /. headline. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The subject line says all I came here to say.

  30. Re:Pretty sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How often do you check? How about now? And now?