Elastic ice stretch the limits of frozen physics

Springy ice crystals that bend without breaking are offering scientists new insights into ice’s fundamental properties.

Ice is known as a hard, brittle material. But researchers in China and the US have now made flexible ice microfibres that can bend out of shape without cracking. When pressure is released, the fibres quickly return to their original shape. The material undergoes unusual phase transitions as it bends and can even transmit light as efficiently as efficiently as state-of-the-art on-chip waveguides.