Super-cool study finds hints as to why water is so weird

US researchers have entered a ‘no man’s land’ where water exists in states that scientists have struggled to access, retrieving clues that may support a controversial idea.¹

The team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) in Richland collected data on two water states from 135–245K, far below where water would usually become ice. What they found could accord with a much-debated theory to explain water’s many strange properties, such as the fact that its density doesn’t increase as it cools like other liquids.