Israeli Scientists Freeze Water By Warming It 165
ccktech writes "As reported by NPR and Chemistry world, the journal Science has a paper by David Ehre, Etay Lavert, Meir Lahav, and Igor Lubomirsky [note: abstract online; payment required to read the full paper] of Israel's Weizmann Institute, who have figured out a way to freeze pure water by warming it up. The trick is that pure water has different freezing points depending on the electrical charge of the surface it resides on. They found out that a negatively charged surface causes water to freeze at a lower temperature than a positively charged surface. By putting water on the pyroelectric material Lithium Tantalate, which has a negative charge when cooler but a positive change when warmer; water would remain a liquid down to -17 degrees C., and then freeze when the substrate and water were warmed up and the charge changed to positive, where water freezes at -7 degrees C."
Progress (Score:5, Funny)
Overflow (Score:3, Funny)
By reading the title only, I thought the overflow-bug of water was finally found.
Dowsing (Score:1, Funny)
An Australian from Mitta Mitta who failed a dowsing test claimed that he only failed because the water was "electrically charged wrong".
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4694530584288972114
Re:Israeli Scientists (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously Chemists are more nationalistic than Physicists...
Re:Anti-freeze (Score:1, Funny)
Sure, but do you really want your water pipes freezing in the summer instead?
That's nothing. (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, I see you are an american (Score:5, Funny)
You clearly must be an American, since you compare beer to water. Over here in the old world, we know there is a difference by the taste for one.
Re:Israeli Scientists (Score:3, Funny)
Wait until you see tommorow's story: American Slashdot Editors Add Superfluous Words When The Title is too Small.
Re:Dowsing (Score:5, Funny)
A dowser was working Down Under
when his failure caused him to ponder
"the charge on me watta
was more than it oughta.
So I couldn't tell lightning from thunder."
Re:Applications? (Score:5, Funny)
A pyroelectric lithium tantalate ice cube tray? In animal shapes?
Re:Israeli Scientists (Score:3, Funny)
Are they calling it Ice-Nine? (Score:3, Funny)
Hmm, water ice that is stable at a higher temperature than liquid water? Can anyone say ice-9?