NEW What Canada is doing about the toxic forever chemicals in drinking water
As the United States sets its first national limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water, researchers say Canada is lagging when it comes to regulations.
Using a device that might be described as a super-duper cocktail shaker, scientists have fashioned a previously unknown form of ice - one that might exist on our solar system's icy moons - in research that sheds light on water's behaviour under extreme conditions.
The researchers said they employed a process called ball milling to vigorously shake ordinary ice together with steel balls in a container cooled to minus-328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-200 degrees Celsius). This yielded what they called "medium-density amorphous ice," or MDA, which looked like a fine white powder.
Ordinary ice is crystalline in nature, with water molecules - two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, or H2O - arranged in a regular pattern. Amorphous ice's water molecules are in a disorganized form resembling a liquid.
"Ice is frozen water and contains H2O molecules. H2O is a highly versatile molecular building block that can form many different structures depending on temperature and pressure," said University College London professor of physical and materials chemistry Christoph Salzmann, senior author of the research published this week in the journal Science.
"Under pressure, the molecules pack more efficiently, which is why there are many different forms of ice," Salzmann added.
Virtually all ice on Earth exists in its familiar crystalline form - think of the ice cubes in your lemonade. But amorphous ice is by far the most common form of water in space. Scientists have identified 20 different forms of crystalline ice and three forms of amorphous ice - one low density (discovered in the 1930s), one high density (discovered in the 1980s) and the new one in between.
Amorphous ice on Earth may be confined to the atmosphere's frigid upper reaches.
"Almost all ice in the universe is amorphous and in a form called low-density amorphous ice," Salzmann said. "This forms when water condenses onto dust grains in space. Comets are amorphous ice as well. Liquid water requires very special conditions such as on Earth. But there is also evidence for subsurface oceans within some of the solar system's ice moons."
Ball milling is used in industries to grind or blend materials. The researchers used the technique to make about 3 ounces (8 grams) of the new ice, keeping some of it in cold storage.
The question is where this form of ice might exist in nature. The researchers hypothesize that the type of forces they brought to bear on ordinary ice in the laboratory might exist on ice moons like Jupiter's Europa or Saturn's Enceladus.
"We made MDA ice for the first time. So the samples of it in our lab must be the only ones on Earth," Salzmann said.
"We suspect it may exist in some of the ice moons of the solar system. The ball milling induces shear forces within the ice crystals as they collide with the steel balls. In the ice moons, tidal forces from the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) are at play and we expect them to induce similar shear forces in the moons' ice shells as during the ball milling," Salzmann added.
The research may facilitate a better understanding of water, a chemical central to life.
"The fact that this new form of ice has a density similar to that of liquid water - and so may be the good model for understanding water without the motion of the liquid - is probably the most important aspect of this discovery," said University of Cambridge chemistry professor and study co-author Angelos Michaelides.
"Since MDA is also a disordered state like liquid water, the question arises if it actually is liquid water but at low temperatures," Salzmann said. "Building on this, MDA provides an opportunity to perhaps finally understand liquid water and its many anomalies."
(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
As the United States sets its first national limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water, researchers say Canada is lagging when it comes to regulations.
Calgary police have arrested a man and a charge is pending in connection with the death of a toddler in 2022.
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Scientists say it's highly unlikely cloud seeding is responsible for the heavy rains that have caused flooding in the United Arab Emirates this month, and that climate change is the more likely culprit.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent thousands of hours on Crown land developing an unusual bond with deer.
A Sudbury woman said her husband was bringing the recycling out to the curb Wednesday night when he had to make a 'mad dash' inside after seeing a bear.