Water Exists As Two Different Liquids, A New Study Reveals

Water is known for having strange properties and different from all other liquids. Currently, a new research indicated that water exists in two distinct liquid phases with huge differences in structure and density.

The study was printed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (US). It was led by scientists from Stockholm University, according to Phys.org.

Anders Nilsson, a professor of Chemical Physics at Stockholm University, said that the new remarkable property is that they discover that water can exist as two different liquids at low temperatures where ice crystallization is slow. The scientist used X-rays at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago to examine the properties of water.

Fivos Perakis, the postdoc at Stockholm University, said that it is very exciting to be able to use X-rays to identify the relative positions of the molecules at different times. He further said that they have been able to follow the transformation of the sample at low temperatures between two phases and demonstrated that there is diffusion as is typical for liquids.

Some experts describe water as mysterious and complicated. One of the researchers stated that water is not a complicated liquid, but two simple liquids with a complicated relationship.

It is theorized and taught in school that water exists in three distinct phases, namely liquid water, solid ice and water vapor. On the other hand, it is known that water could also exist as a strange plasma-like state. The scientists even identified about 70 properties of liquid water that are wholly unique from all other liquids, according to Science Alert.

In the new study, the scientists identified evidence that water exists in two distinct liquid phases. This finding could add to the puzzlement and fascination in understanding the behavior of water. Philip Ball, a British science writer, even said that no one understands water.