Breaking the ice over a 40-year problem of supercooled water

Researchers at EPFL have found a way to study water in "no man's land," a subzero temperature range where water crystallizes rapidly. Historically, the inability to access "no man's land" has prevented researchers from unriddling the anomalous nature of water, but the breakthrough method can now change that. Water is one of the most essential and widespread compounds on Earth. Covering over 70% of the planet's surface, it has shaped its composition and geology, it regulates its climate and weather patterns, and is at the foundation of all life as we know it. But water is also weird. It exhibits a number of anomalous properties, of which scientists have identified over seventy - so far. Several theories try to explain these anomalies, but verifying them experimentally is difficult.