Our #StrangeIce paper is out in Science. Medium density amorphous ice. It doesn’t float. It doesn’t sink. The density is like water yet the atoms cannot move. It’s made by ball milling “normal” ice at -200 degrees and has lost almost all trace of its original crystalline structure. And if you squeeze it, it stores mechanical energy, an observation that may have implications for worlds like Europa where tidal forces drive mechanical shearing. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq2105

Very amused this morning to find that our MDA ice paper in Science is being reported under "weird news" by the Daily Star, no less, with a strong focus on aliens. Striking to see what they think is "related content". And the irony of the fact that the website is blocked by BT's parental controls. I had to view the dodgy site through UCL network. 😂 #StrangeIce #WeirdIce https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/scientists-discover-new-form-ice-29119606

I'll be on Al Jazeera just after the half hour talking about our #StrangeIce Why is it that I still find live stuff so terrifying?

I think I survived. it's always slightly unnerving to do this to camera when you can't see what's happening on the other side.

@sellathechemist As long as it bears no relation to Vonnegut's Ice-9...

@Mayor_of_Smartarse Ha! Look for Felix Franks' wonderful book called "Polywater", a history of a classic exemplar of pathological science from the early 1960s when both scientific curiosity and Cold War fear led to a short but memorable scientific feeding frenzy. Vonnegut's brother was a meteorologist with an interest in the role of ice in the electrostatics of thunderstorms. He passed the story on. And the rest, as they say, is literature.