Ice Is Way More Complex Than It Seems
5/19/202625 min
Over the past decade, computer simulations have predicted tens of thousands of possible forms of ice. Though uncommon on our planet, exotic ice may exist in off-Earth environments, from cold and amorphous comet tails to the hot and crushing cores of icy planets. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math writer Shalma Wegsman about why water is exceptionally versatile under pressure. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.
Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.
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First 90 secondsSamir Patel· Host0:00
[instrumental music] It's spring, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, so it feels like the perfect time to talk about ice, since it's more likely to be cooling our drinks than ruining our commutes for a while. For all its familiarity, ice is a really odd substance. It floats, for one, 'cause it's less dense than its liquid form. It's not the only substance that does that, but there aren't very many. We're not entirely sure why it's slippery, which was the subject of a Quanta story not long ago, and it comes in a bewildering array of forms, crystalline phases they're called. It's fascinating that we have this compound that covers most of the Earth, infuses our atmosphere, makes life possible, and we're still learning new things about it. [upbeat music] Welcome to the Quanta Podcast, where we explore the frontiers of fundamental science and math. I'm Samir Patel, editor-in-chief of Quanta Magazine. At the turn of the 20th century, there were 12 known phases of ice. We are now, thanks to recently reported findings, getting close to double that, with some wrinkles added to the forms we already knew about. We reported on the most recent burst of new findings in this area in a recent story called Physicists Discover the Most Complex Forms of Ice Yet by the latest addition to Quanta's staff, math writer Shalma Wegman, and she's here to talk us through it. Welcome to the show, Shalma.
Shalma Wegsman· Guest1:27
Hi. Thank you.