'Hot ice' helps explain cloud formation

[UM-Bot]

Scientists have created ice at room temperature, potentially explaining a mysterious variation in the temperature at which clouds form.

By exposing water to a weak electric field, they have produced what is being called "hot ice".

View: Full Article | Source: The Telegraph

[STIX]

here is a much better article on the same topic: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050827/fob2.asp

[Celumnaz]

Awesome. Love it.

Could this be weaponized? Wonder if it could improve shipping. Should definately improve weather modification.

[ROGER]

If I understand my basic Science , heat or cold is dependent on the presents and strength of a certain frequency of magnetic waves. By passing a low voltage current though a small area or medium, this would change the heat wave frequency thus accounting for the changes in the waters molecular structure.

So A Micro wave oven heats your food by increasing the heat wave strength.

So dose the small electric field remove the energy from the water molecules. Or dose it change the air pressure which is also a factor in the freezing process? A closer look at the barrier atomic structure is needed.

[SureFire]

I believe they have "Flash Ovens", is it time for a "Flash Freezer"... Could make tons in the shipping industry I would imagine, perhaps even the bar scene? Or am I just missing the whole point?

[Dan G]

Sanity check: 106 V/m is not the same as 10^6 V/m, or 1 Megavolt/meter. Refer to the source (Physical Review Letters 95, 085701). This, however, is still a pretty small field. As for potential macroscopic applications--don't hold your breath. This effect was observed only on nanoscopic scales, where surface interactions dominate, which create a preferred orientation for molecules near the surfaces, simliar to hydration shells around ions in water solutions. The electric field enhances this directional preference. In my opinion, in larger systems, the effect would not be easily observed, since water molecules far (10's-100's of nanometers) from the surface have random orientations, and together contain more entropic energy than could be dissipated by applying a physically acheivable electric field to orient the molecular dipoles.