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Published online 3 October 2007 | Nature 449, 517 (2007) | doi:10.1038/449517a
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Water doesn't mind the gap
Gravity-defying liquid bridge makes a splash.
It could be the world's longest liquid bridge: researchers have coaxed water into leaping a 25-millimetre gap between two regular glass beakers in a gravity-defying stunt. The engineering feat could involve a hitherto unknown microstructure of water, the researchers say.
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Thank you for letting me to add this brief comment. I'm astonished about what is missing about the total comprehension on a very important subject that is water and its relation with physical, chemical and biological properties. We depend so much on this simple compound, and we have too much to understand. I, as an food enginner former student, learned so much about water relationships with other food stuffs, phenomenons and processes, but lack the newly research trends about it. I want to congratulate the research team, and those who are interested in such plain investigative subjects that often are ignored or taken for less important.
In essence, the floating water bridge appears to be a rediscovery of the 1996 "Wasserfadden experiment". (http://amasci.com/freenrg/wasser.html) Anyway, the pictures are more vivid as to 2007.
The X-ray diffraction pattern is known to be that of ice-I. Consult http://www.cci.ethz.ch/experiments/Wasserbruck/en/stat.html for more information this long lasting topic.