It is surprisingly difficult to freeze water. Almost all ice that forms under "mild" conditions (temperatures > -40 degrees C) requires the presence of a nucleating agent--a solid particle that facilitates the freezing process--such as clay mineral dust, soot or bacteria. In a computer simulation, the presence of such ice nucleating agents does not necessarily alleviate the difficulties associa...

Boreal hardwood species, including Japanese white birch (Betula platyphylla Sukat. var. japonica Hara), Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata Sieb. et Zucc.), katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb. et Zucc.), Siebold's beech (Fagus crenata Blume), mulberry (Morus bombycis Koidz.), and Japanese rowan (Sorbus commixta Hedl.), had xylem parenchyma cells (XPCs) that adapt to subfreezing tempera...

Ice engineering projects often rely on the knowledge of ice thickness in shallow, brackish water like in the Baltic and Caspian Seas. By means of field data and model results, the paper shows that helicopter-borne electromagnetic induction measurements using frequencies of 3.68 and 112 kHz can yield accurate thickness estimates with salinities as low as 3 ppt. The higher frequency yields the st...

Introduction: Over the past decade there has been an increased interest in water-ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere and the role they may play in the water cycle. Water-ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere have been inferred, historically, through observations of " blue " and " white " clouds [1], but the first positive confirmation of water-ice in the atmosphere came during the Mariner 9 mis...

A distinctive physical property of bulk water is its rich solid-state phase behavior, which includes 15 crystalline (ice I-ice XIV) and at least 3 glassy forms of water, namely, low-density amorphous, high-density amorphous, and very-high-density amorphous (VHDA). Nanoscale confinement adds a new physical variable that can result in a wealth of new quasi-2D phases of ice and amorphous ice. Prev...

Ferroelectric materials are characterized by spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by inverting an external electric field. Owing to their unique properties, ferroelectric materials have found broad applications in microelectronics, computers, and transducers. Water molecules are dipolar and thus ferroelectric alignment of water molecules is conceivable when water freezes into ...

Ice seals overwintering in the Bering Sea are challenged with foraging, finding mates, and maintaining breathing holes in a dark and ice covered environment. Due to the difficulty of studying these species in their natural environment, very little is known about how the seals navigate under ice. Here we identify specific environmental parameters, including components of the ambient background s...

We report the detection of crystalline water ice on the surface of 2003 EL61. Reflectance spectra were collected from Gemini North telescope from 1.0 to 2.4 μm wavelength range, and from the Keck telescope across the 1.4 to 2.4 μm wavelength range. The signature of crystalline water ice is obvious in all data collected. Like the surfaces of many outer solar system bodies, the surface of 2003 EL...

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) prevent uncontrolled ice formation in organisms exposed to subzero temperatures by binding irreversibly to specific planes of nascent ice crystals. To understand the thermodynamic driving forces and kinetic mechanism of AFP activity, it is necessary to characterize the hydration behavior of these proteins in solution. With this aim, we have studied the hyperactive ins...

In this work we estimate the maximum persistence time of subsurface ice in water rich sediment layers remaining after drying of a Martian lake. We simulate sublimation of ice from layers of different granulations and thicknesses. Presented results assume insolation and atmospheric conditions characteristic for the present day southern Elysium, where data from Mars Express have identified surfac...