Scientists Transformed Pure Water Into a Metal   Science Alert - February 7, 2024

By bringing pure water into contact with an electron-sharing alkali metal - in this case an alloy of sodium and potassium - free-moving charged particles can be added, turning water metallic.

A Geologist Found The Oldest Water On Earth in an Abandoned Gold Mine, Then she tasted It and this is what she found   IFL Science - September 8, 2023

At a depth of about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles), they found flowing water, which tests revealed to be between 1.5 billion and 2.64 billion years old. Having been isolated for all this time, it was the oldest water that had been found on Earth. The team found traces that indicated life had once been present within the water.

Extreme 'Rogue Wave' in The North Pacific Confirmed as Most Extreme on Record   Science Alert - January 12, 2023

In November of 2020, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters high (58 feet). The four-story wall of water was finally confirmed in February 2022 as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.

Researchers propose new structures to harvest untapped source of freshwater   Science Daily - December 6, 2022
An almost limitless supply of fresh water exists in the form of water vapor above Earth's oceans, yet remains untapped, researchers said. A new study suggests an investment in new infrastructure capable of harvesting oceanic water vapor as a solution to limited supplies of fresh water in various locations around the world.

Potential energy surfaces of water mapped for the first time   PhysOrg - July 8, 2022
Only statistical information is known about the behavior of the individual molecules in normal liquid water. The water molecules in the liquid phase form a fluctuating network of hydrogen bonds, disordered and dense, and their interactions are not at all as well understood as in the gaseous state.

Ultrahot 'superionic' ice is a new state of matter   Live Science - November 15, 2021
Scientists just squeezed a water droplet between two diamonds and blasted it to star-like temperatures with one of the world's most powerful lasers. The result was a new and mysterious phase of water. Called superionic ice, the "strange, black" water exists under the same pressures and temperatures as those at the center of Earth - a fact that could soon help researchers investigate the secrets buried inside the cores of other worlds. Previously, researchers used shock waves to create this weird ice for just 20 nanoseconds before it dissolved. This new experiment marks the first time that scientists have created stable superionic ice that lasts long enough to be studied in detail.

Scientists Create a Material That Makes Salty Water Safe to Drink in Minutes   Science Alert - August 15, 2020
Technology that can convert salty seawater or brackish water into safe, clean drinking water has the potential to transform millions of lives across the globe, which is why so many scientists are busy working on projects to do just that. Now, a new innovation developed by scientists in Australia could be the most promising one yet, with researchers using metal-organic framework compounds (or MOFs) together with sunlight to purify water in just half an hour, using a process that's more efficient than existing techniques. It's cheap, it's stable, it's reusable, and it produces water that meets the World Health Organization (WHO) standards for desalination. Around 139.5 litres (nearly 37 gallons) of clean water can be produced per day from a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of MOF material, based on early testing.

Water, water everywhere - and it's weirder than you think   PhysOrg - February 4, 2020

Water molecules take two distinct structures in the liquid state. Given the ubiquity of water on our planet and the central role it plays in all known life, it may be hard to believe that there is anything left to learn about this most familiar fluid. A simple molecule made up of just two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen; water still hides fundamental mysteries that remain to be unraveled. For example, water has unusually high melting and boiling points, and even expands when it freezes (unlike most liquids, which contract). These and other unusual properties make it very different from almost all other liquids, but also allow life as we know it to exist.

Scientists have isolated the two different forms of water molecule for the first time.   BBC - May 30, 2018
Water molecules were known to exist as two distinct "isomers", or types, based on their slightly different properties at the atomic level. By separating out the two isomers, researchers were able to show that they behave differently in the way that they undergo chemical reactions. In basic terms, water molecules consist of a single oxygen atom bonded to a pair of hydrogen atoms. However, they can be further subdivided based on a property of the nuclei at the hearts of the hydrogen atoms - their "spin". While they aren't spinning in the sense we would understand, this property of hydrogen nuclei does affect the rotation of the water molecules themselves. If the nuclear spins of the two hydrogen atoms in water are oriented in the same direction, it is called ortho-water. If they are arranged in different directions, it is known as para-water.

Levitating water droplets with sound waves to improve contaminant detection   Science Daily - May 7, 2018
This approach allows the water to evaporate, which concentrates the sample for spectroscopic detection of harmful heavy metal contaminants such as lead and mercury in water. Detecting small amounts of heavy metals in water is important because these contaminants are harmful to human health and the environment. The new technique could eventually lead to instruments that perform real-time, on-site contaminant monitoring, which could help prevent future lead contamination problems like the Flint, Michigan, water crisis or detect contaminated wastewater from industrial sites.

Does Pure Water Exist?   Live Science - December 29, 2017
It seems like so-called pure water is very important to people. Bottled-spring-water brands put the word "pure" before "fresh" and "clean" in their advertisements. Water-purifier companies make billions of dollars all over the world promising to cut anything but H2O out of tap water. There's even a whole branch of alternative medicine built on imagined, seemingly magical properties of superpure water. Here's the thing, though: Pure water doesn't exist. Or, at the very least, it's not really possible on Earth.

A Bizarre New Form of Liquid Water Is Discovered   Live Science - June 26, 2017
Liquid water comes in two forms - low density and high density, scientists have found. The findings add to the anomalous properties of this ubiquitous, life-giving liquid, which is like no other on Earth.

Can Water Naturally Flow Uphill?   Live Science - March 27, 2017
Earth's gravity is strong, but can water ever naturally go against it and flow uphill? The answer is yes, if the parameters are right. For instance, a wave on a beach can flow uphill, even if it's for just a moment. Water in a siphon can flow uphill too, as can a puddle of water if it's moving up a dry paper towel dipped in it. Even more curiously, Antarctica has a river that flows uphill underneath one of its ice sheets. So, how does science explain these upward watery movements?

WorldÕs oldest water gets even older   BBC - December 14, 2016
The worldÕs oldest water, which is locked deep within the EarthÕs crust, just got even older. The liquid was discovered deep down in a mine in Canada in 2013 and is about 1.5 billion years old. But now, at the same site, University of Toronto scientists have found a deeper source of water that is at least 500 million years more ancient. The first pool of ancient water was discovered 2.4km-down in a copper, zinc and silver mine.

Where Did Earth's Water Come From?   Live Science - July 7, 2016
There are two prevailing theories: One is that the Earth held onto some water when it formed, as there would have been ice in the nebula of gas and dust (called the proto-solar nebula) that eventually formed the sun and the planets about 4.5 billion years ago. Some of that water has remained with the Earth, and might be recycled through the planet's mantle layer, according to one theory. The second theory holds that the Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury would have been close enough to that proto-solar nebula that most of their water would have been vaporized by heat; these planets would have formed with little water in their rocks. In Earth's case, even more water would have been vaporized when the collision that formed the moon happened. In this scenario, instead of being home-grown, the oceans would have been delivered by ice-rich asteroids, called carbonaceous chondrites.

Researchers shed new light on the origins of Earth's water   PhysOrg - November 12, 2015
Water covers more than two-thirds of Earth's surface, but its exact origins are still something of a mystery. Scientists have long been uncertain whether water was present at the formation of the planet, or if it arrived later, perhaps carried by comets and meteorites. Now researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, using advanced ion-microprobe instrumentation, have found that rocks from Baffin Island in Canada contain evidence that Earth's water was a part of our planet from the beginning.

Where does water go when it doesn't flow?   PhysOrg - July 9, 2015
More than a quarter of the rain and snow that falls on continents reaches the oceans as runoff. Now a new study helps show where the rest goes: two-thirds of the remaining water is released by plants, more than a quarter lands on leaves and evaporates and what's left evaporates from soil and from lakes, rivers and streams.

Water Hoarding Begins in Brazil as One of the World's Largest Cities Runs Out of Water   Epoch Times - March 16, 2015
The historic drought gripping South AmericaÕs largest nation is deepening, leading to rationing and forcing residents in one of the worldÕs biggest cities to hoard water. As reported by Reuters, besides hoarding, Brazilians in Sao Paulo are drilling homemade wells and implementing additional emergency measures ahead of forced rationing that could lead to water being shut off at taps for as long as five days a week. In Sao Paulo, a major metropolitan city of 20 million, the main water reservoir has fallen to just 6 percent of its capacity, and the peak of the rainy season has recently passed.

Discovery of Earth's northernmost perennial spring   Science Daily - June 17, 2014

Scientists have discovered the highest latitude perennial spring known in the world. This high-volume spring demonstrates that deep groundwater circulation through the cryosphere occurs, and can form gullies in a region of extreme low temperatures and with morphology remarkably similar to those on Mars. The 2009 discovery raises many new questions because it remains uncertain how such a high-volume spring can originate in a polar desert environment.