New Form of Ice Cooked Up

Forget sticking cubed or crushed ice into your favorite drink this summer — UK chemists just made the fifteenth form of the cold stuff for the first time after years of trying, according to Technology Review.

What we call "ice" is known in the scientific world as ice I. Yet freezing plain ol' water under different pressures and temperatures can result in some exotic water-based crystals.
Counter to scientists' expectations (and hopes for making a buck in the electronics industry), ice XV crystals don't act like semiconductors but rather like insulators. So much for water-based computer chips.

Ice XV may still be good for one thing, however. Here's the recipe to cool drinks at your hot summer parties: Squeeze liquid water to a pressure 10,850 times stronger than the outdoors at sea level, add a bit of hydrochloric acid, and slowly cool the mix off to a chilly -136 degrees Fahrenheit.

What if you accidentally make ice-nine — Kurt Vonnegut's fictional plot device in "Cat's Cradle" that ends up destroying the planet by freezing the oceans solid — in the process? Chill out! No form of ice stays solid for long out in the open, nor can any kind seed a global catastrophe.