By Peter Weiss
Researchers in France have discovered a liquid mixture that freezes into a waxy crystalline solid when heated. It appears to be the first solution to exhibit an abnormal heat-induced transition from liquid to solid rather than the other way around, report Hans-Peter Trommsdorff of Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble and his colleagues. They detail the finding in the Sept. 15 Journal of Chemical Physics.
The scientists created the surprising substance by mixing alpha-cyclodextrine—whose molecules are loops made of six glucose molecules—with water and the common, foul-smelling organic solvent 4-methylpyridine.