News Physics

Ice is more flexible than you think, a new nano-movie shows

Trapped air bubbles move, merge and dissolve without fracturing the crystal lattice

Image of close up of bubbles in a frozen lake

Bubbles are visible in the cracked ice of a frozen lake.

Boy_Anupong/Getty Images

By Rachel Berkowitz

In the dog days of summer, popping a tray of water into the freezer to make ice cubes may seem mundane. But at the smallest scales, we still don’t know a lot about how freezing unfolds.