Research shows why water acts weird

Although ubiquitous on Earth and central to the chemistry of life, water remains mysterious on the molecular level. Its elusive molecular behavior is all the more frustrating to chemists because it’s unlike that of other liquids–expanding when frozen, for example, instead of contracting.

Now, however, the mystery is unraveling. Reporting in the Jan. 18 Nature, researchers have found a precise relationship between water’s structure and its unusual physical properties.