Polywater

The term Polywater (also anomalous water or heavy water called ) is the theory that is able to form a polymeric structure of water under surface effects, has the special physical properties. The so-called " Polywater " whose research mainly took place in the 1960s in the USSR, could then after a period of about ten years of exploration not be reproduced and is often cited as an example of pathological science.

History

The phenomenon was first observed in 1962 by the Russian researcher Nikolai N. Fedyakin in a laboratory in the Russian city of Kostroma. For long-term experiments in capillaries it occurred to him that in a few thin capillaries separations between different water columns had taken place. Surprised, because of the fact that it should be the same substance but was present and thus no reason for separation, Fedyakin examined the separated components - as best he was able, due to the fineness of the capillaries. Apparently, the boiling point of the condensed liquid was substantially higher than that of normal water.

As Fedyakin reported its results, the famous researcher and expert investigations this obviously modified water took over in the field of physical chemistry Boris Derjagin. Derjagin was a respected experimental physicist and knew that impurities can change the properties of substances dramatically. Therefore, he did some tests that showed to his satisfaction that it could not act to artifacts. Further experiments were performed in capillaries made of silica glass and pyrex that would prevent the detachment of any components. The water used was tested according to the Soviet scientists at the highest purity and cleaned the capillaries as well as possible and kept clean.

Properties

The newly examined, then still abnormal water or modified water called liquid had, according to the experiments of amazing features. The viscosity was comparable with syrup and by a factor of 15 higher than in normal water. The thermal expansion was 1.5 times of normal water, it solidifies only at below -30 ° C and solidifying not happened on a freezing, but on a freezing interval up to -60 ° C. The modified water boiled at a temperature of 150 ° C to 250 ° C and had a density from 1100 to 1400 kilograms per cubic meter (in normal water has a density of 1000 kg / m³) on; the values ​​depended on the experimental conditions. Also modified water had a density maximum before solidification, the highest density was only achieved at -8 ° C. However, the modified water formed only in a maximum of 30% to 40 % of the examined capillaries and the capillary itself could have no more than 0.1 mm inner diameter, which the experimental investigation difficult.

Reaction

While in the Soviet Union up to 27 scientists were involved in the analysis and experiments on the anomalous water, working in the West has been overlooked for lack of a competent translation resources and underestimation of academic work in the USSR. 1965 Congress of the IUPAC took place in Moscow, but in turn made ​​the lack of translation system is not sufficiently the importance of working Derjagins clear. In September 1966, the world-renowned Faraday event was held in Nottingham, England and Derjagin took the opportunity to explain his work there. The chosen title of his lecture, however veiled rather the scope of Derjagins work so that he could not reap the attention it deserves.

Since Derjagin but in England visited various laboratories and gave lectures there as well, English researchers were finally attentive and some succeeded then successfully to reproduce anomalous water. However, other laboratories had problems even then, make this water, which Derjagin explained with insufficient experience of the experimenters.

On May 24 In 1969 an investigation of the anomalous water produced by Lyonel J. Bellamy, under the auspices of the American spectroscopist Ellis R. Lippincott was published. This came to the clear conclusion that there must be a substance other than ordinary water, a previously unknown molecule chain of water, so to speak, " polymerized water " or simply " Polywater ".

Lippincott and his colleague RR Stromberg finally published on 27 June 1969 summary article " Polywater " ( Polywater ) about your results in the prestigious journal Nature.

Optimism and hysteria

Following the publication of a flood of scientific publication and scrutiny in the West broke out. Magazines rolled over with sensational news ( which was partially awakened because of the animosity towards the USSR the appearance that it was a Western invention ). An American scientist, FJ Donahue, took the guess Derjagins, Polywater is the most stable form of the water, very seriously and urgently warned not to produce Polywater without extreme precautions.

If Polywater would be really stable than normal water, it would force normal water on contact, its configuration in which the polywater to change: All forms of water on Earth would thus transformed little by irreversible and life would cease to exist (analogous to supercooled water that comes in contact with a seed crystal, and immediately begins to crystallize ). This doomsday scenario has been previously described in the novel " Cat's Cradle " by Kurt Vonnegut with the then hypothetical substance ice -IX (ice nine ). It should be noted that in the meantime discovered real Ice IX has nothing in common with his literary form.

The response of scientists in the same issue of Nature, was that it was extremely difficult to make Polywater and that there would be on earth for billions of years of water in the vicinity of quartz. When the danger was real, a formation would have long since held. Donahue was blamed because of the excitement he had caused in the press.

End

Due to the progressive purification technology, it has become increasingly difficult to reproduce the Polywater. Finally, increasing the suspicion of contamination reported critical voices, especially since it could not be sufficiently resolved. It showed, for example, in retrospect, that Zhelezhny, one of the first employees of Derjagin, secretly a sample of polywater had sent to a East German spectroscopist, which took considerable impurities. As was pointed Derjagin of Zhelezhny it, the only reaction of Derjagin was to deregister Zhelezhnys names of all other publications.

An unpleasant turn took the Polywater debate, as the chemist Denis Rousseau assumed by Bell Labs in Time magazine on October 19, 1970, Polywater would just sweat. He would have wrung his shirt after a handball game, examines the substance under an infrared spectrometer and obtained the same spectral characteristics as Polywater. This assumption was more scientific than "biological contamination " both in Science and in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science published together with thinly veiled personal attacks. The now resulting image damage led to withdrawal of research funds, although Rousseau's results could not be reproduced and he had done nothing so contrary to popular perception of scientists and skeptics to clarify the Polywater debate.

A problem of polywater from the beginning was that the examiner refused because of their suspected development projection and the struggle for research funds to replace or work samples. Another problem was the common practice at that time, as much as possible to publish to make a name for himself, by which the quality of research suffered. 1970 and 1971, most of the research has been carried out, but the donors cut back due to the image damage gradually the means, so that is still not clear what Polywater actually was or what contaminants have generated the published properties. When the criticism eventually became louder and was Derjagin forced to acknowledge the lack of reproducibility of the polywater, he moved in 1973 his claims are returned and the Polywater disappeared from the scientific research.