Things We Still Don’t Know About Water

Maybe they updated the image afterward? If so, I like how they sent the correction to the art department and not to a copy editor to fix a few characters.

Edit: dalke explains elsewhere in this thread.

kbrosnan• 11 years ago

Your browser may have a bad ICC profile. See http://www.color.org/version4html.xalter and http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/png-colortest.html

cmdrfred2• 11 years ago

I never knew about this. Thanks.

efng• 11 years ago

I was really surprised that both of my browsers have bad color correction. What's nice is the pdf confirms this: this are wrong in the browser, but right in the external pdf.

Thank you!

simoncion• 11 years ago

I'm almost positive that the linked PNG has no attached color profile. There are many browser color correction problems; this is an image authoring problem.

mkehrt• 11 years ago

It appears they changed it to red since you took this image.

Kaylan• 11 years ago

No red for me.

ekianjo• 11 years ago

firefox mobile has no red either.

masklinn• 11 years ago

I see no red in your screenshot, but the image on nautilus appears red, they may have fixed the error (either that or your browser is very weird and renders red to blue)

stephengillie2• 11 years ago

Yes, water is common—in fact, it is the third most common molecule in the universe.

What are the first 2 most common molecules? H2 and O2?

In another thread on HN this morning, we learned that Hydrogen, Helium, & Oxygen are the 3 most common elements in the universe. To tangent off a different commenter's remark, the 1st and 3rd most common elements in the universe create the 3rd most common molecule.

marcosdumay• 11 years ago

Probably H2 and He.

stephengillie2• 11 years ago

But Helium doesn't form into diatomic molecules. The binding energy isn't there.

Thorondor• 11 years ago

After H2, carbon monoxide would be the next most common molecule in interstellar clouds. [1] However, I don't know about the universe as a whole.

[1] https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mmw/history.html

vmorgulis• 11 years ago

About water and its properties, there is also what Luc Montagner says concerning DNA and homeopathy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Montagnier#Research_on_elec...

There would be unknown "waves". He gets the Nobel Prize for the discovery of AIDS.

stefantalpalaru• 11 years ago

Extraordinary claims without proofs.

Gustomaximus• 11 years ago

Another interesting one about water that is unknown, or at least not proven (many credible theories). Why does hot water freeze faster than cold water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect

elektromekatron• 11 years ago

If we are just talking about ice formation and not the point at which the whole thing freezes, then I would expect there to be many systems where the hotter vessel would form ice quicker when put in a very cold environment. Heat being essentially kinetic energy averaged, the greater the initial energy compared to the available drop, the faster it is for large variations to develop.

cmdrfred2• 11 years ago

Bill Nye explained it in his show that hot water evaporates so you are freezing a lesser volume of water.I have no idea if that's correct but that's the assumption I've gone on for the last decade or so.

Retric• 11 years ago

There seem to be a lot of 'minor' effects. However, the most convincing argument I have seen was simply increased thermal conductivity by partially melting the surface below the container. A good test of this would be to start with a warm container and then add hot or cold water to it.

known• 11 years ago

Brilliant analysis

Things We Still Don’t Know About Water

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