• Question: what is the strangest case you have worked on about water

    Asked by Bassett to Frank on 12 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Frank Longford

      Frank Longford answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      The strangest case is probably the one I’m working on at the moment. Some experimental evidence from our research group suggests that there’s a strong electric field at the surface of water. This could be because of 2 reasons: there’s more water molecules at the surface (which is the opposite to what physics predicts) or that they are arranged somehow in an regular structure that allows this large electric field to be created. So what I’m trying to so is make a simulation that could suggest the water molecules can arrange themselves into some ordered structure at the surface of water completely on their own. This is called “emergent behaviour” because the water molecules act differently as a group is different to when they are alone.

      So the big question is – do they form a structure at the surface and, if so, WHY?

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