The strangest liquid in the world : water amazes scientists time and again

Water is everywhere – and at the same time one of the most astonishing chemical compounds. It expands when you cool it down, and under certain circumstances it freezes when you heat it up. It is virtually incompressible, has an unusually high heat capacity, and its high surface tension enables it to creep up walls. Water is the element of life – many of its surprising properties are essential for life as we know it. Despite centuries of research, the relatively simple molecule continues to astonish scientists. “Of all known liquids, water is probably the most studied and least understood,” according to British chemist Felix Franks, a pioneer of water research. Now, the interdisciplinary Centre for Molecular Water Science (CMWS) at DESY is to advance research into the world’s most unusual liquid