美国《物理评论快报》杂志及最新一期的《新科学》杂志日前刊登消息称，韩国科学家已成功将室温（约20摄氏度）下的水变成了冰，而这一试验的成功可以解释诸如水形成云时温度变化不一等自然现象。

    据《每日电讯》12月21日报道，来自首尔大学的研究人员崔恩未及其同事进行了室温造冰的试验。研究人员在一个金属盘里和一根金属尖器之间保留了一层水，在弱电场的作用下，金属尖器沿着金属盘向下移动时，盘中的水在室温条件下便结成了冰。让研究人员吃惊的是，实验中电场的强度仅为106伏特每米，这比自然界存在的电场要弱得多。

    早在十几年前，科学家就预言可以利用电场改变水分子中氢和氧原子的结构，让它们在室温条件下就可以凝结为冰。2003年，荷兰生物物理学家们根据电脑模拟试验再次论证了上述结论的可能性。

    科学家称，如果在瞬间破裂的石块中或者人体蛋白质的缝隙中存在这些电场作用下形成的小冰粒，那么许多自然现象都可以得以解释。比如一直困扰气象学家多年的问题——为什么在空气中的水附到灰尘上变成冰再形成云的过程中水变化的温度是不一样的，而且温度与其中的悬浮灰尘粒子有关。

    科学家们相信，如果能够简化室温下的结冰设备，“热冰”还有很多实用价值，比如夏天我们可以产生室温冰，来制造人工溜冰场和冰雕。 

    Scientists have created ice at room temperature, potentially explaining a mysterious variation in the temperature at which clouds form.

    By exposing water to a weak electric field, they have produced what is being called "hot ice". The discovery could answer a question that has perplexed atmospheric scientists for years: why the temperature at which water droplets stick to dust and turn to ice to form clouds varies according to whether the dust particles have been through the process before.

    South Korean researchers were surprised that the field needed to create ice at room temperature was only 106 volts per metre, a strength low enough to be found in nature.

    If these "mini icebergs" are hiding in cracks in rocks and clay particles and in crevices in proteins in our bodies, their presence could help explain a number of natural processes.

    Denys Wheatley, a cell biologist at Aberdeen University, said: "Ice at room temperature just should not happen.

    "Water is the crucible of life. Everything else is buzzing around in it. It seems that this most common of liquids in our bodies is one of the least understood."

    In 2003 a computer simulation carried out by Dutch biophysicists suggested that, by introducing an electric field, it should be possible to impose an orderly structure on the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water molecules, freezing it at room temperature.

    Eun-Mi Choi and colleagues at Seoul National University created ice at room temperature by trapping a thin layer of water between a metal plate and a thin metal tip. When the tip was moved downwards while a weak electric field was applied, it hit ice at 0.7 nanometres below the plate.

    The research was published in the American journal Physical Review Letters and reported in this week's New Scientist.