Even more from the NYT article: ====================================== American and British scientists were skeptical at first, and interest grew slowly. But Mr. Deryagin's appearance at several meetings and the activity of a few English boosters prompted an increasing attention that burst into furious activity when, in 1969, four scientists at the United States Bureau of Standards published a spectrum for ''anomalous water'' showing several new bands that do not appear at all in the spectrum of ordinary water. (In infrared spectroscopy, a substance is bombarded with infrared radiation. It absorbs this radiation at wavelengths corresponding to the energies of vibration of the various chemical bonds that it contains. The resulting spectrum displays peaks that correspond to the wavelengths at which the substance has absorbed radiation. Molecular structure can be inferred from the energies of vibration.) The Bureau of Standards scientists searched 100,000 spectra by computer and ascertained that theirs corresponded with nothing previously known. They also claimed - and now the ruckus truly began - that the physical structure best corresponding to their new spectrum was pure water in a new, polymerized form, or ''polywater,'' as they christened it. (Polymers are compounds of high molecular weight formed by the conjunction of many smaller molecules.) In polywater, the four scientists claimed, water molecules formed long chains or hexagonal rings. ======================================
Well what are "hexagonal rings" if not flakes. One thing for sure, we don't need to do any more research. It's already been done. One thing even more fun than standing on other men's shoulder is treading on other men's toes. Oh the schadenfreude, the schadenfreude. <eg> Frank Grimer
