{"id":239674,"date":"2026-06-26T06:23:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/scientists-find-molecular-level-evidence-for-two-structures-in-liquid-water"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:23:43","slug":"scientists-find-molecular-level-evidence-for-two-structures-in-liquid-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/scientists-find-molecular-level-evidence-for-two-structures-in-liquid-water","title":{"rendered":"Scientists find molecular-level evidence for two structures in liquid water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-find-molecular-level-evidence-for-two-structures-in-liquid-water2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A study <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41567-026-03301-8\" target=\"_blank\">published in <i>Nature Physics<\/i><\/a> provides new molecular-level evidence from simulations that liquid water is not a single uniform substance, but a constantly shifting mixture of two distinct microscopic structures.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that water might exist in two distinct structural states is not new. For decades, scientists have theorized that liquid water is composed of two interconvertible local structures\u2014one denser and more disordered, the other less dense and more ordered.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201ctwo-state model\u201d has been invoked to explain water\u2019s many anomalous properties, including why it becomes easier to compress as it cools and why it reaches maximum density at 4\u00b0C (39\u00b0F) rather than at its freezing point. But the model has remained controversial because direct molecular-level evidence for the two structures has been elusive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A study published in Nature Physics provides new molecular-level evidence from simulations that liquid water is not a single uniform substance, but a constantly shifting mixture of two distinct microscopic structures. The idea that water might exist in two distinct structural states is not new. For decades, scientists have theorized that liquid water is composed [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}