I have to set the aside for future considerations, since it is currently blowing my little mind. From Sandia (via Science Blog), is this little story about how Sandia Labs used their Z machine (click the wikilink to see something out of Frankenstein’s lab) to turn water into “hot” ice at pressures up to 120,000 atmospheres. I knew that water has a number of states, but I really never thought about them until I read this:

 “The three phases of water as we know them — cold ice, room temperature liquid, and hot vapor — are actually only a small part of water’s repertory of states,” says Sandia researcher Daniel Dolan. “Compressing water customarily heats it. But under extreme compression, it is easier for dense water to enter its solid phase [ice] than maintain the more energetic liquid phase [water].”

Also kudos to the Sandia PR folks for finding a way to mention Vonnegut’s Ice Nine in their discussion of ice VII.