Ice without crystals
In a simulation at minus 75 degrees Celsius, the water (blue) solidified, while the lipid layers (orange) remained liquid. | Photo: P. Züblin et al. (2026)
Under certain conditions, water doesn’t freeze until well below zero. The physical processes involved can explain how microbes survive at low temperatures, and can help us learn to freeze biological material gently. A team of researchers at ETH Zurich has now replicated this phenomenon in the lab. They placed a layer of water, just three molecules thick, between two lipid layers resembling cell membranes. When cooled down to minus 75 degrees Celsius, the water showed unexpected behaviour: it already solidified, while the lipid layers remained liquid. What’s more, no ice crystals formed in this confined environment. Instead, so-called amorphous ice was formed, which causes less damage to tissue.
