The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor

A short introduction to the Fourth Phase of Water, AKA Exclusion Zone Water.

How can a Jesus Christ lizard walk on water? Why do pollen grains jitterbug in a puddle? Why do fair weather clouds form such lovely puffy white shapes? Why do your joints work without squeaking? Why do sprained ankles swell within seconds?

Answering these questions requires an understanding of water. Given water’s simplicity and pervasiveness through nature, we presume that water must be completely understood, but in fact precious little is known about how water molecules line up — until recently.

Students learn that water has three phases: solid, liquid and vapor. But there is something more: in our laboratory at the University of Washington we have uncovered a fourth phase. This phase occurs next to water loving (hydrophilic) surfaces. It is surprisingly extensive, projecting out from surfaces by up to millions of molecular layers.

And it exists almost everywhere throughout nature, including your body. This newly identified phase of water has been described in a recent book: The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid and Vapor.

The book documents the basic finding and presents many applications including the ones mentioned above. It also deals with water’s many anomalies, turning those anomalies into easily explained features.

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