The Magic of Chemistry and Pathological Science

In many ways, the chemist has remained a demiurge who can make life-impacting transformations. The chemical magic (which is the essence of the transformation) constitutes a great temptation to seek the unusual. So much so that even well-intentioned scientists sometimes make drastic mistakes. Such was the case with polywater, a seemingly remarkable substance discovered by Russian scientists in the mid-1960s. 

The story was told very well in a book published in 1981, which is reminiscent of the science fiction novel Cat s Cradle, written in 1963 by Kurt Vonnegut. In Vonnegut s story, a scientist discovers a new form of water, called ice-9, which freezes at room temperature. Moreover, when ice-9 comes in contact with ordinary water, that water turns into ice-9 and solidifies too. Thus, the dramatic tension comes from the risk that all the world s water could turn into ice-9 and solidify. Imagine life without flowing water  

Meanwhile, the notion of a new form of water sparked an enormous controversy. Those who trusted the experimental results came up with theories to explain what might have caused polywater to form. The most famous theory was based on early quantum mechanics (QM) calculations, which mistakenly (and unintentionally) showed that the water molecules generated symmetric bonds, -H-O-H-O-H-O-which connect oxygen to hydrogen, and these interactions thereby turned the water molecules into a polymer rather than being the collection of discrete molecules that makeup water as we know it. 

Scientific and popular furor followed. Apparently, someone recalled Vonnegut s novel, and the worry arose and quickly escalated into a panic. On September 22nd, 1969, The New York Times published an article in this respect, expressing the concern that if polywater were to come in contact with ordinary water, the plain water on our planet would all turn into a viscous polymer too Scientists were urged to treat polywater as a deadly substance until it was shown definitively to be safe—even though no one could make more than a drop of poly water at a time, and even though no one had ever demonstrated that poly water had any effect on plain water. 

In the end, poly water samples were subjected to much closer scrutiny and were all shown to contain some contamination with impurities of substances suspended in ordinary water. When the original experiments were repeated with extraordinary care given to cleaning the apparatus, pol5iwater could no longer be produced By 1972, most of the world s scientists considered the case closed, and by 1973, even Deryagin conceded that polywater did not exist. 

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