Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Utterly Amazing New Discoveries with Water Drops, Ice Friction & Peeling Duct Tape: Microlightning
I chat about brand new scientific findings on:
1) Why ice and snow is slippery allowing skaters to skate and skiers to ski. New science understanding.
2) How microlightning between different sizes of water droplets occurs: New physics that may explain the origins of life.
3) How peeling duct tape can generate enormous electric fields powerful enough to produce high energy X-rays: absolutely stunning
References:
News article: A New Study Rewrites Our Understanding of One of the Most Common Substances on Earth: It turns out that we may have been totally wrong about what makes ice slippery.
popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a69432863/slippery-ice
News article: Woah—Scientists Just Made Warm Ice: Scientists created this new phase of ice—known as Ice XXI—by supercompressing water to 20,000 times normal pressure in just 10 milliseconds.
popularmechanics.com/science/a69022700/warm-ice
Peer-reviewed science journal paper: Multiple freezing–melting pathways of high-density ice through ice XXI phase at room temperature
nature.com/articles/s41563-025-02364-x
American Chemical Society article: Exploring the 74,963 different kinds of ice
There are somewhere between 20 and 74,963 forms of ice because water can do all kinds of weird stuff when it freezes. So far, scientists have experimentally determined the crystal structures for 19 types of ice. Or maybe 20, depending on who you ask. In this video, we’re going to charge through as many as we can in 10 minutes or so.
acs.org/pressroom/reactions/library/exploring-the-74963-different-kinds-of-ice.html
News article: The sticking point: why physicists are still struggling to understand ice’s capacity to adhere and become slippery
theconversation.com/the-sticking-point-why-physicists-are-still-struggling-to-understand-ices-capacity-to-adhere-and-become-slippery-226047
Peer-reviewed science article in American Physical Letters journal:
Cold Self-Lubrication of Sliding Ice:
journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/1plj-7p4z
Stanford Report article: Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/03/microlightning-in-water-droplets-may-have-sparked-life-on-earth
News article: 'Microlightning' between water droplets could have sparked life on Earth. Here's how
space.com/the-universe/earth/microlightning-between-water-droplets-could-have-sparked-life-on-earth-heres-how
Peer-reviewed science journal Science Advances Chemistry: Spraying of water microdroplets forms luminescence and causes chemical reactions in surrounding gas
Link: science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.adt8979
Abstract
When neutral water is sprayed, oppositely charged microdroplets are formed. The close approach of oppositely charged microdroplets causes an electrical discharge and leads to luminescent emission. The light emission hap-pens without any external voltage applied, and the electrical discharge is sufficiently energetic to excite, dissociate, or ionize surrounding neutral gas molecules. Thus, sprayed water microdroplets cause chemical reactions to occur. Similar findings to the Urey-Miller experiment were observed by spraying room temperature water micro-droplets into a gas mixture containing nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia, which leads to the syn-thesis of organic molecules containing carbon-nitrogen (C─N) bonds. These observations provide another explanation for unique reactivity at the gas-water interface, as well as a possible mechanism for making the building blocks of life on early Earth.
Science News article: Micro-sparks between water droplets may have started life on Earth
Reactions between gases and bolts of micro-lightning could have made needed molecules
snexplores.org/article/water-droplets-spark-life-on-earth
Science News Explore article: Zap! Peeling off tape can spark chemical
reactions in the air: This ‘micro-lightning’ might one day be used to power greener chemistry
zarelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Zap-Peeling-off-tape-can-spark-chemical-reactions-in-the-air.pdf
Nature paper: Correlation between nanosecond X-ray flashes and stick–slip friction in peeling tape
nature.com/articles/nature07378
PNAS article: Peeling tape produces strong electric fields via stick–slip friction that drive chemical reactions
pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2510504122
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
Utterly Amazing New Discoveries with Water Drops, Ice Friction & Peeling Duct Tape: Microlightning
I chat about brand new scientific findings on:
1) Why ice and snow is slippery allowing skaters to skate and skiers to ski. New science understanding.
2) How microlightning between different sizes of water droplets occurs: New physics that may explain the origins of life.
3) How peeling duct tape can generate enormous electric fields powerful enough to produce high energy X-rays: absolutely stunning
References:
News article: A New Study Rewrites Our Understanding of One of the Most Common Substances on Earth: It turns out that we may have been totally wrong about what makes ice slippery.
popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a69432863/slippery-ice
News article: Woah—Scientists Just Made Warm Ice: Scientists created this new phase of ice—known as Ice XXI—by supercompressing water to 20,000 times normal pressure in just 10 milliseconds.
popularmechanics.com/science/a69022700/warm-ice
Peer-reviewed science journal paper: Multiple freezing–melting pathways of high-density ice through ice XXI phase at room temperature
nature.com/articles/s41563-025-02364-x
American Chemical Society article: Exploring the 74,963 different kinds of ice
There are somewhere between 20 and 74,963 forms of ice because water can do all kinds of weird stuff when it freezes. So far, scientists have experimentally determined the crystal structures for 19 types of ice. Or maybe 20, depending on who you ask. In this video, we’re going to charge through as many as we can in 10 minutes or so.
acs.org/pressroom/reactions/library/exploring-the-74963-different-kinds-of-ice.html
News article: The sticking point: why physicists are still struggling to understand ice’s capacity to adhere and become slippery
theconversation.com/the-sticking-point-why-physicists-are-still-struggling-to-understand-ices-capacity-to-adhere-and-become-slippery-226047
Peer-reviewed science article in American Physical Letters journal:
Cold Self-Lubrication of Sliding Ice:
journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/1plj-7p4z
Stanford Report article: Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/03/microlightning-in-water-droplets-may-have-sparked-life-on-earth
News article: 'Microlightning' between water droplets could have sparked life on Earth. Here's how
space.com/the-universe/earth/microlightning-between-water-droplets-could-have-sparked-life-on-earth-heres-how
Peer-reviewed science journal Science Advances Chemistry: Spraying of water microdroplets forms luminescence and causes chemical reactions in surrounding gas
Link: science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.adt8979
Abstract
When neutral water is sprayed, oppositely charged microdroplets are formed. The close approach of oppositely charged microdroplets causes an electrical discharge and leads to luminescent emission. The light emission hap-pens without any external voltage applied, and the electrical discharge is sufficiently energetic to excite, dissociate, or ionize surrounding neutral gas molecules. Thus, sprayed water microdroplets cause chemical reactions to occur. Similar findings to the Urey-Miller experiment were observed by spraying room temperature water micro-droplets into a gas mixture containing nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia, which leads to the syn-thesis of organic molecules containing carbon-nitrogen (C─N) bonds. These observations provide another explanation for unique reactivity at the gas-water interface, as well as a possible mechanism for making the building blocks of life on early Earth.
Science News article: Micro-sparks between water droplets may have started life on Earth
Reactions between gases and bolts of micro-lightning could have made needed molecules
snexplores.org/article/water-droplets-spark-life-on-earth
Science News Explore article: Zap! Peeling off tape can spark chemical
reactions in the air: This ‘micro-lightning’ might one day be used to power greener chemistry
zarelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Zap-Peeling-off-tape-can-spark-chemical-reactions-in-the-air.pdf
Nature paper: Correlation between nanosecond X-ray flashes and stick–slip friction in peeling tape
nature.com/articles/nature07378
PNAS article: Peeling tape produces strong electric fields via stick–slip friction that drive chemical reactions
pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2510504122
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. As well as my website, and YouTube, you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit (multiple climate channels within), Quora, TikTok, Discord, Mastodon, Twitch, Vimeo, Bluesky, TruthSocial, Threads, Substack, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc...
