From water’s ephemeral dance, a new order emerges

The freezing of a liquid into a crystalline solid is a ubiquitous and familiar phase transition that affects many aspects of our daily life. The crystallization of water, for example, has broad implications for our planet’s climate and geography, and for diverse applications ranging from food and energy production to pharmaceutical formulation (1, 2). Nevertheless, numerous facets of crystallization remain incompletely understood because of the...