On Very Thin Ice -- Photo Files

May 9, 2008
By Phil Schewe
ISNS Contributor

PHOTOS

Isolated ice crystals. These sorts of ice islands form when the ice is only 1 nm thick.

The ice crystals start to join up in plates when the overall thickness is about 4 nm thick.

The growing and joining ice islands pivot around each other when they meet.

All photos credit: Sandia National Laboratory

Phil Schewe is a senior science writer for the Inside Science News Service.

***This story and its associated media files are provided free for media use by the Inside Science News Service, which is supported by the American Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit publisher of scientific journals. Please credit ISNS. Contact: Jim Dawson, news editor, at jdawson@aip.org.