Science: Unnatural Water

Western scientists were frankly skeptical. Russian Chemists N. Fedyakin and Boris Deryagin claimed to have produced a mysterious new substance, a form of water that was so stable it boiled only at about 1,000°F., or five times the boiling temperature of natural water. It did not evaporate. It did not freeze—though at —40°F., with little or no expansion, it hardened into a glassy substance quite unlike ice.

Despite its remarkable qualities, the polymerized water, or polywater as it was called, was basically the familiar old H₂O. Or was it? The question was so intriguing, recalls University of Maryland Chemist Ellis Lippincott, that...