Slide Image: The image shows three groupings of water molecules seen against a watery looking background with a horizon line. Each individual water molecule is linked to 4 of its neighbors (depicted at left), according to many current models of the liquid. New results, however, suggest most water molecules are linked strongly to only 2 others. This implies that liquid water molecules may be arranged in rings (depicted at middle) or chains (depicted at right) that are clustered together by additional, weaker hydrogen bonds.

Credit: Anders Nilsson and Hirohito Ogasawara, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory