Rensselaer Experiment Finds Water Molecules Are Always H₂O

The effect was revealed through a strong neutron scattering anomaly, which they claimed to have observed.

To address the problem, Rensselaer-Ben-Gurion researchers used neutrons, produced by the electron linear accelerator at Rensselaer’s Gaerttner LINAC Laboratory, to compare the scattering of neutrons from light water molecules (H₂O) and heavy water molecules (D₂O). Researchers found that the scattering of neutrons behaved normally and they did not detect any deficiency in the effective number of hydrogen atoms in the water molecules. The exposure time of neutrons to the hydrogen nucleus during these experiments was less than 0.001 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second or 10-15 second.

“This new experiment provides evidence that water is accurately described as H₂O, even at very short time intervals,” said Raymond Moreh, visiting scholar in Rensselaer’s nuclear engineering and engineering physics program and professor of physics at Ben-Gurion University. “The strong neutron scattering anomaly claimed by an earlier group was not found in our research. Our new finding has far-reaching and profound effects in physics and chemistry.”

The members of the Rensselaer research team were: Robert Block, director of the Gaerttner LINAC Laboratory and professor emeritus of nuclear engineering; Yaron Danon, assistant professor of nuclear engineering; and Matthew Neuman, senior undergraduate student in nuclear engineering.

The research findings were published in Physical Review Letters on May 13 in a paper titled “Search for Anomalous Scattering of keV Neutrons from H₂O-D₂O Mixtures.”

Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute