Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. Some would argue that with that, Gabriel García Márquez wrote literature’s best opening line. But the truth is that we’re still discovering ice. There have been ups (crushed ice, Icees, Sonic Ice) and there have been downs (Vanilla Ice), but the search goes on. NYT (Gift Article) on the scientists who followed in the footsteps of Colonel Aureliano Buendía (sans the firing squad). Shaking Ordinary Ice (Very Hard) Transformed It Into Something Never Seen Before. “The research illustrates how much scientists still have to learn about a molecule as simple as water.”