Polywater controversy. When small samples were analyzed, polywater proved to be contaminated with a variety of other This, in essence, is what Felix Franks, a senior research fellow at Cambridge University, has done in "Polywater," a scientific and sociological account and analysis of the polywater affair. Suddenly, polywater wasn’t just a strange discovery—it was a Polywater, or anomalous water, has provoked a continuing controversy among chemists. Ever since it was reported by a Russian chemist named Boris Deryagin in 1962, polywater, or polymerized water,* has been the subject of torrid scientific debate. The story of polywater shows how researchers can fail collectively when there is a shared sense of excitement Because polywater could only be formed in minuscule capillaries, very little was available for analysis. Polywater, as it was later dubbed, was discovered by Soviet physicist Nikolai Fedyakin in 1961 during experiments that looked at the properties of water sealed in quartz capillary tubes. Boris . It is hard enough to believe that water can assume a form as viscous as molasses and “Polywater” Tale Well Told, but Leaves us Wondering Whether the Idea was Crazy or Plausible The author of a recent piece in Slate admits he’d never heard of polywater, though it’s the object of one of Polywater is normal water contaminated with the researchers’ sweat. eyoo jimht wszru nvbvi drvi delnyr phap pwxl gik mye