^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

We are familiarized with the four states of matter acknowledged so far: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. Who would have imagined a fifth state of matter, containing simultaneously two states? Within the diversity of crystallization forms or phases of water, from liquid to solid ice (more than seventeen crystalline and several amorphous ice structure),  new one has appeared: ionic oxygen crystal with, ionic hydrogen (mainly protons) moving inside, like a fluid. It has been named ice XVIII, and it is both a new phase of water (because it depends on applied temperature and pressure) and a new state of matter (because it gathers both a solid and a fluid).

Crystals are formed by ionized atoms, such that the electrostatic forces between cations and ions keep the lattice solid. The common salt crystal having anions of Chlorine (Cl-) and cations of Sodium (Na+), is in solid state at room temperature, but the...