Winter Storm Fern, a rare convergence of Arctic cold and Southwest moisture, seems set to bring Arctic weather to many parts ...

A thin, watery layer coating the surface of ice is what makes it slick. Despite a great deal of theorizing over the centuries, though, it isn't entirely clear why that layer forms.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. New simulations show ice stays slippery in deep cold because its crystal structure breaks down under motion, not because it melts.

For nearly two centuries, the world accepted a simple explanation for why ice makes us slip. According to physics textbooks, pressure from a skate, a boot or a tyre melts a microscopic film of water ...

When you step onto an icy sidewalk or push off on skis, the surface can seem to vanish beneath you. For more than a century, scientists have debated why ice stays slippery, even well below freezing.