Makes sense to me. Carbon nanotubes are one of the most 'perfect' man made objects ever. It isn't that surprising that something as 'natural' as water might, when all variables taken away, settle into something as common and 'natural' looking as something found in the very existence of life.
Look sorta like galaxies.
Is this Ice-9?
-when all variables taken away--
"under pressures of 10 to 40,000 atmospheres."
"before cooling them to -23°C."
Piece of cake.... :)
These names come from R. Buckminter Fuller who made an impressive career out of pointing out how sensible and predictable the design patterns of Universe happen to be. Whether a spiral galaxy or a DNA helix, there are some geometrical relationships which are repeated in ways which are surprising (and not so surprising).
Under conditions pertaining some 3.5 billion years ago --early pre-Cambrian-- miles-high glaciers covered drifting portions of what became Gondwanaland, the primordial super-continent that plate tectonics split to form contemporary land-mass distributions.
As continental glaciers ground together, temperatures of -23C plus pressures approaching 60,000 PSI might well have been quite common, and obtained for geological epochs (approximately 10.0 million years). In such circumstances, protracted over some 2.0 billion years, who is to say what Nature might produce by way of helically-structured nanotubes? Not only that... consider that such 3-D patterned freezing would lock organic components in place, where sooner or later such nano-molecular architecture would tend naturally to reproduce.
If computer simulations have reached this (surprising) point, let's do some cellular-automating to explore whether such "commonly occurring" structures might indeed have grown and changed-- i.e., evolved. Then move from hard-drive to test-tube, i.e. to biological reality. A mathematical basis for structural organic entities subject to evolutionary development would probably be the single most significant discovery in scientific history.
Darwin would be proud, disciples of Allah would hone their chainsaws. Forward!
Fascinating.
bump for later reading