A study published in Science Advances and led by Professor Alberto Vitale Brovarone of the University of Bologna demonstrates that, at considerable depths beneath the Earth's surface, molecular hydrogen (H₂) may mix with specific minerals to form water molecules—a previously unknown process. For decades, the water cycle was thought to be a mostly closed system: water evaporates, precipitates, feeds rivers and aquifers, and then travels deep within the Earth via plate tectonics before returning to the surface. However, the recent research has discovered an unexpected pathway: free molecular hydrogen can directly generate water by interacting with oxygen-rich minerals underground, a phenomenon that the researchers have dubbed "unconventional water". The implications are significant on multiple fronts: the discovery opens up new possibilities for the genesis of magma, seismicity, and, above all, the search for extraterrestrial life—since similar reactions could suggest the presence of hydrated minerals on other celestial bodies, significantly expanding the scope for searching for life. In addition to Bologna, the Italian universities of Milan, Padua, and Federico II of Naples engaged in the research, as did foreign colleagues from France, Germany, the United States (Yale and Johns Hopkins), as well as the European Space Agency.