This reminded me about Kovrigin's chronicles, a story by Vadim Shefner that I read as a kid. It's somewhat musing on the soviet research atmosphere and all, but

This reminded me about Kovrigin's chronicles, a story by Vadim Shefner that I read as a kid. It's somewhat musing on the soviet research atmosphere and all, but the background there was that a man invented a way to turn water into a special sort of ice which could be used as a universal unbreakable material, with a bold idea of building cities under the ocean because there is so much space on our planet.