One of the wonderful properties of water (as my high school biology teacher would say) is that in its solid form, it is lighter than its liquid form. This means that when temperatures drop below 0 degrees Celsius, the top layer of water on, say, a lake freezes first. This works out pretty well for any fish or other aquatic creatures living underneath, because the lower layers of water will not freeze.
I know that this is an exception to the general rule of solid and liquid states: A given substance, when transformed into its solid state, will generally sink in a container of its liquid state. My question is this: What other substances are exceptions to this rule (if any?). What features do they share with water that are responsible for this?