Trying to track down this science fiction story

Remembered vaguely.

Planet where temp was super cold and life was some planet wide crystalline life form. Somehow they discover there’s other life in the universe that’s not like them and … other details hazy.

One remembered part of story is that they destroyed half their planet in conducting experiments to see if life above zero degrees could exist.

Anyone remember a story like this?

Sounds like Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “Crusade” (collected in The Wind from the Sun).
Planet where temp was super cold: “It was a world that had never known a sun.” (It’s a planet in intergalactic space, with superconducting seas of liquid helium.)
Life was some planet wide crystalline life form: “And intelligence was there, dwelling in a planet-wide incrustation of crystals and microscopic metallic threads.” (Basically, the planetary intelligence is a naturally evolved supercomputer.)
Somehow they discover there’s other life in the universe that’s not like them: Yep.
One remembered part of story is that they destroyed half their planet in conducting experiments to see if life above zero degrees could exist: “Five hundred years of thought and experimenting. At the end of that time, definite proof that simple but slowly operating machines could function at temperatures as high as boiling water. Large areas of the planet badly damaged in the course of the demonstration.”

Thanks much!