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mwigdahltoday at 5:54 PM3 repliesview on HN

I was surprised to see no reference to ice-9 from Kurt Vonnegut's _Cat's Cradle_...


Replies

gilleaintoday at 6:40 PM

Well, the image titled 'The Shapes of Water' has 4 examples - 'Ice Ih', 'Ice VIII', 'Ice XV', and ... 'Ice IX' :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phases_of_ice#Known_phases - in this table, apparently discovered in 1968

Matterlesstoday at 6:13 PM

Right?! Anyway for anyone who hasn't read it, go pick up a copy. Cat's Cradle is not too long, and it's funny and engaging and altogether worthwhile. And you'll always think of ice/9 when you see an article like this one.

goodmythicaltoday at 6:47 PM

Just a good idea to keep it all in the lab. Wouldn't want to accidentally end all life.

Imagine we do all this worrying about nukes and climate change and germ warfare and we end up accidentally solidifying room temperature water.