> A long time ago I remember reading a paragraph somewhere which suggested
> that crystalline forms of water, which were stable at room temperature, had
> _actually_ been formed by subjecting water to truly immense pressures. Does
> anybody know any more about this? I've no idea where I read about it, I'm
> afraid; probably some dubious pseudo-scientific rag.
>
There are a number of high pressure phases of water, including a few
which are
solid at room temperature. It is often suggested as an alternate means
of cryonic
suspension. When I was at the Alcor festival I spoke with someone who
had worked
with an apparatus capable of creating these. The project is currently
inactive and
quite a few important physical questions need study. For example, if a
sample were
compressed and then cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature, would it
remain metastable
when the pressure was released. On warmup, would the expansion be abrupt
(ie, is
it really a bomb?).
On a lighter side, I was on a boat in Alaska in a fjord and snagged some
glacier ice.
The trapped air fizzled when the ice melted (A lot like Hot Rocks from
the convenience
store, which is CO2 trapped in sugar). I read once of a business
failure, which was to
ship glacier ice to bars around the country as a novelty item.
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| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> |
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 |
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