By The Way...

Tuesday, May 9, 2006
9:26:00 AM EDT
Hearing Stoned Soul Picnic -- Swing Out Sister
Just when you thought you knew water, comes out a whole bunch of science stories about all the neat new things the geeks are doing with it:

* Water is glue: "When water vapor condenses in a nano-sized space between two surfaces, the liquid behaves more like solid ice than liquid water, even at room temperature. This solidification causes water to exert such a strong friction force that it 'acts like a glue,' according to a new study."

* Water could give you an infinite mp3 player: "Imagine an iPod playing music for 100 millennia without repeating a single song or a USB thumb-drive with room for 32.6 million full-length DVD movies. Now imagine if this could be achieved by combining a computing principle that was popular in the 1960s, a glass of water and wire three-billionths of a meter wide. Science fiction? Not exactly."

* Water can make ice -- at room temperature: "Joost Frenken and others at Leiden University used an instrument called a friction force microscope to create nano-friction by dragging a tungsten wire over a graphite surface. They wanted to test the theory that water vapour in the air might condense and become ice. And it did." (This one has pictures!)

And that's all just in one day. Man I'm going to treat the stuff with more respect when I'm showering with it. Actually, I don't know if I'm worthy to bathe in it. Maybe I'll stop.




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This entry has 4 comments: (Add your own)

• #4 Comment from justfredol 
  5/9/06 12:38 PM | Permalink

  Is anyone else thinking Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle?
  
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038533348X
  
  I need to read that one again; I forget whether it stars Kilgore Trout.  In fact I should read most of Vonnegut again, instead of all this new junk that's out (grin).
• #3 Comment from monponsett 
  5/9/06 9:52 AM | Permalink

  Anyone who's ever rolled a joint out of a piece of newspaper knows the binding properties of water.
• #2 Comment from plittle 
  5/9/06 9:50 AM | Permalink

  I believe your first link and your third one are referring to the same story. The researchers' names are the same.
  -Paul
  Besides, it's all foma!
  http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/
  
• #1 Comment from dpoem 
  5/9/06 9:32 AM | Permalink

  That's pretty cool.  Who'd have thought that we've been misusing water all these years to make things like beer and Kool-aid.  
  
  -Dan
  http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/