"Quantum Water" Discovered in Carbon Nanotubes

[bananas]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26319/

"Quantum Water" Discovered in Carbon Nanotubes
A new quantum state of water found in carbon nanotubes at room temperature could have important implications for life
KFC 01/28/2011

Many astrobiologists think that water is a key ingredient for life. And not just because life on Earth can't manage without it.

<snip>

Today, George Reiter at the University of Houston and a few buddies put forward evidence that water is stranger than anybody thought. In fact, they go as far as to say that when confined on the nanometre scale, it forms into an entirely new type of quantum water.

<snip>

In fact, this phenomenon may be a crucial factor in the very mechanism of life itself. Exciting stuff!

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1101.4994: Evidence Of A New Quantum State Of Nano-Confifined Water

[slackmaster]

1. They're gonna make Ice-9

:scared:

[bananas]

2. They already did

Didn't live up to the hype.

[DetlefK]

3. I have Ice-4 in my fridge...

[Igel]

4. Ice-9 is so 2002 it's out of support.

They're about to release Ice-23 beta.

Now *there's* something that'll make the blood freeze in your veins.

[bleever]

5. Ice, ice:

Baby.


Sometimes, you've gotta think small to go big.

[The Doctor.]

6. Yes... very cool thread.

K+R For white 80's rappers everywhere.

[Occulus]

7. Carbon nanotube are, in layman's terms,

really fucking amazing things. And I'm understating the reality when I say that.

Lots of new discoveries have been made about these structures over the past few years. Per the Wiki,

# Textiles—CNT can make waterproof and/or tear-resistant fabrics
# Body armor—MIT is working on combat jackets that use CNT fibers to stop bullets and to monitor the condition of the wearer. Cambridge University developed the fibres and licensed a company to make them.
# Concrete—CNT in concrete increase its tensile strength, and halt crack propagation.
# Polyethylene—Adding CNT to polyethylene can increase the polymer's elastic modulus by 30%.
# Sports equipment—Stronger and lighter tennis rackets, bicycle parts, golf balls, golf clubs, and baseball bats.
# Space elevator—CNT are under investigation as possible components of the tether up which a space elevator can climb. This requires tensile strengths of more than about 70 GPa.

It's like winning the Showcase on "The Price is Right" :D

I'm partial to the space elevator myself- orbit would become easy and affordable, but you need a cable. Carbon nanotubes are what is generally thought are required to build that cable.

[DetlefK]

8. Installing the space-elevator will be a major problem

Let's say you have a tear-proof rope of 500km length. How do you connect one end to a space station and the other end to a ground station?

Shooting the loose end into space, while the ground station holds the cable roller? Think about the flames of the rocket thrusters and the oscillations from the vibrations. Not to mention the problem to unwind a HUGE cable roller with just the right speed to avoid clogging.

Shooting the whole rope into space and then dropping the loose end with a counter-weight attached? Good luck catching a 500 km long pendulum, that oscillates anharmonically due to the uneven gravity and weather phenomena.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. I don't see why it'd be a problem to catch it

let the end drop into the sea and then pick it up. The sea would damp the movement of the end.

[DetlefK]

11. Good idea. But you would need a natural or artificial island near the point of impact.

The position of the ground station has to correspond to a geostationary orbit after all.

[sofa king]

12. A counterweight is usually used in science fiction.

Or maybe I'm not using the correct term. I've read several science fiction books from Arthur Clarke to K. S. Robinson which involve space elevators. Robinson proposes using a small asteroid (of course named Clarke) as the geostationary anchor. A.C. Clarke, I think, once proposed building the cable in both directions, toward Earth and away from it, so that the weight of the cable would always be balanced during construction. When it's finished, the other 22,300 miles is an accelerometer that can launch a package to Saturn, like flinging a ring off of a stick.

But that was all fun and games that predates careful consideration of resonance, expansion and contraction, fatigue and failure, and the fact that sooner or later damned near every object in orbit below geostationary is going to crash into it with enormous energy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. A paper from someone who works at Los Alamos

http://spaceelevatorwiki.com/wiki/images/6/6d/ActaAstropreprint.pdf

He goes with deployment from a geostationary satellite of a small cable in both directions, and then moving the deploying satellite up the cable to put it under tension; then climbing vehicles that add to the width of cable so that large vehicles can be used. There is some consideration of objects in orbit, resonance, micrometeors, lightning strikes, and more.

[sofa king]

14. Neat! Thank you.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. I was going to predict a new pseudo-scientific marketing opportunity

but I see they got there a long time ago:

"100% Genuine QUANTUM WATER"

http://fusionexcelestore.com/quantum_water/quantum_water_home.htm

[Orrex]

15. My first thought was that this will revolutionize the field of homeopathy

Can't wait.

[Posteritatis]

16. I love how Geocities those sites always look. (nt)

[drm604]

17. Another polywater?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater