3 ms·
This isn't going to be durable. Not because of climate change, but because of surface energy. Making a boundary between different substances requires energy, a
by dtgriscom 1y ago
This isn't going to be durable. Not because of climate change, but because of surface energy.
Making a boundary between different substances requires energy, and forces will act to minimize those boundaries. This expresses as surface tension in liquids, where a drop will pull in its borders to minimize its boundary. It also happens with solids; if you pack a ball of snow and leave it for a few days, depending on the temperature it will slowly fuse into ice.
Over time, the ice around these information-containing bubbles will slowly move to minimize the surface area of the bubble boundaries, ending up as spheres. It won't be quick, but over decades (again, depending on the temperature) it will happen.
So, no, it won't be practical. (I'm sure you're surprised.)
(The effect of surface energy is my favorite fact from "Introduction to Solid State Chemistry" at MIT. Professor Witt was excellent; he imparted an enormous amount of information clearly and engagingly.)
* https://news.mit.edu/2002/witt https://news.mit.edu/2002/witt
* https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/display/dmsehistory/3.091 https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/display/dmsehistory/3.091
- HocusLocus 1y agoSo it's only useful for encoding spheres!