4 ms·

There is an interesting story (only slightly relevant) about glycerine. It was a pure liquid, held in many labs throughout the world. Until for some reason it c

There is an interesting story (only slightly relevant) about glycerine. It was a pure liquid, held in many labs throughout the world. Until for some reason it crystallised in one lab. Wishing a short amount of time all the world's samples crystallised.

tcskeptic 5mo ago
Just to be clear -- this story is fictional, it did not happen in real life. It has become a bit of an urban legend because of a video game but does not have a basis in fact.
- harperlee 5mo ago
  Interesting! Could you expand?
- wduquette 5mo ago
  Obligatory reference to Ice-9 in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle: a form of water ice that freezes at a high temperature.
- gwern 5mo ago
  Source for it being fictional? The original 1960 source describes it as extremely nonfictional: https://gwern.net/doc/fiction/science-fiction/1960-analog-october.pdf#page=44 https://gwern.net/doc/fiction/science-fiction/1960-analog-oc...
  - gjm11 5mo ago
    It also, unsurprisingly, tells a slightly different and less startling story: it's not that glycerine crystallized in one lab and suddenly others around the world had the same problem, it's that glycerine hadn't been crystallizing in one lab but once the lab was sent a sample of crystallized glycerine the stuff always did crystallize there, presumably (assuming the story's true) because of some sort of tiny particles (whether of glycerine or of something else) that float about in the air or adhere to glassware and encourage glycerine to crystallize.
mrob 5mo ago
Sounds similar to the real-life case of ritonavir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritonavir#Polymorphism_and_temporary_market_withdrawal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritonavir#Polymorphism_and_tem...
- bradyd 5mo ago
  Veritasium just did a video on this. https://youtu.be/ksn5yrsC3Wg https://youtu.be/ksn5yrsC3Wg
  - danparsonson 5mo ago
    Also less recently Asianometry: https://youtu.be/_xPhxtuA_Qc https://youtu.be/_xPhxtuA_Qc
- gumgumpost 5mo ago
  Isn't that somewhat similar to prions? I mean I know they're different things but one triggering the other to change shape? Don't know if prions also fall in some sort of lower energy well.

tcskeptic 5mo ago

Just to be clear -- this story is fictional, it did not happen in real life. It has become a bit of an urban legend because of a video game but does not have a basis in fact.

harperlee 5mo ago
Interesting! Could you expand?
wduquette 5mo ago
Obligatory reference to Ice-9 in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle: a form of water ice that freezes at a high temperature.
gwern 5mo ago
Source for it being fictional? The original 1960 source describes it as extremely nonfictional: https://gwern.net/doc/fiction/science-fiction/1960-analog-october.pdf#page=44 https://gwern.net/doc/fiction/science-fiction/1960-analog-oc...
- gjm11 5mo ago
  It also, unsurprisingly, tells a slightly different and less startling story: it's not that glycerine crystallized in one lab and suddenly others around the world had the same problem, it's that glycerine hadn't been crystallizing in one lab but once the lab was sent a sample of crystallized glycerine the stuff always did crystallize there, presumably (assuming the story's true) because of some sort of tiny particles (whether of glycerine or of something else) that float about in the air or adhere to glassware and encourage glycerine to crystallize.

mrob 5mo ago

Sounds similar to the real-life case of ritonavir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritonavir#Polymorphism_and_temporary_market_withdrawal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritonavir#Polymorphism_and_tem...

bradyd 5mo ago
Veritasium just did a video on this. https://youtu.be/ksn5yrsC3Wg https://youtu.be/ksn5yrsC3Wg
- danparsonson 5mo ago
  Also less recently Asianometry: https://youtu.be/_xPhxtuA_Qc https://youtu.be/_xPhxtuA_Qc
gumgumpost 5mo ago
Isn't that somewhat similar to prions? I mean I know they're different things but one triggering the other to change shape? Don't know if prions also fall in some sort of lower energy well.