3 ms·
Stanford researchers solve a mystery of dancing droplets
- mirekrusin 12y agoGive them 3rd dimension (ie. water tank), make droplet that can grow and divide and maybe you've got origins of life.
- tectec 12y agoBut then you would lose the evaporation that is needed for this phenomenon to occur.
- im2w1l 12y agoWeightlessness could give 3d with evaporation.
- deckar01 12y agoEvaporation could be replaced by any type diffusion in this system. I imagine a similar process could arise out of difference in salt concentration. Edit: Updated to clarify the relationship between evaporation and diffusion.
- acadien 12y agoIt is a phase transition, it takes energy to evaporate because of the change in entropy/volume (from Clausius Clapeyron).
- ankurpatel 12y agoThis was shown in a Ted talk by Martin Hanczyc http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_hanczyc_the_line_between_life_and_not_life?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_hanczyc_the_line_between_lif... It shows that there is no fine line between life and non life and life is more like a spectrum with complex life on one side and a simple life-less item like a rock on the other side.
- beambot 12y agoThis (derivative) article has some cool animated GIFs that show the effect in action: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/04/dancing-droplets/ http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/04/dancing-droplets/
- oakwhiz 12y agoReminds me of SmoothLife, a variation on Conway's Game of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJe9H6qS82I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJe9H6qS82I