World's First "Hot Ice" Computer Solves Problems, With the Occasional Freeze
Those chemical handwarmers you stuff in your gloves during ski season usually solve just one problem: frosty digits. But the sodium acetate used to generate that heat is a far better problem solver than you might think; researchers in Bristol, U.K., have created a "hot ice" computer that utilizes the chemical compound to solve mazes and tackle various other computing problems. Hand warmers made with sodium acetate -- known as "hot ice" for its crystalline behavior and resemblance to ice -- are simply bags filled with a supersaturated solution that has cooled to ambient temperature. When you crack the metal disk in the solution, you create a nucleation center, spurring crystallization of the solution and giving off heat as part of the reaction. Professor Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England in Bristol is no stranger to unconventional computing, having tinkered with a slime...