Vouching for Vonnegut: Engineers study polymer that freezes at room temperature
Wednesday, October 3, 2018 - 05:50
in Physics & Chemistry
In Kurt Vonnegut's sci-fi classic Cat's Cradle, ice-nine is a substance capable of raising water's melting point from 32 to 114.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Once in contact with water, it spreads instantly and indefinitely, leaving frozen oceans and chilling consequences in its wake. Luckily, as Vonnegut explains in the epigraph, 'Nothing in this book is true.' When he wrote the novel in 1963, he may have been right.