YHK - yet another hacker news clone

"The intended application isn't for aircraft carriers this time, but rather for construction projects in remote, cold areas where conventional building methods aren't easy to apply – like the Arctic and Antarctic.

With no concrete or steel required, and with ice and plant-based cellulose as the main ingredients, this could be a building material with a low carbon footprint that's also biodegradable."

warmer igloos obviously. :)

"Further down the line, this approach could open up a whole new landscape for materials used in packaging, construction, and more: Using a custom protein to bring two unlikely compounds (ice and cellulose) together."

Ice roads would be one application. Once it freezes, usual ferry services can often no longer be upheld. Then, one has to wait until the ice is thick enough to drive a car over the ice. If there was an easily applicable material to drive on ice less than usual 15-20cm of ice, that would decrease that waiting time quite a bit (and make ice roads/bridges possible in locations that would previously be unsuitable). And since it is ice, you can grow it somewhere else and transport in place with a barge.

Another is underground tunnel building. In sandy places, there are cases where they freeze the ground when building a concrete structure. If that could be reinforced with stronger ice, it might make working easier.

Similar, you can use ice as an temporary scaffold when e.g building a spanning bridge in winter. Stronger ice => easier application of said scaffold.

The original pykrete also melted less easily than pure ice, IIRC the sawdust acts as insulation or something.

The integrity check could also make this especially valuable for transporting medication that must remain cold. The current state of the art isn't much more than putting ice packs in a styrofoam cooler.

The Wikipedia article mentions how this happened with an anti-AIDS medication called ritonavir. I watched this video by Veritasium on that situation a while back; I recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksn5yrsC3Wg

Another instance of 'Super Ice' or as named in the article 'Pykrete' in science fiction is in Neal Stephenson's Novel from 2015: Seveneves.

The substance is used in space for the construction of temporary habitats. I suppose this is plausible if you manage to find a large source of ice and bring it into a stable orbit. It won't melt into liquid, and perhaps the reinforcing fibers could help prevent sublimation.

A lot of the novel strained my ability to suspend disbelief, but the overall scope and ambition is so awesome I was able to forgive the poor editing. It's attempting to be hard sci-fi, much of the novel is taken up by technical descriptions that could only appeal to an engineer-minded person.

I literally picked up Cat's Cradle for first time in decades this weekend. Funny how these things line up.

What is Ice 362880?

(I’m sorry.)

I think all researchers should be forced to consider the practical applications of their work, if they are publicly funded. Don't want to answer those questions, go find your own money.

Which additive were they using? This article [1] use poliphenols, that are very different from the modified celulose in the top article.

[1] https://thisismold.com/uncategorized/the-science-behind-the-...

One night I ended up with a scoop of ice cream I had to discard (I think I dropped it on the floor?) so left it in the sink. The next morning, it was still there. This was quite a decent ice cream, both in terms of flavour and texture; it was some of the gums holding it together. That became my new ice-cream of choice for making an affogatto without the icecream completely melting.

I believe they used a different frozen compound than water, but yes.

It's a mix of water and celulose, do it does not disapear completely.

Well no, because these aren't just ice-- it's an ice composite.

Mythbusters busted ice bullets. IIRC, the ice didn’t tolerate being shot out of a barrel and disintegrated.

Concrete's not strong enough to be used as a bullet either- you'd need something roughly the size of a shotgun slug. If you're going that big, you aren't going for subtle.

Make a bolt and use crossbow

Wouldn’t there still be evidence that some object penetrated the person and ripped them apart and caused them to bleed out?

Surely the CIA has untraceable ammo at their disposal already?

They already have the heart attack gun and half a dozen other gadgets. An ice bullet would be just (pardon the pun) an icing on the cake.

The murder weapon is clearly the only gun around that can shoot ice bullets.

The CIA already had the SA-C46[1] for that “unexplained death” scenario. I believe ot was developed “but not used”… ;) ;)

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAC-46_(handgun)

The point is moot anyway because ballistic forensics is hokum. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-field-of-fire...

It's kind of fascinating how all the bullshit TV copaganda scenes involving forensics have both been A) rightly decried as unrealistic by savvy viewers, and B) still been fairly realistic depictions of the field of forensics.

Inter-galactic? My dude I think you missed a few steps

Came to the comments for the pykrete reference, thanks for this.

Isn't adding newspapers just adding cellulose with some bonus ink?

It's not necessarily a bonus, different sports need completely different ice properties (e.g. figure skating vs hockey), and a managed arena needs ease of maintenance.