More about ‘Flexoelectricity’ here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-025-02995-6
One more surprise in the ‘ice’ category … which is now up to 19 forms. (Know of any other solids which float on their liquid form?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phases_of_ice#Known_phases
“The details of the chemical nature of liquid water are not well understood; some theories suggest that its unusual behavior is due to the existence of two liquid states.” - WP
This is actually a pretty neat post.
I mean this in the most complimentary way, it’s something I was previously unaware of, yet as I read thorough it seemed completely intuitive and obvious that this effect would exist!
I’m a little skeptical about the hype around lighting and material sciences, but I can absolutely understand how this effect can be used in the analysis of atmospheric effects and probably geological effects as well, I imagine!
My late father who was a lifelong meteorologist with the government of canada would be so fascinated to read about this, and my estranged uncle, a professor or Earth Sciences and a palaioclimatologist with 40+ years under his belt.
(Holy fuck the conversations uncle & I had over the years, some while completely hammered… That man would drop the most insane science on you alllllllllll day)
Neat
You were a lucky man to be able to tune into an inspiration like that. (My home town had zero scientists.) As a kid, when I started talking about earth impactors, they’d usually get funny looks on their faces. Then I’d point at the surface of the Moon, and ask if they thought that only it got hit that many times. Silence (heh!)
Damn I never thought about that, I really was lucky.
I was not very much into the atmospheric sciences, but I learned enough from my nerd father over many years. My brother was more fascinated with atmospheric sciences.
Myself, I was more into chemistry and geology, so I gravitated towards my uncle’s field. He gave me very interesting crystal formations from his years as a student, I myself have kept them for over 40 years!
Do you have a favourite crystal formation?
This one because the crystalline structure makes it so it can only be cleaved in this fascinating shape, and the strata make a really neat refraction pattern
This is super neat! Since humans have such a close relationship with water, it’s easy to forget how anomalous of a chemical it is.
And sugar cubes glow if you break them.
make my sugar cubes glow, mmm.
Dos this mean ice is piezoelectric? If not what’s the difference?
I’ve just been reading up on this now, and it seems that flexoelectricity is distinct from piezoelectricity, but they are related. Flexoelectricity involves the strain a material undergoes — i.e. how much the material deforms — whereas piezoelectricity is about the stress a material experiences. Of course, stress and strain are pretty closely linked — applying stress to a material often induces strain.
I need to read more about this, but I wonder whether there may be some materials that are piezoelectric but not flexoelectric, and some that are flexoelectric but not piezoelectric, as well as some materials that are both.
Maybe it can be turned into a piezo driven acousto optic modulator…a self healing one.
A water based electric drum set?
No, more like dull Christmas freezing light blinking entertainment… Like it might twinkle a light passing through the ice at freezing temperature if you input a sound frequency into the crystal.
I assume that one could use the ice as a guitar pickup too probably?
More like self heaTIng one.
LOL. It could be pretty cool…literally.
