Ice-nine
Encyclopedia
Ice-nine is a fictional material appearing in Kurt Vonnegut
's novel Cat's Cradle
. It is supposed to be a more stable polymorph
of water than common ice (Ice Ih
) which instead of melting at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), melts at 45.8 °C (114.4 °F). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8 °C (which is thus effectively supercooled
), it acts as a seed crystal
, and causes the solidification of the entire body of water which quickly crystallizes as ice-nine. A global catastrophe involving freezing the Earth's oceans by simple contact with ice-nine is used as a plot device
in Vonnegut's novel.
Vonnegut came across the idea while working at General Electric
:
The fictional ice-nine should not be confused with the real-world ice polymorph Ice IX
, which does not have these properties.
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
's novel Cat's Cradle
Cat's Cradle
Cat's Cradle is the fourth novel by American writer Kurt Vonnegut, first published in 1963. It explores issues of science, technology, and religion, satirizing the arms race and many other targets along the way...
. It is supposed to be a more stable polymorph
Polymorphism (materials science)
Polymorphism in materials science is the ability of a solid material to exist in more than one form or crystal structure. Polymorphism can potentially be found in any crystalline material including polymers, minerals, and metals, and is related to allotropy, which refers to chemical elements...
of water than common ice (Ice Ih
Ice Ih
thumb|Photograph showing details of an ice cube under magnification. Ice Ih is the form of ice commonly seen on earth.Ice Ih is the hexagonal crystal form of ordinary ice, or frozen water. Virtually all ice in the biosphere is ice Ih, with the exception only of a small amount of ice Ic which is...
) which instead of melting at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), melts at 45.8 °C (114.4 °F). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8 °C (which is thus effectively supercooled
Supercooling
Supercooling, also known as undercooling, is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid or a gas below its freezing point without it becoming a solid....
), it acts as a seed crystal
Seed crystal
A seed crystal is a small piece of single crystal/polycrystal material from which a large crystal of the same material typically is to be grown...
, and causes the solidification of the entire body of water which quickly crystallizes as ice-nine. A global catastrophe involving freezing the Earth's oceans by simple contact with ice-nine is used as a plot device
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
in Vonnegut's novel.
Vonnegut came across the idea while working at General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
:
- The author Vonnegut credits the invention of ice-nine to Irving LangmuirIrving LangmuirIrving Langmuir was an American chemist and physicist. His most noted publication was the famous 1919 article "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules" in which, building on Gilbert N. Lewis's cubical atom theory and Walther Kossel's chemical bonding theory, he outlined his...
, who pioneered the study of thin films and interfaces. While working in the public relations office at General Electric, Vonnegut came across a story of how Langmuir, who won the 1932 Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for his work at General Electric, was charged with the responsibility of entertaining the author H.G. Wells, who was visiting the company in the early 1930s. Langmuir is said to have come up with an idea about a form of solid water that was stable at room temperature in the hopes that Wells might be inspired to write a story about it. Apparently, Wells was not inspired and neither he nor Langmuir ever published anything about it. After Langmuir and Wells had died, Vonnegut decided to use the idea in his book Cat's Cradle.
The fictional ice-nine should not be confused with the real-world ice polymorph Ice IX
Ice IX
Ice IX is a form of solid water stable at temperatures below 140 K and pressures between 200 and 400 MPa. It has a tetragonal crystal lattice and a density of 1.16 g/cm³, 26% higher than ordinary ice. It is formed by cooling ice III from 208 K to 165 K...
, which does not have these properties.
Nonfiction
- While multiple polymorphs of ice do exist (they can be created under pressure), none has the properties described in this book, and none is stable at standard temperature and pressure above the ordinary melting point of ice. The real Ice IXIce IXIce IX is a form of solid water stable at temperatures below 140 K and pressures between 200 and 400 MPa. It has a tetragonal crystal lattice and a density of 1.16 g/cm³, 26% higher than ordinary ice. It is formed by cooling ice III from 208 K to 165 K...
has none of the properties of Vonnegut's creation, and can exist only at extremely low temperatures and high pressures. - The ice-nine phenomenon has, in fact, occurred with a few other kinds of crystals, called "disappearing polymorphs". In these cases, a new variant of a crystal has been introduced into an environment, replacing many of the older form crystals with its own form. One example is the anti-AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
medicine ritonavirRitonavirRitonavir, with trade name Norvir , is an antiretroviral drug from the protease inhibitor class used to treat HIV infection and AIDS....
, where the newer version destroyed the effectiveness of the drug until improved manufacturing and distribution was developed. - The rock band the Grateful DeadGrateful DeadThe Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
set up a publishing company called Ice Nine (in tribute to Vonnegut's story). http://www.iceninepublishing.com
In other media
- Chris MarsChris MarsChris Mars is an American artist and musician. He was the drummer for seminal Minneapolis, Minnesota alternative rock band The Replacements and later joined informal supergroup Golden Smog before launching a solo career. He is also a painter, and has more or less left music behind to concentrate...
' 1993 album 75% Less Fat includes a song called No More Mud which is entirely about Ice-Nine and makes numerous references to the characters of the book. - Joe SatrianiJoe SatrianiJoseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
's album Surfing With the AlienSurfing with the AlienSurfing with the Alien is the second album by instrumental rock guitarist Joe Satriani, released in 1987. Surfing with the Alien contributed greatly to establishing Satriani's reputation as a respected rock guitarist....
includes a song called Ice 9. - The One O'Clock Lab BandOne O'Clock Lab BandThe One O’Clock Lab Band for years has been the premier ensemble of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas College of Music in Denton. The band has performed and toured abroad in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway,...
at UNT performed an original jazz composition called "Ice-Nine" (composed by Steve Weist) on their grammy nominated album "Lab 2009" which is sold exclusively through Penders Music Company - The video game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doorsis an adventure game developed by Chunsoft and published in Japan by Spike on December 10, 2009, and in North America by Aksys Games on November 16, 2010. The game's design team was led by Kotaro Uchikoshi, who is also the writer of the acclaimed visual novel Ever 17: The Out of Infinity...
uses ice-9 as a major plot element, with similar attributes to Vonnegut's original ice-nine. - The 2003 filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
The RecruitThe RecruitThe Recruit is a 2003 American spy thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Colin Farrell, Al Pacino and Bridget Moynahan. It was released on January 31, 2003 in North America by Touchstone Pictures....
features a computer virusComputer virusA computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
named Ice-9 in tribute to Vonnegut's ice-nine that would erase hard drives and travel through power sources which are not protected; possibly erasing every computer on EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. - The Season 4 Episode "Ice" of the American television show AliasAlias (TV series)Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
revolves around a chemical named Ice-Five with the same effect as VonnegutVonnegutVonnegut is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:*Kurt Vonnegut, American science fiction writer*Bernard Vonnegut, American atmospheric scientist, elder brother of Kurt*Edith Vonnegut, American painter, daughter of Kurt...
's Ice-Nine. - Red Mage, a main character in the popular web comic series 8-Bit Theater8-Bit Theater8-Bit Theater is a completed sprite comic created by Brian Clevinger, and published in 1,225 episodes from March 2, 2001 to June 1, 2010. One of the most popular web comics, it won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards for best fantasy comic in 2002...
can and has used a spell known as "Ice-9" which will stop all thermal activity of the dimension it's used in. - Ice-9 appears in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: CenturyThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: CenturyThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century is the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. Co-published by Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics in the US and UK respectively, Century will be published in...
. It forms the tomb of Golden Age superhero StardustStardust the Super WizardStardust the Super Wizard is a fictional character, a comic book superhero from the Golden Age of Comics. Created by writer-artist Fletcher Hanks, he first appeared in Fox Comics' Fantastic Comics #1 .-Publication history:...
. - A band, Ice Nine KillsIce Nine KillsIce Nine Kills is an American metalcore band from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2002 by Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz, the group originally pursued a style combining emo, post-hardcore and ska into their own innovative blend of rock but have since shifted into more of an experimental...
, is named after Vonnegut's weapon of mass destruction. - Some part of the Scheme programming language implementation GNU GuileGNU GuileGNU Guile is an interpreter/virtual machine for the Scheme programming language. It was first released in 1993. Guile includes modularized extensions for POSIX system calls, APL array functionality, and others packaged as an object library...
is named ice-9 with regard to the crystallization effect of Vonnegut's invention http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Status.html#Status.
Other fields
- In Biology prions are linked conceptually to Ice-nine (which is often used as a fictional example of prions in the classroom). This is because prions and Ice-nine are both self-propagating alternate forms of a material (water in the case of ice-nine and a protein in the case of prions)