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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Fineus on April 15, 2004, 11:01:58 am

Title: RnD Breakthrough 2: Sapphire - Water That Isn't Wet
Post by: Fineus on April 15, 2004, 11:01:58 am

Read this one the Applegeeks frontpage who in turn got it from Slashdot. Thought it'd make an interesting read!

http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/04/14/1621235.shtml?tid=126&tid=134

Title: RnD Breakthrough 2: Sapphire - Water That Isn't Wet
Post by: mikhael on April 15, 2004, 11:20:37 am

It should be pointed out that Sapphire is hardly the first substance to have these properties. 3Ms flourinert is pretty much the same stuff.

could be cool for an aquarium PC though. The stuff looks like it sucks up heat pretty well, so a radiator cycling system could be groovy.

Title: RnD Breakthrough 2: Sapphire - Water That Isn't Wet
Post by: Black Wolf on April 15, 2004, 11:26:36 am

Nicely :) On a vaguely related note, ever had mercury running over your fingers? Might not be the best idea for long term health, but it is an incredibly odd sensation - liquid that isn't leaving your hands even the slightest bit wet.

Title: RnD Breakthrough 2: Sapphire - Water That Isn't Wet
Post by: J3Vr6 on April 15, 2004, 11:30:02 am

This is another article on it, someone at work forwarded me the link:

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/04132004_bb_sapphire.html

Title: RnD Breakthrough 2: Sapphire - Water That Isn't Wet
Post by: karajorma on April 15, 2004, 11:39:31 am

Hmmm. Looks quite cool. I'm still wondering about the enviromental effects of this compound but it doesn't contain any chlorine so it may not be that bad for the enviroment. The PDF didn't seem to have much data other than a big assumption that it would only last in the atmosphere for 5 days.

Title: RnD Breakthrough 2: Sapphire - Water That Isn't Wet
Post by: Liberator on April 15, 2004, 11:47:41 am

The Screen Savers on Tech TV, did a little thing with the fluorinert stuff about a year ago.  The built a case, liquid-tight of course, that had two chambers.  On chamber had the computer in it, the other chunks of dry ice.  The only cooling the CPU had was the Fluorinert as it was pumped through the dry ice chamber and into the CPU chamber.  The only problem was the flow rate wasn't high enough and the liquid was boiling away before it could be replaced.  The fixed that with a jet that increased the flow rate to the cpu.  The computer ran fine until the CPU started to get down around 40 F.

BTW, the Fluorinert, and Sapphire too probably, cost over $400 USD a gallon.  Kind of puts it out of the range of most modders.