Letter/Communication
Cat's Cradle and Ice-Nine
Physics Today, Vol.39(11), pp.11-11
Nov/1986
Abstract
The obituary by Elizabeth A. Wood for Alan Holden contained a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. Until reading the story about Holden and ethylene diamine tartrate, I thought that the inspiration for ice-nine in Vonnegut's story<br/>came via his brother, Bernard Vonnegut, who is generally credited with the idea for artificial cloud seeding with Agl, a technique used widely in this country. In addition I once heard the story that Bernard Vonnegut was behind a short-lived Allied effort during World War II to bomb the German glycerine (melting point 20°C) tanks with glycerine crystals to solidify this supercooled stored precursor reagent for TNT manufacture, and that this inspired his brother. [with replies from Elizabeth Wood and Bernard and Kurt Vonnegut]
Details
- Title
- Cat's Cradle and Ice-Nine
- Creators
- David Cahen (null) - The Weizmann Institute of Science
- Resource Type
- Letter/Communication
- Publication Details
- Physics Today, Vol.39(11), pp.11-11; Nov/1986
- Number of pages
- 1
- Language
- English
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2815196
- Grant note
- NA
- Record Identifier
- 993262210603596
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