There is an interesting story (only slightly relevant) about glycerine. It was a pure liquid, held in many labs throughout the world. Until for some reason it crystallised in one lab. Wishing a short amount of time all the world's samples crystallised.

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mrob 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sounds similar to the real-life case of ritonavir:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritonavir#Polymorphism_and_tem...

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gumgumpost an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Isn't that somewhat similar to prions? I mean I know they're different things but one triggering the other to change shape? Don't know if prions also fall in some sort of lower energy well.

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bradyd 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Veritasium just did a video on this.

https://youtu.be/ksn5yrsC3Wg

	▲	danparsonson 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Also less recently Asianometry: https://youtu.be/_xPhxtuA_Qc

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tcskeptic 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Just to be clear -- this story is fictional, it did not happen in real life. It has become a bit of an urban legend because of a video game but does not have a basis in fact.

	▲	wduquette 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Obligatory reference to Ice-9 in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle: a form of water ice that freezes at a high temperature.
	▲	harperlee 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Interesting! Could you expand?