Ice-nine

Ice-nine is a material appearing in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. Ice-nine is supposedly a polymorph of water (invented by Dr. Felix Hoenikker); instead of melting at 0 °C (32 °F), the result melts at 45.8 °C (114.4 °F). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8 °C (thus effectively becoming supercooled), it acts as a seed crystal and causes the solidification of the entire body of water, which quickly crystallizes as more ice-nine. As people are mostly water, ice-nine kills nearly instantly when ingested or brought into contact with soft tissues exposed to the bloodstream, such as the eyes or tongue.

Ice-nine

Ice-nine is a material appearing in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. Ice-nine is supposedly a polymorph of water (invented by Dr. Felix Hoenikker); instead of melting at 0 °C (32 °F), the result melts at 45.8 °C (114.4 °F). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8 °C (thus effectively becoming supercooled), it acts as a seed crystal and causes the solidification of the entire body of water, which quickly crystallizes as more ice-nine. As people are mostly water, ice-nine kills nearly instantly when ingested or brought into contact with soft tissues exposed to the bloodstream, such as the eyes or tongue.