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Melting Away Ice Hazards

Posted by michael on from the electrifying-discoveries dept.

RadioheadKid writes "Dartmouth College Professor Victor F. Petrenko is getting a grip on ice. He and his colleagues have found ways to take advantage of the "protonic" semiconductor properties of frozen water. They see many applications of this discovery from melting ice on power lines to electronic speed control for skis and snowboards. I guess those Petrenkos just love the ice."

3 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Car traction? by absurdhero · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think a lot of electricity would be required to melt that volume of ice almost instantaniously. power lines are stationary. they can afford to run it for 10 seconds or even minutes to melt it. Spinning tires are a different story, Im afraid.

  2. Europa Exploration? by MystikPhish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So could this effect be applied to the skin of a Europoa ice rover that would melt its way through 2km of ice?

    I always hear that using heat to melt it would be impractical, but with a drill and this electric field effect maybe something more energy efficient could be done?

    --
    "I'm about to drop the hammer and dispense some indiscriminate justice!"
  3. Re:Science solving real problems in the world by jeti · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Powerlines that don't break under the load of ice.
    Trains operating in extreme weather because rails
    and cables can be cleaned of ice fast and efficiently.
    Fast de-icing of car windows.
    Maybe car tires with a far better grip on ice and
    new snow mobiles that are able to climb extreme
    slopes (for alpine rescue crews).

    This tech will likely save more than a few lives.