New Method For Writing And Preserving Messages On Ice Discovered: Research

The extremely low temperatures in the icy Arctic and Antarctic areas often limit devices that require a lot of energy, making communication difficult. Scientists from China, Korea, and the Czech Republic have discovered a new method for writing and preserving messages: making patterns of air bubbles trapped in ice sheets.

A study, published in Cell Reports Physical Science, describes how the Beijing Institute of Technology researchers used the mechanics of bubble formation to encode brief messages in ice.

Their method is based on controlling the size, shape, and placement of air bubbles that occur when water freezes naturally. This unconventional technique uses ice-trapped air bubbles to create different bubble forms that can be used to encode messages in binary or Morse code, per the New York Times.

The concept of bubble messages was inspired by the air bubbles that naturally develop in glaciers. The researchers looked into the dispersion of bubbles in ice to find a simple method of communicating and storing information for extended periods of time.

Tiny air pockets, or bubbles, are created inside the ice when water freezes, because it forces out dissolved gases. 

The researchers employed a unique arrangement, placing a tiny layer of water on a chilly plate between two sheets of transparent plastic. It was discovered that they could produce particular bubble patterns, each of which represented a portion of a coded message, by carefully regulating the freezing process.

Several layers were produced, some with and some without bubbles, by varying the freezing speed. The properties of each layer became the fundamental units of communication.

Clear ice looks dark, whereas bubbly areas appear white due to the way air bubbles scatter light. The hidden message is revealed when a computer software analyses the image, finds the bubble patterns, and converts them back into binary or Morse code.

Author Mengjie Song stated that using trapped air bubbles to convey and store messages is more secret than using paper documents and requires less energy than telecommunication in naturally cold areas.

"These ice messages can be preserved for a long time, and the messages they carry are easy to visualise and read," Song added.

The researchers agreed that much more work needs to be performed to make such applications possible. The group intends to further study bubble creation in three-dimensional environments and look into how gas type and concentration affect bubble ice properties.