
Ideal Glass Would Explain Why Glass Exists at All - theafh
https://www.quantamagazine.org/ideal-glass-would-explain-why-glass-exists-at-all-20200311/
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dfee
I read Quanta (via RSS) and often can only make it 1/2 to 2/3 the way through
an article before giving up. Today I figured out why: the punchline is
absolutely buried.

> Another property of ultra-stable glass would eventually reveal the most
> promising road map to ideal glass.

> { + 4 intermediate paragraphs }

> [the property] ...Sure enough, they found that both glasses had far lower
> heat capacity than usual near absolute zero, in line with a crystal’s. This
> suggested that ultra-stable glass has fewer two-level systems to tunnel
> between.

> { + 3 intermediate paragraphs }

> [the solution] ...His algorithm picks two particles at random and swaps
> their positions. These shake-ups help the simulated liquid stay unstuck,
> allowing molecules to settle into snugger fits — just as the ability to swap
> two ill-fitting shapes would help in Tetris.

Alternatively, that could've been written as:

> Another property of ultra-stable glass - it's far lower heat capacity -
> would eventually reveal the most promising road map to ideal glass: randomly
> swapping particles of cooling glass to allow for snugger fits.

\-- And that's it! --

But my brain either can't, or refuses to, follow 8 paragraphs to arrive at the
Aha moment.

Now, I don't read these sorts of articles for the pleasure of reading. And, I
think the writing style suggests this is a primary goal. So why do I read it?
I dunno, maybe it's a better version of me that clicks "subscribe" than the
one who's presented with the article to read?

Or, I prefer to read selectively rather than comprehensively. A trait I think
is of merit, but my SAT and ACTs surely didn't.

