in several different metals (i had only heard of tin whiskers) fern like arms grow, made of the same metal. this has caused problems in spacecraft, servers around the world etc (the whiskers act as jumpers in a circuit and cause a short). very interesting, read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_whiskers

This post was edited by juliusjuice on Sep 22 2010 01:42pm

Oh yeah I remember this now, very strange. Cool post!

It's because the alchemists were right and metal is living and can grow like a plant.

This post was edited by AEtheric on Sep 25 2010 12:20pm

i think tiny parcticles of metal break off then are bound together by magnetic fields. why they stack the way they do i do not know.

i am definately wrong btw.

i do networking and these fkers are a #1 killer on server racks over time high temp rooms with datacab towers close to gether = whiskers on boards that are close to other power supply units (the magne feilds on the psu causes most of it) along with the heat
butt im not tellign the nubs that anym ore they dont seem to take my advice so let it break and ill fix it :3

Is this why they're shutting down the space station?

definitely*

probably

prick