[CG] Light can vaporize water without the need for heat

A surprising phenomenon that occurs all around us everywhere, and nobody noticed until some researchers took very precise measurements. It shows that our theories of seemingly simple matters can be incomplete in fundamental ways. Implications for ontology and applications: Always expect the unexpected, even in the simplest, most familiar subjects. Never expect any ontology to be finished and accurate in all its details. Reference and excerpts below. John -------------------------- How light can vaporize water without the need for heathttps://news.mit.edu/2024/how-light-can-vaporize-water-without-heat-0423 Surprising “photomolecular effect” discovered by MIT researchers could affect calculations of climate change and may lead to improved desalination and drying processes. It’s the most fundamental of processes — the evaporation of water from the surfaces of oceans and lakes, the burning off of fog in the morning sun, and the drying of briny ponds that leaves solid salt behind. Evaporation is all around us, and humans have been observing it and making use of it for as long as we have existed. And yet, it turns out, we’ve been missing a major part of the picture all along. In a series of painstakingly precise experiments, a team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated that heat isn’t alone in causing water to evaporate. Light, striking the water’s surface where air and water meet, can break water molecules away and float them into the air, causing evaporation in the absence of any source of heat. The astonishing new discovery could have a wide range of significant implications. It could help explain mysterious measurements over the years of how sunlight affects clouds, and therefore affect calculations of the effects of climate change on cloud cover and precipitation. It could also lead to new ways of designing industrial processes such as solar-powered desalination or drying of materials.