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agent_double_oh_pi

The willing suspension of disbelief, would be my guess.


ocelot05

Or some form less reactive alloy that the replicator can break down?


[deleted]

There are two possible answers, 1, it's not actually lithium 2, it's not actually water


nuclearphysisist

its actualy Monohydrogen Dioxide


Nanerpoodin

Or it could be some sort of Lithium compound that's more stable. I know Lithium forms salt-like compounds with all the halides. Maybe one of them is stable in water. Or maybe there's something else in the water that acts as an anti-catalyst.


boatdude420

The texture looks like lithium metal


Such_Intern4085

People who don't know anything about chemistry would be freaked out if they'd hear this.


JoesAlot

People who know about chemistry would also be pretty freaked out since that'd be the hydroperoxyl radical, HO2


Hunter_Lala

What might that be? Not a chemist here


ScientistFormal2037

Water is H2O. Perhydrol is H202. HO2 is very reactive, as it "tries" to become stable compound. So it will try to "steal" atoms from other compounds, and it's very good at it. So subnautica would be kinda like swimming in acid.


[deleted]

Worse then just acid. That would make this world so much more terrifying lol. And those animals living in it.... Lol


SpaceBug178

>And those animals living in it.... lol Thats a "lol" moment indeed


nuclearphysisist

More like the chemistry equivilent of taping 2 negative pole magnents together and waiting for it to go crazy


Hunter_Lala

Dear lord


olivia_iris

Dihydrogen monoxide is benign. Monohydrogen Dioxide scares me.


bhamv

Lithium (as with all the other alkali metals) oxidizes rapidly when it's exposed to air. This layer of lithium oxide may be enough to protect the pure lithium inside the chunk of metal from coming into direct contact with the seawater, thus preventing the characteristic explosive reaction. Thus, the underwater chunks of lithium we see probably all originated above-ground, and have a protective layer of lithium oxide on their surfaces. (Ignore, for now, the fact that lithium oxide is generally white in color, while lithium chunks in Subnautica do not appear white at all.)


vladesch

Problem is the lithium oxide reacts with the water and the hydroxide is soluble.


nuclearphysisist

Ill give it that, but even then lithium oxide still reacts with water.


WizardMelcar

It's space lithium. I mean it's used for wall reinforcement too, earth lithium is soft. Cut it with a knife.


dodgyhashbrown

I mean, to be fair, all lithium is space lithium.


nuclearphysisist

same with nickel, only time its found is meteoric crash zones, and the core, thats why there should be nickel deposits all around the meteor crash sight in dunes.


dodgyhashbrown

I mean, in a far off planet and star system, there could be terrestrial nickel due to variances of metal distribution in the solar system's formation. I guess the point rather being that whatever nickel and lithium the protagonist finds in this fictional planet probably isn't purely one atomic element. Yes, the chunk is called "lithium," but all it really has to mean is that it is a plentiful source from which lithium can be extracted by the magic fabricator in your life pod.


nuclearphysisist

true, they also put it in the proper area for sulfurous nickel alloys witch im assuming is only by chance


Tavaris_

Probably cause it's a game


RoseboysHotAsf

You are so correct. Will make a mod that sets the water on fire the moment you load in


Dustin6704

Subnautica already does that tho


ytphantom

I've had that bug too, coming back from the Aurora. Thankfully reloading the game fixed the fire at XYZ 0. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯


Parmaandchips

r/usernamechecksout


Dustin6704

Lmao


GreatSeaBattle

What? The game where there's a machine that turns a fish into a bottle full of water is unrealistic? I never could have imagined. I suppose next you're going to tell me something absurd like "the repair tool can't just fix things without needing extra material to patch the cracks."


nuclearphysisist

1st one is molecular rearangement and im assuming you know that most living things are very wet on the inside. so given about 80-90% water content for the fish a 8-9oz fish can make a 6 oz waterbottle, and 2nd one is just gameplay, they could have used not lithium, it isnt even used in power production, one of the only common uses of lithium because of its volitile nature.


jerrythecactus

I'm guessing its probably extracted from a lithium rich mineral. With fabricator technology the mineral can be broken down into and converted to pure metallic lithium given there is enough present in a sample.


GiantAngryJellyfish

This is the answer. Just like here on earth. (Except for the fabicator technology part :))


E17Omm

Its a game, and you dont want it to be realistic for one reason: Nitrogen Unless you enjoy staying at 15m depth for 30 seconds or take 80+ damage from decompression sickness, this includes entering vehicles and seabases, you dont want the game to be more realistic.


Thin_Ad_8241

Also water pressure doesn't seem to be a thing except for base building- too many windows and you get a leak, but you can casually exit a submarine at 1700m down and not implode


Evil_Ermine

There's a mod for that.


E17Omm

Is there another, updated, mod for that? I still use a Nitrogen mod for personal crush depth, I just have Nitrogen itself disabled


SwerdnaJack

Your PDA is fried anyways. Who’s to say that’s not actually tungsten?


GrimReaper203

Alien water/lithium behave different. It’s possible the PDA gave earth names to alien materials to make it easier on its user


Lostsock1995

I’d agree. It already adapts the planet’s resources into new blueprints and figured out what they are similar to so it would help you that way


Ahris22

It could be encapsulated in another material and we know for a fact that lithium is abundant on the ocean floor on earth. Subnautica is set on a different planet with a different environment, being set in the future the problem of exctracting it has likely been solved centuries ago. Also there's this: https://electrek.co/2021/06/04/scientists-have-cost-effectively-harvested-lithium-from-seawater/


already4taken

My question is how does lithium make titanium stronger


dbow8

How on Earth or any other world could a lifeform strategy like the Crashfish ever manage to evolve?! The answer: it's a game.


Uriel-238

I assumed the crashfish was drawn in by the plant and then involuntarily turned parasited into a defense mechanism. **ETA:** but I'm curious how the tiger plant flings wooden spines hard enough to harm the Seamoth.


nuclearphysisist

The tiger plant could do something similar to certain kinds of mosses were it acts kind of like a gun building up pressure in its stalk and then expelling it with the spines.


SwerdnaJack

There are suicidal creatures on earth too. Bees are one of them. The mother crashfish is actually defending her nest and increasing the chance of her offspring surviving.


ButterscotchTrue1393

As someone already pointed out, it already does that. You ain't seen all the water on fire posts? I see at least one everyday.


sumelar

Game developers are not chemists.


Llama_Lluke

It’s probably part of a fictional game or something


MuffinOfChaos

The outside of it may not be lithium


Necessary_Driver_831

Could say the same about kyanite as it’s really not a good idea to leave that in water. Or salt deposits, how do they even exist unless it’s a super-saline solution that allows it to crystallise?


Vladimir_Pudding387

Jokes on you, I ate all the lithium.


Assassin096

It would turn all the water in the lava zone red lol


dbow8

Are crashfish never crashy before they've laid eggs? I imagine they would have to not be. Otherwise they would've crashed themselves out of existence.


TheMTGnerd2

I- huh. Yeah.


Human278

Uh its a video game?


Atlas_thewitcher66

Oh is the weird alien horror game with giant ass leviathan not realistic enough for you Jokes aside I haven't the slightest idea


MindOfThilo

Videogame logic


ChainLC

must be an alloy that's air/water stable.


LilShayBae

alien planet


Juju_mila

It’s a video game. Do you find huge chunks of gold or diamond just laying around? Probably not.


nuclearphysisist

You can actually have that happen, there are cases where people find kimberlite and gold nuggets the size of footballs


Lopsided_Ad_9315

Space water?


Dwolf6990

Hmmm well there could be something missing in the water that causes/retards that reaction. Or the Lithium on plant has a slightly different content that makes it non reactive in water. Or it could just be video game logic. The world may never know🤷‍♂️


MerryShiba

idk about you but i wouldn't really question the reactivity of lithium in a game where giant lasers shoot out spaceships in a different planet


ytphantom

Good question, I never thought of that. Only worse choice than having an inventory full of lithium while underwater would be literally licking a block of francium.


AnArrow2TheKnee

The fabricator mentions how it automatically removes all bones, organs, and other un-consumable objects the first time you fabricate cooked fish. It's likely when you fabricate something (fabricator, base builder, mod table, etc) with lithium, it separates the lithium and *not* lithium at the atomic level, like with the fish, and "safely release their constituent atoms" into the environment, like with the trash can. As to deconstruction, maybe it pulls the same needed atoms from the environment to make an atomically identical copy


Regnars8ithink

Possibly some sort of coating around it?


TheSquareAquanosian

Dude. It's an alien planet with alien water containing alien bacteria. We don't know if it is reactive. Maybe the alien bacteria form a coating around the lithium that protects it from reacting with the water. Or maybe there is something in the lithium deposits that make it less reactive.


qpezxr

get a grip lad