Why the Most Official Water on Earth Costs $120,000 a Gallon
The most official water costs $120k a gallon
Not all water is identical because hydrogen and oxygen atoms have different isotopes. To ensure precise temperature measurements, scientists established Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water, or VSMOW, as the global reference. This specific mixture is so rare and critical for calibrating thermometers that a single 5 ml ampoule costs $159, translating to an astonishing $120,000 per gallon.
And you don't need a precision thermometer to tell you that that's pretty cool.
- Duanemclemore
NIST Cigarettes are a mere $204 per carton.
Depending on what state you live in, that's not bad these days.
https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?sku=1196a&cclcl=e...
- jarenmf
most needs for such water are for calibration of instruments - many labs run stable isotopes measurements which has many applications from tracing how plants use water to measuring your metabolic base rate .. so the main use case it to calibrate instruments because it's really difficult to have an absolute measurement of stable isotope ratios from first principles - and the ratios are so small you typically express them in relation to standards like VSMOW
- fionic
Idk I feel like if you bought in bulk you would get a discount on the additional mL purchased.
- sudb
Reminds of me of the "most expensive peanut butter" at ~$2.44/g - sold by NIST, I assume for some sort of peanut butter factory process calibration:
- rwmj
Interesting article but left me wondering why they don't use ¹H₂¹⁶O as the "standard water"? Surely you can make that (relatively) easily in a centrifuge by spinning out the lightest fraction of water.
- spullara
A US gallon of deuterium water costs roughly $2,600 to $3,800, while a gallon of pure tritium water (super-heavy water) would cost about $44 million.
- tomcam
I got mine at a NIST surplus sale for just $55k/gallon. I think it was mismarked.
OK I just made the whole story up
- tomsmeding
I can't help but read VSMOW as Very Standard Mean Ocean Water.