LEGO bricks performed well in a heat tolerance test at extremely low temperatures.

Applications like superconducting and quantum computing require near-absolute-zero temperatures in order to work.

Scientists say the special LEGO shape is part of why the bricks did so well.

Gizmodo reports that some whimsical scientists have supercooled their Lego bricks in order to test for heat tolerance. They were surprised how well the bricks performed in their tests.



Superconducting and quantum computing are both enabled by materials that perform best at extremely low temperatures. The slower these materials transfer heat, the longer a particular computer or conductor can work at peak capacity—like a hypothetical desktop computer covered in perfect vent fans so you can play graphics-intensive games forever. The margin for “overheating” a quantum setup is tiny and seems ludicrous compared to anything that operates at room temperature, but extreme cold is required for these systems to even operate at all. The “quantum states” are specific and hard to achieve.

Researchers wondered if LEGO bricks, made from mass-manufactured, brittle industrial plastic and molded into hollow, interlocking shapes, would perform comparably to more expensive plastics in tests of their heat conductivity. Their suspicions were correct: “Heating the top LEGO brick led to no noticeable change in the temperature in the bottom brick, according [to] the paper,” Gizmodo reports.

The team, from the physics department at Lancaster University, published its findings in Nature Scientific Reports. The idea of testing LEGO bricks seems outlandish to civilians, but materials scientists have studied LEGO bricks in terms of their shape and the specific plastic they’re made of for a long time. The shape is special because it introduces tons of air cushions that boost the plastic’s insulating properties. The plastic itself, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), is a durable and easily worked thermoplastic, meaning you warm it in order to shape and manufacture with it.

If you think that sounds exactly like prototypical 3D printing, you’re right ! But ABS dates back much further, and LEGO bricks have been made of it since 1963. The same properties that make ABS an attractive 3D printing compound are why it makes great LEGO bricks. Tiny LEGO tires are made from a related plastic: “ These tyres [sic] are made from a slightly different polymer to ABS, styrene butadiene styrene (SBS).”

Because of its chemical makeup, ABS holds up to all the material indignities of being manufactured, like extrusion into thin threads (or from 3D printer nozzles) and even sawing. Unlike hot glue, which is also made mostly of heated plastics , ABS doesn’t melt in a traditional sense. At high enough temperatures, it just softens and can be extruded.

Researchers were pleasantly surprised how well their LEGO bricks held their cold when confronted with a heat source. In the paper, they conclude that a 3D printed shape like a LEGO brick, but made with even better heat-sinking plastics, will likely perform better than either an ABS LEGO brick or a non-modular shape made of a more expensive plastic. In other words, combining both could exceed the sum of their respective benefits.

But the researchers say such a mix would be much heavier on the LEGO and ABS side, comparing to the sheer cost of a comparable proprietary plastic, DuPont’s Vespel. “In the current market, the price of a single sheet of Vespel of order 100 cm² would cover the cost of the whole 3D printer setup needed for creating the ABS structures, which could be used repeatedly,” the researchers conclude.

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