You can tell exactly what a drink was just by looking at the weird, cracked patterns it leaves behind after it dries up.
arXiv · March 18, 2026 · 2603.15660
The Takeaway
When starch-based mixtures dry, they form intricate fracture patterns that act as a permanent record of the liquid's identity. By using AI to analyze these 'fingerprints,' researchers were able to tell if a vanished liquid was water, acetone, or a specific alcohol blend with over 96% accuracy.
From the abstract
We introduce an optimized protocol of fracture pattern classification using an artificial neural network to identify the solvent involved in the desiccation cracking process of starch-liquid slurries, even after it has been completely evaporated. For this purpose, image analysis techniques were used to characterize patterns obtained from drying suspensions using single solvents (water, ethanol, acetone) and two-component solvents (water-ethanol mixtures at different concentrations). Frequency hi