Grin reagent is a catalyst that is extremely sensitive to a grin, and will react to it to create another grin. It was found by Dean Hickerson between 1997 and 1998.
A p12 oscillator can be made from four copies feeding grins to each other:
128P12, a p12 oscillator containing four grin reagents (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here
A similar reaction can also be achieved with the eater bridge eater, but its low recovery time disallows a p12 oscillator, and also disallows period-multiplying reactions like the one shown in 65P48weld. It also has a drifter that can interact with loading dock, used in 103P69 and 65P48.
The name of this object uses "reagent" in a nonstandard way. A stable structure that recovers without permanent damage after an interaction is more commonly called a catalyst. By a similar analogy to chemistry, reagents in Life are usually active reactions that assist in converting another object from one form to another, but are destroyed in the process.
Variants
While the version in the infobox produces a drifter, a reaction between the brief spark in the smallest version can also be used in LCM oscillators, as found by Noam Elkies on September 14, 2014.[1]
a collection of variants, grouped by drifter type (click above to open LifeViewer)
See also
Eater bridge eater, that can be used as a smaller variant, as in p8 glider reflector and 30P6.1 (though cannot be looped into a p12 due to its lower recovery time of 5 iterations rather than 9)
