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Nanoparticles Change Crystal Structure When Wet

Posted by michael on from the surface-tension dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "This news release from the University of California at Berkeley is quite astonishing. 'A UC Berkeley team comprised of physicists, chemists and mineralogists reports on the unusual behavior of a semiconducting material, zinc sulphide (ZnS), when reduced to pieces only 3 nanometers across. They found that when the surface of a ZnS nanoparticle gets wet, its entire crystal structure rearranges to become more ordered, closer to the structure of a bulk piece of solid ZnS.' My summary includes two images of a 3 nanometer zinc sulphide (ZnS) nanoparticle with or without surface-bound water. How can this be used for? Surprisingly, they think that it 'could provide a way to tell whether pieces of rock from outer space came from planets with water.'"

5 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Yawn by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Where's my coffee

    --
    "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
    1. Re:Yawn by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I beg to differ, Mr. Moderator, sir. This is an extremely dull and irrelevent article and I think a yawn and coffee request is a totally on-topic comment.

      --
      "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
  2. Quick /.ing by RealErmine · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Wow, 4 posts and already Slashdotted.

    Soon the structure of the server will be "reordered".

    --
    Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
  3. Obviously by WTFmonkey · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    I obviously need to brush up on my physics. I read that description, closed my eyes, and couldn't remember a single word. There were probably some articles and prepositions, nouns and verbs, but I coudn't guarantee it. Might as well have said, "For cwedgy floomptorps now, wristwatches bedoggle one's crystal-o-morphix shindiggity. With extra bananas."

    Why am I posting this, you ask? This article just looked like it needed a few more comments. Bye.

  4. Re:Fsking Nazi moderators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The Stanford Prison Experiment should always be on-topic within a society that's begun dabbling in fascism.

    You've probably seen on the news or other places:

    "Soldiers should not state their opinions, only follow orders. "

    "If you have nothing to hide..", is a variant of the same.

    While we're obviously not immersed in fascism, we do have our toes in the water. What we do have is a national gestalt that embodies many of the same things that caused the subjects in the SPE to turn into monsters.

    How many times in the past year have you heard, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.", or some variant?

    That's the sound of fascism coming. Like the first few harmless drops of rain that come in the hours before the hurricane.