Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Create New Form of Matter
soren100 writes "Yahoo News has a story about scientists creating a sixth form of matter. They are calling their new state of matter a 'fermionic condensate.' Somehow they got potassium atoms to form pairs similar to the 'Cooper pairs' that make superconducting possible. Maybe any quantum physicists around can tell us more about this, but it certainly sounds pretty revolutionary. The scientists are predicting that this will lead to 'room temperature solid' superconductors, which in turn will enable us to have better electricity generators, more efficient electric motors, and (our favorite) cheaper maglev trains."
Maybe, but how will you tell the real quantum physicists from the myriad of armchair quantum physicists who think they know what it's all about.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
Smacks like "gotta tell them at least about some possible application to keep us funded"-talk.
Being able to do that cool thing where you take a metal toy and then put a magnet under the desk and make it move around, you know that thing, now you can do it through walls.
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
"They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 459 degrees F -- which is the point at which matter stops moving.
They confined the gas in a vacuum chamber and used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium atoms into pairing up.
"This is very similar to what happens to electrons in a superconductor," Jin said.
This is more likely to provide applications in the practical world than a Bose-Einstein condensate, she said, because fermions are what make up solid matter."
Hmmmmm; how are they going to come to a process that can produce an extruded filament that can be bought in Radio Shack, if cooling to such a low temperature is needed in the process?
Time to dump all your oil shares boys!
ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
Okay, what was the fifth? Solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, ???
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
EUians created the US, the US is about to create a computer that'll create instead of them and thus form another derivated world...
This computer will create some carbonated circuits which will create living beings which will be dumped to another planet where the living beings will evolve into EUians... etc.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
more efficient electric motors, and (our favorite) cheaper maglev trains.
Maglevs are cool, but the real slashdotter wants to know how it will help build space elevators.
The article seems to highly stress the practical application of this new form of matter. Doesn't this seem too optimistic or unrealistic? If it's a new form of matter, surely there must be properties which even researchers are unsure about. What are the safety and health issues involved in using this in 'practical applications'?
Heck with maglev, gimme FTL !
hahaha the EU invented almost everything.
the 21st century's version of the 20th's "i was promised rocket cars!" will be "i was promised maglevs!"
maglevs always seem to be just around the corner... perpetually...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Last I heard they are/were working on one... I forget which city but I know it was either Pittsburgh, or Baltimore. They haven't even started construction....
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
You militant assholes should refuse medical help when the cops beat you up next time.
Although in this case I suspect they count BEC as the fifth as they are particle physcists and it is the chemists and chemical physicists who get exicted by Liquid Crystals.
Lets see... ... ...
They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 459 degrees F -- which is the point at which matter stops moving.
Step 1. Freeze until cold cold cold (like a regular superconductor)
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Have a room temperature superconductor
Step 4. PROFIT!!!!
Ok, seriously... Whats to say that you can't get any kind of matter to act like superconductors at a low enough temperature?
And while I'm at it:
Imagine a beowulf clust.....
Presentation of this story suggests that this work is a step towards room temp superconductors. While this may be true, I suspect it is no more true of this that any other significant development of our understanding of that wierd stuff we call 'quantum'.
I really dont see superconductors becoming feasable at room temperatures anytime soon (i.e. 100 years) unless we all decide we actually like it when our rooms are well below freezing.
New forms of matter are interesting - but that they are found only at a billionth of a degree above absolute zero is no more interesting to me than the fact that we can build a fridge able to get stuff down to those temperatures in the first place. I'd be scared if we didn't find some spooky stuff going on!
I believe there's a monorail in Springfield, Illinois. It's well documented; I thought everyone knew about it?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Actually, there aren't that many overseas, none of them are long or cost-effective. Some amusement parks have it (Disney World's "Train of Tomorrow,"). IIRC there's one in Osaka, Japan, but it runs wicked slow due to safety concerns.
Applied research cannot be done without first investigating the fundamentals. You can't call yourself a scientist if you don't understand this.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF -8&c2coff=1&q=Wickenburg+Arizona+maglev&spell= 1
... mumbling?
I am not an expert and I don't know what you are talking about A Coward, but Google pulls up nothing, you should maybe elaborate your
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
Thats good, it was bad enough when I licked a street light with my tongue on a dare in the cold of winter once.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Ha, but monorails aren't maglev.
So... quantum whatever... can I touch it? Without massive pain? What's it feel like?
--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?
American Weblog in London
Are you sure of that? I'm not sure, ahem, I mean I'm uncertain, that it's that easy to tell.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
You can order a maglev from Siemens, Germany, at any time. Provided you have a deep pocket.
Shhh, this is Slashdot, 99.9 percent of the people couldn't tell you the difference but like to think they could. Please, don't shatter their illusions.
(Cue 20 flames from people who can tell the difference.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The only one I can think of here in the UK is the one between Birmingham Airport and the Birmingham Exhibition Centres, if its still there, that is. I remember it about 10 years ago, maybe more.
TheHustler
http://www.elmarko.org/ - Useless bilge
http://www.asylum-games.co.uk/ - Co-Founder
Deborah Jin the team leader gives more of an idea of her work in this article. http://physicsweb.org/article/world/15/4/7
I'm not a Quantum Physicist by any stretch, just a Materials Engineer. But it seems to me that the condensates have a small issue about them. They seem to hold an extremely narrow definition of a material.
Considering solid, gases, liquids, and even plasmas, they all have a range of environmental factors within which they can exist and have some level of application/interaction to the rest of the newtonian universe. I'm not disputing that they are able to get all these little bits together, but at a billionth of a fraction above absolute zero? That's going to make for a pretty cold ride on the maglev
Does a rock or a vegetable answer you when you ask it a question? No. Does a fish or a monkey answer if you ask it a question? No. Does a human being answer if you ask it a question. Yes! Instant test for sentience.
Or are you one of those Gaia-nuts trying to say that rocks and vegetables are sentient too?
If you want the actual paper, and have access to the journal, it's published on the online version of Physics Review Letters Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 040403 (2004)
abstract here for those with access.
Croatian scientist Danijel Djurek discovered superconducting ceramic that works reliably at room temperature. Danijel says that current will flow without resistance through the material, which is a mixture of lead, lead carbonate, and silver oxides. Here is article in today's croatian daily paper (sorry, there is no translation). Old news on you.com.au.
While it's impossible to tell from this shitty article what was actually observed, it's clear that this super-low-temperature experiment has nothing to do with high-Tc superconductivity. At least not more than a million previous experiments; a more likely candidate would have been experiments done long ago on superfluid 3He.
When will this matter?
but what do i know, i'm just a model.
From what I can see, this is no longer required which is a shame.
This result is from such a narrow and fundamental field of study that it should be in PRB.
Or rather, I believe they claim to already have something at least functionally similar if not equivalent to a room temperature superconductor... I wonder how much of this is hype and how much of this is reality. I've actually had the chance to read what they handed out to prospective investors, and although I admit I have a very limited background, the "fluff content" seemed to be backed by relatively stable facts beside the fact that they didn't give away exactly how they pulled it off (for what I suspect are rather clear "or you'd try it to" reasons). I dunno, just thought it was interesting.
Most of the modern coasters use linear motors to launch the trains, so better conductors and magnets would make the launch systems faster (and cheaper) :-)
Perhaps we can see someone building something to beat the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point for being the tallest, fastest coaster (when its working).
http://www.ultraconductors.com/ *feels stupid* I don't deserve to be a /.er
Actually there are close to nill long-distance commercial maglev applications.
I remember reading that China looked likely to cancel the planned Shanghei to Beijing one which was to be constructed by german companies. I rememebr the costs per km running up to US$48M.
Room temperature super conductors would definately reduce the costs involved!
It's flying cars, and rocket belts, and dinner in a pill, and robot maids and butlers and 3d tv and moon vacations and computer professors and all we got is this stinking internet.
You insensitive cold.
I think this is possibly a big step towards room temperature superconductivity. The point is that in normal (even high Tc) superconductors, the forces between the cooper pairs are rather weak, hence the need to cool to at least 70K or so to get the effect. In this fermionic stuff, the force is a little stronger (at least, this is claimed in the article). Thus it may be possible to design a material which uses the same principle as the fermionic gas but in the form of a solid material at say 300K (just as high Tc superconductors are essentially solid B-E condensates, more or less).
BTW, I'm a cosmologist, not a condensed matter person, so I could be talking out of my arse.
The world is everything that is the case
Okay, I'm all for more efficient generators and maglev trains, but I'd really like to see transporters, warp drive, photon torpedos or at the very least a good tricorder.
Any chance the *next* form of matter can help here?
The Star Ladder could be created by elements formed with the new form of matter, it could be easier to fiddle existing elements into stronger forms.
Why, because I'm pretty sure buckybulls aren't strong enough to use as a space elevator.
- Kaos games and encryption systems developer
Here's the original (and official in my book) article. /. article." Lo and behold it shows up here. Damn work for blocking non .gov addresses!!
I read this yesterday and thought to myself "wow this would make a great
I'm sure there's a superconductor engineer reading this somewhere, but in the meantime I'll point out that we don't really know what causes superconductivity. Cooper pairs are a good theory, but haven't been proven to be the cause. So coming up with a substance that is similar to a thing that might cause superconductivity is hopeful, but let's not get carried away.
Cheers, Paul
You're thinking of monorails.
This is a maglev.
It routinely does 267 mph.
does it matter? or does it anti-matter?
Why, by making an observation of course! After that their quantum state collapses to just one state, either a real or an armchair quantum physicist.
The problem is that you'll either be able to read what they wrote, or determine how intelligent the post is -- but by knowing one, the other is forever lost. Quite the quantum quandry!
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Seeing as this form of matter only exists at billionth of a degree C above absolute zero, I can see this as being useful only for New York trains in the winter. . .
Hehe. Mule.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Unless I am mistaken, it should probably say "extremely old form of matter".
The future used to be better in the old days...
You need a phone into Heaven (or Hell)to do that ...
:)
unfortunately his preface to H2G2 didn't give *that* number
Whoa! Who said Springfield is in Illinois? Isn't the whole idea of Springfield that it is in every state? If there's proof it's in Illinois, please point the way.
Thats Springfield, USA.
It's interesting how all the big ideas of the 1940s and 1950s have come to nothing: no people walking around on the Moon or Mars, no widespread personal jet aircraft, no fusion reactors, nuclear power limited by safety concerns and the availability of cooling water, limited use of superconducting magnets, lasers being used in CD players rather than as enormous weapons. Fifty years later, most research seems to be into making things smaller and smaller, or making tiny quantities of exotic things (as in this case.) Surely the remaining proponents of the Big Ideas should have learned to stay quiet by now?
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
a non-experimental, longer than a few showcase miles (shanghai?), continuously functional, and most importantly ECONOMICAL maglev
i can prorbably order a space shuttle too... so what?
the tracks are just too expensive dude, the economics will never see a real useful maglev
we can have my rocket cars too... but the economics don't work, that's the real issue, not if you can order it or not
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm not sure if that was ever a Maglev, in any case I think it only worked for a year or so before it was shut down for years and years and years now it has re-opened and is pulled round the track by big cables - it's definatley not a maglev any longer
Ok, so we've got Potassium atoms forming Coopers pairs. In a normal Superconductive state, Coopers pairs are electrons which have opposite spin, thus resulting in a net spin of 0. Because this is a whole integer spin, they behave like bosons (according to Bose-Einstein statistics) rather than fermions. In short, they behave more like photons than electrons.
Now, according to this more informative article that someone already linked to,
"Interestingly, the constituents of matter - protons, neutrons and electrons - are all fermions, whereas a composite particle, such as an atom, is a boson if the total number of protons, neutrons and electrons is even, and a fermion if the total number is odd."
Is it that simple to make a whole atom behave like a boson? Weird.
(One more thing... According to somewhere on Wikipedia, a proton's spin is 1/2... So if you have (-?)1/2 spin from the proton, and (?-)1/2 spin from the electron in a Hydrogen atom, how DOESN'T it behave like a boson?)
o_O
Yeah... i heard it really put them on the map..
Along with Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.
I'm allowed to call watercooling-idiots... "IDIOTS!"
Yes, fermions (particle with spin which is an odd multiple of 1/2) are different beasts than bosons (with integer spin) and fermions cannot form Bose-Einstein condensate but fermions can form pairs that are bosonic. It has been observed in many cases. Superfluid He-3 (which is fermionic) requires fermion pairing and it has been observed quite long ago (and given 1996 Nobel Prize in physics). So getting Bose-Einstein condensate from rubidium atoms is interesting research but this is not a breakthrough and not a "sixth state of matter". This is still Bose-Einstein condensate but made not from atoms but pairs of atoms.
Save the bandwidth. Don't use sigs!
I've seen lots of posts saying "this has nothing to do with room temperature superconductors, but really cold gasses!" and whatnot.
The point is that the pairing formation of these fermions is potentially related to the Cooper pairing in electrons (also fermions). While it obviously isn't going to lead directly to a high temperature superconductor, the better we understand the mechanism IN GENERAL, the easier it will be for materials scientists and other condensed matter physicists to start figuring out how to get the critical temperature of REGULAR, SOLID superconductors up.
In that regard, this is big news.
Are you BioCurious?
The problem is that Maglev tracks are an order of magnitude more expensive to build than railways, which kinda dwarfs the potential benefits.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
Superconducting computers? CPUs?
Hopefully when AROS is completed, these issues will be addressed.
Quite a few Big Ideas writers badly overestimated the time needed to land on the Moon, and were rather surprised by the 1969 date. Of course, in everything afterwards they were terribly optimistic.
Fusion reactors and lasers are just slower than originally thought. Fusion is very close, and basically reduced to an engineering problem at this point. Giant laser weapons are at hand, and are the subject of at least a couple of military projects slated to go into service Real Soon Now. (And I mean they're already built and working, just not in production.)
The main problem with widespread personal air transport is that it's harder to fly a plane than it is to drive a car, and managing traffic and congestion are much harder. Both problems should gradually go away as computers get more advanced. Have patience.
Making tiny things can also be a way to a Big Idea; have a look at carbon nanotubes and the space elevator concept for example. Quite a few Big Ideas have been held up because of the lack of good materials, and the making-tiny-things field (I won't call it nanotech because that carries a truckload of undeserved connotations) can help out a lot in the materials science area.
Your sentence needs one small but extremely important addition, IMO. "It's interesting how all the big ideas of the 1940s and 1950s have come to nothing as of January 2004."
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Please, go. Do you need help with the airfare?
Oh by the way, I'm sure you'll be paying back every last penny that was paid to your school, College and University in fees and subsidies the entire time you've been studying. Wouldn't want to be a part of that evil Socialist groupthink now would you?
mod parent down; this is bogus for any number of reasons, the most important of which is that NO ROOM TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS HAVE EVER BEEN DOCUMENTED, regardless of T_c/H_c/J_c characteristics. I call shenanigans.
my other lambda is a Y
They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 459 degrees F
Uhum.. That's quite a bit colder than the temperature at the south pole of mars, where Nasa lost a lander because they mixed up some units.. We should have learned a lesson there: don't mix up units. hint.
So a better version could be something like this:
They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 273,15 degrees C
Agreed, I might be a bit pedantic about this for some, or I might just dislike the degrees F scale.. But it remains a good advice.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
That yet another weird socialist idea I keep running into. As if I somehow "owe the society" for the money they've spent on me. I didn't ask for the money, I didn't sign anything - they gave it to me freely.
Put it down to age and reading the word "room" in the article: it wasn't deliberate.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Many argue that it is the federalization of education that is to blame for these problems. Public schools and the beauracracies and unions that feed off of them are so bad now that fixing the system is impossible. Radical change is necessary.
Private schools, homeschools, and cooperative community schools are outright superior.
But I study to become one.
Essentially, you have two types of particles. Bosons, of which there can exist infinitely many in the same state (place, time, energy and such), and fermions, of which no two can occupy the same state. For the more physics geek among us: Bosons have an integral spin, fermions have halve-valued spins.
In superconducting material, two electrons (fermions) bind together to form a boson (2 x 1/2 = integer), which form a sort of Bose-Einstein condensate in matter, creating superconduction. (This is a higher hand-waving physics explanation, but this space is too short to explain it fully).
What the news is now, is that they have now done this, not for electrons in a material, but for actual atoms. Not sure how this can be used for superconduction at high (liquid nitrogen) temperatures though.
You are a wonderful human being !
Trolling using another account since 2005.
There are not six forms of matter as stated.
There are 10.
01 It does matter
10 It doesn't matter
Guess which one this is?
So we have Earth, Water, Wind and Fire???? What is the fifth ;)
As cunning as a fox, which has just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University. http://www.kinlan.co
Research as fundamental as this should be funded, with no regard to practical applications. These scientists shoudn't be forced to think about practical applications, that is the job of other scientists, later in the process.
I'm an old hippy you insensitive clod!
---
imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie...
from the article:
"They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 459 degrees F -- which is the point at which matter stops moving. "
So you have something that could bring a superconductor closer, which would save HUUUGGGEEE amount of energy. Only 1 thing... you need to cool it down to minus 459 degrees F. And that would cost exactly how much energy???
armchair physicists and real working physicists are distinguishable particles. Unlucky for us, you need an expensive detector (like a grad. degree in physics) to tell them apart.
they gave it to me freely.
No, lets be specific here. It was offered to you and you accepted it. It's not as if College & University are compulsory. Just admit it; you took a freebie, something which has advantaged you, and you didn't pay for it. Taking from society and at the same time telling everyone how bad it is that society offered is hyprocritical.
Then the cooling is almost only a one time expense...
The Amazing Properties of Aerogel
The only maglev train in the U.S. that I am aware of is a prototype at Old Dominion University. This project was started several years ago and has yet to be completed due to insufficient funding (or running way over budget). ODU press release
You know...I'm tired of people just assuming the Simpsons live in Illinois. Just becuase Illinois has a Springfield and a Shelbyville.
Well, want to know a little secret? Indiana has a Springfield, a Shelbyville, and a DUFF!
So, for all we know, it could be anywhere!
You're all bastards!
did you read the article? this research is so far away from producing anything useful in the lab (let alone in 'real life' for the rest of us). they will study this new form of matter and try to make it on a much larger scale, they'll compare it to existing states of matter. blah, blah. seriously, how can someone do this kind of work and tell me it's useful?
really, i have better places to put my money than into research to find efficient forms of transportation. i love my bike.
...are the electircal engineer's wet dream. If this research really materializes in some technology and real world aplications, not only would it make our engineer's lives easier (no resitance, less heat, less heat radiating surface, more powerful and energy efficient motors) but also benefit society as a whole (less emissions). Unless they patent it the next day and require six figure licensing fees.
On the other hand potassium is *very* reactive.
There's no such thing as "a degree K". It's simply "a Kelvin".
Exactly. At low enough temperature spin 1/2 particles (fermions) - like He-3, potassium or even electrons - can "pair off". The resulting composite particle is called a "Cooper pair". It has integer spin and may therefore condense into a Bose-Einstein condensate.
I'm not sure who is responsible for this hyperbole about "creating a new form of matter", but it is shameless. But hey, it made the news...
Just admit it; you took a freebie, something which has advantaged you, and you didn't pay for it.
Yeah and I bet he and his parents paid absolutely no taxes at all. What a bunch of ungrateful leeches.
That's the problem with socialists, they steal your money at the point of the gun and when they give some of it back they act like they did you a favor. Yeesh.
Are you claiming Nobel was American?
Actually, I thought there were a lot of German guys who helped the US build those first atomic bombs...oh, and let's not forget the ones who stayed in Germany and *tried* to make one.
Luckily the Americans invented "saving Europe from itself" as well.
I'm pretty sure the Springfield in the Simpsons has on ocean right by it....come to think of it, they have a desert, mountains and forests too. Maybe they move the town around.
-
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
They are. But unlike USians, they share the ideas with the world and don't claim patents. USians don't really own any ideas themselves. Some corporations do and as soon as US starts going down, these corporations, the investors and the CEOs, will gladly move to switzerland or whatever other country is prosperous at the time and wipe their asses with the american flag. These folks have no nationality.
It's THE BURNING LEGION!
Hmm.
"Scientists create new way to blow up lightbulbs."
Cool.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
Seriously, explain to me why this is a troll?
A lot of people seem to be saying this has nothing to do with superconductivity and the scientists are deliberately misleading the press. The success of the group was the formation of this condonsate at such a high temperature. I know it doesn't sound high, but it is orders of magnitude above when such a condensate should theoretically form. They acheived this by manipulating other factors in the materials local environment (a particular magnetic field). Superconductors form a similar condensate and if the condonsate could be formed at higher temperature by changing some environmental factor other than temperature, it may be possible to create a room temperature superconductor. I think thats the point that was been made and would have been one of the motivating factors for the research.
The main problem with widespread personal air transport is that it's harder to fly a plane than it is to drive a car, and managing traffic and congestion are much harder. Both problems should gradually go away as computers get more advanced. Have patience.
Alright, I'll chime in here. First off, when the flying cars were first envisioned, the dynamics of the situation weren't fully realized.
That said, let's talk about body first. To make a flying car that is practical, it must be drivable on existing roads at speeds we're used to. Considering that there would quickly be legislation limiting flying areas in cities or eliminating them entirely, we must expect to still road the cars frequently for city driving. That means that aerodynamically, the car needs to be designed to stay on the ground. This is completely counter to the goals of anything that flies, where they need to have lift surfaces and so forth.
Then you get dead weight. That's everything in your car that doesn't make it fly while you're flying, and everything that doesn't make it drive while you're driving. More on this later.
Next problem: power source. It's possible, but unlikely to be useful to use the same engine for flying that you use for driving. However, existing street-legal IC engines do not have enough power to push the car on the ground and drive a propellor that is tough and fast enough to life the car, assuming you deal with the aerodynamic problems previously mentioned. So you need to split up the jobs somehow. It's my opinion that the solution lies in electrical motors at each wheel for road-driving and electrically-driven turbines. Either would be dead weight at certain times, but could be build small enough not to impact weight that much.
Then you've got the whole wing issue, and lift surface problem. It'd be great if some new scientific breakthrough enabled us to generate/use gravity waves to lift and drive the car, thus eliminating almost everything I've mentioned already, but it's not here and now. Here and now it's damned impossible to build a car that can fly, road properly, and still run on an IC engine, because of the lift surfaces required to do so. Assuming you can get the same IC engine to drive and spin a propeller, straighten out the body so it can lift when it needs to and stick to the road when it needs to, you'll still need wings and a tail, and that crap just doesn't fit in the lane. So it needs to fold out, and your problem has just multiplied itself into oblivion. Outside of that, hovering is an excellent option, but since hovering is a brute force method, it becomes very expensive in terms of power requirements.
When a small, portable electrical power source can be built, flying cars will become at least approachable in a practical sense. So we're either waiting for someone to design a generator that fits under the hood of your car or we're waiting for cold fusion. And that's just the start of solving this problem.
Like what I said? You might like my music
Ok, Mr. Troll, I'll bite. Granted the USA is not perfect. Still, the USA is the most free (overall) country in the world. (Though the Liberals are trying their hardest to correct this) What really pisses off the rest of the world, is that the US is a success. While they've been busy with socialism-lite, and other failed social/economic models, the USA has continued to grow in power and wealth. As far as the USA "perfecting" genocide and totalitarianism, that's just dreck. You'd better be praying to whatever god/power you believe in that the USA remains free, and the most powerful country in the world. The USA is the worlds ONLY hope for keeping the world from going straight down the tubes. While the rest of the world is content to make money from the REAL genocidal megalomaniacs, the USA has been the ONLY one that has had the balls to finally get fed up, and say "enough". Just remember, while your sitting there sipping your Evian and bashing Bush and the USA, if it wasn't for the USA and men with the cajones to actually do more than pay lip service to their values, your happy ass, if your parents/grandparents hadn't died in some Nazi death camp, or Soviet gulag, would be under threat
of ending there yourself. So, whenever you wake up in the morning, and you're NOT in a deathcamp, or a totalitarian hell hole, remember the hundreds of thousands of Americans that died so you could have the luxury of spewing ignorance and hate, and NOT get put up against a wall and shot. And, yes, before you start, the US is no choir boy. This is the real world, with real people. All power comes from force, or the perception of the ability to use force. Sorry, that's the way human nature is.
SOMEBODY will be the most powerful. Who would you like to see filling that spot, China? Iran? Russia? Canada?(sorry, couldn't resist) Puh-lease.
mod parent down; this is bogus for any number of reasons, the most important of which is that NO ROOM TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS HAVE EVER BEEN DOCUMENTED, regardless of T_c/H_c/J_c characteristics. I call shenanigans.
Call shenanigans all you want, but if you actually understood the post, you would have understood that he was talking about a superconductor that conducted, got too hot, and wasn't capable of conducting anymore. It was still a superconductor in the sense that it was a broken superconductor. I got a light laugh off of it, at least.
In the meantime, I suggest you do with your mod points as you will, and the rest of us will use ours as we will. We don't need you to tell us how to mod.
Like what I said? You might like my music
This is not a troll. Unfortunately, speaking the truth isn't popular with liberals and socialists.
On what basis do you not "superconductors becoming feasable (sic) at room temperatures anytime soon (i.e. 100 years)"? Do you have any reasoning to back up this position?
I have a BS in Physics, and I worked for Drs. Sheng and Shams on the high Tc superconductivity project at the University of Arkansas (as a lab grunt). Superconductivity was for a very long time only found in the domain of a few degrees celsius above absolute zero. Absolute zero is about 270 degrees celsius below freezing, or about 290 degrees below room temperature. When the only superconductors known worked at these temperatures, your position of disregarding the possibility of room temperature superconductivity made sense.
Then the first high temperature superconductors were discovered, and now we know of substances that superconduct at well over liquid nitrogen temperatures. I believe the highest temperature right now is about 130 or 140 kelvins, about halfway from absolute zero to room temperature. Well, there are no special properties associated with -140 C like there are with near absolute zero. Molecules and atoms are whizzing around at breakneck speed. To claim resolutely that superconductivity can happen at those temperatures, but not at room temperatures, is crazy.
We don't have a good model of superconductivity. I can't project when we'll discover room temperature superconductors; until we have a good model no one can. However, when we've already made one jump of about 70 C in superconducting temperature, and climbed another 50-70 C in less than 15 years since that jump, it seems pretty precipitous to claim, with apparently no knowledge whatsoever in the field, that we won't make the remaining 160 degrees C any time in the near future.
"Only one fermion of a given type is allowed to be in a specific quantum state. A quantum state is a discrete level that can be labeled. The labeling gives information about the spatial characteristics (e.g. the orbit) and the spin of the particle. Two electrons can exist in the same quantum orbital, but only if they have different spin states. No two electrons of the same spin can occupy the same orbital state. "
That's why this is interesting.
yeah, I've got a degree in it. But engineering pays better.
Just google for "Pauli Exclusion Principle" and Fermion.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
for me superconductors are ONLY magnets. kinda like make ANY shape with copper wire, cool down and add charge, presto a "permanent magnet".
Can't you add a resistor to prevent blowing up the light bulb? Yeah, yeah, then what's the point of having a superconductor in the first place, right?
How about in phone lines? Internet lines? How would just having the wire itself be really really fast affect the whole system? In some places, that would move the bottleneck to the routers and switches, but have a net result of a speed increase.
Of course, the prospect of having a really powerful motor that runs on a 9v battery is sweet! Could they make a motor that'll drive my truck and only run on a bank of AA batteries? ;)
Like what I said? You might like my music
because stat stuff is matter
(sorry, to obvious to be funny)
Luckily the Americans invented "saving Europe from itself" as well.
;)
We all make mistakes.
Go ahead, mod me down. I have the karma to burn. Anti US comments get modded up, but anything anti Euro gets modded down, even it it's true
New form of matter.
That only lasts for some billionth of a second at nearly absolute zero temperature.
There probably is not any other form of matter at that condition.
NEXT.
This will not do! I demand that the scientists come up with a name for this stuff that is more fun. You just can't use this properly in sci-fi films. Observe:
Captain Shamerica: Cease and desist, foul scum!
Grokthor: Never! *rowr*
Captain Shamerica: Then I shall blast you with my fermionic condensate ray!
See? Poor Captain Shamerica now looks like a pussy because he's using some weirdo-thingy to whack the bad guys.
New name! New name! *forms picket line*
Blog,Twitter
We are, in fact, essentially certain that the BCS theory of superconductivity is correct for ordinary superconducting metals. As the previous poster pointed out, its precise predictions have been so incredibly good for the past few decades that the physics (and engineering) community are completely satisfied. That said, there is a class of superconducting compounds (high-Tc superconductors) that we really don't understand. These compounds are generally kinds of ceramic, so they don't conduct at ALL at room temperature, but become superconducting at temperatures up to more than 100K (compared to about 4K for the standard metals). And THAT being said, it's still true that this discovery may have nothing to do with superconductors at all.
When you're new to real academia and you expect it to be all ivory towerish, and bust out a copy of PRL and start reading what amounts to a flame in the form of a Jeopardy answer, it's pretty special.
It's not really that simple. The hydrogen atom (taken as a whole) is ALWAYS a boson, there's no doubt about that - the spins add up right. What you are asking about, however, is whether you can see any interesting condensation effects because of it. That turns out to be very difficult to arrange. You need to get a whole bunch of hydrogen atoms together in exactly the same state (no excited states, and they all must be moving with the same velocity). More importantly, quantum effects (like condensation) only become important when the (excuse the jargon) wavefunctions of the particles begin to substantially overlap. Basically, the "particles" are a little smeared out by quantum mechanics, and you only get quantum weirdness when these smears overlap. The size of the smear is inversely proportional to the mass of the object. Hydrogen atoms are 2000 times heavier than electrons, and so they have to be brought to very high densities before they can behave this way. The upshot is that the only way we know to do this is to bring the atoms to a nearly dead stop (hence EXTREME cold) in a small region and watch the magic happen. So the atoms are always boson, but only under extreme conditions do we care.
The light bulb is the resistor. The resistance of the wires is negligible by comparison, and replacing them with superconducting wires would have no ill effect. The original poster is talking nonsense.
Share and Enjoy: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
This year one of the nobel prizes in physics went to Tony Legget who explained experiments over twenty years ago in which Helium 3, when cooled low enough exhibited superfluidity. In this scenario the Helium 3 which is a fermion pairs up much like low Tc cooper pairing (except in a p-wave state). This allows it to flow without resistance in addition to giving it interesting magnetic properties. What I would like to know is how this experiment is different from the experimental work on Helium 3. It seems that both involve pairing of fermion atoms to form bosons, except that somehow in this example there are charge carriers... Does someone have a reference to the article at the preprint archive (or in a journal)?
There is a maglev TRACK outside my office at Old Dominion University (web.odu.edu). The project has been one big cluster-fsck from all reports (http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?st ory=63480&ran=149830).
With the money they spent they could have bought everyone a Segway, now that is a futuristic campus!!
Anti US comments get modded up, but anything anti Euro gets modded down, even it it's true ;)
But of course. That's always been a liberal cornerstone. Freedom of speech for those that agree, and violent suppression for those that might have the hubris to disagree with the self-proclaimed "intellectual elite" under such nice euphemisms as "political correctness" and "hate speech" and "freedom of (from) religion". Too bad they feel the need to make up stuff about the USA, instead of deal with the real monsters like Saddam Hussein. As usual, the USA cleans up the rest of the worlds' messes, and gets spit on for its' trouble. Nothing new here, move along.
Arrrghh!!! You call that an Anchor?
Ah, thank you. I thought there was something wrong with it, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. :)
Of course, he completely understated the usefulness of his "magnet" as well, considering how much of our society is powered by electro-magnetism. :)
Like what I said? You might like my music
I finally get to use my croatian knowledge for something ....
Here we go:
Huge Discovery
Danijel Djurek manufactured a techologically revolutionary material that helps conserve energy.
Croatian physycist discovered a conductor of electicity without resistance. Even though results are verified additional investigation is still needed according to Mladen Prester from the Physics Institute
Conduction of electiricity without loss and vehicles which with their small electrical motors travel thousands of kilometars [without recharching i guess] will soon be an everyday occurance. This revlutionary discovery, a material composed of led, silver, oxygen and water [maybee hydrogen], surounded by [i think] copper, performs as a superconductor, insists the croatian physisist Dr. Danijel Djurek. The global independant labaratory already verified this croatian scientists discovery and have announced a new technological revolution.
Some are skeptical
The quest for superconductivity, transfer of electricity without loss resulting from resistance, lasted 15 years. Massive production of wires and the installation of new materials in various compontens, ie. speakers and electrical motors, should begin in the upcoming months in Croatia and should expand throughout the world afterwards. If it suceeds, a new industrial branch should make a contribution to croatian economy.
The world acknowledges
In order for a scientific discovery to be acknowledged and subsequently published in various journals it has to be verified by independent labaratories whose members are secretely selected by teams of particular journals. Dr. Danijel Djurek's discovery has been given the green light by the independant labaratory. As a result of which an article in The Economist, Scientific American, New Scientist and a scientifict brach of New York Times, about the new superconductive material has been published. This is a landmark discovery for technology and [maybee economy, not sure]. With current techniques, transmition over high power electrical lines, results in a loss of 30% of the manufactured power. An additional 20% is lost at the consumer level. The new material is not only ecologically acceptable and will save electrical energy, time and money - said Dr. D. Djurek. Despite the support of coleagues and scientists from other parts of the word and a despite a worldwide [maybee global] ackowledgment many remain skeptical becuase Djurek's material does not emit a magnetic field. More correcty, Meissner's [something maybee work] which was though to be required in order for a material to be superconductive.
I will continue in next post as it is not relevant to discussion any more but will be there in case you want to read.
When you see hype like this, they are gunning for the Nobel prize. I doubt they'll grant one for fermiotic matter, since it is an extension of the efforts that creatic Einstein-Bose matter and won the nobel in the late 1990s.
That even with the so-called "pros," much of the ideas associated with quantum dynamics is theory. While some is based on real physical phenomenon (the particle/wave duality of light for example), other ideas, like the notion that there exist quantum entities that float around in spacetime (moving backward and forward in time - we notice their presence only when they happen to share the same point in spacetime that we occupy), qualify as nothing more than "the best way we can think of at the moment to explain what we see." Fortunately, a good imagination doesn't require a PhD in quantum physics.
Actually...if I remember right, they do.
or at least they did in one episode.
You're all bastards!
Note these new states of matter occur at super-cold or super-hot conditions. At super-cold the atoms stop motion and engage in bizaire quantum mingled quantum states. You needed a micro-degree about absolute zero for Bose matter and a nano-degee for fermatic matter.
There was a physics conference earlier in january debating whether gluon plasmas have been seen or not. When you heat and collide protons to billions of degrees, almost the speed of light, they may just merge into one big quark soup, not seen since the Big Bang.
Here we go again. There are some mentally deranged individuals on this board that clearly have a low self esteem, otherwise they would not make such a half-assed comment. The EU does a lot more fundamental research than applied research, and that is why it may seem that the EU does not "create" things: You won't see highly theoretical papers in these popular scientific magazines. Also, research is not that jazzed up by the media as it is in the US.
But go ahead, feel superior, you probably need it.
Great, so now matter can take its A-levels. Now they've just got two years to create a university for it!
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
IIRC, Potassium is a solid at room temperature, not to mention at absolute zero.
So why does the article say potassium gas? Did they mean a gaseous potassium compound? Or am I just missing something?
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
i apologize, "never" was a poorly chosen word, "in our lifetimes" might suffice, sorry, thanks ;-)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
HOWEVER!
Aside from being very interesting cosmology does quite a lot.
Such as allowing us to better understand the universe, and our place in it, providing an important social common ground for all the developed countries. When you share the same outlook, since it's not a mythology, it's harder to kill someone for not agreeing with you.
Our advances in high energy electromagnetic fields (neutron stars, pulsars, FUSION POWER) are aided in part by our ability to spy on experiments already in progress that can't be done on the Earth because we don't have two solar masses of iron and quark-gluon plasma to build a neutron star out of. One of those silly inconvieneces.
Neutreno emmitions might one day give us another measure of advance warning for poor space weather. Which can make power grids fold faster than The Flash at the World Origami Championships. Not to mention destroy pricy satellites which aren't getting cheaper.
There there are things like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Which are interesting, but indirectly provide a learning opportunity to solve other problems. Like making really bitchin CCD cameras, coorodinating large multi-national projects, and building smart data bases to help federate a vast amount of knowledge, and then make it accessible to everyone. That's right, the best telescope in the world is the internet.
Not to mention the lessons learned from building ever more sophisticated instruments for looking at things like the background radiation, or even inferometers for looking at other planets. And fixing the mistakes. Adaptive optics and Hubble's initial vision problem?
The lessons learned, these baby steps, from the international space station, the mars rovers, are going to be the begining of us getting the hell off this rock. And those who come after us will care very little about the motivations behind the task, and venerate the fact that it was done. Columbus goofed upon this accidental hemisphere hoping to find india to make a little extra coin. Beyond that no one but history professors care, and a great many care only that "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." The other things that Spain might have done instead of bankrolling this fools errand are trivial beyond compare.
The nature of time, Quantum Chromo-Dynamics, penta-quarks, who knows what answers they might bring to questions we haven't thought to ask. Mr. Feynman sure as hell doesn't. Einstien didn't know that we'd have GPS constallations, Plank didn't know that in the future everyone would be able to own night-vision video cameras, Babbage sure as hell didn't know that anyone for a months work would be able to simulate the universe from origin to end, coarse as though it might be, and none of the three reckoned on 30 megaton hydrogen weapons at their turn of the century, let alone that just such a thing might save our species from a fate that much more impressive looking animals suffered.
You want to know where NOT to spend money? Corporate and social welfare (beyond free universal education), put the rest into science fundemental and otherwise as needed.
Kraljevic supported investigation
Former minister of science and technology, Hrvoje Kraljevic, physist, during his mandate financally supported Djurek's work, but as he remembers, the project was not close to completion and subsequent application in everyday life such as what Dr. Djurek is discussing today. Superconductive materials exists, but currently they function at extremely low temperatures close to absolute zero. They are applied today only in special cases. Djurek's superconductive materijal supposedly functions at a much higher temperature of -70 degrees [most likely celsius]. The problem is, as far as i understand it, that it is only superconductive on surface. I don't know whether he was able to perfect his design in the meantime -explains prof. Kraljevic. He adds that the discovery of a superconductive material which would function at fairly normal temperatures would be really revolutionally. (I.K.)
Discovery verified
The material [could also be The topic] is very delicate. Dr. D. Djurek's discovery has been verified and the results held their ground. However, Meissner's [something maybee field] is missing. I am assuming it has to do with a type of superconductivity - called hyperconductivity. Additional investigation is necessary - said Dr. Mladen Prester of Zagreb's Physics Institute. The fact that the new material is mising magnetic [i think field's] makes it better for application since superconductive properties extends all the way till 400 degrees celsius, insist Djurek. Even though new technology may improve the local economy, he [there] won't see increased earnings from the superconductive discovery. It is very expensive to patent a new material. When we were suppose to protect manufacturing, croatian government was not interested in the project. Its important that the discovery will improve the overall global economy - concluded Djurek. Croatian physisit Today Dr. Danijel Djurek will annouce/present his discovery to the croatian public.
Article written by Zoran Turkovic
pheeeeeeeeew. that was tough.
Randroid.
Quote from Jin in the article:
Or superconductors could allow for the invention of magnetically levitated trains, she added.
COULD? They're already here, Jin. Where have you been?
There's a VERY detailed article about the whole thing over at Physics Web.
Wherever you go, there I am...
isn't this the same stuff they bounced off the deflector dish into the dying planet's atmosphere in phase with the warp shield generators to buy them 2 more minutes to beam up the last of the landing party in star trek episode #134?
or was that the nonphasic tachyon particles they bought form the romulan arms dealer?
sorry, i get confused...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
DANIEL DUREK TOUGH That it is THE PRODUCT Technology REVOLUTIONARY MATERIAL FOR U(C)TEDU Energies
Croatian physicist I found out medium tide free of wiry
Upshot have been checked, than destitute of have been add istral(ivanja, kal(e Bridegroom Transplanted substance with Institute for for physics
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certain have been jealous
lookout for supravodljivosti, toc(nije, for conductivity tide free of electrically wiry plus back to back loss, uninterrupted had 15 year. Bulky manufacturing l(ica with learner material plus his installation into a unit, for example, megaphone plus electric motor, is required bi begin already next month in Croatia these does proa;iriti per world. Thrive li, money industry spray is required bi considerably help Croatian menage.
Unveiling acknowledged
- Object had distinctly scabrous. Unveiling dr. D. ?ureka acknowledged had plus upshot stoje. Than, missing Meissnerov capacity. Deemed that it is a word about podrvrsti supravodljivosti hipervodljivosti. Destitute of have been add istral(ivanja he said dr. Bridegroom Transplanted substance from an zagrebac(kog Institute for for physics.
this a;to with learner material to leave out magnetic capacity, bolje had as they apply to because does supravodljiva features protel(u yet up to 400 Celzijevih stagger, tough ?urek. Though would money technology up front home menage, greater than wage with unveiling supravodljivosti will not have.
- Patentiranje learner material had expensively. When smo is required zaa;tititi the product, Croatian mastery haven't bile interested in for project. Intrinsically is that would unveiling yield upgrowth svjetskom menage in summary had ?urek.
Croatian physicist dr. Daniel ?urek features would unveiling today lie between Croatian world.
Zorana Turkovic'
world admitting
yes we do bi scientifically unveiling whether unquestioned these objavljeno into a workman-like magazine, moraju ga uphold independent laboratory which haply into a privity selection workman-like timovi particular person magazine. Unveiling hrvtskog physicist dr. Danijela ?ureka independent laboratory dali have been green light these had writing about learner supravodljivom material objavljen into a The Economistu, Unisci, Scientific Americanu, New Scientistu plus scientifically feuilleton Big Apple Hereby. prince podupro istral(ivanje
Biva;i minister lore plus technologies Hrvoje Prince, physicist, for svog mandate ?urekov had workmanship financial podupro, limit how many does memories, project is not been nor near site appliances into a commuter l(ivotu, whereof ?urek today rumour has it.
- Percentages supravodljivi materialist, but they operation at an distinctly niskim temperature which does Cretean about absolute nule. Primjenjuju does today into a certain specific situation. ?urekov supravodljivi material would-be o
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Surely the remaining proponents of the Big Ideas should have learned to stay quiet by now?
What an awful thought. I certainly hope that nobody with ideas stays quiet. It is the clash and ferment of ideas, good and bad, that lead us on.
I'm just curious how you differentiate the "real physical phenomena" from the other stuff -- what is Newtonian physics, for example, except a best-guess explanation of observed phenomona? And we know that we we see can often mislead us. What makes duality "real" but Feynman sum-over-histories "unreal"?
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Maglev's are cool.
and sure everything that seems cool has to be a bit pricey. But, like so many other cool civil engineering/construction type projects I don't understand why they are soo, soo expensive.
Take the International Space Station, sure, putting a science base the size of a soccer pitch into space must cost a lot but why does it cost the billions upon billions it supposably costs? surely a few thousand steal beams and few hundred computer chips etc. doesn't cost 100's of billions.
The same goes for maglev. If this is the case, the main problem needing to be overcome is not a need for new/cheaper technology but a need to cut out the waist.
Anyone actually know why maglev (and the ISS for that matter) costs so much?
Maybe any quantum physicists around can tell us more about this, but it certainly sounds pretty revolutionary
so, would you say that this matters a lot?
eh.
not so much replying to the comment as to the sig. I would hate to have edit to posts.
Someone posts: Would you really like to see a ditro grandma can use?
I say: Yea, I'd like to see it, and im sure other's would too. And I know my grandma wants it.
Someone edits so now reads: I like to run naked on the weekends. I'm hung like a horse, you wanna see?
think about the dangers.
Not true. One of the early researchers (Chu?) claimed in the major peer-reviewed journal (Physics Review: Condensed Matter????) that he BRIEFLY had a sample of the perovskite superconductor that worked at room temperature. In those days the product wasn't very stable and this particular one soon stopped working at room temperature. I don't remember the time frame, but my impression was that this was on the order of a few days.
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Rail Guns
It's pointless to argue this because socialism will fail. It has in the past and will continue to fall in the future. The lack of incentive to work hard is the bullet in the foot for socialist systems. A free capitalism system isn't perfect, but it's far superior to communism, socialism, dictatorships and fascism. They'll find out their short-fall in my lifetime. I'll bet one dollar on it. :)
uhmmm, given the method of slowing atoms, could it be applied to better understanding of that elusive cold fussion stunt?
Maybe it is offtopic, but it *is* "well said, sir!".
As far as I know Springfield in the Simpons has never been localized into a specific state. In fact, they often make fun of the fact that nobody knows where Springfield is.
During one episode in elementary school they pull out a U.S. map and talk about Springfield with a pointer, but Lisa's head gets in the way so that the "camera" can't see the map.
-- laws are the opinions of politicians --
The oil cartels will probably have something to say (or do) about any practical application of this technology.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Your looking to narrowly really. There are fairly practical small vtol designs in existence. As such motoring through cities could possibly be eliminated as a need in cities and as such you eliminate unnecessary stremlining and deadweight. Next to that, vtol vehicles need much less of a wingspan. Small and portable 'powerful' electric systems are not neccesary, though they probably would help make it more economical.
Quickshot
consumes 30% of generated power in transit.
Superconductor research (especially that which works at "room temperature") could be immediately applied to this problem once refined, drastically reducing energy costs and our largest source of pollution.
The sooner, the better, I say.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Was the Law of Moses the one that said if you rape a virgin in a field, it is wrong unless you pay the, well, the "virgin rape" price to her parents, or else you at least marry her?
Boy, we sure need that to teach us what is right...
Not to mention that I never can remember exactly the rights and wrongs in treating slaves; if only I had the Law of Moses to sort out how to treat slaves, then I'd be sooooo moral.
So they make all these claims about superconductivity when they have pairs of atoms? Doesn't that seem stupid? How would you carry charge (i.e. electricity) with these neutral particles? So how would you build a superconductor with these thingies?
/. linked to, nor the abstract talk about charged particles.
It also comes no surprise that the Cooper pair's attractive force is stronger than in the electron-electron case -- there is no repulsive Coulomb force between atoms.
It sure sounds like someone made up a sensationalist story around some interesting, but not sensational, research.
Note: I could only read the abstract of the Phys Rev Letters article, not the article itself. Maybe they're talking about ions. But neither the article
"Not fair! You changed the outcome of the race by observing it!"
The only problem with ceramic superconductors is they are unable to be bent or carry a large charge with out braking down in to a normal conductor... Some can't even carry a charge they can onle effect magnetic feilds to a certin extent.
Didn't the Behind the Music episode call them as a 'northern Kentucky' family? Not just bringing it up because I'm from Kentucky, but still...
I think you mean a billionth of a degree K. A billionth of a degree C is only slightly above water's freezing temperature.
They confined the gas in a vacuum chamber and used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium atoms into pairing up. Why don't they just say thatt he scientists did a bunch of Star Trek shit anf get it over with?
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Remember Apollo? Challenger? Columbia? Each instance has seriously freaked the US public, regardless of the fact that these astronauts embraced the risks inherent to their endeavors.
Every engineer knows that a project can be made substantially less expensive by reducing "the nines." Is '99.999% reliable' tolerable in the American space program politically? No, they need 99.99999% (random numbers for illustration) to ensure the project isn't cancelled for political reasons.
While I actually agree with the thrust of your point, I hardly think we can blame the errosion of our civil liberties on liberals. I would challenge you to look at the Patriot Act, DMCA, TIA (defunct, admittedly), CAPS II and tell me whether liberals were responsible for any / all of them. Not that liberals are without blame, granted, but it's the other team that's looming large in the 'threat to liberty' department these days.
>
Typical fluff piece. Fermionic condensates are about as useful as Bose-Einstein condensates, which is to say they aren't useful at all. The only thing Fermi condensates and Cooper pairs have in common is the fact that they're both collections of fermions which follow Fermi-Dirac statistics. These fermionic condensates exist at ultralow temperatures which can only be reached via sophisticated laser cooling methods. High Tc superconductors can function at temperatures above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, and even then they still have limited practical applications. I'm sure these researchers will get millions of dollars in new grant money, but don't expect any technological breakthroughs as a result of this discovery.
"sixth form of matter"
So, let's count, shall we - we have:
1. Solid.
2. Liquid
3. Gas
4. Plasma
5. Bose-einstein condensate
7. Nemetic liquid crystals
8. Smetic liquid crystals
9. The other type of liquid crystals whoes name escapes me
10. Glass (Arguable)
11. That funky stuff that neurtron stars are made of
12-15 truely wierd QM stuff, like charmonium
And now, the newest member: 6
Maybe, just maybe, that's an over hyped term. There are lot's of states of matter. I've probably missed some.
Can we please kill the meme that there are only a very small number.
Yours, a miffed quantum materials physicist
How about... Step 1. Freeze until cold cold cold (like a regular superconductor) Step 2. Reengineer humans to be comfortable at near absolute temperatures and lower room temperature accordingly. Step 3. Have a room temperature superconductor Step 4. PROFIT!!!!
Someday this will probably happen:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/strange.htm
or this:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/vacuum.htm
or even this:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/quantum.htm
Mabye with nanotech this will happen:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/graygoo.htm
I feel great now!!!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
No, it is the one that distinguishes between city and country in evaluating evidence for rape as opposed to consensual fornication. The penalty for rape is death. The penalty for fornication is paying the bride price or else at least marrying the girl.
Exodus 22:16,17 If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
The reference to fields you are thinking of concerns accusations of rape. The problem is that women back then could falsely accuse men of rape, just like today. So if the alleged rape occurred in the city, a charge of rape could be challenged if neighbors did not hear the girls screams or sounds of a struggle. However, if the alleged rape occurred in the field (i.e. in the boonies), then the girls testimony had more weight because "the damsel cried, and there was none to save her". So you didn't want to mess around with country girls. Deuteronomy 22:23-29 Notice that while the penalty for consensual fornication was fairly lenient, the penalty for adultery, even when consensual, was death.
Also, notice that the legal arrangements given to Israel for how to deal with bad behaviour (like when to execute alleged rapists) were specifically for Israel, and while worthy of consideration for a Gentile or secular government, are not directly applicable. The moral prescriptions, e.g. "thou shalt not commit adultery", are generally applicable.
They know right from wrong and its' full of good people even if their economic laws are a bit totalitarian.
They saved the world during the cold war and always came in on the right side (however late) during the two world wars.
Needle Nardle Noo
Will slashdot ever drag itself into the year 2004 and provide the ability to edit posts?
No forum should provide the ability to edit posts -- although I wouldn't argue against an option to delete one's own posts (leaving some kind of "deleted by author" tombstone).
I'm not going to go into the arguments again -- I developed the (text based) CoSy computer conferencing software (used by BIX, CIX, a number of universities, NLzero, etc) about 20 years ago, and that request crops up from time to time. I'll never allow it in my software, and won't use any forum that permits it.
The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.
-- Alastair
They cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree C above absolute zero or minus 459 degrees F -- which is the point at which matter stops moving.
"Our atoms are more strongly attracted to one another than in normal superconductors," she said.
I suppose at that cold temperatures, even atoms like to get close to each other to keep themselves warm!
They're claiming this is the 6th form of matter, and that BEC's were the fifth, based on the fact that BECs are made of bosons, right?
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid
"Bose-Einstein condensates are collections of thousands of ultracold particles that occupy a single quantum state -- they all essentially behave like a single, huge superatom. But Jin says these Bose-Einstein condensates are made with bosons, which like to act in unison."
Well, they're not. BECs are made of atoms too.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/BEC
"Predicted in 1924 by Albert Einstein, who built on the work of Satyendra Nath Bose, the condensation occurs when individual atoms meld into a "superatom" behaving as a single entity at just a few hundred billionths of a degree above absolute zero." "The team led by Cornell and Wieman used laser and magnetic traps to create the BEC, a tiny ball of rubidium atoms that are as stationary as the laws of quantum mechanics permit."
If something were formed from a collection of bosons that were quantally entangled, it wouldn't be a form of matter. Bosons are the force-carrying quanta, such as photons. They are energy, not matter.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Actually, I thought there were a lot of German guys who helped the US build those first atomic bombs...
Hell no! It was good old American know-how, that's what. As provided by good old Americans like Dr. Werner Von.. er Leo Szilard.
For instance, forcibly making slaves of your fellow Israelites was a capital offense. Furthermore, all slaves, whether foreign captives or debtors who sold themselves, had to be set free every 7 years. If a slave had such a kind master, that he preferred to remain a slave, he could do so by declaring it in front of the congregation and having his ear pierced as a sign. However, every 50 years was the year of Jubilee. All slaves had to then go free, even voluntary ones.
Yes, if the US had actually followed Biblical laws of slavery, it wouldn't have been a problem. In fact, if they had just followed the constitution - those born in America to slaves were naturalized citizens - and slaves working in America could apply for citizenship after 7 years - things would have been different.
In fact, in the early days, before the revolution, both Africans and Europeans came to America as indentured servants. They were essentially slaves for 7 years, and then received a lump sum payment and had the benefit of training in particular skills. If a master was abusive, his indentured servants would often run away. This was a big economic loss. African servants were a minority, and easier to find if they ran away. Africans gradually became preferred as indentured servants for this reason. Eventually, all indentured servants were African. The 7 year time limit was forgotten. By 1776, only a few free Africans remained, and they were in constant fear of being kidnapped as a slave. I am a little worried that the current immigrant worker situation is beginning to look too much like pre-revolutionary indentured service. Will it also turn into full fledged slavery for Hispanics in 100 years?
Like most evils, slavery in America developed gradually as people forgot existing just laws and began to tolerate new oppressive ones. Reminds me of the evolution of copyright law in America, from the Founding Fathers version to the DMCA.
Not all moral perscriptions, just seven laws in particular (laws of noah.) Some of them don't really have much to do with morality (at least by current thinking.) I think they include:
1) Don't worship idols
2) Don't take part in a forbidden sexual union (incest, bestiality, homosexuality, adultery)
3) Don't eat the flesh of a living animal
4) Don't give false testimony
5) Don't murder
6) Don't steal
7) Don't blaspheme
These guys are condensed matter physicists. Anybody that goes by the title "quantum physicist" is likely a crank. I'm a quantum mechanician.
AlterSlash does a pretty good job of that actually.
DNA just wants to be free...
"Or superconductors could allow for the invention of magnetically levitated trains, she added. Free of friction they could glide along at high speeds using a fraction of the energy trains now use."
I can't wait until the invent those things. I've been waiting for years for someone to invent one.
Er, I mean, wow, what a great idea! I hope somebody invents those soon!
Er, I mean, wow, what a great idea! I've never heard of that invention! I can't believe they came upwith that new invention just now!
Does Indiana have a Crystal Lake?
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
I submitted this story yesterday, as it was run on CNN...
What's a sig? Pete Brubaker
Having just finished a Ph.D. in solid state physics I do understand a wee bit of this article. While the accomplishment is extraordinary, the hopes of application are a somewhat farstretched. It is remotely possible that the understanding of the interaction between Fermions, in this case potassium, could help raise the temperature of superconductivity. Unfortunately, superconductivity is mediated by phonons, a.k.a. crystal lattice vibrations. In short what we do not understand are the lattices and their interactions with electrons, which are also Fermions. I might add that these researchers are probably in quantum optics, not solid state physics, so it is likely that are conjecturing.
It is widely believed (although not confirmed) that if Springfield, NT is based on any "real Springfield", it is probably the one in Oregon.
I imagine this makes these CU physicists sure candidates for another nobel prize.
I feel honored to have taken physics at CU. (The #1 party school in America and a BADASS physics dept to boot!).
(sig intentionally left blank for Nobel Prize winner to fill out)
Uri Geller already had his mind completely over this matter. In fact, he bent it with his MIND!
There is no spoon, because Uri bent them all, the jerk!
Windows XP SP2 told me to install third-party software that prevents viruses and protects stability... I chose Ubuntu
No, I wasn't involved in the Bose-Einstein condensate experiments. That would have been cool (metaphorically and literally), but I was involved in stupid computer simulations of imaginary physics for an imaginary particle accelerator. My only involvement in Bose-Einstein condensates was to try and fix an experiment for an advanced exerimentation class that was supposed to make a condensate. The guy before me couldn't fix it. Neither could I.
But I can explain the experiments a little bit, although I don't know how much you know about quantum physics. So it is going to require a bit of explaining. As you may or may not know, when there is some confining force field that traps particles, those particles can only occupy a discreet set of states. For example, electrons confined to an atom can only occupy certain states or orbitals. In Newtonian physics, a particle could have any energy value and there was a continuum of possible states. According to modern physics, this is still true for unbound particles, but it is not for bound ones. I think that unbound particles are also probably limited by the structure of space (whatever that is), but nobody understands that stuff.
Anyway, it ends up that particles have an intrinsic amount of angular momentum that cannot change. There is a smallest unit of angular momentum, and all particles' angular momentum is a multiple of this unit. And the orientation of the spin is quantized. Those with odd multiples are fermions, those with even multiples are bosons, named after the scientists that worked out the statistics of their behaviours. Enrico Fermi and Dirac did work on fermion statistics, and Bose and Albert Einstein worked on that of Bosons. It ends up that bosons can occupy the exact same quantum state, while fermions cannot. I can mathematically derive this, but I have no good intuitive understanding of why. But then, who does have an intuitive understanding of this stuff?
Well, atoms can be bosons or fermions depending on the atomic number and number of electrons. What Cornell and Wiemann did was take a bosonic ion (I forget what atom) and try to trap them in a special magnetic field within a chamber under high vacuum. To slow them down, they used lasers. Since electrons can only occupy certain energy states, they can only absorb certain frequencies. Other frequencies are ignored entirely. What they did was tune the lasers to a frequency just below one of these absorbable frequencies. If an ion travels towards a laser, the light gets blue-shifted to that special frequency and the ion starts scattering the light, which slows it down. Have six lasers intersect in the center of the magnetic trap, and no matter what direction it travels, an ion at this location will be traveling towards at least one laser and hence will slow down. This is the initial cooling and trapping phase. Then they turn down the energy of the magnetic field to let the most energetic atoms leave, thus cooling the other atoms via evaporation. This is how they get near zero temperatures.
At these low temperatures, most of the atoms enter the lowest energy level in the magnetic field. Since they all are in the exact same quantum state, they behave as one entity. One can no longer meaningfully refer to it as a collection of individual atoms, for they lose their identities entirely. Thus the term superatom for these things. It is quite a bizarre substance that shows clearly the oddities of quantum physics on a macroscopic scale. Who would have thought that atoms could interfere with each other and make interference patterns? Yet they have make photographs (yeah! quantum physics you can photograph!) where there were stripes of no atoms followed by stripes of atoms when two condensates were f
Who ever heard of a Cathode Ray anyway?
Darn right. I achieve enlightenment through Liquid Crystals.
Just abbreviate it, e.g. "... with my feco ray!"
Trust me. You do not want to see a feco ray (not work safe).
Ummm... oh wait...
:)
Now even my browser is making strange claims. At the top of my screen it says:
Scientists Create New Form of Matter - Netscape 6
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
It doen't take much to loose your karma around here does it!
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imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie...