Slashdot Mirror
How Negative Thermal Expansion Works
Bill Kendrick writes "Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are discovering why compounds like zirconium tungstate 'are acting like they are from Bizarro world': contracting, rather than expanding, when heated.
They believe it's a combination of geometrical frustration (which sounds a lot like what it is), and a 'twisting' motion of the atoms."
Suppose you wanted something that didn't expand or contract in certain temperature ranges, you might be able to combine something with negative expansion and positive expansion in a structure so that the entire structure doesn't expand or contract.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
Seriously. "What's so useful about all these stupid electrons, anyway!"
Why is it that very often the first response to an article about some scientific discovery/invention/whatever is "well why would this ever be useful?" Trust me, someone will find a use.
Yea. And what if it the universal constants were different? Life as we know it wouldn't exist, and the other (example) sentient rock-sucking tentaclies who did exist because of it would be saying the same bloody thing: "thank Bog he picked out conditions that were just right for us!"
If no worlds in some alternate universe could ever support life, then no one would be around to discuss it.
My point? A random dice roll of universal constants is as good as any other: not lucky, not special.