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New Superconductor Found "Immune To Magnetism"
Lisandro sends in news that testing of the new class of superconductors we discussed a while back (compounds of iron, lanthanum, and rare earths) has turned up a major surprise: magnetism doesn't shut off the superconducting state. Magnetic fields represent one of three factors that limit expanded applications for superconductors (the others are current density and temperature dependence.) The research will appear in Nature; here's a preprint (PDF).
Well, you won't be running power lines that swing in the air; but power lines in a channel in the ground are possible in regions where seismic activity isn't a threat. Anyway, you can certainly make wires out of ceramic superconductors, is all I was getting at.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
These are not "HIGH" temp superconductors yet. They are only working at -400F, so I doubt you could run these in your PSP.
But having a new class of super conductors opens up further research into new high temp ones.
Scanning the paper, it seemed to have little bearing on this magnetic field tolerance, but rather talked about the effects of grain boundaries. Did anyone understand how the paper related to the press release?
Considering they haven't made a superconductor that can retain that property at anything even close to normal earth environment temperatures, I'd say worrying about that is a bit like putting the cart before the horse.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
When will people use standard units? I'm sorry it's a particular gripe of mine; kelvin is the universal scale. The sooner we wipe out imperial units the better (unless anyone else wants to convert to a base 12 system?).
Nothing to see here.
If you have a 60T magnet laying around, please get in touch. I have an evil plan that needs hatching.
Not a typewriter
That's okay for power lines but it's a real pain for anything that involves a coil. Unfortunately (aside from power lines) coils are involved in the majority of applications that might benefit from superconducting: magnets, motors, etc.
Even power lines are a pain with ceramics because you can't easily extrude them to make a wire.
And you cool them to 4K how often?
Superconductors that are immune to interference from magnets would get us further towards Bussard Ramjets. There are other hurdles, like the mechanical strength of the magnetic coils themselves. (So the magnetic forces don't wreck them.) Even if we couldn't make practical ramjets, magnetic sails would also benefit, which would make deceleration of interstellar craft almost "free."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet
This isn't a matter of opinion, it's an international standard. There is a reason decimalisation took place; we have a base 10 number system. If everyone uses their own defined set of units then people waste time when we try and cooperate.
Nothing to see here.
And? You may as well be complaining that we should have an international standard language, or currency system. As long as you can work between the two standards, it doesn't matter.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
You don't need it to not be a threat at all, just less of a threat than a backhoe.
http://notanumber.net/
I am a scientist and so work with Kelvin all the time. However, I think that Fahrenheit is actually a more useful temperature scale for humans than Celsius. Basically, 0F is wicked cold and 100F is wicked hot. It makes sense for how _we_ relate to temperature rather than how water relates to temperature.