Ultra-Dense Deuterium Produced

Omomyid was among several readers writing in about the production of microscopic amounts of ultra-dense deuterium by scientists at the University of Gothenberg, in Sweden. A cubic centimeter of the stuff would weigh 287 lbs. (130 kg). UDD is 100,000 times more dense than water, and a million times more dense than deuterium ice, which is a common fuel in laser-ignited fusion projects. The researchers say that, if (big if) the material can be produced in large quantities, it would vastly improve the chances of starting a fusion reaction, as the atoms are much closer together. Such a D-D fusion reaction would be cleaner than one involving highly radioactive tritium. Many outlets have picked up the same press release that Science Daily printed pretty much verbatim (as is their wont); there doesn't seem to be much else about this on the Web. Here's the home page of one of the researchers. The press release gives no hint as to how the UDD was produced. Reader wisebabo asks: "I can easily imagine a material being compressed by some heavy duty diamond anvil to reach this density, the question is: what happens when you let the pressure off? Will it expand (explosively one would presume) back to its original volume?"

Comments

Metallic Deuterium ?

[mbone]

There has been a long search for metallic hydrogen, which is supposed to be (once made under high pressure) possibly both stable and superconducting at room temperature.

Given that metallic hydrogen is also supposed to be quite dense, I have to wonder if they haven't made metallic deuterium.

Re:That's "dilithium"

[RsG]

Vitamins don't grow on trees

Uh. That was a joke, right?

Nope, he's serious. How many tree-grown products do you eat? I'm betting three or four types of fruit, at most.

Some vitamins do grow on trees, but the rest we need from other sources. Meat isn't easy to get in space, since food animals take up rather a lot of room. And isolated soil culture (what you've got aboard a spacecraft) may not have all the trace elements the plants need to draw upon to sustain us and our would-be food animals.

In a way, for long journeys where there's live and mobile crew to feed, it's almost easier to envision a completely synthetic diet. At least that only requires detailed understanding of our own biochemistry, plus the hypothetical technology to recycle waste indefinitely. Taking all the living things we need to survive with us requires understanding the dynamics of several different biochemistries, and how they all interact, which is no mean feat.