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World's Only Sample of Metallic Hydrogen Has Been Lost (ibtimes.co.uk)
New submitter drunkdrone quotes a report from International Business Times: A piece of rare meta poised to revolutionize modern technology and take humans into deep space has been lost in a laboratory mishap. The first and only sample of metallic hydrogen ever created on earth was the rarest material on the planet when it was developed by Harvard scientists in January this year, and had been dubbed "the holy grail of high pressure physics." The metal was created by subjecting liquid hydrogen to pressures greater that those at the center of the Earth. At this point, the molecular hydrogen breaks down and becomes an atomic solid. Scientists theorized that metallic hydrogen -- when used as a superconductor -- could have a transformative effect on modern electronics and revolutionize medicine, energy and transportation, as well as herald in a new age of consumer gadgets. Sadly, an attempt to study the properties of metallic hydrogen appears to have ended in catastrophe after one of the two diamonds being used like a vice to hold the tiny sample was obliterated. The metal was being held between two diamonds at a pressure of around 71.7 million pounds per square inch -- more than a third greater than at the Earth's core. According to The Independent, one of these diamonds shattered while the sample was being measured with a laser, and the metal was lost in the process.
Hydrogen was not lost. It just sublimated.
No chance in hell we will use metallic hydrogen due to pressures required.
As I recall the biggest problem they had in making the stuff in the first place was constantly shattering the diamonds when they tried to shine light through them. Also, the breathless talk of this revolutionizing every industry under the sun is tremendously overblown. Right now these are laboratory curiosities, they may very well amount to nothing.
I read the internet for the articles.
One job
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As it turns out I have a backup sample, because you have to keep it at incredibly high pressure I keep it in the much more reliably pressurized environment of a dorm room with two Chemical Engineering majors.
Indeed because of the pressures involved I had to add some padding around the sample to prevent the rare metal from being crushed.
You can come collect it whenever, except of course when there's a sock on the door handle (P.S. there is never a sock on the door handle).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I helped find a lost contact lens once, so I know what this is like. As long everyone stops what they are doing and helps to look for it, someone will eventually find it. The key is to not step anywhere without first scanning the area very carefully.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
What a gas!
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
What I found most interesting about the article is that the guy they were talking to was actually considering that it might still be stable in solid form (and even stuck in the equipment) although also stated it might have just evaporated away. However, he also admitted that some think that they didn't even succeed and were actually getting readings off some aluminium used in the experiment. He says they'll just have to repeat the experiment to prove their case.
Seriously .. scientist working at the extreme limits are criticised by talentless keyboard jockeys because of equpitment failure. Click bait shit at it's most disgusting. These men and women doing this work should be praised and admired not mocked by morons.
They've discovered a new way to create powdered diamond. Quote from the lead researcher:
“I’ve never seen a diamond shatter like that. It was so powdered on the surface, it looked like baking soda or something like that.”
People tried for years and years to make diamonds in the lab with little to no success. As they continued they were able to make small ones, now days they can make a diamond in the lab that is of comparable quality to mined diamonds at a lower cost.
Once the process has been figured out and the end result examined it is possible that things can be adjusted to increase efficiency and decrease difficulty improving yields, this is how most manufacturing processes work. All sorts of things started off hard to make, but over time we learned and improved things.
They were studying the sample, it is possible that the sample didn't need the force to stay stable anymore, that is part of the studying part. Since the sample was lost in the debris and is so small it is unlikely they will be able to find it. Yes it is possible it did revert back to a gaseous state, but it might still be in a metallic state. Maybe this research does end-up in a dead end, but maybe it will be a catalyst for significant technological advances over the next 30 years.
It sucks that this was lost, because it's cool research.
Despite that, how goddamn stupid do you have to be to think this is a big setback for technology? You have to press it between two diamonds harder than they can stand it just to force it to continue existing. The consumer technology that might've fallen out of this will arrive in 2455 instead of 2450. Oh no.
I'm pretty sure my wife's toys are full of that stuff.
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They created a minuscule amount. That was all. It is not even clear that it was metallic hydrogen - other experts in the file remain publicly very skeptical. Quite frankly, if I were feeling mischievous, I would conclude that the researches "misplaced" the sample to make sure that nobody could verify that it was not, after all, metallic hydrogen.
...of the time when Glenn Seaborg had the only sample of Plutoniium in the world in his pocket while traveling to another lab. If his pocket had been picked or he'd been run over in traffic, things could have turned out quite differently..
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
..set the damn laser to stun!! Not kill dammit!!
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Only problem is that there are no such people, or any such place. Then of course you run into the problem of stories that falsely report that a story is fake. It's a real hall of mirrors
I see what you're trying to do. You claim there's no way to trust any source of any information, so we are ripe for influence by whoever connects with our base instincts of fear, anger, and survival.
Journalism isn't perfect, but nevertheless it's essential to the proper functioning of a democracy.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
They have tested it before, this was yet another test. And if you had spent some time reading about the problems the team faced (pressures being so high that it can shatter diamonds easily) you'd not be surprised the diamond cell was destroyed - as (again from the problems documented) shining a laser at a diamond under that kinds of pressure makes it even more fragile.
So instead you wrote some shit based on nothing. Time well spent? Nah.
You haven't been proved right and you had an extremely bad knowledge of material science in the linked post. Given that you don't attempt to backtrack now I assume you still are proud to be clueless? And you are also a liar as nobody called you crazy for the linked (still clueless) post.
But I have to admit you are beginning to look like a crazy guy that just "know" that hydrogen can't be metastable while material scientists have good reasons to believe it probably is.