DailyDirt: Closer To Understanding Superconductivity

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The phenomenon of superconductivity could be extremely useful -- if the materials that exhibit the behavior could do so at ambient conditions. The first material discovered to conduct electricity with no resistance was mercury in 1911, but mercury requires temperatures below 10 °K to do this. In 1986, a high temperature superconductor was found that seemed to work around liquid nitrogen temperatures. We've made some progress pushing the limits of the superconductors we've made so far, and it looks like we may be on the cusp of a much better understanding these materials and how they work. Here are just a few links on the matter.

• Superconductivity at room temperature has been an unattainable goal for decades (or almost a century), until recently. Using short infrared laser pulses, a ceramic material was made superconducting at room temperature... for only a few picoseconds. [url]
• Over 60,000 papers have been published on so-called high temperature superconductors since 1986, but the phenomenon is not well understood at all. The "high temperatures" above -237 °C are still pretty chilly, but it's been hard to find examples of different superconductors that could help elucidate the mechanism. Researchers have recently discovered a new class of superconducting material, but we're still a long way from really understanding what's going on. [url]
• Physicists are starting to come up with better explanations for superconductivity and how it occurs. There doesn't seem to be any good reasons why superconductivity can't persist at room temperatures, but there may very well be practical barriers that we just haven't found yet. [url]

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Filed Under: materials, mercury, physics, science, superconductivity, ybco

DailyDirt: The Future Is All About Hovering

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Until quantum levitation and room temperature superconductors are a practical reality, we're still without hoverboards and flying cars. The future has promised everyone some kind of hovering transportation, but we'll just have to be patient and wait for the technology to be refined and made economical, right? Here are just a few hopeful links to getting your hovering fix sooner rather than later.

• Toyota has publicly stated that it's working on making a hovering car. The idea is that a hovercraft-like car would have reduced friction and be more efficient, so the trick will be to figure out how to make a vehicle float without expending too much energy. [url]
• There's a commercially available Hoverboard that lets a rider surf up to 30 feet above water. This board shoots a powerful jet of water to lift its rider up, and it requires a supply water hose and a trailing jet ski for its power supply. [url]
• For folks who remember Back To The Future II and hoverboards, the possibility of real hoverboards (made by HUVr Tech) is not just special effects and hidden support wires -- the futuristic skateboards EXIST. Or it's all just an elaborate hoax, like the moon landings.... [url]

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Filed Under: back to the future, flying cars, future, hoverboard, hovercraft, jet ski, levitation, quantum levitation, superconductivity
Companies: toyota

DailyDirt: Conducting Electricity In Unlikely Ways

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Human history was once defined by advances in materials, going from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age to the Age of Steel. Material science could still revolutionize society, but the advances would have to be much more impressive -- like creating a room-temperature superconductor (or transparent aluminum). Here are just a few curious developments in the field of material science.

• The ability to manufacture lots of long carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could replace copper wiring someday. However, current CNTs aren't as electrically conductive as copper, and they aren't as easy to solder to existing electrical systems, either. [url]
• Liquid cement can be made into a semi-conductor to form a metallic-glass material. New materials made with this technique could have better corrosion resistance than traditional metals, less brittleness than regular glass materials, and fluidity that would allow the material to be molded and processed easily. [url]
• Normally, carbon disulfide is a non-polar solvent, but when subjected to intense pressure (50,000 atm) and extreme cold (6.5 K), it can become a superconducting material. It's not likely that this particular discovery will have many practical applications, but it could lead to a better understanding of how (super)conductivity behaves. [url]

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Filed Under: carbon disulfide, carbon nanotubes, chemistry, cnt, material science, nanotechnology, science, semiconductor, superconductivity

DailyDirt: Red, Red Wine...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Alcoholic beverages have been part of human culture for thousands of years. But what do we really know about these drinks? Red wine goes with red meats, and white wine goes with fish... Liquor before beer, you're in the clear... Here are just a few more interesting tidbits of information regarding ethyl alcohol.

• A group of Japanese physicists discovered that red wine could induce superconductivity in an iron telluride -- so they tried a bunch of other alcoholic beverages like sake, beer and white wine to try to figure out what was going on. The researchers found that more tartaric acid in red wine correlated well with the superconductive state, but the alcohol also played some role. With just a bit more study, red wine will solve all of our energy problems and allow us to live forever.... [url]
• University of Connecticut wine researcher Dr. Dipak K. Das published fake data on the benefits of resveratrol, so there's some doubt that this component of red wine has as many magical health benefits as some have reported. Still, the anecdotal evidence behind the "French Paradox" makes people think red wine has more than a correlation with a lower incidence of heart disease (even if there's no causal relationship). [url]
• The 'drunken monkey hypothesis' proposes that humans like alcohol because our primate ancestors were highly dependent on fruits in their diet... and ethanol can be found in overripe fruits. But did those drunken monkeys exhibit superior Kung Fu skills? [url]
• You might think that wine experts can tell the difference between an expensive French wine and a much cheaper wine from New Jersey, but you'd be mostly wrong. Wine tasting is hard. Sometimes experts can't even tell the difference between red and white wines -- and the perception of wine can be influenced significantly by the label on the bottle. [url]

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Filed Under: alcohol, beverages, drink, food, french paradox, liquor, resveratrol, superconductivity, tartaric acid, taste, wine