Scientists Claim New State of Matter Created

[Warped]

Scientists claim to have created a form of aluminum that's nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation and which is a new state of matter.

It's an idea straight out of science fiction, featured in the movie "Star Trek IV."

The work is detailed in the journal Nature Physics.

The normal states of matter are solid, liquid and gas, and a fourth state, called plasma, is a superheated gas considered more exotic. Other experiments have created strange states of matter for brief periods. This one, too, existed only briefly.

To create the new, even more exotic stuff, a short pulse from a laser "knocked out" a core electron from every aluminum atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure, the researchers explain.

''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before," said professor Justin Wark of Oxford University’s Department of Physics.

"Transparent aluminum is just the start," Wark said. "The physical properties of the matter we are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of what is going on during the creation of 'miniature stars' created by high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth."

Fusion is a dream of scientists who would create cheap and plentiful power by fusing atoms together, as opposed to nuclear fission that generates electricity today.

The discovery was made possible with a high-powered synchrotron radiation generator called the FLASH laser, based in Hamburg, Germany. It produces extremely brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city.

The Oxford team, along with their international colleagues, focused all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. At such high intensities the aluminum turned transparent.

While the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period – an estimated 40 femtoseconds – it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

"What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminum into this exotic new material in a single step by using this very powerful laser," Wark said. "For a brief period the sample looks and behaves in every way like a new form of matter. In certain respects, the way it reacts is as though we had changed every aluminum atom into silicon: it’s almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light."

http://www.livescience.com/technology/090728-new-state-matter.html

this is freaking amazing, like tapping into a new field of science quicker than we can understand what the hell we're doing. i really hope its for the better though. this is almost like when Dr Manhatten was talking about turning O2 into gold or something like that. it seems like everyday pandoras box gets opened just a little bit more

 

[Krynn72]

Suck it Large Hadron Collider.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Invisible Aluminum, now you can see what you wrapped! Also **** femtoseconds.

femto (symbol f) is a prefix in the International System of Units denoting a factor of 10^-15 or 0.000000000000001. ...

 

[VirusType2]

No need to recycle aluminum cans that clutter the landfills, just turn them invisible so we don't have to look at them.

Bullet proof 'glass' would be a cheaper and more practical material than transparent aluminum. But we must continue with the experiments, in the name of science.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Be nice to have the valve covers of car engines made from transparent aluminium so you could see the rocker arms rocking and valve stems doing stuff.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Awesome. We need to make windows out of this stuff.

 

[nurizeko]

SCIENCE

 

[Hurricane]

So... crunchy saran wrap?

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Now we can transport some whales to the future.

 

[Tyguy]

Now we can transport some whales to the future.

you lost me and the audience

 

[CR0M]

Yeah? well double dumbass on you

 

[Shakermaker]

you lost me and the audience

My guess was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That is a good book actually, read it.

 

[Maestro]

This may have applications in space where windows made of conventional materials (glass, plastic) would lack the resistance to abrasion and structural integrity to keep from exploding outwards due to air pressure.

 

[Xevrex]

Science: creating more miracles than Jesus ever did in only one day.

 

[Rico]

My guess was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That is a good book actually, read it.

Wrong!

Star Trek reference, actually.

 

[Ennui]

Yes, definitely Star Trek IV, they trade the "formula" to transparent aluminum in order to get the supplies to make a holding tank for the whales so they can take them back to the future. Hitchhiker's Guide was a good guess though, the part where the whale is created by the probability drive is one of my favorites.

 

[PvtRyan]

I thought I heard the phrase "transparent aluminium" in combination with "Star Trek IV" recently, and I was right:

http://www.cracked.com/article_17476_p2.html (#2 on the list)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparent_alumina

Don't know how this relates to the article in the OP though, as this kind of transparent aluminum is apparently pretty old and well known.

 

[Shakermaker]

Yes, definitely Star Trek IV, they trade the "formula" to transparent aluminum in order to get the supplies to make a holding tank for the whales so they can take them back to the future. Hitchhiker's Guide was a good guess though, the part where the whale is created by the probability drive is one of my favorites.

No, I was referring to Farrow's remark:

Now we can transport some whales to the future.

Or did I miss something and are there whales in Star Trek IV?

 

[Rico]

Shaker,

There is a star trek movie where whales save the world. They teleport the whales into their ship, so they can take them to the future to save humanity by having them talk to an alien weapon that is threatening to destroy the world.

I really wish I was kidding by the way, but my girlfriend watches way too much star trek for me not to know this.

Now you share my pain.

 

[Raziaar]

Shaker,

There is a star trek movie where whales save the world. They teleport the whales into their ship, so they can take them to the future to save humanity by having them talk to an alien weapon that is threatening to destroy the world.

I really wish I was kidding by the way, but my girlfriend watches way too much star trek for me not to know this.

Now you share my pain.

Wow. More reason for me to make fun of star trek.

 

[CR0M]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzRziK-kZtQ

Aluminium, heathens

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

my girlfriend watches way too much star trek.

This is quite probably the least plausible thing I've ever heard.

 

[Rico]

The fact that she watches star trek, or that she watches too much of it?

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

 

[Sulkdodds]

The latter. There is no such thing as too much Star Trek!

 

[jet_porkins]

Science: creating more miracles than Jesus ever did in only one day.

Has science raised a man from the dead after 4 days?

 

[unozero]

lol:E

 

[Krynn72]

lol delete plz

 

[Nomad]

ooh, light alchemy

 

[Baal]

Has science raised a man from the dead after 4 days?

No, and God hasn't either.

 

[13LACKBISHOP]

Cool. No idea what this means in terms of new technology but fusion! YEAH

 

[jet_porkins]

12345 (ignore this post)

 

[NeptuneUK]

What is this new state of matter called?

And to everyone who's like 'We should make this/do this with it!' : You have completely missed the point, it's like saying lets make a car using liquids and gases!