|
| Super atoms turn the periodic table upside down |
| Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands have developed a technique for generating atom clusters made from silver and other metals. Surprisingly enough, these so-called super atoms (clusters of 13 silver atoms, for example) behave in the same way as individual atoms and have opened up a whole new branch of chemistry. A full account can be read in the new edition of TU Delft magazine Delft Outlook. |
|
| OIL DROP ROLLS ROUND AND ROUND |
| A droplet of oil has been made to continuously orbit a glass petri dish by Japanese researchers who say their experiment will inspire work on molecular motors. |
|
| NEW SOLAR THERMAL PROJECT - WHAT A GAS! |
| Australian scientists have combined solar energy and natural gas in a novel process capable of producing large-scale energy to power the country's future industrial and domestic needs. |
|
| NEW LIGHT-WEIGHT ENGINE BLOCK |
| Australian researchers have developed a new magnesium alloy they say is a "frontrunner" in the race to make a new generation light-weight engine block. |
|
| SUPERCONDUCTING LITHIUM |
| Discovery of superconductivity in lithium / Critical temperature much lower than theoretically expected.
Superconductivity in lithium was discovered by scientists in a collaboration of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, USA with the High Pressure Group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, as reported in Science (October 17th). Superconductivity at a critical temperature (Tc) of 9 K was found in lithium pressurized up to 230.000 atmospheres (23 GPa) with Tc increasing to 16 K at 80 GPa. This temperature is one of the highest for elements, but much lower than those theoretically predicted, indicating that more sophisticated theoretical treatments similar to those proposed for metallic hydrogen may be required. |
|
| RESEARCH REVEALS HOW AN ACID DISSOLVES, MOLECULE BY MOLECULE |
| The most precise description ever obtained by experiment of exactly how an acid compound dissolves, molecule by molecule, will be published in the 4 October 2002 issue of the journal Science. In addition to shedding new light on this basic property of matter, the research is expected to have broad impacts across the fields of chemistry, biology, and physics. The research team is led by A. Welford Castleman Jr., the Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Physics and the Eberly Family Distinguished Chair in Science at Penn State. |
|
| MIT MODEL PREDICTS BIRTHPLACE OF DEFECT IN A MATERIAL |
| Defects such as cracks in a material are responsible for everything from malfunctioning microchips to earthquakes. Now MIT engineers have developed a model to predict a defect's birthplace, its initial features and how it begins to advance through the material. |
|
| RESEARCHERS CREATE RARE, LARGE SYMMETRICAL CRYSTALS |
| Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., have created large symmetrical crystals that rarely occur in nature. These crystals could be harder than conventional engineering materials. The accidental discovery was made during attempts to make superconducting nanostructures with a simple technique used to create carbon nanotubes. |
|
| ULTRAFAST LASER SPECTROSCOPY TRACKS ENERGY FLOW THROUGH MOLECULES |
| Using an ultrafast laser spectroscopy technique, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have tracked – and timed – the flow of vibrational energy through certain molecules in their liquid state. |
|
| CHEMISTS DISCOVER MOLECULE CONSIDERED TOO UNSTABLE TO EXIST |
| Organic chemistry textbooks will need to be revised to recognize a chemical species that chemists have discovered at Northwestern University. The species - pentamethylcyclopentadienyl cation - was thought not to exist for long because theory said it was unstable. |
|
| POSSIBLE SOUND-INDUCED NUCLEAR FUSION POSITED. ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS ARE NEEDED. |
| A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has reported the observation of phenomena that could point to the possibility of nuclear fusion using a novel technique for plasma confinement. The approach, called "bubble fusion," is reported in the March 8 issue of Science magazine. |
|
| HYDROGEN REACTION EXPERIMENT REAPS A SURPRISE |
| Scientists got a surprise recently when a team of physical chemists at Stanford University studied a common hydrogen reaction. The experiment and an associated new theory revealed behaviors completely opposed to what had previously been expected. |
|
| GETTING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING |
| WE'D all like to get something for nothing. But harnessing the energy of empty space?
It sounds crazy, but the idea is not so far-fetched, thanks to a strange force that comes out of nothing. Researchers have persuaded this force, called the Casimir effect, to slide tiny gold plates past each other. |
|
| UW RESEARCH BOOSTS UNDERSTANDING OF HOW HYDROGEN TRANSFER WORKS |
| During the last 40 years, chemists have developed an understanding of how an electron transfers from one group to another to create new compounds. Now a team of University of Washington chemists has found that the same ideas apply to transferring a hydrogen atom – an electron and a proton together. That understanding could prove important to scientists trying to devise new classes of chemical reactions. |
|
| ENGINEERS DEVELOP NEW CHEMICAL SENSOR BASED ON EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS BREAKTHROUGH |
| For the first time, scientists have found evidence of a long-suspected phenomenon; tiny electrical currents produced when molecules interact with metal surfaces. The discovery may usher in a new generation of chemical detectors, and reveals details about catalytic processes used to produce more than half of the chemicals manufactured worldwide. |
|
| UMASS POLYMER SCIENTISTS CHALLENGE OLD THEORY; OFFER GREATER PRECISION IN CREATING NEW MATERIALS |
| A team of University of Massachusetts polymer scientists has challenged a longstanding theory regarding how plastics harden, perhaps offering scientists finer control over the flexibility or rigidity of specially produced plastics. The findings, by Professor Murugappan Muthukumar and former graduate student Paul Welch, were published recently in the journal Physical Review Letters. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation. |
|
| IN A SHOW OF ENTROPY'S BENEFITS, SCIENTISTS FIND 'FUZZY' MOLECULES CAN ASSEMBLE PRECISELY INTO DISTINCT LATTICES |
| Physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have determined that adding a "fuzz" of chemical chains to colloidal molecules can lead them to form a predictable array of lattices. The entropy-driven phenomenon represents a way in which the power of entropy might be harnessed by scientists for constructive purposes. |
|
| STRONTIUM TITANATE - A DEFORMABLE CERAMIC |
| Materials scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Metallforschung, Stuttgart have achieved significant plastic deformation in strontium titanate (SrTiO3), an oxide ceramic material hitherto believed to be extremely fragile and brittle at room temperature. These results will change some of the concepts with which ceramic materials are treated as engineering materials today. |
|
