Hydrogen turned into metal in stunning act of alchemy that could revolutionise technology and space-

[TexasTowelie]

Hydrogen turned into metal in stunning act of alchemy that could revolutionise technology and spaceflight

For nearly 100 years, scientists have dreamed of turning the lightest of all the elements, hydrogen, into a metal.

Now, in a stunning act of modern-day alchemy, scientists at Harvard University have finally succeeded in creating a tiny amount of what is the rarest, and possibly most valuable, material on the planet, they reported in the journal Science.

For metallic hydrogen could theoretically revolutionise technology, enabling the creation of super-fast computers, high-speed levitating trains and ultra-efficient vehicles and dramatically improving almost anything involving electricity.

And it could also allow humanity to explore outer space as never before.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/hydrogen-metal-revolution-technology-space-rockets-superconductor-harvard-university-a7548221.html?cmpid=facebook-post

[Staph]

1. So, when do we get

transparent aluminum?

[Quackers]

5. We've had it for years.

You just never seen it.

[Staph]

9. Hee!

I love a smart aleck!

[aquamarina]

2. That was very cool.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. Metastable?

The sample has remained trapped in this astonishing grip, but sometime in the next few weeks, the researchers plan to carefully ease the pressure.

According to one theory, metallic hydrogen will be stable at room temperature – a prediction that Professor Silvera said was “very important”.

“That means if you take the pressure off, it will stay metallic, similar to the way diamonds form from graphite under intense heat and pressure, but remains a diamond when that pressure and heat is removed,” he said.

If this is true, then its properties a super-conductor could dramatically improve anything that uses electricity.

Some scientists aren't convinced solid hydrogen was created. We'll see...
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/diamond-vise-turns-hydrogen-metal-potentially-ending-80-year-quest

Still, claims of solid metallic hydrogen have come and gone before, and some experts want more proof. "From our point of view it's not convincing," says Mikhail Eremets, who is pursuing solid metallic hydrogen at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. Others in the contentious field are downright hostile to the result. "The word garbage cannot really describe it," says Eugene Gregoryanz, a high-pressure physicist at the University of Edinburgh, who objects to several of the experiment's procedures.

[Mister Ed]

4. Does the core of Jupiter consist of metallic hydrogen?

In an "Astronomy for Dummies" sort of course that I took in college in the late 1970's, the professor mentioned that, at that time, many astronomers were hypothesizing that the core of Jupiter was likely an enormous sphere of hydrogen made metallic by the extreme pressure.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Liquid metallic hydrogen.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/09aug_juno3

Jupiter's strangest feature, however, may be a 25,000 mile deep soup of exotic fluid sloshing around its interior. It's called liquid metallic hydrogen.

[Mister Ed]

7. Thank you. A fascinating read. n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

8. "Could". **IF** it survives at lower pressures; not yet proven. nt