Scientists discover liquid that defies physics

[hot_pastrami]

Everybody learns in elementary science class that when you take a solid, and continuously apply increasing heat, it will eventually melt into a liquid, and then evaporate into a gas. When you cool said gas, it will condense into a liquid, followed by hardening into a solid. Simple.

But researchers in France have found a liquid which has little respect for the "laws" (more aptly "suggestions") of physics. When this organic liquid solution is heated to temperatures ranging from 45 to 75 degrees C, it solidifies. When allowed to cool, it melts again.

The cause lies in the molecules' reaction to the increased energy... the hydrogen bonds, which tend to break and re-form easily at room temperature, become stronger when heat energy is applied... the stronger bonds then form a structure, and a solid results. Removing the heat energy weakens the hydrogen bonds again, and it "melts" back into a liquid.

It sounds like the "solid" form is gel-like in consistency, which may limit the useful applications of this material, but it's still spiffy.

[Cyber Wolf]

I wonder what it does when heated past 75 degrees C. If it retains its solidness and gets tougher and harder to destroy as the heat increases, then we may well have found our Unobtainium! (Anyone who's seen The Core will have gotten that )

[russotto]

"Unobtanium" was a joke long before _The Core_.

Anyway, since there's no law of physics which disallows a phase change like this one, the title of the article is a bit misleading.

[tw]

No matter what Onyxcougar feels, quantum physics is to our future as the transistor was in 1950s and 1960s. Numerous interesting material concepts are being discovered that only quantum physics can explain. Unfortunately the tools so necessary for major breakthroughs in this science are not being built in the US.

A very recent example was in Penn State where standard Helium (I believe it was standard Helium, but does not happen with an isotope of Helium) conformed to a newly discovered concept called SuperLiquid. Supersolids had been discovered previously by, I believe, it was last year's Nobel Prize winner. But he speculated that Superliquids were not possible. Penn State researchers have proved him wrong.

Basically, a Supersolid disappears when cooled and compressed. That's right - mass dissappears. There are additional complexities involved that the reader may discover independently.

Demonstrated is a conclusion that cannot be repeated enough. Our next breakthough technologies apparently lie in quantum physics. Even the recent transporting of material (Star Trek stuff) is quantum physics. There is no scientific future in the $80billion spent on a useless ISS or in the even more expenisve and more rediculous George Jr 'hard-on' - a manned mission to Mars. These are simply what happens when George Jr consults his biblical advisors to pervert science. Simply repeating what so many Noble Prize winners and the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

This discussion only examples what has been repeated previously - the future demands we move on into the field of quantum physics - or surrender all those future jobs to other nations.

Recently demonstrated was a theory proposed in Purdue in 1990. Dr Awschalom and his team at U of Cal Santa Barbara has just recently demonstrated Spintronics - transistors that operate using quantum physics concepts. Original transistor was bipolar. It was obsoleted by FET. Now spintronics (or some other equivalent advances) begs to obsolete the FET. Just another major breakthrough - again using quantum physics - that could finally solve the problem of transistors being so small that they cannot be any smaller. Spin transistors should work faster without the leakages (heat) associated with current FET transistors. This discovery involving Santa Barbara and (different) Penn State researchers was only reported last June in the science publication Nature.

Again, a potential breakthrough based upon quantum physics properties. Such breakthroughs will be necesary to maintain Moores Law. And it most decidedly will not be found in political perverts such as the silly man to Mars.

[TheSnake]

I'm surprised that Nobel Prize winner said Superliquids weren't possible. The best scientists put no limits on their thinking.

I am a gradute student at Penn State and I remember reading about that in the paper. Go State!

[Happy Monkey]

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right.
When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

~ Arthur C. Clarke's First Law ~

[Roosta]

One of the weirdest materials I have seen only recently is Aerogel. It's basically a gel that has had all the liquid removed to leave the solids in the same form as when it was a gel. it makes a structure that is 99.8% air, a superb insulator and very stong for it's weight. Apparently, it was invented in the 1930s but has now been refined enough to be useable by NASA. It just looks like solid smoke.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by russotto

"Unobtanium" was a joke long before _The Core_.

Ah well. The Core is the first time I'd ever heard of it. Must not be traveling in the right circles.

[Happy Monkey]

I've got some aerogel. Odd stuff.

[xoxoxoBruce]

From HP

It sounds like the "solid" form is gel-like in consistency, which may limit the useful applications of this material, but it's still spiffy.

I wonder if it would facilitate transporting hydrogen as fuel?

From Roosta

Apparently, it was invented in the 1930s but has now been refined enough to be useable by NASA.

Because of Aerogel's tremendous insulating properties, there are a bunch of researchers working on how the make it in volume, economically.

[russotto]

Originally Posted by tw

No matter what Onyxcougar feels, quantum physics is to our future as the transistor was in 1950s and 1960s. Numerous interesting material concepts are being discovered that only quantum physics can explain. Unfortunately the tools so necessary for major breakthroughs in this science are not being built in the US.

A very recent example was in Penn State where standard Helium (I believe it was standard Helium, but does not happen with an isotope of Helium) conformed to a newly discovered concept called SuperLiquid. Supersolids had been discovered previously by, I believe, it was last year's Nobel Prize winner. But he speculated that Superliquids were not possible. Penn State researchers have proved him wrong.

Liquid helium has been known to form a superfluid for decades. The supersolid phase is what's new. Also, Penn State is still within the United States.

Basically, a Supersolid disappears when cooled and compressed. That's right - mass dissappears. There are additional complexities involved that the reader may discover independently.

No mass disappears.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

From HP
I wonder if it would facilitate transporting hydrogen as fuel?

From Roosta
Because of Aerogel's tremendous insulating properties, there are a bunch of researchers working on how the make it in volume, economically.

Numerous technical publications from IEEE Spectrum to Scientific American do the numbers. The numbers are glaring. Hydrogen does not make a good fuel. Estimates for the loss of energy when using Hydrogen fuel are as high as 70%.

We don't need a new fuel. We must address and fix the energy efficiency problem. The solution was so obvious even with the pre-WWII disiel electric locomotive. Why was the steam engine so quickly obsoleted? It could not adapt to changing load conditions.

The conventional gasoline engine is also a pig because it too is pathetic at adapting to changing loads. The efficiency problem is why trucks use diesel. That solution is found in innovation such as the Hybrid engine.

Look back just at pre - WWII automotive technology. The history is quite profound. When America was innovating, then America was also getting more energy from each gallon of gas. Even late 1960 engines of same size as V-8s in SUV averaged 18 MPG. Todays SUVs average more like 12 MPG - because they don't even have to use current technologies -let alone innovate into new technologies.

How to destroy the innovation movement. Hype Hydrogen as a solution. Then when it does not work (like GM's electric car the EV-1), then blame the innovation movement. It is a formula that guarantees a status quo - what MBA trained managers love. Yes bean counters fear change and innovation, in part, because change and innovation cannot be measured on a spread sheet. One actually has to first get dirt under the fingernails.

Do the energy creation, transport, and storage numbers for hydrogen. They do not work. But those such as GM who promote the hydorgen as a fuel nonsense are the same people who don't even know nor ever did design something. The numbers don't work. But MBA spread sheets don't measure science. It measures dollars. Hydrogen as a fuel is a lie that avoids the real problem we have in America - a shortage of innovations that would create greater efficiencies - including less pollution.

What countries get the new jobs 20 years from now? Those who set the standards for efficiency, environmental standards, etc. Why is CA the heart of this nation's wealth? They innovate. They set standards that result in new products 10 and 20 years from now. Solve the efficiency problems today, and America makes the new products that all other nations (especially China) need tomorrow. Hydrogen exists in that solution - but not as a fuel.

[tw]

Originally Posted by russotto

Liquid helium has been known to form a superfluid for decades. The supersolid phase is what's new. Also, Penn State is still within the United States.

Confirmation and background information to what russotto has posted. From physicsweb

Evidence for supersolid is firmed up
2 September 2004

Physicists in the US have confirmed that solid helium can behave as a superfluid. Earlier this year Eun-Seong Kim and Moses Chan of Pennsylvania State University observed superfluid behaviour - fluid flow without viscosity - in solid helium that had been confined in porous Vycor glass. However, the effect might have been due to the formation of liquid-like layers in the pores. Now Kim and Chan have repeated the experiment with bulk samples of solid helium and confirmed that it can enter a superfluid state

From the NY Times

The new experiment suggests a new state of matter: a supersolid.

In the 1970's, physicists played with the notion that a solid - a material whose atoms generally stack together in a neat crystal pattern - might also undergo a quantum transformation. Some suggested that when sufficiently chilled, some of the atoms in a solid would "melt" into a superfluid and effortlessly flow through the surrounding solid. They called this state a supersolid.

Most physicists, including some who had suggested the idea, concluded that although this state was possible, it was unlikely to be observed.

"I have written at least one paper in the remote past about the possibility of supersolid behavior," said Dr. Anthony J. Leggett, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics last year for theoretical work on superfluids. "I would have bet at least 100 to 1 against it."

In an article published this month on the Web site of the journal Science, Dr. Moses H. W. Chan, a professor of physics at Penn State, and Dr. Eunseong Kim, a postdoctoral researcher, reported that they had turned helium into a supersolid.

[busterb]

The French came up w/this! go figure

[xoxoxoBruce]

Buster, they're not stupid, just nasty.