novapsyche (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
novapsyche) wrote2004-01-29 12:45 pm
novapsyche) wrote2004-01-29 12:45 pm
exciting, but frightening
New form of matter created in lab
Scientists have created a new form of matter saying it could provide a new way to generate electricity.
The fermionic condensate is a cloud of cold potassium atoms forced into a state where they behave strangely.
The new matter is the sixth known form of matter after solids, liquids, gasses, plasma and a Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995.
[...] To make the condensate the researchers cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero - the temperature at which matter stops moving.
They confined the gas in a vacuum chamber and used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium atoms into pairing up and forming the fermionic condensate.
[Deborah Jin of the University of Colorado] pointed out that her team worked with a supercooled gas, which provides little opportunity for everyday application. But the way the potassium atoms acted suggested there should be a way to turn it into a room-temperature solid.
It could be a step closer to an everyday, usable superconductor - a material that conducts electricity without losing any of its energy.
Scientists have created a new form of matter saying it could provide a new way to generate electricity.
The fermionic condensate is a cloud of cold potassium atoms forced into a state where they behave strangely.
The new matter is the sixth known form of matter after solids, liquids, gasses, plasma and a Bose-Einstein condensate, created only in 1995.
[...] To make the condensate the researchers cooled potassium gas to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero - the temperature at which matter stops moving.
They confined the gas in a vacuum chamber and used magnetic fields and laser light to manipulate the potassium atoms into pairing up and forming the fermionic condensate.
[Deborah Jin of the University of Colorado] pointed out that her team worked with a supercooled gas, which provides little opportunity for everyday application. But the way the potassium atoms acted suggested there should be a way to turn it into a room-temperature solid.
It could be a step closer to an everyday, usable superconductor - a material that conducts electricity without losing any of its energy.
no subject
no subject
So, yeah. I'm a social scientist trying to understand the scientific world. It's fun being an armchair academic. (Wait, that's an oxymoron.)