i can use more hope in my life and i don't think ilx has a thread like this yet. it can be a place for posting news of new discoveries and innovations in the fields of medicine, science, space exploration, energy, etc. exciting speculative stuff is okay but i'd prefer things that have panned out as legitimate avenues for new technological progress. here's something i read today:
https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/11/narayan-q-carbon-2015/
Researchers Find New Phase of Carbon, Make Diamond at Room Temperature
Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered a new phase of solid carbon, called Q-carbon, which is distinct from the known phases of graphite and diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient atmospheric pressure in air.Phases are distinct forms of the same material. Graphite is one of the solid phases of carbon; diamond is another.“We’ve now created a third solid phase of carbon,” says Jay Narayan, the John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and lead author of three papers describing the work. “The only place it may be found in the natural world would be possibly in the core of some planets.”Q-carbon has some unusual characteristics. For one thing, it is ferromagnetic – which other solid forms of carbon are not.“We didn’t even think that was possible,” Narayan says.
Phases are distinct forms of the same material. Graphite is one of the solid phases of carbon; diamond is another.
“We’ve now created a third solid phase of carbon,” says Jay Narayan, the John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and lead author of three papers describing the work. “The only place it may be found in the natural world would be possibly in the core of some planets.”
Q-carbon has some unusual characteristics. For one thing, it is ferromagnetic – which other solid forms of carbon are not.
“We didn’t even think that was possible,” Narayan says.
how cool is that? i think so cool.
― Mordy, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 21:33 (nine years ago)
That is cool.
― Otago Imago (Tom D.), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 21:35 (nine years ago)
this is probably way more speculative than i mean but i've thought so much about it since it was first announced:
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/the-most-interesting-star-in-our-galaxy/410023/
In 2011, several citizen scientists flagged one particular star as “interesting” and “bizarre.” The star was emitting a light pattern that looked stranger than any of the others Kepler was watching.The light pattern suggests there is a big mess of matter circling the star, in tight formation. That would be expected if the star were young. When our solar system first formed, four and a half billion years ago, a messy disk of dust and debris surrounded the sun, before gravity organized it into planets, and rings of rock and ice.But this unusual star isn’t young. If it were young, it would be surrounded by dust that would give off extra infrared light. There doesn’t seem to be an excess of infrared light around this star.It appears to be mature. And yet, there is this mess of objects circling it. A mess big enough to block a substantial number of photons that would have otherwise beamed into the tube of the Kepler Space Telescope. If blind nature deposited this mess around the star, it must have done so recently. Otherwise, it would be gone by now. Gravity would have consolidated it, or it would have been sucked into the star and swallowed, after a brief fiery splash.
The light pattern suggests there is a big mess of matter circling the star, in tight formation. That would be expected if the star were young. When our solar system first formed, four and a half billion years ago, a messy disk of dust and debris surrounded the sun, before gravity organized it into planets, and rings of rock and ice.
But this unusual star isn’t young. If it were young, it would be surrounded by dust that would give off extra infrared light. There doesn’t seem to be an excess of infrared light around this star.
It appears to be mature.
And yet, there is this mess of objects circling it. A mess big enough to block a substantial number of photons that would have otherwise beamed into the tube of the Kepler Space Telescope. If blind nature deposited this mess around the star, it must have done so recently. Otherwise, it would be gone by now. Gravity would have consolidated it, or it would have been sucked into the star and swallowed, after a brief fiery splash.
― Mordy, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 21:42 (nine years ago)