Dr. Michael Demkowicz predicted self-healing in metal; this summer it was finally observed, shocking scientists around the world.
A microscopic crack grew in a very small piece of platinum when placed under repetitive stretching. The experiment, designed to study fatigue crack growth, continued as predicted for a while. But then, something unexpected happened. The crack stopped growing and instead began to get shorter, effectively “healing” itself.
This incredible observation was made by a group of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories while conducting fracture experiments on nanocrystalline metals. The findings were recently published in the journal Nature.
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