MIT physicists have created a new form of matter, a supersolid, which combines the properties of solids with those of superfluids.
By using lasers to manipulate a superfluid gas known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, the team was able to coax the condensate into a quantum phase of matter that has a rigid structure—like a solid—and can flow without viscosity—a key characteristic of a superfluid. Studies into this apparently contradictory phase of matter could yield deeper insights into superfluids and superconductors, which are important for improvements in technologies such as superconducting magnets and sensors, as well as efficient energy transport. The researchers report their results this week in the journal Nature.
“It is counterintuitive to have a material which combines superfluidity and solidity,” says team leader Wolfgang Ketterle, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at MIT. “If your coffee was superfluid and you stirred it, it would continue to spin around forever.”
Denmark’s wind turbines produced enough electricity to power the entire country last month.
The Scandinavian nation generated 97 gigawatt-hours (GWh) on 22 February, thanks to particularly windy weather, which is enough to power 10 million average EU households for the day.
Wind Europe spokesman Oliver Joy said the “impressive” feat was another boon for wind energy.
Word association time. I say “quasistatic cavity resonance”; you say…?
“Whaaaa?” or “Heh heh, cavity” are expected. But if you said “enabling purpose-built structures, such as cabinets, rooms, and warehouses, to generate quasistatic magnetic fields that safely deliver kilowatts of power to mobile receivers contained nearly anywhere within,” you win the virtual no-prize.
British and Czech scientists have unveiled a new “super laser” that they claim is the most powerful pulse laser available today.
The laser was developed by Britain’s Central Laser Facility (CLF) and Czech research and development project HiLASE (high average power pulsed laser). The 22-ton device has been dubbed Bijov after a mythical Czech strongman, and it cost $48 million to build.
Bijov has an average power output of 1,000 watts — a world record for pulse lasers. It first crossed this “magical barrier” on December 16, 2016, and HiLASE physicist Martin Divoky told AFP that it is “10 times as powerful” as any other laser of the same type.
Posted in employment, energy, space
An answer to concerns about rejuvenation-induced overpopulation from a logistical point of view.
Why do we worry about overpopulation? What’s so bad about it? Well, several things. We could have too many people with respect to the space available on Earth; too many people and not enough jobs for everyone; too many people and not sufficient resources; too many people polluting the environment beyond what it can take.
All these potential problems need to be discussed. Thus, in this article I’m going to play accountant a little bit. You can read the whole article, or jump to the section that concerns you the most.
OMG? Are we going to have super cheap electric vehicles in a few years that charge in a few seconds/minutes?
I hope so! This is very exciting.
Australia has supercapacitors made from graphene oxide. They can can store as much energy per kilogram as a lithium battery, but charges in minutes, or even seconds, and uses carbon instead of expensive lithium.
Large-scale production of the graphene that would be needed to produce these high-performance supercapacitors was once unachievable.
By using low-cost solution-based film synthesis techniques and a laser 3D printer, the researchers are able to produce graphene on a large scale at low cost.
Nice.
Lawrence Livermore scientists have collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of researchers including colleagues from Sandia National Laboratories to develop an efficient hydrogen storage system that could be a boon for hydrogen powered vehicles.
Hydrogen is an excellent energy carrier, but the development of lightweight solid-state materials for compact, low-pressure storage is a huge challenge.
Complex metal hydrides are a promising class of hydrogen storage materials, but their viability is usually limited by slow hydrogen uptake and release. Nanoconfinement—infiltrating the metal hydride within a matrix of another material such as carbon—can, in certain instances, help make this process faster by shortening diffusion pathways for hydrogen or by changing the thermodynamic stability of the material.
