...which is what makes time travel possible.
Posted on 05/24/2009 1:18:54 AM PDT by neverdem
The rare earth metal is the 53rd naturally occurring element to possess the property
An old element just learned a new trick under pressure. When cooled and squeezed very hard, the soft metallic element europium turns into a superconductor, allowing electrons to flow unfettered by resistance, a study appearing May 13 in Physical Review Letters shows. The results make europium the 53rd of the 92 naturally occurring elements to possess superconductivity, which, if harnessed, could make for more efficient energy transfer.
Europium, a rare earth metal with a silver color, is strongly magnetic at everyday temperatures and pressure. Study coauthor James Schilling of Washington University in St. Louis suspected europium would superconduct if researchers could overcome its magnetism, which disrupts a certain type of electron pairing that superconductivity requires. “Most of the rare earths would be superconducting at ambient pressure, except that they’re magnetic,” Schilling says.
Europium’s magnetism stems from the electrons in its 4f subshell, or orbital. Typically, europium atoms have seven electrons in this orbital. Schilling and his colleagues found that under huge amounts of pressure, though, one of these electrons jumps out of this shell and renders europium nonmagnetic. “If you can force one of the seven electrons out, it so happens that the ground state is nonmagnetic, and that opens the door for it to become superconducting,” Schilling says.
To achieve the extreme conditions necessary to squeeze europium’s seventh electron out of its shell, the researchers put the metal in a special device called a diamond anvil cell — a miniature torture device designed to exert extremely high pressures by squeezing the sample between two large diamonds. The researchers then cooled europium down to about 1.8 kelvins (–271.35º Celsius), a frigid temperature near absolute zero.
At pressures around 80 gigapascals, or about 800,000 times the pressure...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Pressure-Induced Superconducting State of Europium Metal at Low Temperatures
Neat. Thanks.
Seriously, even I (a trained physicist) don't regard this as particularly newsworthy.
Regards,
...which is what makes time travel possible.
I suspect that more energy could be gleaned by super conducting transformers then all the windmills that could be sited. Plus the windmills need lots of new lines and controls.
FWIW, to those who see God in nature. The number 7 signifies perfection or completeness. The world was created in six days and in the 7th, God rested (ie not a superconductor) . Reducing this element to six electrons or the number 6. Six is signifies man. Man was created on the 6th day and man is short of perfection and therefore is a superconductor (and nonmagnetic)
...The results make europium the 53rd of the 92 naturally occurring elements to possess superconductivity, which, if harnessed, could make for more efficient energy transfer... To achieve the extreme conditions necessary... the researchers put the metal in a special device called a diamond anvil cell -- a miniature torture device designed to exert extremely high pressures by squeezing the sample between two large diamonds. The researchers then cooled europium down to about 1.8 kelvins (271.35° Celsius), a frigid temperature near absolute zero. At pressures around 80 gigapascals, or about 800,000 times the pressure...Thanks neverdem.Seems like an appropriate topic to ping.
It's probably of absolutely no practical importance.
Rather, it's probably of purely theoretical interest - helping to refine our understanding of the phenomenon of superconductivity.
Sort of like the great efforts which chemists undertook back in the 1960s to finally bind so-called Noble Gases (Helium, Argon, Neon, Xenon, etc.) in chemical compounds. Not because there was a "market" for such compounds - but rather merely to demonstrate that it could be done.
Regards,
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