Defrosting the Secrets of Superconductivity

In 1911, Kamerlingh Onnes conducted electrical analysis of pure metals - mercury, tin and lead - at very low temperatures. Onnes found that at 4.2 kelvin the resistance in a solid mercury wire immersed in liquid helium suddenly vanished. Some, such as William Thomson - Lord Kelvin – believed that electrons flowing through a conductor would come to a complete halt or, in other words, metal resistivity would become infinitely large at absolute zero. Onnes however felt that a conductor’s electrical resistance would steadily decrease and drop to nil.  On April 8, 1911, Kamerlingh Onnes found that at 4.2 kelvin/-270 degrees celsius, the resistance in a solid mercury wire immersed in liquid helium Suddenly Vanished. Onnes wrote in his note-pad that “Mercury has passed into a new state, which on account of its extraordinary electrical properties may be called the superconductive state“. He published more articles about the phenomenon, initially referring to it as “supraconductivity” and, only later adopting the term “superconductivity”

Fast Forward toSeptember 2011: A study undertaken by researchers at Laboratoire National des Champs Magnetique Intenses – Grenoble and published in Nature on September 7, reveals that superconductivity – the phenomenon where a normally conductive materials lose their electrical resistance when cooled – may be linked to the charge-order within the material, in this case copper dioxide. Researchers reported nuclear magnetic resonance measurements showing that high magnetic fields actually induce charge-order, without spin order. The observed static, unidirectional, modulation of the charge density breaks translational symmetry. These findings suggest that charge-order, although visibly pinned by CuO chains in YBa₂Cu₃O_y, is an intrinsic propensity of the superconducting planes of high-T_c copper oxides :: Read the full article »»»»

The Loneliest Planets

Scientists have recently confirmed the existence of large number of free-floating planets, planets not part of any particular solar system. These are the Loneliest Planets of all. Destined to roam the universe bumping along with no particular destination in mind and no travelling companions. Traditionally scientific belief has held that most planets orbited the sun they were formed around. A study has recently revealed – published in the scientific journal Nature - the possibility of 400 billion free-floating planets in the Milky Way. This raises many questions, how were these planets formed and can we explain all of these planets with current theory. What happens to planets in their life time ? This is one of those interesting new discoveries that makes us reconsider what we take for granted. “This is an amazing result, and if it’s right, the implications for planet formation are profound,” says astronomer Debra Fischer at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

While rogue planets are a well-known phenomenon, planets are often ejected from their solar system it was only thought of as a rare phenomenon, not the norm. The results of the study into free roaming planets suggests there are many more of these free roaming planets than can be explained by this single theory, making it possible there is much activity and movement amongst the planets.

This new discovery isn’t a throw everything out and start over again moment but it does mean we may need to re-think the ways planets are formed. The distribution and make-up of planets through-out space is also looking a lot less organised. It;’s not just planets spinning around their sun in a nicely ordered fashion but also free-floating planets randomly travelling across space. The standard planet formation theory – Nebular hypothesis – revolves around the idea that a rotating disk of dust, compressed by gravity, slowly draws together to form the sun and planets. This will stay the dominant theory but there will now be a new generation of theories trying to explain these new observations  Some new theories are already being discussed,  outer planets being thrown off early in the solar systems formation, planets colliding and there is also the idea that a planet can form by itself from a smaller Nebulas dust cloud than a solar system is formed from.

Up until recently identifying free-floating planets was an extremely difficult exercise. Even spotting planets in orbit around a sun was no easy feat. Orbiting planets were identified by observing the planet’s sun and watching for the wink, as the planet passes in front of the star its light is blocked and it winks. Alternatively the wobble of the sun can be observed, the wobble is caused by the gravitational pull of the planet orbiting the sun. Even these clever techniques are useless when it comes to free-floating planets, with no sun to measure against free floating planets have remained a mystery, until recently. Using a technique called gravitational microlensing – using an objects gravitational effects on light – Sumi and his colleagues were able to spot over 450 possible free-floating planets while monitoring the light from 50 million stars for the microlensing effects. Of the 450 possibilities spotted 10 were singled out as extremely likely to be free-floating planets.

The study ws conducted at New Zealand’s Mount John Observatory and Chile’s Las Campanas Observitory over a two-year period. During the study 10 extremely good candidates for free roaming planets were identified and the data confirmed by the MOA – Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics - and OGLE  – Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment - collaborations. .Study author Takahiro Sumi, an astrophysicist at Osaka University in Japan, says the deduced number of homeless exo-planets surprised him. “The existence of free-floating planets has been predicted by planetary formation theory, but nobody knew how many there are,” he says.

Panspermia is a theory growing in popularity based around the idea that life spreads around the universe through planetary impacts – comets and other planets -. The impacts eject proteins and other organic matter into space which eventually seeds life on another planet. Free floating planets may be an important part of process, and may help this theory gain a little traction

Don’t feel sorry for these lonely planets though, they are free. Free to roam the universe, free to do as they please. From time to time though they may be captured by the gravity of a passing sun, captured in orbit. You never can tell with a free roaming planet.

Lights Hidden Properties

University of Michigan boffins have discovered, while shooting lasers through glass, that light shining through non conductive materials exhibit strong magnetic characteristics. The magnetic properties of light were thought to be so weak that they could simply be ignored. With this research that has all changed, the assumption as it turns out was drastically wrong. They discovered that extremely powerful light can generate magnetic fields 100 million times stronger than previously estimated.  “Strong enough to induce useable voltages and create magnetic batteries.” Professor Stephen Rand says, adding, “Enough sunlight, focused into an optical fiber, could generate electricity – that’s is a simple way to think about it.”

Along with the obvious optical properties of light it also has electric and magnetic qualities. Solar panels take advantage of the electrical properties of light. These new panels will use the magnetic properties of light to create a solar panel, with the potential to produce a similar amount of power as a traditional solar panel - 10% efficiency -. This does raise the interesting idea of hybrid Electric-magnetic panels for twice the power per square meter. Add in Thermal and you have the big three.

Currently the main drawback is the required 10 million watts per square centimeter of light to induce the effect, normal sunlight produces 0.136 watts per centimeter. Research is still in its infancy so these and other hurdles will present themselves but possibilities like clear windows that generate electricity, magnetic batteries and self-powered displays will keep the white coats solving problems. Maybe even more important though is this discovery will change the way we think about light and magnetic fields interacting.

This is a monumental discovery that opens up a whole new field of science, new possibilities. This is a much bigger change than just some new power source, it’s a whole new side to light that we were blinkered to for so long. Longer term this may change how we look at light -no pun intended - this crosses the light and magnetic boundaries. How much of a game changer this is will take time. Solid numbers are required before any solid conclusions can be made. The Journal of Applied Physics this week published the initial paper by Professor Stephen Rand and doctoral student William Fisher. Keep an eye on this one it will get real interesting.

More information at Professor Rands site, Research site

Buddha’s Brother out…

The 3 Most Powerful Supercomputers in the Galaxy

The pinnacle of computer technology is the supercomputer.  Never mind gaming rigs like the Alienware Area 51, if one of these babies were ever used for gaming, they’d blow all competition out of their  water cooled existence. These systems are powerful enough that they have their own unit of measurement for their processing speed – the petaFLOPS - FLoating point OPerations per Second – odd name, but you can’t deny the power it represents – trillions to quadrillions of operations every nanosecond.

[Just so we don't get in trouble with the noids that know, a FLOPS is not an actual measured unit. an expression like  is actually interpreted as ]

These 3 supercomputers stand out above all others as the best of the best, fastest of the uberfast. Curiously, all of these systems run Linux, wink, wink  :: Read the full article »»»»