Collaborate Disseminate
“Strange metals” have that name for a reason – these materials exhibit some unusual conductive properties and surprisingly, even have things in common with black holes. Now, a new study has characterized them in more detail, and found that strange meta… Continue reading Strange metals: New state of matter shares properties with black holes
They don’t call graphene a “wonder material” for nothing – it’s ultra-thin, ultra-strong, and has some weird electrical properties. MIT researchers previously found a particularly strange pattern emerged in “twisted” graphene structures, and now they’v… Continue reading Twisted graphene gets weirder at a “magic angle”
To say that the process of installing a magnetic resonance imager in a hospital is a complex task is a serious understatement. Once the approval of regulators is obtained, a process that could take years, architects and engineers have to figure out where the massive machine can be installed. An …read more
In the world of physics research, graphene has been gaining popularity as one of the most remarkable materials in the last 15 years. While it may appear unassuming in common household goods such as pencil leads, the material boasts a higher strength than steel and a higher flexibility than paper. …read more
Continue reading Magic-Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene – Yes, That’s The Scientific Name
No matter how good a material is at conducting electricity, there’s usually some resistance – unless you use superconductive materials. Since they can conduct electricity with absolutely no loss, they could be revolutionary if not for one lit… Continue reading New superconductivity record edges closer to room temperature
Kagome is a pattern used to weave baskets from bamboo strips. The pattern is a symmetrical pattern of interlaced triangles that share corners. Scientists from MIT, Harvard, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have produced a kagome metal and found that it has exotic quantum properties.
Their paper, published in Nature (paywall), reports that the crystal made from layers of iron and tin atoms, causes electrons to flow in strange ways. The electrons bend into tight circular paths and flow along the edges without losing energy.
What is really interesting is that the effect persists at room temperature and above. The …read more
Continue reading Quantum Electric Material Borrows from Japanese Basketweaving
It looks more like a charcoal briquette than anything, but the black brittle thing at the bottom of [Ben Krasnow]’s crucible is actually a superconducting ceramic that can levitate magnets when it’s sitting in liquid nitrogen. And with [Ben]’s help, you can make some too.
Superconductors that can work at the relatively high temperature of liquid nitrogen instead of ultracold liquid helium are pretty easy to come by commercially, so if you’re looking to just float a few magnets, it would be a lot easier to just hit eBay. But getting there is half the fun, and from the look …read more
Continue reading Cook Up Your Own High-Temperature Superconductors
What do you do with a discarded bit of superconducting wire? If you’re [Patrick Adair], you turn it into a ring.
Superconducting wire has been around for decades now. Typically it is a thick wire made up of strands of titanium and niobium encased in copper. Used sections of this wire show up on the open market from time to time. [Patrick] got ahold of some, and with his buddies at the waterjet channel, they cut it into slices. It was then over to the lathe to shape the ring.
Once the basic shape was created, [Patrick] placed the ring …read more
