6 ms·
At high pressures, potassium adopts a mix of crystalline and liquid structure
- peter_d_sherman 8y agoFavorited. If you were interested in one day creating Star Trek's Replicator, this might be a good place to start. That is, here might be a good place to study the junction between solid and liquid phases of matter (your future Replicator would probably create liquids out of thin air before you figured out how to create solids, and this might be the phenomena you wanted to study to then figure out how to create those solids...) Also, the list of exotic states of matter in the article is worth reading and re-reading...
- ArnoVW 8y agoIf you're an amateur of exotic states, try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal
- selimthegrim 8y agoIt’s not an equilibrium state so is different from the others.
- crimsonalucard 8y agoWhile the material discussed in the article and new, the phase of matter is not new. The term is called non-newtonian fluid. Believe it or not you can make material with these properties in your own home. An inexpensive, non-toxic example of a non-Newtonian fluid is a suspension of starch (e.g. cornstarch) in water, sometimes called "oobleck", "ooze", or "magic mud" (1 part of water to 1.5–2 parts of corn starch). The name "oobleck" is derived from the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Because of its properties, oobleck is often used in demonstrations that exhibit its unusual behavior. A person may walk on a large tub of oobleck without sinking due to its shear thickening properties, as long as the individual moves quickly enough to provide enough force with each step to cause the thickening. Also, if oobleck is placed on a large subwoofer driven at a sufficiently high volume, it will thicken and form standing waves in response to low frequency sound waves from the speaker. If a person were to punch or hit oobleck, it would thicken and act like a solid. After the blow, the oobleck will go back to its thin liquid like state.
- halfjew222 8y agoLove oobleck - really neat stuff. From the article, it seems that what’s described is slightly different. While oobleck requires certain stimulation to achieve its states (standing still on Oobleck, you will sink; walking across oobleck, you’ll be fine) the potassium contraption described chemically appears to be a solid but is also actually melting. Forgive me if I didn’t do a good job describing, but I felt the difference was worth pointing out. Perhaps it would be fair too to say that the potassium did require a little prodding at 20,000 an increase in pressure to that of earth.
- dwighttk 8y agoOne new thing is that this is a single element, not a combination of molecules.
- empath75 8y agoThis is not a non-newtonian fluid.
- derekp7 8y agoI wonder if something like that would work in a ballistics armor application?
- ghaff 8y agoNot ballistic armor but D3O is one material used for impact protection that is flexible but becomes rigid when there's an impact. (I have a ski hat with ribs of this material.)
- rcthompson 8y agoWhat they describe doesn't sound like a non-newtonian fluid, although it's possible that the atomic-scale behavior they described manifests non-newtonian behavior on a macroscopic scale.
- snazz 8y agoHow can a computer model prove the existence of something physical? Wouldn’t it have to occur in real life before they can make this claim?
- Circuits 8y agoAs far as I am concerned, yes but who knows with scientists now a days. I feel like their all just flying by the seat of their pants.
- dang 8y agoEven if they are, could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?
- andbberger 8y agoWe know the basic rules of physics, how all the little bits interact. We also know that if you combine enough of the little bits, you'll get a system with no analytic solution. Where, provably, all you can do to learn things about is simulate it. So it's possible to discover new and unexpected behavior of a system with modeling that hasn't yet been experimentally verified. You don't know if such a phenomenon is present in the real world until you do experimental validation, but that doesn't mean your model is wrong. Maybe a more accurate statement would be 'laws of nature found to give rise to new phase of matter'.
- thereisnospork 8y agoSorry but I think the verbiage needs cleaning up. A model can predict a new phase of matter, but not discover it. E.g. dark matter has been predicted, but not discovered. All models are by definition abstractions and approximations (except perhaps the lonely H atom) so there is absolutely room to be wrong about predictions.
- jstanley 8y agoI think this means "discovered" in the sense that a mathematical proof is discovered, rather than the sense that an ancient buried artefact is discovered.
- metaphyze 8y agoSounds like someone has discovered cats.
- dang 8y agoPlease don't do this here.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- DiseasedBadger 8y agoReminds me of the sodium amalgam Nile Red was experimenting with on his last video (other than the April Fools one). It seemed to be a sponge of liquid mercury dissolving liquid ammonium.
- Causality1 8y agoClickbait title. The discovery is that at high pressures, potassium adopts a complex crystalline structure, of which different parts have different melting temperatures.
- cheesymuffin 8y agoIt baited me into something more interesting. I've been bamboozled!
- dang 8y agoOk, we'll use that. If anyone can suggest a better title (i.e. more accurate and neutral, preferably using representative language from the article itself) we can change it again.
- gus_massa 8y agoThe melting part is important. It's not just a complex crystal structure. If's a crystal structure with slots that are filled with the same material. The interesting part is that the filling and the main crystal structure have a different fusion temperature. "At high pressures, potassium adopts a mix of crystalline and liquid structure"???
- dang 8y agoDone. Thanks!
- Myrth 8y ago"bizzare" state lol some day mainstream scientism will realize that it is impossible to extrapolate global reality from local perceptions...
- SketchySeaBeast 8y agoIsn't that what science is based upon though? We can only make assumptions based upon observed results. You can extrapolate and then test based upon those extrapolations, and we can acknowledge that there are gaps, but I don't think someone saying "wow, that didn't meet my expectations at all" in any way discredits science.
- itissid 8y agoShouldn't plasma be also listed as a state of matter in the opening sentence?
- Semaphor 8y agoThey list 6 other states of matter at the end, including plasma.
- Sniffnoy 8y agoWhy on earth should we trust (for such things) a model that includes an opaque neural network?
- KeatonDunsford 8y agoI recently enjoyed reading Dr. Gerald Pollack's "The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor". I wonder... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0962689548/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_HtYLCbAP0ZJDD https://www.amazon.com/dp/0962689548/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_...
- apo 8y agoIt's great that the popular press still runs science articles. What's not so great: 1. There is no link to the original paper. 2. The description of the phenomenon has been so contorted that it's impossible to understand exactly what was found or its significance. The article notes: > “Somehow, these potassium atoms decide to divide up into two loosely linked sub-lattices,” Hermann says. But as scientists turned up the heat, x-ray images showed the four chains disappearing, and researchers argued about what exactly was happening. Fine, there's debate about how to explain the experiment. > The computer models confirmed that between about 20,000 and 40,000 times atmospheric pressure and 400 to 800 Kelvin (260 to 980 degrees Fahrenheit), the potassium entered what’s called a chain-melted state, in which the chains dissolved into liquid while the remaining potassium crystals stayed solid. That's just one explanation consistent with the data. Clearly, there are others. The article gives the false impression that some smoking gun has been found. Far from it.