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“To create an effective catalyst, the researchers needed to use a ratio of less than 0.0001 platinum to gallium. And most remarkably of all, the resulting syste
by igravious 4y ago
“To create an effective catalyst, the researchers needed to use a ratio of less than 0.0001 platinum to gallium. And most remarkably of all, the resulting system proved to be over 1,000 times more efficient than its solid-state rival […] Using advanced computational chemistry and modeling, their colleagues at RMIT, led by Professor Salvy Russo, were able to identify that the platinum never becomes solid, right down to the level of individual atoms. […] "They were always separated by gallium atoms. There is no solid platinum forming in this system." […] Surprisingly, it's actually the gallium that does the work of driving the desired chemical reaction, acting under the influence of platinum atoms in close proximity.”
Oh dear Lord, maybe the homeopathic cranks have been on to something all along!
- MichaelZuo 4y agoQuantum chemistry isn't well understood enough to definitely prove certain homeopathic right or wrong. The people assuming it was all cranks and snake oil, were ironically also assuming things without justifications. Though likely most of it is cranks and snake oil.
- jpgvm 4y agoCan't help but think of Tim Minchin's "Storm".
- Tyr42 4y agoFancy that.
- xwdv 4y agoDo they drink Gallium?
- short_sells_poo 4y agoGiven that Gallium is basically non-toxic and so is platinum, it probably wouldn't be the end of the world unless you chugged like a pint?
- unsupp0rted 4y agoWhat would be the different effects on the human body of drinking 10g vs 100g vs 1000g (ml) of platinum or gallium?
- PaulHoule 4y agoIf it is Platinum you go bankrupt.
- jhgb 4y agoBut that only affects your body if you're made of money.
- LeifCarrotson 4y ago> 1000g (ml) Water has a density of 1 g/mL, most other fluids we ingest are close, but gallium weighs 5g per milliliter and platinum over 20 g/ml. In purely mechanical considerations, 1000 ml of platinum would weigh 21.4 kg or almost 50 lbs. I'm not a doctor, but I imagine the stomach is not able to hold that much weight!
- db65edfc7996 4y agoThere are accounts of people drinking mercury (13.5 g/mL) to feel it sloshing around in their stomach.
- Natsu 4y agoApparently a lethal dose is somewhere around 140g because it reacts with stomach acid to form gallium trichloride which is poisonous: https://yesdirt.com/is-gallium-toxic/ https://yesdirt.com/is-gallium-toxic/ Some compounds of it may have medical uses, though: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898053/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898053/ That said, people have swallowed even crazier things, like when they used to use mercury (!!!) as a laxative: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/following-lewis-and-clarks-trail-of-mercurial-laxatives https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/following-lewi...
- MrStonedOne 4y ago[dead]
- soperj 4y agoyes, but first the dilute it with water until there's no gallium left.
- ianai 4y agoMy naïve take is liquid phase is higher energy than solid phase. The gallium here actually keeps the little amount of platinum liquid by diluting those platinum atoms into gallium-surrounding the platinum so it can’t solidify. Thus the catalytic effects are more like a liquid platinum catalyst than solid. Neat trick that probably wasn’t obvious outside of new methods. Edit-also note, this may be more like alchemy. They’re seeing the atoms on the surface performing the catalytic effect but the platinum resides below the surface. So the nearby platinum atoms are making the gallium mimic platinum properties.
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- whimsicalism 4y agoIn solid state chemistry, hemeopathy is actually true.
- wolfi1 4y agofor homeopaths that's not enough, they begin at 0,00000000001
- danuker 4y agoCheck out silicon doping. > When on the order of one dopant atom is added per 100 million atoms, the doping is said to be low or light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor)
- BlueTemplar 4y agoWhile super impressive, you basically need to do this dilution again and again for homeopathy (at which point it would be CH12).