Aloooominum turned into new state of matter

[mrk]

Scientists at the FLASH free-electron, high intensity laser facility in Hamburg, Germany, have created a completely new state of matter, transforming aluminum into something "that nobody has seen before," an exotic material which is transparent to ultraviolet radiation.

According to Professor Justin Wark—from the Oxford University's Department of Physics—the discovery is "almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light!" They achieved this alchemical miracle by knocking down a "core electron from every aluminium atom," but without disrupting the metal structure with the laser bombing.

Wark says that this will give them insight into the creation of miniature stars with high-power laser implosions, "which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth

[source]

- Just reading the wiki, seems nuclear fusion has been worked on for a long time now yet still not fully controlled and perfected, still reading on but interesting stuff!

 

[me227]

Cold fusion is the way to go!

Interesting stuff anyway and i'm sure we'll get there eventually. Especially when surprise discoveries like this happen.

 

[V4NT0M]

Transparent alooominum? Star Trek?

 

[mrk]

Cold fusion won't happen for a fair bit methinks

 

[me227]

Cold fusion won't happen for a fair bit methinks

No way. It happened in the 80s in somebodies basement.

 

[Dr.EM]

Would this transparent aluminium no longer conduct electricity? I'm guessing it won't do.

Interesting discovery though, were they expecting this or did someone just decide to shoot a huge laser at some things

 

[Fenris]

were they expecting this or did someone just decide to shoot a huge laser at some things

I thourght that was the whole point of being a scientist

It's pretty cool, they say they think they turned it itno silicone for about 40 femtoseconds (what ever the hell those are)

 

[slowrunner]

Transparent alooominum? Star Trek?

Ahh yes the for the big fish tank needed to transport the whales into the future aboard the Klingon bird of prey. Couldn't help lol'ing at scotty trying to talk to the computer, and then to the mouse, .

 

[HummuH1]

Cool. You could have some fun with transparent aluminium. They'd make great doors...

 

[mrk]

And car body panels! imagine a car where you can see through it Awesome for fault finding and seeing how bits work hehe.

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

I thourght that was the whole point of being a scientist

It's pretty cool, they say they think they turned it itno silicone for about 40 femtoseconds (what ever the hell those are)

40xE^-15 isn't it?

 

[deusexlumina]

40xE^-15 isn't it?

quite a long time then

 

[Fenris]

40xE^-15 isn't it?

Yes thats exactly it, however did it slip my mind.

 

[Cosimo]

And car body panels! imagine a car where you can see through it

I’d rather not, you’d see also those horrible people inside.

 

[Fenris]

I’d rather not, you’d see also those horrible people inside.

Could always market it to the dogging community.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

transparent to ultra-violet radiation != transparent like glass.

 

[V4NT0M]

The FLASH laser, based in Hamburg, Germany, produces extremely brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city.

Holy crap!

 

[Cosimo]

Holy crap!

No, it’s transparent aluminium.

 

[Dj_Jestar]

No, it’s transparent aluminium.

No, it's not. It's only transparent to ultra-violet. *sigh*

 

[~J~]

This is really clever, but how would you work with it if you couldn't see it?

"Hey wanna drive in my new Ford Kia Transparantimonto"
"Sure, sounds cool, where is it?"
"Er, ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"