August 27, 2008, 6:44 PM CT

Proteins Have Controlled Motions

Iowa State University researcher Robert Jernigan believes that his research shows proteins have controlled motions.

Most biochemists traditionally believe proteins have a number of random, uncontrolled movements.

Research conducted by Jernigan, director of the L.H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics together with Guang Song, an assistant professor in computer science and graduate student Lei Yang, over a 10-year period shows that not only are protein motions more restricted, but also that these restricted, controlled motions are part of the function of the proteins.

The group's findings were recently reported in the journal "Structure".

Using as an example a protein from HIV virus, Jernigan conducted his research using a simple model and tested to see how the proteins moved. The large number of reported structures show exactly the motions that are mandatory for their function, and exactly the same motions as computed by Jernigan's model.

"This is one experimental case that is indicative, but there are a number of others," he said.

Jernigan believes this research is the first step to better understanding proteins and cell behaviors.

"There is the possibility of creating designer drugs with this newly discovered information," he said......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:57:05 GMT

The Periodic Table Of Videos

Tables charting the chemical elements have been around since the 19th century - but this modern version has a short video about each one.

The Periodic Table Of Videos is an experiment by Professor Martyn Poliakoff of the University of Nottingham, UK. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

August 20, 2008, 6:32 PM CT

Creating unconventional metals

The semiconductor silicon and the ferromagnet iron are the basis for much of mankind's technology, used in everything from computers to electric motors. In this week's issue of the journal Nature (August 21st) an international group of scientists, including academic and industrial scientists from the UK, USA and Lesotho, report that they have combined these elements with a small amount of another common metal, manganese, to create a new material which is neither a magnet nor an ordinary semiconductor. The paper goes on to show how a small magnetic field can be used to switch ordinary semiconducting behaviour (such as that seen in the electronic-grade silicon which is used to make transistors) back on.

The new material exists in a quantum halfway house between magnet and semiconductor - in the same way that much more complex materials such as ceramics which exhibit high temperature superconductivity exist in quantum halfway houses between metals and magnetic insulators. The research is of fundamental importance because it demonstrates, for the first time, a simple recipe for reaching this halfway house, whilst also suggesting new mechanisms for controlling electrical currents and magnetism in semiconductor devices.

Professor J.F. DiTusa of Louisiana State University and a co-author of the paper said: "It's amazing that something which was thought to exist theoretically in mathematical physics could actually be found in an alloy which was simply formed by melting together a few common elements"......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

July 3, 2008, 9:23 PM CT

Radicals Shake Up Molecules

Until now, it was usually thought that colliding molecules get the shakes as the result of energy transfer solely from the smashing of the molecules, but some new research adds a second means by which colliding molecules become vibrationally excited--it is being called the "Tug o' War Mechanism".

The new experiment, transforming the textbook story, waccording toformed in the lab of Richard Zare, chair of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. This work on energy transferring, or inelastic, collisions is featured in the July 3, 2008 issue of the journal Nature.

"How energy transfer occurs in molecular collisions is a topic of deep interest to chemists, for energy transfer is often the precursor to chemical transformations," Zare said. "This is the reason why I regard finding a new mechanism for energizing molecules through collisions to be of such potential importance".

"The work by Zare and colleagues shows an interesting and unexpected result," shared Charles Pibel, director of the Physical Chemistry Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). "The conventional wisdom had been that most collisions between molecules excite vibrational motion through a hard impact, like a piano's hammer striking a string."

But instead of molecules impacting and deflecting backwards, the Tug o' War Mechanism stretches the molecule and then releases it, starting the molecule rattling. The effect is "more like a violinist, plucking a string, pizzicato." In the collisions studied by the Zare group, a lone hydrogen atom tugs on one end of a deuterium molecule and lets go, exciting the molecular deuterium into vibration......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

June 30, 2008, 6:47 PM CT

Physicists create millimeter-sized 'Bohr atom'

HOUSTON -- June 30, 2008 -- Nearly a century after Danish physicist Niels Bohr offered his planet-like model of the hydrogen atom, a Rice University-led team of physicists has created giant, millimeter-sized atoms that resemble it more closely than any other experimental realization yet achieved.

The research is available online in Physical Review Letters

Bohr offered the first successful theoretical model of the atom in 1913, suggesting that electrons traveled in orbits around the atom's nucleus like planets orbiting a star. Bohr's model led to a deeper understanding of both the chemical and optical properties of atoms and won him a Nobel Prize in 1922. But his notion of electrons traveling in discrete orbits was eventually displaced by quantum mechanics, which revealed that electrons don't have precise positions but are instead distributed in wave-like patterns.

"In a sufficiently large system, the quantum effects at the atomic scale can transition into the classical mechanics found in Bohr's model," said lead researcher Barry Dunning, Rice's Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy. "Using highly excited Rydberg atoms and a series of pulsed electric fields, we were able to manipulate the electron motion and create circular, planet-like states"......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

June 26, 2008, 8:43 PM CT

Quantum computing breakthrough

The odd behavior of a molecule in an experimental silicon computer chip has led to a discovery that opens the door to quantum computing in semiconductors.

In a Nature Physics journal paper currently online, the scientists describe how they have created a new, hybrid molecule in which its quantum state can be intentionally manipulated - a mandatory step in the building of quantum computers.

"Up to now large-scale quantum computing has been a dream," says Gerhard Klimeck, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University and associate director for technology for the national Network for Computational Nanotechnology.

"This development may not bring us a quantum computer 10 years faster, but our dreams about these machines are now more realistic".

The workings of traditional computers haven't changed since they were room-sized behemoths 50 years ago; they still use bits of information, 1s and 0s, to store and process information. Quantum computers would harness the strange behaviors found in quantum physics to create computers that would carry information using quantum bits, or qubits. Computers would be able to process exponentially more information.

If a traditional computer were given the task of looking up a person's phone number in a telephone book, it would look at each name in order until it found the right number. Computers can do this much faster than people, but it is still a sequential task. A quantum computer, however, could look at all of the names in the telephone book simultaneously......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source

June 26, 2008, 8:22 PM CT

Much-Anticipated Online Mathematics Reference

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a five-chapter preview of the much-anticipated online Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF). In development for over a decade, the DLMF is designed to be a modern successor to the 1964 "Handbook of Mathematical Functions," a reference work that is the most widely distributed NIST publication (with over a million copies in print) and one of the most cited works in the mathematical literature (still receiving over 1,600 yearly citations in the research literature). The preview of the new DLMF is a fully functional beta-level release of five of the 36 chapters.

The DLMF is designed to be the definitive reference work on the special functions of applied mathematics. Special functions are "special" because they occur very frequently in mathematical modeling of physical phenomena, from atomic physics to optics and water waves. These functions have also found applications in many other areas; for example, cryptography and signal analysis. The DLMF provides basic information needed to use these functions in practice, such as their precise definitions, alternate ways to represent them mathematically, illustrations of how the functions behave with extreme values and relationships between functions......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

June 10, 2008, 8:15 PM CT

Lost Reds In Homer Painting

More than 30 years ago, when Northwestern University chemist Richard Van Duyne developed a powerful new sensing technique, he never thought he would be using it to learn more about treasures in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection -- including a watercolor recently featured in the museum's exhibition "Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light".

In Homer's watercolor "For to be a Farmer's Boy," painted in 1887, some of the red and yellow pigments have faded in the sky, leaving that area virtually without color. Van Duyne, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is working with Francesca Casadio, a conservation scientist at the Art Institute, to determine what the original colors were.

To solve this mystery, they are using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), the analytical technique pioneered by Van Duyne in 1977. SERS uses laser light and nanoparticles of precious metals to interact with molecules to show the chemical make-up of a particular dye.

SERS is a variation of Raman spectroscopy, a widely used technique first developed in the 1920s. What sets SERS apart is its ability to analyze extremely minute samples of organic dyes; some samples are so small they cannot be seen by the naked eye......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

June 4, 2008, 10:49 PM CT

Prototype Hydrogen Storage Tank

A cryogenic pressure vessel developed and installed in an experimental hybrid vehicle by a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory research team can hold liquid hydrogen for six days without venting any of the fuel.

Unlike conventional liquid hydrogen (LH2 tanks in prototype cars, the LLNL pressure vessel was parked for six days without venting evaporated hydrogen vapor.

The LLNL development has significantly increased the amount of time it takes to start releasing hydrogen during periods of long-term parking, as in comparison to today's liquid hydrogen tanks capable of holding hydrogen for merely two to four days.

LH2 tanks hold super-cold liquid hydrogen at around -420 Fahrenheit. Like water boiling in a tea kettle, pressure builds as heat from the environment warms the hydrogen inside. Current automotive LH2 tanks must vent evaporated hydrogen vapor after being parked three to four days, even when using the best thermal insulation available (200 times less conductive than Styrofoam insulation).

In recent testing of its prototype hydrogen tank onboard a liquid hydrogen (LH2) powered hybrid, LLNL's tank demonstrated a thermal endurance of six days and the potential for as much as 15 days, helping resolve a key challenge facing LH2 automobiles......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

May 20, 2008, 9:56 PM CT

New process could cause titanium price to tumble

Whether for stopping cars or bullets, titanium is the material of choice, but it has always been too expensive for all but the most specialized applications.

That could change, however, with a non-melt consolidation process being developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partners. The new processing technique could reduce the amount of energy mandatory and the cost to make titanium parts from powders by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, artificial joint replacements and, of significant interest now, armor for military vehicles.

"We recently exhibited the new low-cost titanium alloy door made by ORNL for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which is a next-generation combat vehicle," said Bill Peter, a researcher in ORNL's Materials Science and Technology Division. "By using a titanium alloy for the door, BAE Systems was able to reduce the weight of its vehicle yet at the same time decrease the threat of armor-piercing rounds."

The lightweight titanium alloy also improves the operation of the door and increases mobility of the vehicle, making it even more useful to the military.

Peter noted that the non-melt approach, which includes roll compaction for directly fabricating sheets from powder, press and sinter techniques to produce net shape components and extrusion, offers a number of advantages over traditional melt processing......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

May 18, 2008, 9:57 PM CT

Improved Ion Mobility Is Key to New Hydrogen Storage Compound

A materials scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has deciphered the structure of a new class of materials that can store relatively large quantities of hydrogen within its crystal structure for later release. The new analysis* may point to a practical hydrogen storage material for automobile fuel cells and similar applications.

The abundant element hydrogen could play a role in replacing carbon-based fuels for transportation in the future, but scientists first must develop a method to store and release large amounts of the highly flammable, odorless invisible gas economically and safely. There are materials that are known to trap relatively large quantities of hydrogen, at normal pressures, but to date they all require heating to fairly high temperatures to release the hydrogen.

Hui Wu, a research associate from the University of Maryland working in a cooperative research program at the NIST Center for Neutron Research, has been investigating a new hydrogen storage compound that mixes lithium amide with lightweight metal hydrides. Lithium amide can hold more than 10 percent of hydrogen by weight, well above the 6 percent target set by the U.S. Department of Energy as a 2010 goal for a hydrogen storage material for transportation. The material absorbs and releases hydrogen reversibly, but both absorbing and releasing the hydrogen requires high temperatures and also produces a toxic byproduct, ammonia......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

May 14, 2008, 8:58 PM CT

Held together by metal-metal bonds

Chinese scientists have recently made a "golden crown" with a diameter of only a few nanometers. It is a large ring-shaped molecule containing 36 gold atoms. The lords of the ring, a team of scientists from the Universities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Nanjing report their unusual compound in the journal Angewandte Chemie: the molecular ring structure is held together exclusively by gold-gold bonds and is thus the largest ring system made of gold atoms produced to date.

Large molecular rings have fascinated chemists for over 40 years-ever since the discovery of crown ethers in 1967. The pioneers in this area, C. J. Pederson, J.-M. Lehn, and D. J. Cram received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery in 1987. In the meantime, large molecular ring systems have played an important role in the search for new functional materials and in nanotechnology. The synthesis of ring systems held together exclusively by metal-metal bonds has remained a challenge.

Small rings made of positively charged gold atoms have been know for some time, but only recently could the Chinese team make a ring containing 16 gold atoms. Now, the researchers, led by Shu-Yan Yu, Yi-Zhi Li, and Vivian Wing-Wah Yam, have introduced a new representative of this class of compounds, the biggest gold ring to date that is held together by means of gold-gold bonds: a ring system containing 36 univalent gold atoms......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

May 12, 2008, 8:28 PM CT

How Proteins Dissolve and Crystallize

In the late 19th century the Czech scientist Franz Hofmeister found that some salts (ionic compounds) aided the solution of proteins in egg white, some caused the proteins to destabilize and precipitate, and others ranged in activity between these poles.

Hofmeister proceeded to rank "salt-out" (destabilizing) ions versus "salt-in" ions as per the magnitude of their effects. The resulting "Hofmeister series" governs the strengths of ions in inducing protein unfolding, bubble coalescence, and a number of other phenomena, and remains vital to protein chemistry and other biological and chemical studies to this day. But its mechanism has never been properly understood.

A team led by Richard Saykally of the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has now used Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source to study how biologically important, positively charged ions (cations) interact with negatively charged groups found in proteins (anions) to form salts. The team's results, which appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lend strong experimental support to a critical part of a proposed new explanation for Hofmeister effects, known as the Law of Matching Water Affinities.

The Law of Matching Water Affinities

"The Law of Matching Water Affinities, recently proposed by Kim Collins, says that the least soluble ion pairs are formed by ions that are closest to each other in their hydration energy - that is, how strongly they hold onto water," says Saykally, who is a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division and a professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. "This is a classic example of an ion-specific effect: Hofmeister effects depend on the identity of ions rather than just on their concentration."........ Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

May 11, 2008, 9:14 AM CT

Designer Isotopes Push the Frontier of Science

Designer labels have a lot of cachet, a principle that's equally true in fashion and physics.

The future of nuclear physics is in designer isotopes--the relatively new power researchers have to make specific rare isotopes to solve scientific problems and open doors to new technologies, as per Bradley Sherrill, a University distinguished professor of physics and associate director for research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU).

"We have developed a remarkable capability over the last 10 or so years that allows us to build a specific isotope to use in research," Sherrill said. "It is a new tool that promises to allow whole new directions in research to move forward. There are tremendous advances that are possible".

Sherrill outlined some of the possibilities and what it will take to get there in a perspective piece in the May 9 edition of Science magazine.

In that article, he writes nanotechnology is getting a lot of attention for the astonishing possibilities of constructing objects with individual atoms and molecules. Sherrill, however, said that nanotechnology hardly is the last word in small.

The chemical changes that brought about the formation of the elements in the bellies of stars are being recreated in laboratories such as MSU's NSCL. Advances in basic nuclear science already have given way to technologies such as PET (short for positron emission tomography) scans, which are medical procedures that use special isotopes to target specific types of tumors......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

April 8, 2008, 9:54 PM CT

14-year-old CEO makes chemistry a game

Age seems to be no obstacle when it comes to starting a business. Thats the case with 14-year-old Anshul Samar, CEO of Alchemist Empire, Inc., who invented a trading card game, Elementeo, that aims to teach chemistry to students in a fun, unusual way.

At the 235th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Samar will present his inventive card game. While other 14-year olds play on their Xbox, this precocious CEO hopes to secure $500,000 in funding so his Silicon Valley-based startup can begin mass producing the game.

I have always wanted to show the world that the youth can start a business and have fun at the same time, says Samar.

Like other popular trading card games, Elementeo casts two players against each other in card-based fantasy combat. But unlike Pokemon or Magic: the Gathering, Samar says that Elementeo educates just as much as it entertains.

The game is based on a 121-card deck of chemical elements, compounds and catalysts. Every card has an explanation of the element or compounds uses and chemical properties. For example, the Oxygen card can rust neighboring metal cards and the Copper Conductor card can shock any metals. The oxidation state of an element is used as its attack power, and its physical state determines its movement on the board. The goal of the game is to reduce the opponents electrons to zero through strategic use of each cards chemical properties......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

April 6, 2008, 8:29 PM CT

Gunshot residue analysis on a single gunpowder particle

Researchers in Texas are reporting development of an highly dependable, rapid, and inexpensive new method for identifying the presence of gunshot residue (GSR). The test fills a GSR-detection gap that results from wider use of green lead free ammunition.

It requires only a single speck of GSR smaller than the period at the end of this sentence and could boost the accuracy of one of the most widely used tests employed at crime scenes involving gunplay.

In a poster presented here today at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, graduate student Garrett Lee Burleson and his advisor, chemist Jorn Chi Chung Yu, Ph.D., of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, described their new method. It extracts almost all components of gunpowder residue from particles about 15 times smaller than the width of a human hair, without the use of chemical reagents. After extraction, gas chromatography coupled with a nitrogen phosphorus detector is used to separate and identify the analytes.

Gunshot residue tests are done in almost every case where a shooting has taken place, Burleson said. The main focus of our research is to develop a method that will help credibility of gunshot residue evidence in court. You can get results with this test in 30 to 40 minutes with the new test. In addition you only need small amounts of evidence to run the test......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

April 1, 2008, 9:56 PM CT

Solving Mystery Of Polyketide Drug Formation

A number of top-selling drugs used to treat cancer and lower cholesterol are made from organic compounds called polyketides, which are found in nature but historically difficult for chemists to alter and reproduce in large quantities.

For the first time, researchers at UC Irvine have discovered how polyketides form their ringlike shape, making it easier for chemists to manipulate them into new drugs.

The key, they found, is an enzyme called aromatase/cyclase, which forms a C-shape mold in which polyketides can form one molecule at a time. By changing this mold, chemists can control the size and shape of the polyketide, resulting in the formation of new drugs.

"Almost every polyketide has rings in its chemical structure, and if we can control ring formation, we can produce more polyketide drugs," said Sheryl Tsai, lead author of this study and an assistant professor of molecular biology and biochemistry and chemistry at UCI. "Until now, polyketide ring formation was a mystery that hampered our efforts to produce new drugs".

The research appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Polyketide-based drugs and products account for more than $35 billion in sales annually. They include antibiotics that can cure a bacteria infection (tetracycline and erythromycin); anti-cancer drugs used in chemotherapy (doxorubicin and mithramycin); anti-oxidants that help prevent cancer and promote heart strength (EGCG and resverastrol); and drugs that lower cholesterol levels (Zocor). Green tea and red wine also contain beneficial polyketides......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

March 26, 2008, 10:10 PM CT

New Organic Molecule in Space

The « Large Molecule Heimat » is a very dense, hot gas clump within the star forming region Sagittarius B2. In this source of only 0,3 light-year diameter, which is heated by a deeply embedded newly formed star, most of the interstellar molecules known to date have been found, including the most complex ones such as ethyl alcohol, formaldehyde, formic acid, acetic acid, glycol aldehyde (a basic sugar), and ethylene glycol.

Starting from 1965, more than 140 molecular species have been detected in space, in interstellar clouds as well as in circumstellar envelopes. A large fraction of these molecules is organic or carbon-based. A lot of attention is given to the quest for so-called "bio"-molecules, particularly interstellar amino acids. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins and therefore key ingredients for the origin of life, have been found in meteorites on Earth, but still not in interstellar space.

The simplest amino acid, glycine (NH2CH2COOH), has long been searched for in the interstellar medium but has so far not been unambiguously detected. Since the search for glycine has turned out to be extremely difficult, a chemically related molecule was searched for, amino acetonitrile (NH2CH2CN), probably a direct precursor of glycine.

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn selected the "Large Molecule Heimat", as the source has been named by experts, and investigated a dense forest of 3700 spectral lines from complex molecules with the IRAM 30-metre telescope in Spain. Atoms and molecules emit light at very specific frequencies, which appear as characteristic lines in the radiation spectrum. By analyzing these spectral lines, astronomers can determine the chemical composition of cosmic clouds. The more complex a molecule is, the more possibilities it has to radiate its internal energy. This is the reason why complex molecules emit a number of spectral lines, which are very weak and therefore difficult to identify in the "line jungle"......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source

March 5, 2008, 7:43 PM CT

Steal CO2 From Air

Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a low-risk, transformational concept, called Green Freedom-, for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water.

Currently, the principal market for the Green Freedom production concept is fuel for vehicles and aircraft.

At the heart of the technology is a new process for extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and making it available for fuel production using a new form of electrochemical separation. By integrating this electrochemical process with existing technology, scientists have developed a new, practical approach to producing fuels and organic chemicals that permits continued use of existing industrial and transportation infrastructure. Fuel production is driven by carbon-neutral power.

"Our concept enhances U.S. energy and material security by reducing dependence on imported oil. Initial system and economic analyses indicate that the prices of Green Freedom commodities would be either comparable to the current market or competitive with those of other carbon-neutral, alternative technologies currently being considered," said F. Jeffrey Martin of the Laboratory's Decisions Applications Division, principal investigator on the project.

Martin will be presenting a talk on the subject at the Alternative Energy NOW conference in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, February 20, 2008......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source

February 25, 2008, 9:25 PM CT

Tracking your carbon footprint

An innovation called Carbon Hero may help reduce global warming by making people more aware of their carbon footprint. Regional prize winner in the 2007 European Satellite Navigation Competition, sponsored by ESA's Technology Transfer Programme, the device uses satellite navigation technology to track journeys.

Concerned about global warming, a number of people are now looking for ways to reduce their generation of carbon dioxide (CO2). One option is to use public transport and limit journeys by car and plane; however, eventhough this can significantly reduce each person's carbon footprint, until now the benefits have been difficult to measure.

"With Carbon Hero calculating your carbon footprint is easy," explains Andreas Zachariah, a graduate student from the Royal College of Art in London and inventor of Carbon Hero. "This easy-to-use mobile system uses satellite navigation data to calculate the environmental impact of travel. With its specialist database and algorithm, it can determine the mode of transport and its environmental impact with almost no user input."

It was back in 2006, that Andreas Zachariah came up with the idea of a small and practical device to track personal CO2 emissions during travel. It determines the carbon footprint of travellers using different modes of transport by using satellite navigation data to measure the distance, identify the type of transportation and calculate the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere through travel......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source

February 12, 2008, 9:17 PM CT

MIT reveals superconducting surprise

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT physicists have taken a step toward understanding the puzzling nature of high-temperature superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures well above absolute zero.

If superconductors could be made to work at temperatures as high as room temperature, they could have potentially limitless applications. But first, researchers need to learn much more about how such materials work.

Using a new method, the MIT team made a surprising discovery that may overturn theories about the state of matter in which superconducting materials exist just before they start to superconduct. The findings are published in the recent issue of Nature Physics.

Understanding high-temperature superconductors is one of the biggest challenges in physics today, as per Eric Hudson, MIT assistant professor of physics and senior author of the paper.

Most superconductors only superconduct at temperatures near absolute zero, but about 20 years ago, it was discovered that some ceramics can superconduct at higher temperatures (but commonly still below 100 Kelvin, or -173 Celsius).

Such high-temperature superconductors are now beginning to be used for a number of applications, including cell-phone base stations and a demo magnetic-levitation train. But their potential applications could be much broader......... Posted by: Sarah      Read more         Source