This Strange Metal Might Be the Newest State of Matter

Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University are making a bold claim: an entirely new state of matter. The team, led by Kosmas Prassides, says they've created what's called a Jahn-Teller metal by inserting rubidium, a strange alkali metal element, into buckyballs, a pure carbon structure which has a spherical shape from a series of interlocking polygons (think of the Epcot Center, but in microscopic size.)

Buckyballs, which are somewhat related to other supermaterials like graphene and carbon nanotubes, are already known for their superconductive capabilities. Here, while combining buckyballs and rubidium, the researchers created a complex crystalline structure that seemed to conduct, insulate, and magnetize while acting as a metal. It goes far beyond what ordinary matter can do, Motherboard explains.

So what's the big deal? Applying pressure to the compound when it's in the conductor/insulator phase turns it into the weird state of matter, and also makes it superconductive at (relatively) high temperatures. That second part has to be replicated by other scientists in other labs under the same conditions, but if it's true, that's your "whoa" moment.

We know that there are high-temperature superconductors—materials that become superconductive as warm as -211 degrees Fahrenheit. That is still really cold. But most superconductors that we know of need to be barely above absolute zero. Understanding and then mastering high-temperature superconductors, which this weird state of matter could help researchers to do, could make all sorts of new things possible in computing, transportation, infrastructure ... sort of everything. Discoveries of superinsulators in 2008 sort of hinted that this state of matter was possible, but confirmation would be a game changer for materials science.

Source: Motherboard via Science Alert

Note: A previous version of this article said the material in this study could become superconductive at -211 degrees F. In fact, the materials in this study reached only as high as about -397 degrees F.

“I knew, I knew it. The Salad Shooter is back!!
They finally found a use for that warehouse full of them.”

I know a guy that has a bunch of locking medicine cabinets that he was going to sell for a fortune back in the 80’s.

Seriously, he trashed the cabinets but still has the VHS of his TV ad.

I'm thinking it's something designed by Sirius Cybernetics where their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.

I think I'll wander over to the Nutri-Matic for a cup of something.

;-)

“I understand that a switch is a mechanical break between two conductors, not a property of the material the switch is made of.”

Did you get to vacuum tubes and transistors?

Or are you just being obstinate?

“No need to get snarky. I’m not a physicist, chemist, nor electrician. Just trying to make common sense of this new material.”

I gave you three examples of ON!!!!!!!!!! OFF!!!!!!!!!

OFF =========== INSULATOR ======== NO CURRENT FLOW

ON ============ CONDUCTOR ======== CURRENT FLOW

It is really very simple. The complicated part is understanding how the electrons are made to flow inside the molecular structure but no need to understand that anymore than you need to know how electrons move through the molecular structure of a copper wire.

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