Surprising Superconduction in Plutonium 49
jihema writes "Dr Strangelove would have liked this : a plutonium compound turns out to be a superconductor at relatively high temperature (18 K). The magnetic properties of this metal make this fact rather unexpected and contradicts the accepted theory on superconduction."
Pb--Great (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless someone takes them down to build an atomic bomb!
Re:Pb--Great (Score:2)
Re:Pb--Great (Score:1)
>
>...unless the temperature ever goes above freezing... for DRY ICE.
So 90% of Canada is safe. At least, it sure feels that way. *G*
Re:Pb--Great (Score:1)
Re:Pb--Great (Score:3, Informative)
This makes me wonder. I don't think the article really clarified on whether it was the radioactive property that makes it interesting, or just how the actual metal atom works. If that's the case, then what's the problem with depleted uranium? IANANP (nuke physicist), but I guess since they didn't mention it, it wouldn't work.
Re:Pb--Great (Score:2)
Also, depleted uranium isn't plutonium, so it's probably not superconducting. Sorry.
Re:Pb--Great (Score:1)
Re:Pb--Great (Score:3, Informative)
but when it gets blown to powder and ends up in the food/water supply, it's not good.
It's probably also highly toxic.
One of the major dangers of plutonium other than radioactivity is the fact that it is extremely toxic.;
Re:Pb--Great (Score:2)
It refers to the amount of the isotope with atomic weight 235. "Natural" uranium is mostly the 238 isotope, with (IIRC) about
"Enriched" uranium has a higher ratio of U235, and "depleted" has a lower ratio. Weapons and some power plant designs require enriched uranium because it has different fission characteristics (e.g. the probability that a neutron will cause the nucleus to split).
Enriched, natural, and depleted uranium are chemically the same; plutonium is different.
Re:Pb--Great (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Pb--Great (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pb--Great (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Pb--Great (Score:1)
"OK, lets freeze this plutonium, (Score:4, Funny)
Dosent this sound like some kind of bad b-move plot?? Im wating for the time traveling DeLorean to show up.
Really? (Score:1)
Are you sure this wasn't discovered by Jan Hendrik Schon [wired.com]?
Re:buying plutonium on the black market (Score:2, Informative)
The article clearly says the team was at Los Alamos National Laboratory. LANL has the authority for this type of work. Sarrao is not some random university professor. He works for LANL.
Re:buying plutonium on the black market (Score:1)
So, yes, it is relatively easy for "some random University professor" to get Plutonium if he really wanted to study it. More than that, many of these "random University professors" could easily find out how to extract small quantities of (non-weapons grade) radioactive substances out of... say, dirt. Those are just some of the benefits when you have a PhD in physics.
Have no fear though, the government and all the other "random University professors" keep a close watch on work done involving radioactive substances. It's important for safety, and the advancement and trust of science that this kind of work doesn't lead to any thefts or public danger.
The LAST thing one of these "random University professors" would do is buy Plutonium on the black market.
Re:buying plutonium on the black market (Score:5, Funny)
Of course; could you imagine putting this on a research grant?
Name: Plutonium
Qty: 100g
Vendor: mumble
:)
Has been done! (Score:2, Funny)
The students were part of a group that do experimental shows demonstrating funny/scary/fascinating physics. Apparently the guy who signed the list of wanted equipment didn't notice the uranium between the more boring stuff such as lasers etc.
Now we just need a seller. Any offers? (Yeah, I know, i should just mail press@uruklink.net and offer to keep it while there's inspectors around)
18K relatively warm? (Score:1)
work at close the temperature of salty
ice water, say -15C or 258K. 18K is like
-255C. That's pretty damn cold.
Re:18K relatively warm? (Score:5, Informative)
18K is relatively warm compared to plain-old superconducting metals. When superconductivity was discovered in 1911 [superconductors.org] occurring in Mercury, later in other metals as well, it was at only a few degrees Kelvin. 18K is relatively warm compared to that.
Half a century later, in 1986, we found ceramic compounds that would superconduct at much much higher temperatures. Those compounds superconduct by a different process, so they're dubbed Type 2 [superconductors.org] superconductors. (as opposed to Type 1 for metalic elements)
The article doesn't say -- or they probably don't even know for sure -- what type of superconductivity was observed in Plutonium. Or if they were using pure elemental Plutonium or some compound that contained it.
And finally, lots of other comments here make fun of how "useful" Plutonium is. Duh. It's not:
Basically, it means that superconductivity is still not completely understood -- this uncovers yet another twist, and will help to develop the theories further.
Secrets of the universe stuff, you know.
- Peter
Re:18K relatively warm? (Score:2)
Re:18K relatively warm? (Score:2, Informative)
Of course there's the difference between the speed of one electron vs. the speed that voltage changes (i.e. information) travel along the wire.
According to this guy [amasci.com], the actual movement of electrons is VERY very slow through a normal wire, on the order of centimeters per hour.
What about superconductors?
I didn't have tons of luck Googling [google.com], but I found a message board posting [cornell.edu] that states that the electron drift rate is much higher in superconductors.
And then there's this physics Q&A [sciencenet.org.uk] about why electrons don't travel at actually the speed of light.
- Peter
WHAT?! (Score:3, Funny)
Man, the Pentagon's going to be pissed.
18 K? (Score:1)
Is jihema drunk? 18 K is not warm at all. (Score:2, Informative)
For those metric impaired people in the audience, 108 K (aka -165 C) is -265 F. 18 K (aka -255 C) is - 427 F. HST composites only need liqud nitrogen (which costs the same as milk), rather then liquid helium (which is very, very, very expensive) to work.
Re:Is jihema drunk? 18 K is not warm at all. (Score:2)
18K is relatively warm compared to where they expected it would become superconductive (like 2K).
Though I'll grant that "18K" by itself doesn't make a good figure to quote for the /. submission.
Re:Is jihema drunk? 18 K is not warm at all. (Score:4, Informative)
Liquid N2 vs Milk (Score:3, Funny)
Got Severe Painful Frostbite?
Re:Is jihema drunk? 18 K is not warm at all. (Score:1)
18K is pretty warm given the circumstances.. (Score:3, Interesting)
While Plutonium is "extremely radioactive and chemically toxic", it is just a base metal, not a compound. I am not to familiar with the metallic properties of Plutonium (malleability, brittleness, etc) but I would imagine that if one metal (even if it is trans-uranic) has high K properties like Plutonium, others may as well...
Re:18K is pretty warm given the circumstances.. (Score:1)
Re:18K is pretty warm given the circumstances.. (Score:3, Informative)
Nope. They are easily constructed into something of commercial use. I work on the technology. It is just not cheaper than copper wire for power transmission (yet). Superconducting cables are, however, currently used in various specialized applications, and in 2004, a superconducting power transmission cable will be installed in the Northeast US. The Japanese and Germans are making great advances as well as the US. Although the superconductors are "brittle" ceramics, one can wind a superconducting cable around a bottle neck, and it will still work fine. Why? It's thin. If that doesn't explain it, consult basic mechanics of materials textbook.
Slightly off topoic, but how do you get that cold (Score:1)
more info (Score:1, Offtopic)
At long last, maybe Archimedes Plutonium [google.com] will get the attention [killfile.org] he deserves for his brilliant theories explaining how the entire universe is really a single atom of plutonium.
001 A picture introduction to the ONE ATOM PLUTONIUM EVERYTHING UNIVERSE, 231PU ATOM TOTALITY theory [newphys.se]
Excerpt follows:
Note that the start of this website is the Atom Totality theory and the end of this website is sci.religion which is apt, for think of the website rankings not as linear but as a circle coming back around. So we start with the hard core most general of all sciences and the most easily verified of all sciences-- physics and like a circle we come around to the worship of physics in sci.religion. Below in chemistry I have a circular periodic table, so think of the rankings on this website as sci.physics at the top and coming full circle back around is sci.religion which is basically the worship of physics since God is 231Pu and the best bible is the best most up-to-date physics textbook.
Re:more info (Score:2)
Expert? (Score:2)
Why do I say this? I read the page, and see this guy making his claims. Where's his evidence? I scroll down some more waiting for the exposition to end and the science to start. Hmm, still none, still just more guff saying how clever the guy thinks he is. Whoops, it's the bottom of the page. Perhaps he should rename his site 'tabloidphysics.se'.
And the actual source material: He didn't actually say what his theory was, but I glark that he thinks the universe is an atom of plutonium, and the Milky Way is one of its electrons. Now, riddle me this. The universe has more than 94 galaxies. So, unless I've just busted his theory, I guess I haven't read far enough to reach the section where he rubbishes observational astronomy?
Re:Expert? (Score:1)
And anyway, considering his post I linked to was actually ON the subject of "the superconductivity of plutonium", I find it hard to see how the post would be moderated offtopic.
Troll, sure, but that's not what I got.
great new product for research budgets (Score:2)
Re:great new product for research budgets (Score:2, Informative)
nanotech: buckyballs - best lubricant out there, being composed of billions of nanoscopic ball shaped molecules. Potentially superstrong carbon structures, drug delivery systems, etc. nanotech is still in its infancy.
holograms: used to protect currency all over the world from forgery.
Re:great new product for research budgets (Score:2)
2. Actually in a commercial product?
3. forgot about the holos on money. Ok, besides that!
Re:great new product for research budgets (Score:2)
2 unfortunately buckyballs don't seem to lubricate. [sciencenet.org.uk] but see that post on FLIR [slashdot.org] made with nanotechnology for more commercial nanotech products.
3 You want great 3d uses of holograms? Try imaging [caltech.edu] This technique could generalise for anything else you want to look at under a microscope in 3D. Cells. Fuel rods in a nuke reactor. the hologram captures all that data at the quantum level.
the application is commercial because there are hologram companies that sell equipment to other companies. If you want to get into it yourself for next to nothing look at this link [repairfaq.org] and search for hologram [drexel.edu]
Type I vs. Type II Superconductor (Score:3, Insightful)