Scientists Turn Gold Into Foam That's Nearly As Light As Air (www.ethz.ch) 70
Zothecula writes: Along with its use in jewelry, gold also has numerous applications in fields such as electronics and scientific research. It's a handy material, but – of course – it's also expensive. That's why researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new way of making a small amount of gold go a long way. They've created a gold foam that looks much like solid gold, but is actually 98 parts air and two parts solid material (abstract). As an added bonus, the aerogel-type foam can also be made in non-gold colors such as dark red.
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This will make it even more profitable to salt mines before leading "investors" through...
Re:Soo... Aerogel? (Score:5, Informative)
The idea of creating a material that is mostly air isn't particularly impressive. The technique of actually doing it is where it gets clever, and the technique used here to make this gold foam is not the same as the techniques used to create the familiar aerogels. FTA:
"The method chosen, in which the gold particles are crystallised directly during manufacture of the aerogel protein structure (and not, for example, added to an existing scaffold) is new. The method's biggest advantage is that it makes it easy to obtain a homogeneous gold aerogel, perfectly mimicking gold alloys."
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I wonder heavy metal foams would be a good lightweight radiation shield? At first blush you would think it is weight/density dependent but if you have to wonder if radiation aligns itself with the 'holes' between the atoms.
Opposite Effect (Score:5, Informative)
So no, this material will probably be no more effective than the same mass of gold in a thin, but solid, sheet. Radiation shielding with matter is a statistical affair and the fewer nuclei you have the less shielding you get. I'm also surprised that they suggest a use in jewelry since they also describe it as easily malleable, far more so than solid gold. Still it is interesting.
Re:Soo... Aerogel? (Score:4, Interesting)
This stuff is very different from Aerogel. I bought some Aerogel on eBay for my daughter's science project. Aerogel is very rigid and fragile. It can fracture just from normal handling. According to TFA, this gold foam is malleable, and can be bent and shaped by hand. That would make it very different from old fashioned Aerogel, and suitable for different applications. Supposedly, Aerographene [wikipedia.org] is also elastic.
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You DO realize that TFS even mentions aerogel, right? And that it's mentioned like 5 times in TFA?
NOBODY is claiming this is a 100% new idea, they're saying they've managed to do it with gold, and that they can influence the color based on how they do some of the steps.
New Plan (Score:3)
Step 1) Turn gold into foam.
Step 2) Make gold look red.
Step 3)....
Step 4) Loss!
Hmmm ... non-gold gold (Score:4, Funny)
I think the market is under-served by not having non-gold gold.
The implications for the hip-hop and gold-tooth industries are staggering, as suddenly bling is no longer confined to being gold, but can be other non-gold colors.
People have been saying for years that gold should come in other colors, as gold was just too damned boring.
When asked if creating non-gold gold would create confusion among buyers of gold, as well as creating higher change of fraud due to non-gold-gold gold being produced to be represented as non-gold gold, representatives declined comment citing they were not authorized to speculate on such drivel.
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LOL ... you know, the fact that I ended my post with the words "such drivel" was intended to telegraph the whooshiness of what I posted.
Instead, allow me to present you with your very own: whoosh.
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p.sure most comments browse with a filter of 'head -n 3'
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The first metals known to humans came from meteorites falling to earth, and droplets of mercury that were seen running out of stones as they were heated. So it would have been an easy assumption that heating rocks produces metals.
Archimedes would know the difference... (Score:2)
Nonetheless, that's actually pretty neat.
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Until someone works out that you can balance out your forgery by sticking a lump of iron in the middle, of properly calculated mass.
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Re:Archimedes would know the difference... (Score:4, Informative)
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Nope.... Iron is less dense than gold. It wouldn't weigh enough. In fact, that was how Archimedes detected the forgery.
Color mark-t Informative.
Iron has a density of 7.87 g/cm^3, whereas gold has a density of 19.32 g/cm^2.
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Iron has a density of 7.87 g/cm^3, whereas gold has a density of 19.32 g/cm^3.
Typo fix is obvious, but providing it anyway.
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Oh, hang on. Damn.
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Nope.... Iron is less dense than gold. It wouldn't weigh enough. In fact, that was how Archimedes detected the forgery.
Color mark-t Informative.
Iron has a density of 7.87 g/cm^3, whereas gold has a density of 19.32 g/cm^2.
Well, duh, you'd just use two and a half times as much iron then.
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Which is lighter? (Score:2)
A pound of gold or a pound of feathers?
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Trick question - in certain parts of rural England feathers are dirt cheap and a pound's worth will yield far more grams than gold which has a relatively constant value regardless of geography.
I don't think the question allows for arbitrage.
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I don't think you understood the humour inherent in my arbitrage answer.
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I don't think you understood the humour inherent in my arbitrage answer.
I think you are correct. What is the humor?
Evil birds growing their feathers where feathers are cheap, then employing arbitrage by flying to where they are more expensive.
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A duck! - King Arthur
Re:Which is lighter? (Score:4, Informative)
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If we weigh those two in normal environment, then there's smaller buoyancy force affects on a pound of gold than a pound of feathers.
So, assume that there is no atmosphere, 'a pound' of gold is, now, lighter than 'a pound' of feathers.
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Does the conductivity change?
Yes.
Next.
Typical world bank conspiracy (Score:2)
If the same scientists used bitcoin the final material would have been 100% hot air.
Stop thinking gold is a suitable alternative!
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As long as the 3D printers are controlled by Arduino and the drones are controlled by Raspberry Pi.
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And the drones are piloted by Uber drivers. On Mars.
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Federal Reserve, plz go.
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About the density of balsa wood
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Your gold density is wrong.
Sincerely,
Chem. prof. (now quit slacking off!)
Reverse-Alchemy! (Score:2)
Muppet Labs - Where the future is being made today (Score:2)
Usage? (Score:1)
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That depends on what sort of jewellery you're using it for.
While I wouldn't claim to be a jeweller, I have probably made more items of jewellery then the other hundred people on this boat, and repaired a number more. I could certainly envisage using, for example, the red form as the centre piece for a pendant, with (say) alternating "rays" of gold and silver sheet (or gold rays la
New tricks for crooks (Score:2)
"Sarge, we couldn't find any contraband on the smugglers. They are only exporting pillows this time."
Putting the tender in legal tender (Score:2)
I wonder if they will accept it for purchases at Dairy Queen.