Scientists Discover a New Kind of Magnet (ieee.org) 79
Wave723 shares a report from IEEE Spectrum: A new kind of magnet, theorized for decades, may now have been experimentally proven to exist. And it could eventually lead to better data storage devices. In a normal magnet, the magnetic moments of individual grains align with each other to generate a magnetic field. In contrast, in the new "singlet-based" magnet, magnetic moments are temporary in nature, popping in and out of existence. Although a singlet-based magnet's field is unstable, the fact that such magnets can more easily transition between magnetic and non-magnetic states can make them well-suited for data storage application. Specifically, they could operate more quickly and with less power than conventional devices, says Andrew Wray, a materials physicist at New York University who led the research. Now, Wray and his colleagues have discovered the first example of a singlet-based magnet that is robust -- one made from uranium antimonide (USb2). "It ends up taking very little energy to create spin excitons for uranium antimonide," Wray says. "This is essential for the singlet-based magnet, because if it took a lot of energy, then there wouldn't be enough spin excitons to condense, stabilize one another, and give you a magnet." The research has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Fucking magnets. (Score:3, Funny)
How do they work?
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in the new "singlet-based" magnet
They're hardly new, singlets have been around for years [northbeach.co.nz].
Not a monopole (Score:5, Informative)
TL;DR - Not a monopole (Sadly)
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Short version: the fact that electric charge is quantized is extremely hard to explain without the existence of quantized magnetic monopoles (Dirac quantization condition).
Generally when our best physics equations require a particle to exist, that's a good sign it exists.
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Yes, but perhaps there is only one in the entire Universe.
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Dammit, I knew I should have skimmed the comments first. The only reason I read the summary was to see if it was a monopole lol.
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Ditto. I was hoping they were going to be able to shoehorn "singlet-based magnet" into a monopole. Oh, well, back to the ring.
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Given that someone made the device this AC comment is idiotic. Of course it has been touched by human hands, it did not materialize out of thin air. The people who touched it before knew what the heck they were doing, wore gloves, if that was necessary, etc.
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Re:Advanced motors? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Uranium is very toxic, even if it’s not a radioactive isotope. Not sure I’d like to have that in my house.
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Uranium is very toxic, even if it’s not a radioactive isotope. Not sure I’d like to have that in my house.
Uranium antimonide, not pure uranium.
Remember, chloride is also very toxic by itself but that doesn't mean that you need to throw out all your table salt.
You also have plenty of arsenic in all your LEDs that you put everywhere but it is mixed with gallium.
I would worry more about anything old enough to still contain large amounts of lead.
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Uranium is very toxic, even if it’s not a radioactive isotope. Not sure I’d like to have that in my house.
It is not as toxic as lead. The OSHA permissible exposure limit for insoluble uranium compounds is five times higher than lead. Lead is still commonly used in solder, where it is exposed, and in fishing weights, and so forth (some people use lead glass for fancy goblets and drink out of it). Any uranium antimonide used in a magnetic platter is going to be a tiny amount in thin film (about 40 nanometers thick) in a sealed unit. The total amount a magnetic material in a 3.5 inch disk is just a few milligrams.
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Might do - especially nanotechnology. If you need to fit 300 loops of wire and you have 2 cubic millimeters of space, things get tricky, Or if you need the device to have reconfigurable magnetic field orientation; instead of mounting the magnet on a rotary disk, use this thing and just "reconfigure" it whenever need arises.
Miracles (Score:1)
Insane Clown Posse is really going to be confused now.
One Major Flaw Though.. (Score:1)
The Limitations of USb2 will be its 480mb/s transfer rate. And how I keep plugging it in the wrong way. USB-C is way better solution in both regards. :X
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Most USB-C devices operate at USB 2 speeds. USB C is a port, cable, and butt shaving spec. "USB 3.2 Gen 2x2" is the latest USB protocol spec.
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I'd think the bigger flaw might be that we'd need USB sticks made out of uranium. But that's just me.
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Yeah, sure. USB-C solved the 'plugs in wrong way' problem.
In return, any given USB-C system may or may not support fast charging. Audio may or may not be supported. Cables are frequently proprietary to specific devices. You say USB-C is faster, but that faster speed is also optional. Low quality USB-C cables abound. Even the name has gone off the rails, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 Revision 5 Update 7 Amendment 9 Subchapter 16. Real consumer friendly there!
https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/276820-2-years-afte [extremetech.com]
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Yeah, sure. USB-C solved the 'plugs in wrong way' problem.
In return, any given USB-C system may or may not support fast charging. Audio may or may not be supported. Cables are frequently proprietary to specific devices. You say USB-C is faster, but that faster speed is also optional. Low quality USB-C cables abound. Even the name has gone off the rails, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 Revision 5 Update 7 Amendment 9 Subchapter 16. Real consumer friendly there!
Fixing the problem of which way is up is worth a lot of the other problems. I hate USB-A and the difficulty to tell which way is up.
The theory of USB-C is great, but the reality is far less grand. USB is supposed to be Plug and Play, but it has turned into Plug and Pray with USB-C. No thanks, not until they get their sh*t together. And it has been long enough to do that yet it still hasn't happened.
It helps if you don't buy cheap shit cables. So long as they comply with the spec there should be little confusion. Part of complying with the spec is proper labeling on the connectors. The symbols on the cable should show what the cable is capable of doing, which includes both max rated data speed and amperage.
The alternative to these different cable types is requiring all
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You are blaming the consumer with "It helps if you don't buy cheap shit cables."
I'll admit to being a bit rude about it but all I'm really saying is, "buyer beware". Be careful of what you buy from whom, which is just generally good advice.
Here's a thought. USB-A works, all the time. Leaving aside micro USB connectors which are terrible (too easy to break), USB-A is cheap, reliable, and always works.
I may be mistaken but I'm quite certain that USB-A continues to be part of the spec. Leave aside the micro connectors if you like, and the USB-C connectors too. If you want to stick to just USB-A then be my guest.
No, it wasn't worth solving the upside down problem. Not even close. The people who designed USB-C are techno-nerds who are willing to fiddle around with something for half an hour. They broke a viable USB ecosystem and justify it based upon minor wins that don't move the bar on anything important.
That's your interpretation of events. Here's mine. I believe the USB Promoters Group (which is an unusual name for the publishers of t
Better Storage Devices (Score:2)
How can this lead to better storage devices? The only thing I can think of is another way to coat platters in a spinning physical HD. The last time I checked spinning HD where on the way out.
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Spinning HD are on the way out... If yu don't mind that SSDs WILL fail catastrophically in 3 to 5 years of heavy use.
Some people like built in failure. Go figure
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Uh... no. Current gen under heavy use, when they exhaust the replacement blocks, fail dead.
It's really quite nasty in industrial high performance appliances.
First gen went read only unexpectedly... "locked". I still see this in SD and micro SD. The Raspberry Pi community is just now coming to grips with the issue.
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True... If the utility is run. And when 100 percent of the spare storage cells are used, the next to fail means fail dead.
I speak of I have seen. Not marketing theory or wishful thinking.
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Possible but the same is said for spinning HD too. I've rarely had a spinning HD last more than 5 years. Most of the die after about 2 to 3 years. As for SSD dying, the rate of death of SSD deaths are greatly exaggerated. Even under heavy use a SSD will usually out last the point where its obeisance. One of the best things about SSD is being solid state devices they have a better chance to tell you when they are going to die than a HDD does. I've only had one or two HDD tell me they are going to cr
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There's a number of different kinds of magnetic memory systems that don't involve spinning discs. One I saw is just a micro version of the old core memory from way back when. Instead of a bunch of ladies weaving core memory like beaded jewelry the wires and magnets are printed out like an integrated circuit. There's also magneto-resistive RAM. These are not the spinning platters we've known.
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The last time I checked spinning HD where on the way out.
Check the yearly Backblaze report.
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They will likely be on the way out for a few more decades.
glowing glowing gone (Score:4, Funny)
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So... (Score:5, Funny)
We have finally found a place to dump all the nuclear waste! It's going to our next gen data centers!
I see a glowing future ahead of us.
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Naturally occurring uranium has a half life of billions of years. It is effectively inert. It's so very much NOT radioactive that uranium is used to make radiation shielding. Putting yourself in a uranium lined room would actually reduce your radiation exposure as natural background radiation from the sun, stars, dirt, bananas, and table salt is higher than that from uranium.
Nuclear waste is radioactive not because of the uranium but because of what uranium splits into when in a reactor, stuff that's not
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For alpha particles to be harmful you'd have to eat the material producing them. A few inches of air, our clothes, and even the thin dead layers of skin on our bodies, is enough to stop the alpha particles from doing harm. Inside the body though they can cause harm. So, don't eat the uranium.
Read a bit on it, here's a place to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Due to the short range of absorption and inability to penetrate the outer layers of skin, alpha particles are not, in general, dangerous to life unless the source is ingested or inhaled.
Don't eat the uranium and you'll have nothing to worry about.
uranium antimonide (Score:3, Funny)
I can't wait for USB sticks to come in 12" thick lead-lined concrete cases with free shipping from Alibaba.
Let's see the delivery guy try throwing that package across the front yard.
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I can't wait for USB sticks to come in 12" thick lead-lined concrete cases with free shipping from Alibaba.
Let's see the delivery guy try throwing that package across the front yard.
Says someone that knows nothing of radiation. Uranium produces only alpha particles which would be easily stopped with a thin plastic case....
Says someone who know way less about radiation than they think. The amount of uranium that would used in a magnetic storage device would be a tiny, insignificant amount true, but uranium absolutely emits gamma rays (the most common is an energetic 2.5127 MeV). Not only that, but the two immediate daughter products of U-238 decay (Th-234, Pa-234) have very short half-lives and also emit gamma rays (along with their beta emissions).
Link to actual article (Score:4, Informative)
High temperature singlet-based magnetism from Hund’s rule correlations [nature.com]
Not paywalled. Thank you very much, Nature.
Magnetic properties (Score:2)
If the magnetism goes away quickly, the material wouldn't be suitable for mass storage such as a harddisk of magnetic tape. However, then it could be suitable as a core of a coil, the same as a coil with a ferrite core.
Is this material diamagnetic, paramagnetic of ferromagnetic?
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Useful for write-only memory.
Next version USb3 (Score:2)