Scientists reportedly say that the world’s only sample of metallic hydrogen, which was touted as potentially revolutionizing technology, has disappeared.
I looked in my sock drawer. Its not there.
Last month physicists at Harvard University achieved what they described as "the holy grail of high-pressure physics," when they created the first metallic hydrogen material.
However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
Science Alert reports that the sample has disappeared, much to the dismay of experts. The sample was stored at temperatures around -316 degrees Fahrenheit, the report said, noting that the metallic hydrogen was kept at high pressure between two diamonds in a vice-like device.
Earlier this month the vice failed when testing caused the diamonds to break, according to Science Alert, which says that scientists haven’t been able to find a trace of the metallic hydrogen.
"Basically, it’s disappeared," Isaac Silvera, Harvard’s Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, who led the research, told Science Alert. "It’s either someplace at room pressure, very small, or it just turned back into a gas. We don’t know." |