Transparent Aluminum

[lightfire22000]

Apologies if there's an ongoing thread already.

I'm curious and enthralled by what I've been reading. Scientists at Oxford have created a new state of matter.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1684

I'd love to learn more about the lasers they used to accomplish such a feet.

[Towlie]

It's pretty amazing all right, even if it only stayed transparent for "an estimated 40 femtoseconds, or one quadrillionth of a second."

I wonder how they came up with that time conversion.

[thull]

Finally the time when whales will be spaceships is fast approaching

[Prometheus]

They're late (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F4520116).

[Harpyja]

To make it possible, the discovery required a new source of radiation that is ten billion times brighter than any synchrotron, a type of particle accelerator, in the world. The FLASH laser, based in Hamburg, Germany, was up to the task. It generated extremely brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each one more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city. The researchers directed all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. The result was the aluminum turning transparent for an extremely brief period – an estimated 40 femtoseconds, or one quadrillionth of a second.

They need to find a more efficient way of doing this.

[Prometheus]

They need to find a more efficient way of doing this.

At an average cost of electricity of $.06/kHw, this would work out to about $20 trillion per second per meter2. :boggled:

[Ziggurat]

They need to find a more efficient way of doing this.

Not gonna happen. At least, never to the point where it would be cost effective. And never permanent either. It's an intrinsically unstable and power-hungry state.

[Dr Adequate]

Not gonna happen. At least, never to the point where it would be cost effective. And never permanent either. It's an intrinsically unstable and power-hungry state. It's the North Korea of physics.

[lightfire22000]

They're late (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F4520116).


Not necessarily.
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=3290589

Then there's this one. I don't know if it's legit at all, but since it uses a lot of science fiction terms, I doubt it.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2006/0136350.html

They need to find a more efficient way of doing this.

The efficiency rests on the ability to have efficient equipment. Better equipment will yield better results.

[Towlie]

Speaking of transparent aluminum, when Scotty was figuring out how to make the time jump back to the future, he needed to know the extra weight involved, and as he said to Captain Kirk, "It's not just the whales, it's the water." Now figuring out the weight of the water was easy, knowing its volume and density, but how did he know the weight of the whales?

[lightfire22000]

Speaking of transparent aluminum, when Scotty was figuring out how to make the time jump back to the future, he needed to know the extra weight involved, and as he said to Captain Kirk, "It's not just the whales, it's the water." Now figuring out the weight of the water was easy, knowing its volume and density, but how did he know the weight of the whales?

I don't remember Star Trek IV clearly; I only saw it once. I forgot there was transparent aluminum in the movie. All I remember is that Scotty developed some material that was "one inch thick" and told McCoy that he wasn't necessarily altering the future because the guy could have "invented the thing." He probably had some cool Star Trek gadget to get the whales' weight.

[Neutiquam Erro]

I don't remember Star Trek IV clearly; I only saw it once. I forgot there was transparent aluminum in the movie. All I remember is that Scotty developed some material that was "one inch thick" and told McCoy that he wasn't necessarily altering the future because the guy could have "invented the thing." He probably had some cool Star Trek gadget to get the whales' weight.

If whales are neutrally buoyant, or close to it, you'd just calculate the weight of the total volume filled with water.

[Towlie]

If whales are neutrally buoyant, or close to it, you'd just calculate the weight of the total volume filled with water.Exactly. Good job!

[alexi_drago]

I don't remember Star Trek IV clearly; I only saw it once. I forgot there was transparent aluminum in the movie. All I remember is that Scotty developed some material that was "one inch thick" and told McCoy that he wasn't necessarily altering the future because the guy could have "invented the thing." He probably had some cool Star Trek gadget to get the whales' weight.

Wasn't it Spock doing the calcs? Whoever, he'd get that info from the transporter since they beamed the whales and the water aboard although it was a Klingon ship so they'd need to understand Klingon if there wasn't a universal translator.

[fuelair]

They need to find a more efficient way of doing this.

Why, yes, yes they do!!! Whose money?:):)