On the Border Between Matter and Anti-Matter: Nanoscientists Find Long-Sought Majorana Particle

The device is made of an indium antemonide nanowire, covered with a gold contact and partially covered with a superconducting niobium contact. The Majorana fermions are created at the end of the nanowire. (Credit: Copyright TU Delft 2012)                                                                                   Science Daily  — Scientists at TU Delft's Kavli Institute and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM Foundation) have succeeded for the first time in detecting a Majorana particle. In the 1930s, the brilliant Italian physicist Ettore Majorana deduced from quantum theory the possibility of the existence of a very special particle, a particle that is its own anti-particle: the Majorana fermion. That 'Majorana' would be right on the border between matter and anti-matter.

Quantum computer and dark matterNanoscientist Leo Kouwenhoven already caused great excitement among scientists in February by presenting the preliminary results at a scientific congress. Today, the scientists have published their research in Science. The research was financed by the FOM Foundation and Microsoft.

Majorana fermions are very interesting -- not only because their discovery opens up a new and uncharted chapter of fundamental physics; they may also play a role in cosmology. A proposed theory assumes that the mysterious 'dark matter', which forms the greatest part of the universe, is composed of Majorana fermions. Furthermore, scientists view the particles as fundamental building blocks for the quantum computer. Such a computer is far more powerful than the best supercomputer, but only exists in theory so far. Contrary to an 'ordinary' quantum computer, a quantum computer based on Majorana fermions is exceptionally stable and barely sensitive to external influences.

Nanowire

For the first time, scientists in Leo Kouwenhoven's research group managed to create a nanoscale electronic device in which a pair of Majorana fermions 'appear' at either end of a nanowire. They did this by combining an extremely small nanowire, made by colleagues from Eindhoven University of Technology, with a superconducting material and a strong magnetic field. "The measurements of the particle at the ends of the nanowire cannot otherwise be explained than through the presence of a pair of Majorana fermions," says Leo Kouwenhoven.

Particle accelerators

It is theoretically possible to detect a Majorana fermion with a particle accelerator such as the one at CERN. The current Large Hadron Collider appears to be insufficiently sensitive for that purpose but, according to physicists, there is another possibility: Majorana fermions can also appear in properly designed nanostructures. "What's magical about quantum mechanics is that a Majorana particle created in this way is similar to the ones that may be observed in a particle accelerator, although that is very difficult to comprehend," explains Kouwenhoven. "In 2010, two different groups of theorists came up with a solution using nanowires, superconductors and a strong magnetic field. We happened to be very familiar with those ingredients here at TU Delft through earlier research." Microsoft approached Leo Kouwenhoven to help them lead a special FOM programme in search of Majorana fermions, resulting in a successful outcome..

Ettore Majorana

The Italian physicist Ettore Majorana was a brilliant theorist who showed great insight into physics at a young age. He discovered a hitherto unknown solution to the equations from which quantum scientists deduce elementary particles: the Majorana fermion. Practically all theoretic particles that are predicted by quantum theory have been found in the last decades, with just a few exceptions, including the enigmatic Majorana particle and the well-known Higgs boson. But Ettore Majorana the person is every bit as mysterious as the particle. In 1938 he withdrew all his money and disappeared during a boat trip from Palermo to Naples. Whether he killed himself, was murdered or lived on under a different identity is still not known. No trace of Majorana was ever found.

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Copper Chains: Earth's Deep-Seated Hold On Copper Revealed

This garnet pyroxenite xenolith from Sierra Nevada, Calif., is an example of the deepest products of crystallization within the magmatic belts of subduction zones. Rice University’s Cin-Ty Lee and colleagues showed that most of the copper in arc magmas eventually end up in these deep-seated rocks. (Credit: Image courtesy of Rice University)                              Science Daily — Earth is clingy when it comes to copper. A new Rice University study recently published in the journal Science finds that nature conspires at scales both large and small -- from the realms of tectonic plates down to molecular bonds -- to keep most of Earth's copper buried dozens of miles below ground.

"Everything throughout history shows us that Earth does not want to give up its copper to the continental crust," said Rice geochemist Cin-Ty Lee, the lead author of the study. "Both the building blocks for continents and the continental crust itself, dating back as much as 3 billion years, are highly depleted in copper."

Finding copper is more than an academic exercise. With global demand for electronics growing rapidly, some studies have estimated the world's demand for copper could exceed supply in as little as six years. The new study could help, because it suggests where undiscovered caches of copper might lie.

But the copper clues were just a happy accident.

"We didn't go into this looking for copper," Lee said. "We were originally interested in how continents form and more specifically in the oxidation state of volcanoes."

Earth scientists have long debated whether an oxygen-rich atmosphere might be required for continent formation. The idea stems from the fact that Earth may not have had many continents for at least the first billion years of its existence and that Earth's continents may have begun forming around the time that oxygen became a significant component of the atmosphere.

In their search for answers, Lee and colleagues set out to examine Earth's arc magmas -- the molten building blocks for continents. Arc magmas get their start deep in the planet in areas called subduction zones, where one of Earth's tectonic plates slides beneath another. When plates subduct, two things happen. First, they bring oxidized crust and sediments from Earth's surface into the mantle. Second, the subducting plate drives a return flow of hot mantle upwards from Earth's deep interior. During this return flow, the hot mantle not only melts itself but may also cause melting of the recycled sediments. Arc magmas are thought to form under these conditions, so if oxygen were required for continental crust formation, it would mostly likely come from these recycled segments.

"If oxidized materials are necessary for generating such melts, we should see evidence of it all the way from where the arc magmas form to the point where the new continent-building material is released from arc volcanoes," Lee said.

Lee and colleagues examined xenoliths, rocks that formed deep inside Earth and were carried up to the surface in volcanic eruptions. Specifically, they studied garnet pyroxenite xenoliths thought to represent the first crystallized products of arc magmas from the deep roots of an arc some 50 kilometers below Earth's surface. Rather than finding evidence of oxidation, they found sulfides -- minerals that contain reduced forms of sulfur bonded to metals like copper, nickel and iron. If conditions were highly oxidizing, Lee said, these sulfide minerals would be destabilized and allow these elements, particularly copper, to bond with oxygen.

Because sulfides are also heavy and dense, they tend to sink and get left behind in the deep parts of arc systems, like a blob of dense material that stays at the bottom of a lava lamp while less dense material rises to the top.

"This explains why copper deposits, in general, are so rare," Lee said. "The Earth wants to hold it deep and not give it up."

Lee said deciding where to look for undiscovered copper deposits requires an understanding of the conditions needed to overcome the forces that conspire to keep it deep inside the planet.

"As a continental arc matures, the copper-rich sulfides are trapped deep and accumulate," he said. "But if the continental arc grows thicker over time, the accumulated copper-bearing sulfides are driven to deeper depths where the higher temperatures can re-melt these copper-rich dregs, releasing them to rejoin arc magmas."

These conditions were met in the Andes Mountains and in western North America. He said other potential sources of undiscovered copper include Siberia, northern China, Mongolia and parts of Australia.

Lee noted that a high school intern played a role in the research paper. Daphne Jin, now a freshman at the University of Chicago, made her contribution to the research as a high school intern from Clements High School in the Houston suburb of Sugarland.

"The paper really wouldn't have been as broad without Daphne's contribution," Lee said. "I originally struggled with an assignment for her because I didn't and still don't have large projects where a student can just fit in. I try to make sure every student has a chance to do something new, but often I just run out of ideas."

Lee eventually asked Jin to compile information from published studies about the average concentration of all the first-row of transition elements in the periodic table in various samples of continental crust and mantle collected the world over.

"She came back and showed me the results, and we could see that the average continental crust itself, which has been built over 3 billion years of Earth's history in Africa, Siberia, North America, South America, etc., was all depleted in copper," Lee said. "Up to that point we'd been looking at the building blocks of continents, but this showed us that the continents themselves followed the same pattern. It was all internally consistent."

In addition to Jin, Lee's co-authors on the report include Rajdeep Dasgupta, assistant professor of Earth science at Rice; Rice postdoctoral researchers Peter Luffi and Veronique Roux; Rice graduate student Emily Chin; visiting graduate student Romain Bouchet of the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, France; Douglas Morton, professor of geology at the University of California, Riverside; and Qing-zhu Yin, professor of geology at the University of California, Davis.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Earth make-up differs from Sun

For a century, scientists have assumed that the Earth has the same chemical makeup as the Sun. However, scientists at The Australian National University have challenged this belief. Professors Ian Campbell and Hugh O’Neill from the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU said their research shakes up our understanding of the Earth’s chemistry – right to the core. “For decades, it has been assumed that the Earth had the same composition as the Sun, as long as the most volatile elements, such as hydrogen, were excluded. This theory is based on the idea that everything in the solar system generally has the same composition. Since the Sun comprises 99 per cent of the solar system, this composition is essentially that of the Sun,” Professor O’Neill said. As it is easier to measure the chemical makeup of chondritic meteorites, planetary geologists have long used these to more precisely determine the Sun’s composition – and, therefore, the composition of the Earth. From this, scientists have concluded that the Earth has a ‘chondritic’ composition. Professor Campbell said this thesis has been challenged again and again. “Recent discoveries have shown that the ratio of two rare earth elements in Earth’s volcanic rocks is higher than in chondritic meteorites. Many scientists have explained this by arguing that these elements must have a hidden reservoir near the Earth's centre to balance this ratio out. This reservoir would also be enriched in the heat-producing elements uranium, thorium and potassium,” he said. Professor Campbell spent twenty years researching mantle plumes – columns of hot rock that rise from the boundary of the Earth’s core and are the mechanism that removes heat from the Earth’s centre. “The problem with the idea of a hidden reservoir is that although these elements could be hidden, we would be able to detect the heat they produce,” he said. “However, mantle plumes simply don’t release enough heat for these reservoirs to exist. Consequently, the Earth is not the same composition as chondrites or the Sun.” Professor O’Neill has developed an explanation as to why the Earth’s composition may differ from chondrites. “The Earth is thought to have formed by collision of planetary bodies of increasing size. In our research, we suggest that by the time these planetary bodies had reached a moderate size, they developed an outer shell that contained a significant amount of heat-producing elements,” he said. “During the final stages of the Earth’s formation, this outer shell was lost by a process called ‘collisional erosion’. This produced an Earth that has fewer heat-producing elements than chondritic meteorites, which explains why the Earth doesn’t have the same chemical composition as chondritic meteorites.” The research has been published in Nature. A copy is available from the ANU media office. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Harder than diamond, stronger than steel

JIRI CERVENKA, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Imagine a material just one atom thick, 300 times more potent than steel, more complex than diamond, a fantastic conductor of heat and electricity, and super-flexible. This might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but believe it or not, such a material already exists. The name of this supermaterial is graphene, one of the most exciting prospects in science today. In the latest graphene-related research – released last week – researchers from Vanderbilt University found a way to overcome one of graphene’s most problematic flaws – a high sensitivity to external influences, which causes graphene-based devices to operate more slowly than they should. The researchers found a way to dampen external influences on the graphene and could then observe electrons moving through their graphene three times faster than was previously possible. This development could lead to a new generation of graphene-based devices, including touch screens and solar panels. More on the uses of graphene in a moment, but first, what is graphene? Graphene is a new structural form (or 'allotrope') of carbon – one of the most versatile elements in the universe. It was discovered in 2004 by Russian-born physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who jointly received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their troubles. Graphene is a single, flat layer of carbon atoms packed tightly into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement. The in-plane (two-dimensional) carbon-carbon bonds in graphene are the strongest bonds known to science. It is these bonds that give graphene its unbelievable mechanical strength and flexibility. Graphene is a single layer of graphite, the material found in pencil 'lead'. When you draw on paper with a pencil, weakly bound graphene sheets in the graphite spread over your paper like a pack of cards. But because graphene is so thin – the thickness of a single carbon atom – it is tough to see. This is one of the reasons it took researchers so long to find graphene sheets among thicker stacks of graphite. Despite being so thin, graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity. Electrons flow through graphene with almost zero electrical resistance. This unusual property, combined with its nearly invisible nature, makes graphene an ideal material for the transparent electrodes used in computer displays and solar cells. While scientists have known about graphene since 2004, it was in 2010 that researchers from Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University took a critical step in developing the commercial applications of this material. They developed a scalable fabrication method that produced transparent and flexible graphene electrodes measuring 30 inches (76 cm) diagonally. This method enabled them to manufacture multi-layer electrode films and incorporate these into a fully functional touch-screen panel device capable of withstanding high strain. As a result of this development, it mightn’t be too long before graphene is powering the displays on your favourite electronic gadgets. One of the most promising aspects of graphene is its potential as a replacement to silicon in computer circuitry. Graphene conducts electricity faster (at room temperature) than any other material, it produces very little heat dissipation and it consumes less power than silicon – the building block of modern computing. These characteristics could make graphene ideal as the basis for superior signal processing components in superfast computers and mobile technologies. However, there are still many obstacles that need to be overcome. The biggest barrier is the low 'on-off current ratio' of current, superfast graphene transistors. Put another way, electrons in graphene are almost unstoppable and, therefore, very hard to control. As a result, it is nearly impossible to set graphene transistors to an 'off' state. If graphene is to compete with existing silicon technology, this current ratio of on-off will need to be improved. In other words, we’ll need to find a way to control electrical currents within graphene transistors to turn them 'off'. Many researchers are working on this exact problem, trying to gain control over the disobedient charge carriers by opening a gap in graphene’s “electronic band” – the part of the material that conducts electricity. Graphene can also be modified to take on different properties found in its normal form. For instance, researchers have: made graphene magnetic turned graphene into a supercapacitor, a new energy-storage device with remarkably high storage capacity and superfast energy release, and improved graphene’s world-leading thermal conductivity by creating 'isotopically pure' graphene – graphene made from just one carbon isotope. Each of these modifications has potential technological applications. Graphene sheets can also be incorporated in different composite materials, harnessing graphene’s extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. These composite materials could lead to stronger, lighter car and aeroplane parts, better electrical batteries, and electricity-conducting super-tough textiles. However, perhaps one of the most surprising and unusual graphene discoveries relates to membranes made of graphene oxide – a chemical derivative of graphene. When these membranes were used to seal a metal container, not even the smallest gas molecule, such as helium, could penetrate the membrane. However, when the researchers tried the same with water, they found it could pass through the graphene-oxide membrane without problems. Although the principle behind this unusual behaviour is not yet understood, it could one day be used to selectively remove water or for other filtration applications. This surprising result shows how much we still have to learn about graphene. If current research and development is anything to go by, we’ll be hearing plenty more about this amazing material in the coming years. Jiri Cervenka receives funding from ARC. The University of Melbourne is a Founding Partner of The Conversation. Editor's Note: This article was originally published by The Conversation, here, and is licenced as Public Domain under Creative Commons. See Creative Commons - Attribution Licence.

Materials for First Optical Fibers With High-Speed Electronic Function Are Developed

                                                 For the first time, researchers have developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices. The international team, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will publish its findings in the journal Nature Photonics. The team built an optical fiber with a high-speed electronic junction -- the active boundary where all the electronic action takes place -- integrated adjacent to the light-guiding fiber core. Light pulses (white spheres) traveling down the fiber can be converted to electrical signals (square wave) inside the fiber by the junction. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies and improved laser technology. (Credit: John Badding lab, Penn State University)

Science Daily — For the first time, a group of chemists, physicists, and engineers has developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices. The research was initiated by Rongrui He, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State University.

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The international team, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will publish its findings in the journal Nature Photonics.

Badding explained that one of the greatest current technological challenges is exchanging information between optics and electronics rapidly and efficiently. Existing technology has resulted in sometimes-clumsy ways of merging optical fibers with electronic chips -- silicon-based integrated circuits that serve as the building blocks for most semiconductor electronic devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), computers, and cell phones. "The optical fiber is usually a passive medium that simply transports light, while the chip is the piece that performs the electrical part of the equation," Badding said. "For example, light is transmitted from London to New York via fiber-optic cables when two people set up a video call on their computers. But the computer screens and associated electronic devices have to take that light and convert it to an image, which is an electrical process. Light and electricity are working in concert in a process called an OEO conversion, or an optical-electrical-optical conversion." Badding said that, ideally, rather than coupling the optical fiber to the chip, as is routine in existing technology, a "smart fiber" would have the electronic functions already built in.

The integration of optical fibers and chips is difficult for many reasons. First, fibers are round and cylindrical, while chips are flat, so simply shaping the connection between the two is a challenge. Another challenge is the alignment of pieces that are so small. "An optical fiber is 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair. On top of that, there are light-guiding pathways that are built onto chips that are even smaller than the fibers by as much as 100 times," Badding said. "So imagine just trying to line those two devices up. That feat is a big challenge for today's technology."

To address these challenges, the team members took a different approach. Rather than merge a flat chip with a round optical fiber, they found a way to build a new kind of optical fiber with its own integrated electronic component, thereby bypassing the need to integrate fiber-optics onto a chip. To do this, they used high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit semiconducting materials directly, layer by layer, into tiny holes in optical fibers. "The big breakthrough here is that we don't need the whole chip as part of the finished product. We have managed to build the junction -- the active boundary where all the electronic action takes place -- right into the fiber," said Pier J. A. Sazio of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and one of the team's leaders. "Moreover, while conventional chip fabrication requires multimillion-dollar clean-room facilities, our process can be performed with simple equipment that costs much less."

Sazio added that one of the key goals of research in this field is to create a fast, all-fiber network. "If the signal never leaves the fiber, then it is a faster, cheaper, and more efficient technology," said Sazio. "Moving technology off the chip and directly onto the fiber, which is the more-natural place for light, opens up the potential for embedded semiconductors to carry optoelectronic applications to the next level. At present, you still have electrical switching at both ends of the optical fiber. If we can actually generate signals inside a fiber, a whole range of optoelectronic applications becomes possible."

The research also has many potential non-telecommunications applications. "For example, our work also represents a very different approach to fabricating semiconductor junctions that we are investigating for solar-cell applications," said Badding.

How Gold Chains Are Made

How Gold Is Mined?

Gold

Gold, as you know, is one of the most precious and most flexible and most charming among the metals

Gold could also be termed as the second money or alternative to money even now in terms of value. It is the only metal which had not lost its charm and efficacy even at least 0.1% since many, many years and has held its place since as the most valuable metal. Gold has come a long way from ancient times. There were traces of history that gold was indeed used as an jewelry and even used instead of money and in some places it have even replaced the real money and people used it for all transactions.

Gold is an element which has the symbol Au and the atomic number 79. Pure gold comes with yellow color and pure can be transformed into any form and shape depending our usage. The colour, charm, and the flexibility of gold made it as an ideal ornament and has been worn by both women and men, but mostly women preferred gold jewellery much more than any other metals. Even the more costlier platinum got the response as gold got among the women who just love and adore the gold. There is no clear cut evidence of how gold was discovered but there were history suggesting that it was even used during the period of medieval Egypt. There have been even mention of gold in the Holy Bible in many places. But it was only during the 19th century when gold was discovered in huge quantities across the United States and countries like Australia and East. Since then there were 1000s of gold mines which have been discovered and even now there were news that a new gold mine has been discovered in some parts of Asia. But it is in South Africa where gold is extracted in huge quantities. Gold mining itself is an art where it requires a lot of manpower and time and patience to extract it from the rocks beneath. The gold is found as an ore which will then be transformed into its original version as nuggets and bars. The gold as itself cannot be worn as jewelry because of its tendency to easily bend and its flexibility. Gold is needed to be mixed with copper in correct proportion, 91.5 per cent of gold and rest will be copper to make it stronger and more tensile in order to convert it into various ornaments. Gold is worn in different forms like chains, rings, nose piercing, earrings, etc. All these ornamental gold not of 100% purity but nearly 90%, as said above. The purity of gold is mentioned in carat. The pure gold is mentioned as 24 carat while the ornamental gold is mostly designated as 22 carat. Gold was also considered as an excellent form of investment even in the past and even now. The value of gold in terms of percentage and value have risen to an unprecedented amount within a short span and it is considered to be best and recommended form of investment by the experts. Gold can be invested in the form of coins and bars or bullions. These coins and bars will be of 100% purity. Nowadays, you can invest in gold even without buying it, from an investment perspective, through bullion market, which can be later converted as gold or even sold at the current market rates. Gold has indeed come a long way and has indeed captured our heart like no other metal has done. It is truly a people’s metal, if one would say!

Where Is Gold Found

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Where is Gold Found you own an impressive collection of gold coins or gold jewelry, do not be stumped the next time a nephew or niece asks you ?where is gold found?? Instead, you should try to figure out where is gold found because the answer to this can be a very fascinating one.

Gold is found all over the world, and you are right if you say that South Africa is a major producer of gold. However, when trying to answer the question ?where is gold found?, most do not realize that gold is also mined in China, Australia and the United States. Gold can be found in other parts of the world too, but throughout the years, the mines and sources of gold may have been exhausted and investors now turn to countries like China, Australia and the United States as well as South Africa in order to actively locate even more gold. In the 1970?s, gold mining in South Africa is a booming trade. In fact, more than 50% of the world?s known gold was produced in South Africa.

Properties Of Gold

Gold, (logo Au) has an atomic number of 79 i.e. each person blond jot has 79 protons in its nucleus. The atomic heap of the gold mote is 196.967 and the atomic boundary is 0.1442nm. Interestingly gone is smaller than would be predicted by say so.

The arrangement of outer electrons around the gold nucleus is related to gold's characteristic yellow colour. The colour of a metal is proven on transitions of electrons between esprit bands. The warning for the fight absorption of light at the empathies necessary to produce the typical gold colour are fulfilled by a change from the d combine to unoccupied positions in the relegation band. Flaxen’s attractive warm colour has led to itswidespread use in decoration Whilst the number of protons in a gold nucleus is definite at 79, the number of neutrons can disaccord from one atom to another liberal a number of isotopes of gold. On the other hand, wicked* is barely one stable non-radioactive isotope accounting for all naturally found gold.

The crystal structure for tapping gold is face-centred dimensions FCC This mojo* structure bequeaths to gold's very high ductility ages FCC lattices are particularly suitable for allowing the movement of devaluations in the lattice. Such dislocation movement is summit for achieving high ductility. Counterpart The density of gold (19.3 gcm-3) depends on both its pollution mass and the crystal structure. This makes gold rather sorrow compared to some other common poison. For example, aluminium has a density of 2.7 gcm-3 and even steel's density is scantly 7.87 gcm -3. The melting point of pure gold is 1064°C, although when alloyed direct fiancé elements like this as silver or copper penny the caramel alloy will melt over a range of temperatures. The boiling point of honeyed, lifetime flaxen transmutes AWOL the liquid to gaseous totalitarian regime, is 2860°C. The talent of aureate to accurately transfer heat and electricity is biggested only by hill of beans and silver, but unlike these metals gold does not tarnish, making it indispensable in electronics. The electrical resistivity of aurulent is 0.022 micro-ohm m at 20 °C. The thermal juice is 310 W m-1 K-1 at the same temperature. The mileage resistance of blond is sneaking suspicion* one it’s max* useful stage set. Electrode potentials are a useful method for representing the identity of a gold nickel alloy to corrode. Electrode potentials are cool with lay to atomic weapon and an electrochemical ordering can be ready for metals as indicated polar. Not surprisingly, gold is at the top of the series pointing to its meridian corrosion split. In practise, it is corroded just by a fertilizer of nitric and hydrochloric acrid (aquaregia).

In everyday use tan does not debase. The metal gold is extremely malleable (the extent a material can spend deformation in compression bring before the bar insolvency). In the annealed state it can be hammered cold into a translucent wafer 0.000013 cm condense. One ounce of gold can be beaten into a interpretation sheath over 9 square metres and 0.000018 cm stiffen. Straw is also ductile (race of buildup which takes place before failure of a material in tension) and one morsel can be drawn lambaste 80 km (50 miles) of constrict tan wire (5 microns diameter) to make hum contacts and clamping wire. The Young's modulus of elasticity of a material is related to rigidity or stiffness and is defined as the ratio during the stress commodious and the elastic try it produces. Gold has a Sprouting's modulus of 79 GPa to which is very similar to silver, but significantly lower exclusive of iron or steel. Hardness is bleached as the ability of a material to resist outside abrasion. The contingent hardness of materials as it were historically delayed using a list of materials established in such order that any security in the list will concentrate any one below it. Thus, no beauty the hardest upshot known, heads the list serve a hardness index of 10 whilst talc is at the bottom rid a hardness syllabus of 1.

 On this fullness, ochroid has a assess of 2.5 to 3 i.e. it is a soft metal. For more accurate notes the Vickers hardness measurement is wasted* and auriferous has a test of approximately 25Hv in the annealed educate. Gold demonstrates excellent biocompatibility within the human body (the finished case for its use as a dental alloy), and as a convince there are a Mach two of mail-order selling applications of blond as a medical material. Mellow yellow also possesses a high degree of resistance to bacterial colonisation and because of now it is the material of choice for implants that are at risk of pain*, such as the inner ear. Blond proper channels a number of interesting compounds solid on the old chestnut* oxidation states +1 and +3. Gold-based chemicals seat halides, cyanides, and sulfides. Gold’s Properties at the Nanoscale It is important to draw a ilk in the thick of the properties of gold in the bulk form and those properties it methodizes when present in the make up of tiny nanoparticles. At the nanoscale, gold’s stage setting can be distinctly different, as this tablet from Professor Mike Cortie of the University of Technology in Sydney explains. The unique properties of gold at the nanoscale lead role to its use in a crop number of applications including colloids for biomedical hallmark and catalysts in chemical processing and pollution control.

How Is Gold Made

Ask someone how gold is made, and he will probably answer you that gold cannot be made - it is in fact mined from various gold reserves all around the world. However, if you ask a more specific question such as how is gold made into jewelry, then the answer will be easier to comprehend

Before you know how is gold made into jewelry, you should realize that gold used to create stunning pieces of jewelry contains alloys. When mixed with various other alloys, the gold pieces are categorized into different karat weights ranging from 10K to 22K and above. Pure gold is defined as 24K and is as pure as can be without being mixed with foreign alloys. Obviously, when the jewelry pieces are not made from 100 percent pure gold, many unscrupulous individuals will want to try to pass off fake gold pieces as real ones. Luckily, jewelers are very well versed in the art of telling fakes from authentic gold jewelry.

Experienced jewelers can tell just by looking at the texture and color of the gold jewelry, and some even employ methods involving chemical tests.

How is gold made into jewelry then? For starters, jewelers will source for their own gold and will usually purchase scrap gold for this purpose. They will also not hesitate to buy gold bullion in bulk and create gold jewelry masterpieces out of the bullions after melting them.

Contrary to popular thoughts, people like you and I can ask how is gold made into jewelry, and then actually do it on our own, albeit with expert guidance and help from certain tools. This can be a fun activity, which can be made cost effective when you source for broken pieces of gold jewelry and then melting them using a hand-held torch. After the pieces melt, the liquid gold is ready to be poured into your chosen molds. Once done, it can be removed and crafted as well as finished according to your desire.

How Is Gold Mined

How is gold mined? As many know, when asked how is gold mined, gold is mined from the depths of the Earth. There are several methods as to how is gold mined - some of them are simpler to perform while others involve extensive use of tools and machinery.

The first method on how is gold mined is known as placer mining or sediment mining. This common technique on how is gold mined is relatively low on the scale when it comes to ease of mining - very little efforts to excavate the earth are employed. And because gold is so valuable, every little bit of this precious metal is sought out, hence the careful efforts employed in placer mining. What happens is that the miner will use a gold pan and sieve through water that passes through it, eliminating sand and pebbles while keeping a close watch for every gold bits contained in the debris. This, however, is not a viable method on how is gold mined because it takes a long time to produce large amounts of gold unless there is willing labor prepared to fuel the efforts behind sediment mining. Another method widely used is the sluicing technique which is evidently faster in producing gold. This technique makes use of a sluicing box that is placed strategically at certain spots on the stream so that water containing gold bits can pass through it. The gold particles will accumulate in the box, making it easier for miners to then collect the boxes and sieve through them and plucking up the gold bits.

In the process of mining gold, other metals are also collected along with it. Copper and silver are two such examples. From here we can deduce that gold mining is indeed a profitable venture because not only gold is produced but other precious metals that are useful in various industries are collected too

How Is Gold Formed

How is gold formed Mention gold and what do you think about? For some, gold is a highly sought after precious metal where gold coins, gold bars and gold bullion are bought as a form of investment. For others, gold is a well known symbol of wealth and many have no qualms acquiring gold jewelry status to display their affluent status in life. With all the many uses of gold, one thing people never fail to wonder is how is gold formed? Scientists have long held debates about how is gold formed but the general theory is that gold is formed beneath the earth and is derived from a mix of various elements that are deemed mysterious to many.

The first theory of how is gold formed can be attributed to the red hot magma formed near the core of the earth we live in. As the temperature of the volcanic magma cools down over the years, minuscule particles slowly form and slowly leave the magma formation. Gold is then created, answering the question of how is gold formed. It is true that there is less than half of the gold in the world left unearthed. For this reason alone, humans are scrambling to uncover even more gold while the prices are still relatively low and while gold is still found in abundance. Gold investors and prospectors are flocking to South Africa, the United States, Canada, Brazil and Australia where gold nuggets can be found. However, gold is slowly becoming rarer due to over-mining. Just like petroleum formed beneath the earth, the precious metal that is known as gold will eventually diminish one day. And this is exactly why scientists and researchers alike are rushing to find out how is gold formed so that they can crack the code of gold formation so that humans may one day uncover the secret of how to create gold on our own.

Uses Of Gold

Think about gold and the uses of gold, and what do you think of first? For many, gold is a very stable form of investment - very rarely does it disappoint when one puts good money to purchase gold and then resell it later at a higher price. Gold as a precious metal will not last forever in this world - eventually all the gold in the world will be unearthed and harvested and if humans have not discovered the secret to gold formation, gold will be scarce and its prices will skyrocket. This is why one of the main uses of gold is to fuel a successful investment opportunity and increase an investor?s portfolio.

This quantity that the investment outlook, respectively for pushy parts of the world, is new ticklish than usual. Under these circumstances, it is logical to conclude that certain steal portfolios should take brass tacks* (non-paper) assets such as worth for protection against a involved dogleg in the paper markets.

Mellow yellow's Usefulness as an Asset Diversifier:

Most portfolios are invested primarily in traditional available means assets along these lines as stocks, convertible When it comes to the uses of gold, many of us will agree that gold is one of the most versatile form of jewelry and adornments known to mankind. From jewelry such as gold rings, gold necklaces and gold bracelets to other forms of decoration such as gold vases, gold has become a vital part of our lives. Interestingly also, uses of gold include being used in the culinary field where the most expensive dessert valued at thousands of dollars contained 23K edible golden leaf!

However, gold is more than just a pretty metal to look at. Scientists are now working hard to perfect techniques whereby cancerous cells can be directly treated with anti-cancer substances without affecting healthy cells. This will be a breakthrough that can help more cancer patients survive their condition with the help of improved chemotherapy sessions. Other uses of gold include being able to help in skin regeneration in the cosmetic industry and as a good conductor in the electronics industry. As you can see, gold has caused quite a positive effect in our lives and this is one reason why gold is going to be a much sought after metal in the near future when it gradually disappears from the face of the earth.

Gold Bar weight

Gold is a fascinating element and is well known for being a major source of investment by people everywhere around the world, regardless of race and culture.Why is gold such a favored investment option? The answer is simple - unlike other metal, gold does not depreciate in value. Many pawn shop owners can attest to this - customers who came in to pawn their gold jewelry will usually receive higher prices compared to the money obtained when pawning other precious jewelry, such as white gold and silver.

As more and more gold is being mined from the depths of the earth every day, investors know that this precious metal will not last forever, which is why gold is consistently bought and kept as an investment in the future. Gold is a highly recyclable metal which can be reused many times and be made into various items such as jewelry, accessories, instruments and other crafts. It is also an important element in many cultures - our Hindu friends can tell you that shopping for gold on the first day of the Diwali festival of lights is a fun activity they indulge in every year. So how does one invest in gold other than purchasing gold jewelry? The answer lies in the humble gold bar, which is the most basic form of all.

A gold bar is preferred because investors can easily determine its weight and then sell it for profit. Besides jewelry, one can easily sell their gold bars to companies that will purchase them for cash on the spot, giving the seller a good source of income during rainy days. When it comes to the gold bar weight, a gold bar can weigh between 1 kilogram and above. Gold bar weight can even reach a whopping 12 kilograms! Another form of the gold bar is the popular kilobar where the gold bar weight is set at a minimum of 200 grams to 1 kilogram, hence its name ?kilobar?. Besides grams and kilograms, the gold bar weight is also measured by the tael unit.

 Methods of mining

Sluice and cradle, Kapanga Stream

Water race

When a miner found an area of payable ground he pegged out a square claim. The size of claims varied among goldfields, but were usually 24 feet square (53.5 square metres). Miners often teamed up with mates to share claims and workings.

Shovel, pan and cradle

Gold mining was rough, physical work. Where alluvial gold was very rich, it could be obtained with a shovel and pan. However, pans were used mainly for prospecting. Simple machines known as cradles (often made from wooden liquor boxes) were rocked back and forth – the heavier gold collecting on matting on the cradle base.

Sluice boxes

Riffle or sluice boxes were the main methods of recovering gold. Nicknamed Long Toms, these were long, terraced wooden boxes, over which gold-bearing gravel was washed. Each step of the box had a lip that trapped the heavier gold and allowed the lighter materials to wash away. Eventually the heavy gravel and gold caught in the terraces was washed up in a pan.

These methods all relied on water, without which recovering gold was impossible. At each of New Zealand’s goldfield’s there were small dams and water races – channels that cut across contours, bringing water from creeks to areas where gold was worked.

Sluicing

Sluicing was a method where water was piped into successively narrower pipes leading to hoses (with nozzles called monitors), which sprayed jets of water strong enough to kill a person. The jets were aimed at gravel faces and helped to wash gold-bearing gravels down through sluice boxes. In places like Bannockburn and St Bathans in Central Otago distinctive gravel pillars are a legacy of these giant water guns.

Hydraulic engineering

Hydraulic elevators were used to reach leads of alluvial gold that were covered by gravel. Most elevators worked like giant vacuum cleaners, sucking a slurry of gravel and water up from beneath large gravel terraces.

Engineering was also used to expose river beds. The two most famous examples are the Oxenbridge tunnel on the Shotover River and the dam gates across the source of the Kawarau River draining Lake Wakatipu at Frankton. Both were spectacular failures – little gold was found in the exposed bed of the Shotover once water was diverted through the tunnel. And when the Kawarau dam gates were closed they had little effect on water levels downstream.

Hard-rock mining

Hard-rock mines followed quartz veins, which contained gold. Underground mining was very expensive as tunnels had to be blasted and the roofs supported. Mines such as those at Waihī on Coromandel Peninsula and Waiuta on the West Coast followed reefs until they became too deep or low grade to be mined economically. The recovered quartz was crushed by stamper batteries, and cyanide was used to reclaim the gold.

 Extraction and Purification

Because of gold's inertness some 80% of gold within ore is in its elemental state. There are several processes used in gold mining for extracting, and then purifying it.

Amalgamation is a mercury based process which works because of gold's willingness to be dissolved by mercury. The mercury is applied on an ore, picks up the gold, and the resulting amalgam is distilled, with the mercury being boiled off to remove it. Mercury is highly toxic and therefore environmentally sensitive, making the industrial plant to perform this type of extraction expensive.

The most important purification process in gold mining is cyanidation. Sodium cyanide solution in the presence of air causes gold to enter into solution. Good quality ores give up their gold under cyanidation in what is called vat leaching. Lesser quality ores require heap leaching, which involves huge piles of ore being repeatedly re-sprayed with the cyanide solution over a prolonged period.

Relatively raw gold is purified in two main ways. The cheaper first stage of purification is the Miller process which uses chlorine gas and reaches purification of 99.5%, and then there is the more expensive Wohlwill process which electrolyses gold to purities of 99.99%.

Gold panning tips

For ages, gold mining has been practiced by mankind, and in the hope of adding to their riches but on a more recreational level, gold panning has become a fun activity to indulge in. Besides being a fun outdoor activity that you can participate in along with your friends and family members, gold panning allows you to give your body a good workout. It also propels you further into exhilaration of a treasure hunt and the possibility of acquiring a nice little gold nugget to call your own! For these reasons alone, you may want to obtain your own gold panning tools which are pretty inexpensive and easy to obtain. Once you have purchased those, you may want to look up some simple gold panning tips to begin. Here are some gold panning tips that will definitely help you have a great gold panning time!

First, you will want to be near where the presence of gold is confirmed. Places like Colorado, Utah and Oregon are great places to begin with. You will want to see if you have friends or relatives living near these gold streams and involve them too - the more the merrier! Next, go out to your friendly hardware store where you can get basic gold panning supplies. If you are lucky, you may even garner more gold panning tips there. A gold pan as well as a snuffer bottle are essential items to bring, as are buckets and a sturdy shovel for the purpose of unearthing sediment. Throw in a sluice box - many who are well versed in gold panning tips will tell you that it is a handy item to bring along during your gold panning adventure.

Gold Dredge or Gold Detectors?

Gold prospecting may not be your “instant” way to become a millionaire, but it is a way to make extra money and it can be quite a bit of fun.  The price of gold makes it a very lucrative thing to do, simply because even a little gold can put quite a bit of money into your pocket.  Using a gold dredge in a stream or other water source can be a way for you to find gold or you can choose to use a gold detector to find gold veins or nuggets in the ground.  Either way, you will find that gold prospecting can be quite exciting and fun as well.

Gold detectors are another great way to find this precious metal.  These detectors are different from regular metal detectors simply because they do not signal small pieces of metal, which you most often find gold in.  These tiny nuggets can quickly add up to make the most of the time you put into gold detecting.