Fluorite, Muscovite

Chemical Formula
Fluorite : CaF2
Muscovite : KAl2(AlSi3O10)(OH)2

Locality: Yaogangxian Mine, Yaogangxian W-Sn ore field, Yizhang Co., Chenzhou Prefecture, Hunan Province, China
Field of View: 25 mm

Photo Copyright © Ian Whitlock

Graphene-based film can be used for efficient cooling of electronics.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have developed a method for efficiently cooling electronics using graphene based film. The film has a thermal conductivity capacity that is four times that of copper. Moreover, the graphene film is attachable to electronic components made of silicon, which favours the film's performance compared to typical graphene characteristics shown in previous, similar experiments.

Electronic systems available today accumulate a great deal of heat, mostly due to the ever-increasing demand on functionality. Getting rid of excess heat in efficient ways is imperative to prolonging electronic lifespan, and would also lead to a considerable reduction in energy usage. According to an American study, approximately half the energy required to run computer servers, is used for cooling purposes alone.

A couple of years ago, a research team led by Johan Liu, professor at Chalmers University of Technology, were the first to show that graphene can have a cooling effect on silicon based electronics.That was the starting point for researchers conducting research on the cooling of silicon-based electronics using graphene. "But the methods that have been in place so far have presented the researchers with problems," Johan Liu says. "It has become evident that those methods cannot be used to rid electronic devices off great amounts of heat, because they have consisted only of a few layers of thermal conductive atoms. When you try to add more layers of graphene, another problem arises, a problem with adhesiveness.

After having increased the amount of layers, the graphene no longer will adhere to the surface, since the adhesion is held together only by weak van der Waals bonds." "We have now solved this problem by managing to create strong covalent bonds between the graphene film and the surface, which is an electronic component made of silicon," he continues.

The stronger bonds result from so-called functionalisation of the graphene, i.e. the addition of a property-altering molecule. Having tested several different additives, the Chalmers researchers concluded that an addition of (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) molecules has the most desired effect. When heated and put through hydrolysis, it creates so-called silane bonds between the graphene and the electronic component (see picture).

Moreover, functionalisation using silane coupling doubles the thermal conductivity of the graphene. The researchers have shown that the in-plane thermal conductivity of the graphene-based film, with 20 micrometer thickness, can reach a thermal conductivity value of 1600 W/mK, which is four times that of copper.

"Increased thermal capacity could lead to several new applications for graphene," says Johan Liu. "One example is the integration of graphene-based film into microelectronic devices and systems, such as highly efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), lasers and radio frequency components for cooling purposes. Graphene-based film could also pave the way for faster, smaller, more energy efficient, sustainable high power electronics."

The research was conducted in collaboration l with Shanghai University in China, Ecole Centrale Paris and EM2C -- CNRS in France, and SHT Smart High Tech in Sweden.

SOURCE: Science Daily.

Freezing single atoms to absolute zero with microwaves brings quantum technology closer.

Physicists at the University of Sussex have found a way of using everyday technology found in kitchen microwaves and mobile telephones to bring quantum physics closer to helping solve enormous scientific problems that the most powerful of today's supercomputers cannot even begin to embark upon.

A team led by Professor Winfried Hensinger has frozen single charged atoms to within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero (minus 273.15°C) with the help of microwave radiation. This technique will simplify the construction of 'quantum technology devices' including powerful quantum sensors, ultra-fast quantum computers, and ultra-stable quantum clocks. Quantum technologies make use of highly strange and counterintuitive phenomena predicted by the theory of quantum physics.

"The use of long-wavelength radiation instead of laser technology to cool ions can tremendously simplify the construction of practical quantum technology devices enabling us to build real devices much faster," said Professor Hensinger.

Once quantum technology is harnessed into practical devices it has the potential to completely change everyday life again -- just as computers have already done. Quantum technologies may one day revolutionise our understanding of science answering open questions of biology and solving the origin of the universe and other puzzles as well as allowing for a revolution in sensing, time keeping and communications.

"By taking advantage of simple well developed technology we have be able to create a remarkably robust and simple method, which is expected to provide a stepping stone for this technology to be integrated into a breadth of different quantum technologies spanning from quantum computers to highly sensitive quantum sensors," said Professor Hensinger.

Freezing atoms puts them into the lowest possible energy and is a step towards harnessing the strange effects of quantum physics, which allow objects to exist in different states at the same time. "Besides finding an easy way to create atoms with zero-point energy, we have also managed to put the atom into a highly counter intuitive state: where it is both moving and not moving at the same time," said Professor Hensinger. Professor Hensinger's team, consisting of postdoctoral fellows Dr Seb Weidt, Dr Simon Webster, Dr Bjoern Lekitsch along with PhD students Joe Randall, Eamon Standing, Anna Rodriguez and Anna Webb, developed this new method as part of their effort to build a microwave ion trap quantum computer at the University of Sussex.

What is SmB6: Samarium hexaboride

Samarium hexaboride (SmB₆) is an intermediate-valence compound where samarium is present both as Sm²⁺ and Sm³⁺ ions at the ratio 3:7. It belongs to a class of Kondo insulators.

At temperatures above 50 K its properties are typical of a Kondo metal, with metallic electrical conductivity characterized by strongelectron scattering, whereas at low temperatures, it behaves as a non-magnetic insulator with a narrow band gap of about 4–14 meV.

The cooling-induced metal-insulator transition in SmB₆ is accompanied by a sharp increase in thermal conductivity, peaking at about 15 K. The reason for this increase is that electrons do not contribute to thermal conductivity at low temperatures, which is instead dominated by phonons. The decrease in electron concentration reduced the rate of electron-phonon scattering.

New research seems to show that it may be a topological insulator.

Its electrical resistance indicates that the material behaves as an insulator; however, its Fermi surface (an abstract boundary used to reliably predict the properties of materials) contradicts this, indicating that the material actually behaves as a good metal. At temperatures approaching absolute zero, the quantum oscillations of the material grow as the temperature declines, a behavior that contradicts both the Fermi analysis and the rules that govern conventional metals.

Researchers have identified  material (SmB6: Samarium hexaboride) that behaves as a conductor and an insulator at the same time, challenging current understanding of how materials behave, and pointing to a new type of insulating state.

(Image: PhD student Maria Kiourlappou holding a piece of SmB6)

The material, a much-studied compound called samarium hexaboride or SmB6, is an insulator at very low temperatures, meaning it resists the flow of electricity. Its resistance implies that electrons (the building blocks of electric currents) cannot move through the crystal more than an atom’s width in any direction. And yet, Sebastian and her collaborators observed electrons traversing orbits millions of atoms in diameter inside the crystal in response to a magnetic field — a mobility that is only expected in materials that conduct electricity. Calling to mind the famous wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics, the new evidence suggests SmB6 might be neither a textbook metal nor an insulator, Sebastian said, but “something more complicated that we don’t know how to imagine.”

What is Production Irons shaping ?

Shaping Technologies – Production Plants

In Shaping, as a Special Metalworking Process, the Correct Use of Innovative Machines and Tools is of Particular Importance

Hydraulic Rotary Transfer Machines

Hydraulic machine technology is mainly used for the production of large series. Each workpiece to be machined is partially processed at each station until it is finally produced. This is because all turning, milling and drilling operations are carried out simultaneously, thus enabling economical and complete production. In addition, the hydraulic and CNC-controlled machines ensure the machining of highly complex parts in a short  time frame.

Cam-Controlled Multi-Spindle Lathes

Cam-controlled multi-spindle lathes are impressive by virtue of their high cycle rates and efficiency.  Robust and easy-to-maintain, these machines allow high-precision production of turned parts with diameters from 5 to 26 millimeters while enabling process-safe production of large series at consistently high quality levels.

CNC Single-Spindle Lathes

CNC single-spindle lathes are ideally suited for production of complex precision, series and sample turned parts. In addition to metals such as brass, copper and stainless steel, the modern facilities also process Teflon and other plastics. The high-quality production is carried out in a diameter range from 0.3 to 52 millimeters.

Cam-Controlled Single-Spindle Lathes

Cam-controlled single-spindle lathes are used for the production of small and very small precision turned parts. These sliding headstock automatic lathes produce slim workpieces with extremely high precision. They are mainly used for medium and large series production - for inner conductors in a diameter range of 2 millimeters and plastic parts of one to 18 millimeters material thickness.

What is Metal Casting

Casting is a manufacturing process where a solid is melted, heated to the proper temperature (sometimes treated to modify its chemical composition), and is then poured into a cavity or mould, which contains it in the proper shape during solidification. Thus, simple or complex shapes can be made from any metal that can be melted in a single step. The resulting product can have virtually any configuration the designer desires.

In addition, the resistance to working stresses can be optimized, directional properties can be controlled, and a pleasing appearance can be produced.

Cast parts range in size from a fraction of an inch and a fraction of an ounce (such as the individual teeth on a zipper), to over 30 feet and many tons (such as the huge propellers and stern frames of ocean liners). Casting has marked advantages in the production of complex shapes, parts having hollow sections or internal cavities, parts that contain irregular curved surfaces (except those made from thin sheet metal), very large parts and parts made from metals that are difficult to machine. Because of these obvious advantages, casting is one of the most important of the manufacturing processes.

Today, it is nearly impossible to design anything that cannot be cast by one or more of the available casting processes. However, as in all manufacturing techniques, the best results and economy are achieved if the designer understands the various options and tailors the design to use the most appropriate process in the most efficient manner. The various processes differ primarily in the mold material (whether sand, metal, or other material) and the pouring method (gravity, vacuum, low pressure, or high pressure). All of the processes share the requirement that the materials solidify in a manner that would maximize the properties, while simultaneously preventing potential defects, such as shrinkage voids, gas porosity, and trapped inclusions.

Rock Contains 30,000 Diamonds

Researchers have unveiled a strange ornament-sized rock from near the Arctic that’s red and green and comprised of diamonds. Nearly 30,000 colorless micro-diamonds, to be exact. The findings were presented this week at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco. 

The 30-millimeter, 10.5-gram rock was a sparkly donation to science from the owners of Siberia’s Udachnaya diamond mine, which is dominated by volcanic xenoliths (Greek for “foreign rock”) with a few precious “diamondiferous” ones. Among these was a unique diamondiferous xenolith with garnet and olivine to give it those Christmas hues. A team of researchers from the U.S., Germany, and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences created 2D and 3D images of the strange rock using high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (which is similar to a medical CT scan). These images revealed the relative abundance of its various mineral parts, and diamonds made up 9.5 percent by volume. 

The micro-diamonds were between 100 and 700 micrometers in size, and many of them occurred in clusters. With millions of carats per ton, this is the absolute highest yield of diamonds ever in a mantle xenolith, the researchers write. Typical diamond ore averages between 1 to 6 carats per ton (a carat is about a fifth of a gram). But being so tiny, these diamonds weren’t worth much as jewelry.

thanks http://www.iflscience.com/

Additive manufacturing technology can print using plastic, paste or concrete:

Using different modules, the "3D Modular" can print using several materials like plastic, paste or concrete.
It all started with the needs of an architecture student and the interest of an engineer who, seeing the high cost of manufacturing molds, decided to develop a 3D modular printer which uses polymers (plastic) to generate models for low-cost functional prostheses.

To develop this project, stakeholders from different disciplines and educational institutions created their own company, Maker Mex, which was incubated at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM), in the Technological Park of León, Guanajuato in the center of México.

This modular equipment has implemented several options for printing, with interchangeable modules. If the project requires printing with multiple materials, only a module is changed; the technology eliminates the need for multiple printers.

SOURCE: Phys Org
Posted by: Er_Sanch

Progress in materials science: New work on friction stir welding

Researchers at the University of Huddersfield have collaborated with a colleague at a leading Chinese university to produce a detailed appraisal of a complex new welding technique that could be increasingly valuable to modern industry.

Professor Andrew Ball (pictured below) and his colleague Dr Fengshou Gu, of the University of Huddersfield's Centre for Efficiency and Performance Engineering, teamed up with Professor Xiaocong He of Kunming University of Science and Technology's (KUST) Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre in order to investigate the technique known as Friction Stir Welding (FSW).

Professor Andrew Bal "The University of Huddersfield and Kunming University of Science and Technology have worked very closely together for many years now, and this important publication is one example of the benefits of such international collaboration," said Professor Ball. Professor He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Huddersfield and makes regular visits. Professor Ball and Dr Gu reciprocate with visits to KUST, the next being planned for Spring 2015.

Further research:

Friction Stir Welding is a technique invented in the UK in 1991 that has proved to be an effective means of joining materials that are otherwise hard to weld and for joining plates with different thicknesses or made from different materials. Advanced new technologies, such as FSW, are especially important in modern manufacturing, where there is an increasing need to design lightweight structures and to develop ways of joining them. Professor He, Professor Ball and Dr Gu carried out the research into FSW over a period of several years, receiving financial backing from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Special Program of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. They have now issued their findings in a 66-page article published by the leading international journal Progress in Materials Science. Dr Fengshou G " Progress in Materials Science has an Impact Factor in excess of 25, which is very high for most fields, including engineering. I'm delighted that our work has been published in this prestigious and highly-weighted journal," said Dr Gu.

The article reviews the latest developments in the numerical analysis of friction stir welding processes, the microstructures of friction stir welded joints and the properties of friction stir welded structures.

The authors conclude that FSW can be used successfully to join difficult-to-weld materials, but that the technique and scientific understanding of it is still at an early stage in its development. "So far, the development of the FSW process for each new application has remained largely empirical. Scientific, knowledge-based numerical studies are of significant help in understanding the FSW process," they write. Many challenges remain in the development and analysis of FSW, they conclude, adding that the digest that they have presented in the Progress in Materials Science article is intended to provide the basis for further research.

Source: science Direct.

Aluminium Soft Drink Cans Recycling

நீங்கள் அணியும் தங்க நகை உருவாகும் விதத்தினைக் காண ஆசையா?...

Material generates steam under solar illumination:

A new material structure developed at MIT generates steam by soaking up the sun.

The structure—a layer of graphite flakes and an underlying carbon foam—is a porous, insulating material structure that floats on water. When sunlight hits the structure's surface, it creates a hotspot in the graphite, drawing water up through the material's pores, where it evaporates as steam. The brighter the light, the more steam is generated.

The new material is able to convert 85 percent of incoming solar energy into steam—a significant improvement over recent approaches to solar-powered steam generation. What's more, the setup loses very little heat in the process, and can produce steam at relatively low solar intensity . This would mean that, if scaled up, the setup would likely not require complex, costly systems to highly concentrate sunlight.

Hadi Ghasemi, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, says the spongelike structure can be made from relatively inexpensive materials—a particular advantage for a variety of compact, steam-powered applications.

"Steam is important for desalination, hygiene systems, and sterilization," says Ghasemi, who led the development of the structure. "Especially in remote areas where the sun is the only source of energy, if you can generate steam with solar energy, it would be very useful."

Ghasemi and mechanical engineering department head Gang Chen, along with five others at MIT, report on the details of the new steam-generating structure in the journal Nature Communications .

Source: MIT News Room

Universal Natural States Theory (UNST) predicts 120 elementary or fundamental particles.

Nature Mechanics or Universal Natural States Theory (UNST) predicts 120 elementary or fundamental particles. 

Nowadays, Standard Model Particle Spectrum is the frame for the particles that cannot be broken up into smaller constituents to the best of our knowledge. All told, when we count up these elementary or fundamental particles that we know of, the ones that cannot be broken apart into anything smaller or lighter, we count a number of different types:

- six quarks (and their antiquark counterparts), each coming in three different color possibilities and two different spins,
three charged leptons, the electron, muon and tau (and their anti-lepton counterparts), each allowed two different spin states,

- three neutral leptons, the neutrinos, along with the three anti-neutrinos, where the neutrinos all have a left-handed spin and the antis have a right-handed spin,
the gluons, which all have two different spin states and which come in eight color varieties,

-the photon, which has two different allowable spins,

- the W-and-Z bosons, which come in three types (the W+, W-, and Z) and have three allowable spin states apiece (-1, 0, and +1), and

- the Higgs boson, which exists in only one state.

Thus, counting all of them are 118 elementary or fundamental particles. It means Nature Mechanics or UNST predicts two particles more beyond the SM.

One could probably be the gluon number nine as predicts QCD.

For the second one, Nature Mechanics or UNST postulates one boson as "Higgs' heavier couple" or abbreviate "Fat Higss" (FH).

What’s even better? The new Fermilab experiment, E989, should be capable of determining the magnitude of the anomaly for muon's g factor. if it’s really a deviation from the Standard Model, to somewhere between 7 and 8σ!. Maybe the new boson postulates from Nature Mechanics or UNST called "Fat Higgs" (FH) by the moment.

In other words, while all the world’s eyes have been on the Large Hadron Collider and its search for the Higgs (and potentially, new particles), the first true advance beyond the Standard Model may come from an experiment that few people pay attention to and a small group of theorists that have painstakingly calculated upwards of 12,000 corrections to the muon’s g factor.

And if we get lucky, this will be the piece of evidence that points out the way to uncovering physics beyond the Standard Model!

https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-physics-of-a-new-generation-f5c531db7414

New kind of optical fibre is transferring the contents of a 1TB hard drive in a fifth of a second.

Using a new kind of optical fibre, researchers in Denmark have set the new record for the fastest single-laser data transfer ever performed.

Image: asharkyu/Shutterstock

A research team from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) used a new kind of multi-coreoptical fibre, which is capable of letting multiple data streams pass through it simultaneously. Manufactured by a tech giant in Japan called NTT, this technology is now being prepared for commercial distribution.

According to Justin Kahn at TechSpot, the team set the record by achieving a transfer rate of 43 terabits per second over a single fibre with one laser transmitter. "Forty-three terabits is about the same as moving nearly 5.5 terabytes of data in one second,” says Kahn, "or equivalent to transferring the contents of a 1TB hard drive in a fifth of a second.”

This isn’t the first time this team has held this particular world record. They set it back in 2009, before being beaten by researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany two years later. The German team's record speed in 2011 was 26 terabits per second, so the Danes have now almost doubled that.

What makes this record especially exciting is the set-up that they used to achieve it. Faster transfer rates have been achieved in the past, but they required a complex combination of multiple fibres and lasers working together all at once, which isn’t practical and can’t easily be applied to the technology we currenty use to get Internet access in our homes and offices. The Danes’ more simple set-up, however, is likely to have an impact on the commercial space in the future.

“What makes DTU's research so notable is because of the use of a single-laser and single fibre set-up,” notes Kahn at TechSpot. "The team took back the world record with a set up that is very similar to what we see in commercial applications today.”

Source: TechSpot

World's strongest material acts like a tiny transistor

Meet graphene’s one-dimensional cousin, carbyne - the newest contender for the strongest material in the world.

Image: Vasilii Artyukhov/Rice University

Graphene is a pure carbon material that’s just one atom thick. It’s 100 times stronger than steel, incredibly light, and it’s super-efficient at conducting heat and electricity. It’s a true wonder-material, but now there’s a new wonder-material in town: carbyne.

While graphene is made up of a two-dimensional layer of atoms, carbyne is made up of a single chain of carbon atoms, and according to Sarah Zhang at Gizmodo, by a recent measure, it's the new strongest material in the world.

Researchers at Rice University in the US have been investigating the potential of carbyne, and through computer modelling discovered that if they stretched this material by just 3 percent, it becomes an insulator instead of a conductor. This switch between insulating and conducting is exactly what transistors do, and transistors are the essential building blocks of modern electronics. This means carbyne could be used to make minuscule transistors to fit into new nanoscale electronics for use in medicine or to develop new energy solutions.

"But before we get too ahead of ourselves, it is important to note that carbyne is very difficult to make,” cautions Zhang at Gizmodo. "Graphene, on the other hand, is something you can make with Scotch tape. Carbyne is sometimes found in compressed graphite, but scientists have only been able to synthesise it in chains 44 atoms long so far. The new study of carbyne’s properties is based on computer models rather than physical chains - nevertheless, the results are cool enough to be worth pondering."

The researchers published their findings in the journal Nano Letters.

Source: Gizmodo

BRIEF HISTORY OF COPPER (Cu)

Copper was discovered by Known since ancient times at no data in not known. Origin of name: from the Latin word "cuprum" meaning the island of "Cyprus". The discovery of copper dates from prehistoric times. There are reports of copper beads dating back to 9000BC found in Iraq. Methods for refining copper from its ores were discovered around 5000BC and a 1000 or so years later it was being used in pottery in North Africa. Part of the reason for it being used so early is simply that it is relatively easy to shape. However it is somewhat too soft for many tools and around 5000 years ago it was discovered that when copper is mixed with other metals the resulting alloys are harder than copper itself. As examples, brass is a mixture of copper and zinc while bronze is a mixture of copper and tin. Copper is one of the elements which has an alchemical symbol, shown below (alchemy is an ancient pursuit concerned with, for instance, the transformation of other metals into gold.
Copper is considered the first metal to have been utilized by humans dating back over 10,000 years; a copper pendant discovered in modern northern Iraq is dated to approximately 8700 BC provides this basic dating. It is assumed that the Neolithic man began using copper as a substitute for stone around 8000 BC. More complex usages, facilitated by the application of metallurgy and casting, has been discovered in Egypt as early as 4000 BC. Using fire and charcoal, the smelting and alloying of copper began leading to the copper-tin alloy of Bronze, giving rise to the historic and progressive Bronze Age (3200-600 BC)
The origins of the word Copper has its roots in Roman history as they obtained copper from Cyprus, and was thus known as aes Cyprium, meaning "metal of Cyprus." In time this was shortened to cyprium, turned coprum, and eventually termed copper as it is known today.
Traders the world over relied upon coins made of copper or its alloys as currency for transactions. This legacy continues today throughout the world as many coins continue to be made, in large part, of copper. The Royal Canadian Mint issued pennies that were from 95-98% copper until 1996 at which point alloys replaced copper as the primary element. Although the US penny now only contains only 2.6% copper, the nickel is contains 75% copper, while the dime and quarter, contain 91.67% copper.

• Electronics (smartphones, televisions, computers, stereos, etc.), cellular towers, transmission systems, etc.
• Modern smartphones contain roughly 14 grams of copper, more than all the other metals required for production combined, and accounting for more than 12% of your phone’s total weight.
• With increased sophistication and advancement in mobile technologies and products, the Copper amount of copper required for their production will continue to rise

Learn More

• IBM and other major computer firms, use copper instead of aluminum in their most powerful computer chips on account of copper's superior electrical conductivity. Doing so enables conductor channel lengths and widths to be significantly reduced resulting in much faster operating speeds and greater circuit integration – upwards of 400 million transistors can be packed onto a single chip while power requirements are now reduced to less than 1.8 volts, and have a much cooler running temperature.
• Heat is the greatest contributor to electronic component failure. Copper's thermal conductivity, or capacity to conduct heat, is about 60 percent greater than that of aluminum permitting it to dissipate heat significantly quicker. As a rule, the lower the operating temperature of a processor, the greater the efficiency and longevity.
•  
• Electrically powered subway cars, trolleys, and buses contain between 285 kilograms (kg) and 4173kg of copper each, accounting for an average of 1043kg pounds per unit.
• In 1948, the average family car contained approximately 55 wires amounting to an average total length of 46 metres, while current luxury cars average 1,500 copper wires totalling 1.7 kilometres in length. This equates to 23 kilograms (kg) of copper, 18kg for electrical and about 5kg for nonelectrical components.
• Hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius, contain upwards of 27kg of copper per vehicle while fully electric cars, which require much more electrical componentry and wiring, require significantly more copper. It is expected that future generations of hybrid and electric cars will require even more copper in an attempt to increase efficiency.
• Learn how copper rotor induction motors are revolutionizing the hybrid/electric vehicles.  
• Copper also contributes to engine function and longevity as a critical antioxidant additive in motor and crankcase lubricants.
  o An average motorized farm vehicle contains 29kg of copper, while construction vehicles an average 30kg.
• An electric forklift truck contains approximately 59kg.
• A US Navy Triton-class nuclear submarine uses approximately 90,720kg of copper.
• About 2%, or 4080kg, of the total weight of a Boeing 747-200 jet plane is attributable to copper; this includes the 632,000 feet of copper wire.
• The H.M.S. Beagle, used by Charles Darwin for his historic voyages around the world, was built in 1825 with copper skins below the water line. The copper sheathing extended hull life and protected against barnacles and other kinds of biofouling. Today, most seagoing vessels use a copper-containing paint for hull protection.
•  
• Copper is an essential element to human metabolism and has a Health Canada recommended daily intake of 2 milligrams for adults, or 30 µg/kg body weight per day.
• Copper is needed for the normal growth and development of human fetuses, infants and children; while in adults, it is integral for the growth, development and maintenance of bone, connective tissue, brain, heart and many other body organs.
• It is also involved in the formation of red blood cells, the absorption and utilization of iron, and the synthesis and release of life-sustaining proteins and enzymes. These enzymes produce cellular energy and regulate nerve transmission, blood clotting and oxygen transport.
• Copper is also known to stimulate the immune system, help repair injured tissues and promote healing. Copper has been shown to help neutralize "free radicals," which can cause severe damage to cells.
• It is essential for the normal utilization (metabolism) of iron, because of the requirement of ferroxidase (ceruloplasmin) for iron transport.
• According to Health Canada, a deficiency of copper in one’s diet, less than about 2 mg/day, is often accompanied by anaemia, resulting from the inability of reticulocytes to obtain iron from transferrin and to synthesize haem from iron(III) and protoporphyrin at a normal rate.
• Copper-rich foods include: grains, nuts and seeds, organ meats such as liver and kidneys, shellfish, dried fruits, legume vegetables (eg: string beans, squash, potatoes), chicken and some unexpected and delightful sources such as cocoa and chocolate. Vegetarians generally get ample copper from their diet
• Copper vessels optimal for brewing beer and the distillation process for fine liquors as the element helps to maintain the distillates’ sweetness by removing unpleasant tasting sulfur-based compounds from the alcohol. The use of copper brewing vessels is estimated to have begun around 2000 B.C., during the middle of the Bronze Age.
• Find out what foods have the highest concentration of Copper
•  
• Medical equipment (scalpels and other surgical utensils, antimicrobial agent and coating in hospitals and medical facilities, medical imagery equipment (MRI, XRay, etc.);

Industrial Activities and Manufacturing

• Electrical generation and transportation (wires, electrical components, transformers, PV (solar) panels, power stations, etc.);

Copper is found throughout the home as well, have a look!

New material could replace silicons in next-generation transistors

FIONA MACDONALD  

Scientists have demonstrated that a graphene-like material could help make near-perfect transistors that don't lose heat.

Image: Kathryn McGill/Cornell University

As the transistors that make up electronics continue to shrink, there's increasing pressure to make them more efficient. And new research from Cornell University in the US suggests that a graphene-like material might just be the key to doing that.

The material is molybdenum disulfide and is an atom-thick semiconducting crystal. The two dimensional material is made up of atoms of molybdenum (grey in the image above) and sulfur (yellow).

Scientists first became interested in using it after studies showed that graphene would be the perfect material to make transistors with - except it doesn't allow for easy switching on and off of current, which is the key job of transistors.

Molybdenum disulfide, in contrast, has the necessary "band gap" to make it a semiconductor. 

But even more interestingly, researchers have discovered that it possesses another potentially useful property - in addition to charge and spin, the material has an extra degree of freedom called a valley. As the press release explains, this valley can produce a perpendicular chargeless current that doesn't lose any energy as it flows.

This sideways current is shown in the image above, triggered by a laser.

Effectively this means that the valley could be used to form a new-perfect, atom-thick transistor that would allow the creation of electronics that's don't dissipate heat, lead researcher Kin Fai Mak explained. That means they would be far more efficient than current electronics, which lose energy in the form of heat.

Now Mak and his team have now shown evidence of this valley-produced current in a functional transistor, using a laser of circularly polarised light. This light excited the electrons into the unusual sideways curve, a result that paves the way for further research on harnessing the potential of this current.

Their research is published in Science.

As the press release explains: These experiments bolstered the concept of using the valley degree of freedom as an information carrier for next-generation electronics or optoelectronics.

Watch this space…electronics could soon become a whole lot more efficient.

Source: Cornell University

A brand new type of rock has formed from our plastic waste

Scientists have announced a new, trash-based rock type: plastiglomerate.

Image: Patricia Corcoran

According to a new study, the new type of material will stay in the Earth’s rock record forever and will one day act as a geological marker for humanity’s impact on the planet.

Research from the University of Western Ontario in Canada has revealed plastiglomerates form when melted plastic rubbish on beaches mixes with sediment, lava fragments and organic debris to produce a new type of rock.

So far the material has only been found at Hawaii’s Kamilo Beach, which is considered one of the dirtiest in the world. Still, the unique geological material likely exists in many other locations, as Joseph Castro reports for LiveScience.

Research on the plastiglomerates from Kamilo Beach has found two types: In situ and clastic. The results are published in GSA Today.

The in situ variety is rarer and forms when “plastic melts on rock and becomes incorporated into the rock outcrop,” lead author Patricia Corcoran told LiveScience. Clastic plastiglomerates (pictured above) instead form as loose rocky structures, when a combination of shells, coral, basalt, woody debris and sand are glued together by melted plastic.

Plastiglomerate was first discovered by oceanographer Captain Charles Moore, who thought that molten lava had melted the plastic to create the new rock material. But, as LiveScience reports, the researchers revealed that the lava hadn’t flowed since before plastics were first invented, suggesting our waste was definitely to blame.

It’s not great news, especially given that today is World Environment Day. Hey Earth, to celebrate, we’ve made you a new type of rock that will NEVER break down. You're welcome. But perhaps there will be some practical uses for the material in future?

Source: LiveScience

Ceramic screws are corrosion and heat resistant

Most screws are made of steel. But high temperatures or acidic environments take their toll on this otherwise stable material. The alternative is ceramic screws. Researchers can now accurately predict their stress resistance.

Using a screw test rig and simulations, researchers at IWM in Freiburg and their colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden and the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management IWF at the Technische Universität Berlin have devoted themselves to exactly this question. "We're testing different ceramic screws and examining how much stress they can really withstand," explains Koplin. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF). Researchers are also optimizing the screw design. The challenge is that load capacity varies greatly even among ceramic screws of the same design; while one screw can tolerate a great deal, another breaks much sooner. The load on the screws is therefore limited by the stress that the weakest among them can withstand. The ceramic's composition is the deciding factor – if the tiny grains that make up the substance bond incorrectly during manufacture, small cracks develop which can later cause the material to fail.

Researchers have now optimized the manufacturing process so that such cracks no longer occur in any of the numerous process steps. "We were able to significantly reduce the range of the distribution curve and thus raise the stress resistance of the screws," says Koplin. He sees significant room for improvement in the last process step, in which the screws receive their thread, either via injection molding or sanding. Until that has been optimized, screw manufacturers can turn to the IWM and consult the project team about what design best suits which targeted screw load capacity value and what the ideal manufacturing process should look like.

The researchers have also used the test rig to test the stress resistance of ceramic screws manufactured in their own laboratories. Their load-bearing capacity exceeds that of their steel counterparts by between 30 and 35 percent. "This is a huge leap forward," says Koplin. "This would already be enough for many applications if the screw was a bit bigger."

Source: Phys Org
Posted by: Er_sanch.