dare I say it? cool.
harry On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Mark Iverson <markiver...@charter.net> wrote: > FYI: > > http://phys.org/news/2012-04-carbon-nanotubes-weird-world-remote.html > > > > "This is a new phenomenon we're observing, exclusively at the nanoscale, and > it is completely contrary to our intuition and knowledge of Joule heating at > larger scales-for example, in things like your toaster," says first author > Kamal Baloch, who conducted the research while a graduate student at the > University of Maryland. "The nanotube's electrons are bouncing off of > something, but not its atoms. Somehow, the atoms of the neighboring > materials-the silicon nitride substrate-are vibrating and getting hot > instead." > > > > "The effect is a little bit weird," admits John Cumings, an assistant > professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering who oversaw > the research project. He and Baloch have dubbed the phenomenon "remote Joule > heating." > > > > An Unreal Discovery > > > > For the UMD researchers, the experience of the discovery was like what you > or I might have felt, if, on a seemingly ordinary morning, we began to make > breakfast, only to find certain things happening that seem to violate normal > reality. The toast is burned, but the toaster is cold. The switch on the > stove is set to "HI" and the teapot is whistling, but the burner isn't hot. > > > > Of course, Baloch, Cumings and their colleagus weren't making breakfast in a > kitchen, but running experiments in an electron microscopy facility at the > A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. They > ran their experiments over and over, and the result was always the same: > when they passed an electrical current through a carbon nanotube, the > substrate below it grew hot enough to melt metal nanoparticles on its > surface, but the nanotube itself seemed to stay cool, and so did the metal > contacts attached to it. > >
