At 09:00 PM 5/23/01 -0700, Matt wrote:
> > > >*MP35N is almost a magical material with regard to
> > > >hardness, ductility, and corrosion resistance.
> > > >When we did tests on it, we could not measure the
> > > >corrosion rate in a fluid, catonic potential
> > > >situation that was as bad as we could dream up.
>
>Looking at just that, I'd say this is beginning to sound
>like Ormus! All you need is a little superconductivity,
>and viola! :-)
Here's another interesting material:
The New York Times
May 22, 2001
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/22/science/22NITR.html>
With a Mighty Squeeze, Nitrogen Is Transformed
By KENNETH CHANG
Squeeze carbon graphite hard enough, it becomes diamond.
In the May 10 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington describe similar alchemy with nitrogen,
the most bountiful component of air. By pressing a tiny amount of the gas
between two diamonds to a pressure of 25 million pounds per square inch,
they transformed it not only into a solid, but a semiconductor like silicon.
More remarkably, the material stays solid even when the pressure is
released, provided it is chilled at minus-280 degrees Fahrenheit.
"We were quite surprised to find this," said Dr. Russell J. Hemley, a
scientist at the Carnegie Institution.
The transformation is similar to that of carbon. Under high pressure and
intense heat, graphite, the most stable form of pure carbon, changes into
diamond and remains diamond even when the heat and pressure are taken
away. The new form of nitrogen stores large quantities of energy, leading
to speculation that it could be used as rocket fuel or explosives.
[snip to end]
-- Ronn! :)
