Group items tagged

Host Bill Nye looks back over the past two centuries, in which chemistry has brought us from a time when atoms were a hypothesis to an age where scientists may be able to combine particles on the atomic level into micro-machines. Learn how electricity transforms chemicals, elements can combine into more complex molecules, and the combination of nonliving substances produced organic compounds that led to pharmacology. Nye examines the second half of the 19th century, a time dominated by discoveries relating to light, electrons, radioactivity, and the periodic table of the elements as well as 20th century advances in science.

"The team proved that among their 10 million antiprotons and 700 million positrons, 38 stable atoms of antihydrogen were formed, lasting about two tenths of a second each."

In this three-part documentary series, Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever: that the material world is made up of atoms.

"In a paper published online by the journal Nature Physics today, the ALPHA experiment at CERN1 reports that it has succeeded in trapping antimatter atoms for over 16 minutes: long enough to begin to study their properties in detail."

"A team at the Carnegie Institution for Science subjected the material to pressures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure at sea level, and temperatures up to 2,200C. They found that it pulls off the trick of changing its electrical properties without any shifting of shape - it can be an insulator or conductor depending just on temperature and pressure. Combined with computer simulations of just what was going on with the material's electrons, the group claim that the results show a new type of metallisation. "At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt," said Ronald Cohen, a co-author of the study. "Just like table salt, iron oxide at ambient conditions is a good insulator-it does not conduct electricity.""

"Scientists have simulated the sounds set to be made by sub-atomic particles such as the Higgs boson when they are produced "

Bill Nye and the Discovery Channel give you the greatest discoveries in physics. Nye explores how the universe operates and why things move and work the way they do. He also explains the second law of thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and how superconductors can help accelerate particles to near the speed of light. He illustrates Albert Einstein's theory that clocks tick slower at the speed of light and even on an airplane, and discusses how E=MC2 helped develop nuclear power, the quantum leap, the power of electromagnetic energy, the structure of an atom, and the subatomic particles known as quarks.

"Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of graphitic carbon, has great potential to make electronic devices such as radios, computers and phones faster and smaller. But its unique properties have also led to difficulties in integrating the material into such devices."

In September this year, two research groups independently reported the existence of monopoles - "particles" which carry an overall magnetic charge. But they exist only in the spin ice crystals. These crystals are made up of pyramids of charged atoms, or ions, arranged in such a way that when cooled to exceptionally low temperatures, the materials show tiny, discrete packets of magnetic charge.

""Although the tiny fireballs will only exist for a fleeting moment (less than a trillionth of a trillionth of a second) the temperatures will reach over ten trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun," said Dr Evans."