The more scientists reach the same solvent , the more full-bodied that result is . On the insolent side , there ’s cause to be disbelieving when a single group lay claim to make a discovery based on a individual observation .
One of yesterday ’s biggest headlines was the annunciation that scientists had reach a exploit they ’d been attempting for over 80 years : turning H into a metal . But other scientists are already expressing question over the researchers ’ claims .
The observation was made by a team of Harvard researcher , while they were squeezing hydrogen between diamond at temperature just above absolute zero , 5.5 Kelvin or -450 degrees Fahrenheit . As the scientists crank up the air pressure , they observed vaporous hydrogen number black . Finally , at a pressure 5 million clip our own air pressure , the atomic number 1 turned pensive . The researchers presented this as proof that the atomic number 1 atoms had arranged into a regular , 3D anatomical structure like a metal , a behavior first predict by physicists Hillard Huntington and Eugene Wignerin in 1935 .
Observing a metal class of hydrogen would be important not only because it would work out a longstanding scientific closed book , but for the material ’s potential difference . The authors say metallic hydrogen would be “ important for solving energy problems and can potentially revolutionize rocketry as a hefty propellant ” in their paperpublished onlinein the journal Science yesterday . Such a textile would be metastable , meaning it would outride metal as the pressure level that originally force it into a solid state descend down , until some other outside influences turned it back into veritable hydrogen .
metal atomic number 1 would also have important planetary science implications — Jupiter is hypothesize to have a metal hydrogen core , which the Juno spacecrafthopes to notice , according to NASA .
But this is n’t the first time scientist claimed to have hear metallic hydrogen . German scientist also made that claim in 2012 , to much criticism . Those researcher regretted the boldness of their promulgation , and after articulate the paper should have read that they “ might have ” created metallic hydrogen , reported Nature . Issues similar to those that caused scientist to question the German uncovering are also showing up in the Harvard scientists ’ composition .
“ I do n’t mean the paper is convincing at all , ” Paul Loubeyre , a physicist at France ’s Atomic Energy Commission in Bruyères - le - Châtel , toldNatureregarding the new annunciation .
The physicists Nature interviewed more or less said ok , you ’re gon na tell me that just because your sample turned shiny once , now it ’s a alloy ? Try again , sweetie . They think the reflectance could just as well have come from the aluminum oxide coat the diamonds acting differently under extreme pressure . Other researcher mention that the Harvard radical only take one detailed measurement . How many meter do scientists have to remind one another that findings should not be presented as fact before multiple groups take retell measurements and fall up with the same solvent ?
“ You make such a boastful and sheer claim , ” physicist Eugene Gregoryanz from the University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy told the New York Times . “ Why did n’t you repeat the experiment ? ”
The atomic number 1 sample is still sit down in the experimentation , hold off for further experimentation , according to Nature .
[ Science , Nature ]
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