super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby justdrew » Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:06 am

they think the graphene absorbs laser energy and builds up a charge of electrons. Eventually it can't hold any more, and extra electrons are released, pushing the sponge in the opposite direction.


"extra" electrons, not it's original electrons.

A new discovery by researchers at the ICFO has revealed that graphene is even more efficient at converting light into electricity than previously known. Graphene is capable of converting a single photon of light into multiple electrons able to drive electric current. The discovery is an important one for next-generation solar cells, as well as other light-detecting and light-harvesting technologies.

The discovery was made during an experiment that consisted of sending an exact quantity of photons possessing different energies (different colors) onto a monolayer of graphene. “We have seen that high energy photons (e.g. violet) are converted into a larger number of excited electrons than low energy photons (e.g. infrared). The observed relation between the photon energy and the number of generated excited electrons shows that graphene converts light into electricity with very high efficiency. Even though it was already speculated that graphene holds potential for light-to-electricity conversion, it now turns out that it is even more suitable than expected!” says KJ Tielrooij, a researcher at ICFO.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/25/graphene-breakthrough-one-photon-can-be-converted-into-multiple-electrons/


if original electrons were being broken out, the graphene would lose it's structure as the bonds holding it together would fail.

I'd bet if they tried this with single photons, no electron would be produced, no matter how high energy the photon was. Guessing the graphene is acting as a "buffer" holding phtotons in it, allowing multiple to coalesce into electrons in a much easier fashion than free photons.
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby justdrew » Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:33 pm

justdrew » 03 Jun 2015 06:06 wrote:
they think the graphene absorbs laser energy and builds up a charge of electrons. Eventually it can't hold any more, and extra electrons are released, pushing the sponge in the opposite direction.


"extra" electrons, not it's original electrons.

A new discovery by researchers at the ICFO has revealed that graphene is even more efficient at converting light into electricity than previously known. Graphene is capable of converting a single photon of light into multiple electrons able to drive electric current. The discovery is an important one for next-generation solar cells, as well as other light-detecting and light-harvesting technologies.

The discovery was made during an experiment that consisted of sending an exact quantity of photons possessing different energies (different colors) onto a monolayer of graphene. “We have seen that high energy photons (e.g. violet) are converted into a larger number of excited electrons than low energy photons (e.g. infrared). The observed relation between the photon energy and the number of generated excited electrons shows that graphene converts light into electricity with very high efficiency. Even though it was already speculated that graphene holds potential for light-to-electricity conversion, it now turns out that it is even more suitable than expected!” says KJ Tielrooij, a researcher at ICFO.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/25/graphene-breakthrough-one-photon-can-be-converted-into-multiple-electrons/


if original electrons were being broken out, the graphene would lose it's structure as the bonds holding it together would fail.

I'd bet if they tried this with single photons, no electron would be produced, no matter how high energy the photon was. Guessing the graphene is acting as a "buffer" holding phtotons in it, allowing multiple to coalesce into electrons in a much easier fashion than free photons.


So the other thing about this... it's basically "direct conversion" who knows what the efficiency is, but since it can be done with freely available light sources, who cares, it must be fairly good.

Get it... this shit is directly converting photons into electrons. Instead of just having the electrons spew out to provide a bit of 'thrust' what about capturing them to create a potential?

This is probably as close to 'free energy' as the real universe is going to ever hand us.
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby jingofever » Sat Jun 06, 2015 1:00 am

Aren't the electrons just being produced by the photoelectric effect? A photon cannot be converted directly to an electron because the negative charge needs to be balanced, but it can convert to an electron positron pair.
User avatar
jingofever
 
Posts: 2814
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:24 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby justdrew » Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:43 pm

jingofever » 05 Jun 2015 21:00 wrote:Aren't the electrons just being produced by the photoelectric effect? A photon cannot be converted directly to an electron because the negative charge needs to be balanced, but it can convert to an electron positron pair.


well, I don't know for sure, but I would think the graphene must not be loosing electrons to that effect, because there are no 'spare' electrons, aren't all of them participating in the bonds that hold it together? I doubt these early accidental experimenters who've found this new effect were setup to detect positrons.

The photon must be near a nucleus in order to satisfy conservation of momentum, as a photon pair producing in free space cannot both satisfy conservation of energy and momentum. Because of this, when pair production occurs, the atomic nucleus receives some recoil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_production
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby jingofever » Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:19 am

justdrew » 07 Jun 2015 01:43 wrote:well, I don't know for sure, but I would think the graphene must not be loosing electrons to that effect, because there are no 'spare' electrons, aren't all of them participating in the bonds that hold it together?

Semiconductors have "holes" where electrons used to be without altering the structure but if you have too many holes then the semiconductor would fall apart. After doing some reading the reason that does not happen is, among other things, that as the material becomes more positive it takes more energy to free an electron. You could keep increasing the frequency of the photons but I think it would get to a point where it is so small that the chances of them interacting with an electron would diminish. But I am just guessing and do not actually know.
User avatar
jingofever
 
Posts: 2814
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:24 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby Sounder » Sun Jun 07, 2015 6:21 am

they think the graphene absorbs laser energy and builds up a charge of electrons. Eventually it can't hold any more, and extra electrons are released, pushing the sponge in the opposite direction.



"extra" electrons, not it's original electrons.

A new discovery by researchers at the ICFO has revealed that graphene is even more efficient at converting light into electricity than previously known. Graphene is capable of converting a single photon of light into multiple electrons able to drive electric current. The discovery is an important one for next-generation solar cells, as well as other light-detecting and light-harvesting technologies.

The discovery was made during an experiment that consisted of sending an exact quantity of photons possessing different energies (different colors) onto a monolayer of graphene. “We have seen that high energy photons (e.g. violet) are converted into a larger number of excited electrons than low energy photons (e.g. infrared). The observed relation between the photon energy and the number of generated excited electrons shows that graphene converts light into electricity with very high efficiency. Even though it was already speculated that graphene holds potential for light-to-electricity conversion, it now turns out that it is even more suitable than expected!” says KJ Tielrooij, a researcher at ICFO.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/25/gra ... electrons/




justdrew wrote...
if original electrons were being broken out, the graphene would lose it's structure as the bonds holding it together would fail.


I'd bet if they tried this with single photons, no electron would be produced, no matter how high energy the photon was. Guessing the graphene is acting as a "buffer" holding photons in it, allowing multiple to coalesce into electrons in a much easier fashion than free photons.



Your words make a lot of sense justdrew, and it puzzles me as to how these folk can do such good work and then conclude that 'one-photon-can-be-converted-into-multiple-electrons'.

question; How is it that an atom is not classed as a perpetual motion machine? Do they ever run or slow down in their spinning?
Sounder
 
Posts: 4054
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:49 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby justdrew » Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:07 pm

well, we're reading these articles through the blurry lens of "science reporting" - in the case where they're talking about using graphene like photoelectric solar panels, MAYBE there really are holes being made by originally present electrons breaking free. In such a system those electrons that get ejected don't directly contribute to the potential current flow, their absence makes it possible.

I've since found a better article (ever so slightly) and it seems the Chinese experiment isn't a perfect single flat sheet of graphene, but a more complex large object, so I have to retract my theory that it 'can't be just ejecting it's own electrons' - still it seems hard to believe they all choose to eject in the perfect direction for generating thrust, particularly given that that direction is opposite the momentum of the incoming photons.

I would also think it would be very simple to measure the charge on the graphene after a long test and see if it's become more positively charged.

I guess we'll just have to wait on more tests. :shrug:

How is it that an atom is not classed as a perpetual motion machine? Do they ever run or slow down in their spinning?

Well, there is a lot of energy bound up in an atom. I guess you're asking about the electrons in orbit around the nucleus. I actually have no idea why it couldn't be possible to somehow slow them down, we can speed them up to the point they can escape. but there multiple energies involved. The mass of the electron is one, it's kinetic energy or momentum another, spin is also an issue, aka it's rotational momentum.
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby justdrew » Sun Jun 07, 2015 2:41 pm

and on a somewhat more prosaic but still significant level... :basicsmile

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-06-mechanism-mouthwash-effective-tooth.html
The research, published in the June issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how a specifically targeted antimicrobial peptide, or STAMP, known as C16G2 works to eradicate only the harmful acid-producing Streptococcus mutans bacteria, the main cause of tooth decay, without disturbing the benign and beneficial bacteria in the mouth.

These changes resulted in a microbial community structure that supports better oral health.

The finding is a critical advance because, as scientists have understood for about two decades, the vast majority of bacterial cells in the human mouth are not harmful to our health. Most common broad-spectrum antibiotics and conventional mouthwashes indiscriminately kill both beneficial and harmful pathogenic organisms, and their effects last for only about 12 hours. In addition, overusing broad-spectrum antibiotics can seriously disrupt the body's ecological balance, which can make people more susceptible to microbial infections. As a result, there is no effective treatment for bacteria-induced tooth decay.

Shi said the STAMP approach would be a unique solution for re-engineering the mouth's microbiome for long-term health.

C16G2, which is now delivered via a gel tray, is being developed for use in preventing tooth decay and cavities under an investigational new drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by Los Angeles-based C3 Jian, a company Shi founded around patent rights he developed at UCLA. It is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials.

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that changes in the composition of our microbiome correlate with numerous disease states. When bacteria cause diseases, it is typically because they grow beyond their normal population size or niche (which can occur when the body's immune system is compromised), or because microbes enter parts of the body that are normally sterile, such as the blood, lower respiratory tract or abdominal cavity.

Because of how the STAMP strategy works, Shi said scientists might also be able to use it to treat and prevent other microbiome-related diseases—meaning it could have an impact far beyond dentistry.

"This is a truly momentous discovery that provides proof-of-concept on re-engineering human microbiome for treatment and prevention of diseases," Shi said. "It demonstrates that this targeted approach actually works and that it is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used to manipulate our microbiomes, and to identify and study the ecological functions of the cornerstone species within the community."

Dr. John Mekalanos, chair of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School, and the article's editor, said, "The challenge of trying to modulate the abundance of a single member of our complex microbiota is enormous. Dr. Shi and his colleagues have provided an exciting new way to do just that."
By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US
User avatar
justdrew
 
Posts: 11966
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:57 pm
Location: unknown
Blog: View Blog (11)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby jingofever » Sun Jun 07, 2015 11:25 pm

justdrew » 07 Jun 2015 17:07 wrote:well, we're reading these articles through the blurry lens of "science reporting" - in the case where they're talking about using graphene like photoelectric solar panels, MAYBE there really are holes being made by originally present electrons breaking free.

Here is the abstract of the paper:

The conversion of light into free electron–hole pairs constitutes the key process in the fields of photodetection and photovoltaics. The efficiency of this process depends on the competition of different relaxation pathways and can be greatly enhanced when photoexcited carriers do not lose energy as heat, but instead transfer their excess energy into the production of additional electron–hole pairs through carrier–carrier scattering processes...

I take it that it describes a photoelectric process.

Your words make a lot of sense justdrew, and it puzzles me as to how these folk can do such good work and then conclude that 'one-photon-can-be-converted-into-multiple-electrons'.

question; How is it that an atom is not classed as a perpetual motion machine? Do they ever run or slow down in their spinning?

They can conclude that because there is a large body of theory and experiment that supports photons producing multiple electrons. See the photoelectric effect and secondary emission. Atoms are in perpetual motion in the sense that electrons are always in motion and I guess quarks and other particles are always jiggering around, until the atom finally decays, but when an atom is in the ground state, its lowest energy level, you cannot make it do work because that would require extracting energy from it which is impossible when it is in the ground state.
User avatar
jingofever
 
Posts: 2814
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:24 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby Luther Blissett » Mon Jun 08, 2015 5:12 pm

Scientists show future events decide what happens in the past
By Stephen Morgan
Jun 3, 2015 in Science
An experiment by Australian scientists has proven that what happens to particles in the past is only decided when they are observed and measured in the future. Until such time, reality is just an abstraction.

Quantum physics is a weird world. It studies subatomic particles, which are the essential building blocks of reality. All matter, including ourselves are made up of them. But, the laws governing the tiny microscopic world seem to be different to those dictating how larger objects behave in our own macroscopic reality.

Quantum laws tend to contradict common sense. At that level, one thing can be two different things simultaneously and be at two different places at the same time. Two particles can be entangled and, when one changes its state, the other will also do so immediately, even if they are at opposite ends of the universe – seemingly acting faster than the speed of light.

Particles can also tunnel through solid objects, which should normally be impenetrable barriers, like a ghost passing through a wall. And now scientists have proven that, what is happening to a particle now, isn't governed by what has happened to it in the past, but by what state it is in the future – effectively meaning that, at a subatomic level, time can go backwards.

To bamboozle you further, this should all be going on right now in the subatomic particles which make up your body.

If all this seems utterly incomprehensible and sounds downright nuts, you're in good company. Einstein called it "spooky" and Niels Bohr, a pioneer of quantum theory once said: “if quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.”

In this latest experiment, carried out by scientists at the Australian National University, lead researcher Andrew Truscott said in a press release that they have proven that "reality does not exist if you are not looking at it.”

Scientists have shown long ago that a particle of light, called a photon, can be both a wave and a particle by using the so-called double slit experiment. It showed that when light is shone at two slits in a screen, a photon is able to pass through one of them as a particle and both of them as a wave.

Australia's New.com.au explains,
"Photons are weird. You can see the effect yourself when shining a light through two narrow slots. The light behaves both like a particle, going through each slot and casting direct light on the wall behind it — and like a wave, generating an interference pattern resulting in more than two stripes of light."


Quantum physics postulates that the reason for this is that a particle lacks definite physical properties and is defined only by the probabilities of it being in different states. You could say it exists in a suspended state, a sort of super-animation until it is actually observed, at which point, it takes on the form of either a particle or wave, while still having the properties of both.

This was discovered when scientists carrying out double-slit experiments noticed that when a photon wave/particle is observed, it collapses, so it wasn't possible to see it in both states at once. Thus, it isn't possible to measure both the position of a particle and its momentum at the same time.

However, a recent experiment – reported in Digital Journal– has now captured an image of a photon as both a wave and a particle for the first time.

As News com.au puts it, the problems that still puzzles scientists is, "What makes a photon decide when to be one or the other?"
The Australian scientists set up an experiment similar to the double-slit one to try to estimate when particles took on a particle or wave form.

But instead of using light, they applied helium atoms, which are "heavier" than light photons, in the sense that photons have no mass, whereas atoms do. This was significant they said.

“Quantum physics predictions about interference seem odd enough when applied to light, which seems more like a wave, but to have done the experiment with atoms, which are complicated things that have mass and interact with electric fields and so on, adds to the weirdness,” said PhD student Roman Khakimov, who was involved in the experiment.

Nevertheless, they expected the atom to behave just like light, meaning that it would take on both the form of a particle and/or a wave. This time they fired the atoms at two grate-like forms created by lasers, although the effect was similar to a solid grate.
However, the second grate was only put in place after the atom had passed through the first one. And the second grate wasn't applied each time, only randomly, to see how the particles reacted differently.

What they found was that, when there were two grates in place, the atom passed through it on many paths in a wave form, but, when the second grate was removed, it behaved like a particle and took only one path through.

So, what form it would take after passing through the first grate depended on whether the second grate was put in place afterward. Therefore, whether it continued as a particle or changed into a wave wasn't decided until a future event had already taken place.

Time went backwards. Cause and effect appear to be reversed. The future caused the past. The arrow of time seemed to work in reverse.

The decisive point when its form was decided was when the quantum event was observed and measured. Before that, whatever would take place existed in a suspended state, the atom had not yet "decided" what to do.

Professor Truscott said that the experiment showed that;
“A future event causes the photon to decide its past.”

There is also good evidence that quantum processes take place inside our brains and within our body cells, as reported by the Guardian last year.

However, I wouldn't advise you to run at a wall to see if you can pass through it, and I doubt that what you're doing now is being decided by your future self already acting tomorrow. Nevertheless, it would be nice if, on my next birthday, I became a year younger.
The Rich and the Corporate remain in their hundred-year fever visions of Bolsheviks taking their stuff - JackRiddler
User avatar
Luther Blissett
 
Posts: 4990
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:31 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby smoking since 1879 » Fri Jun 12, 2015 8:20 am

Image
"Now that the assertive, the self-aggrandising, the arrogant and the self-opinionated have allowed their obnoxious foolishness to beggar us all I see no reason in listening to their drivelling nonsense any more." Stanilic
smoking since 1879
 
Posts: 509
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: CZ
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:53 pm

If I didn't have friends at GOOG personally assuring me this was legit, I would find it impossible to believe. As things stands, I merely find it very hard to countenance.

http://googleresearch.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... eural.html

This has got me re-thinking both neurorealism and AI research in general.

No way to do it justice without the images and explanation, hopefully that link never gets disappeared.
User avatar
Wombaticus Rex
 
Posts: 10896
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:33 pm
Location: Vermontistan
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby DrEvil » Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:30 pm

^^See also the 'Skynet Lives' thread:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34262&start=15#p568339

#Ninjastyle
"I only read American. I want my fantasy pure." - Dave
User avatar
DrEvil
 
Posts: 3971
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:37 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby coffin_dodger » Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:31 am

Interstellar 'should be shown in school lessons' BBC News 23 Jun 2015

The film Interstellar should be shown in school science lessons, a scientific journal has urged.

They say their call follows a new insight gained into black holes as a result of producing the visual effects for the Hollywood film.

cont - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33173197

:rofl2 Hollywood is creating the scientific narrative now. :rofl2 :cheerleader:
User avatar
coffin_dodger
 
Posts: 2216
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:05 am
Location: UK
Blog: View Blog (14)

Re: super-science breakthrough compendium thread

Postby Nordic » Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:49 am

Levitation and quantum locking of superconductive objects. Pretty fascinating. Stumbled across a video from this guy while researching Nazi flying discs.

But this is real.

http://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_lev ... anguage=en
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
Nordic
 
Posts: 14230
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:36 am
Location: California USA
Blog: View Blog (6)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 33 guests