Researchers turn cement into metal | Hacker News Reader

Researchers turn cement into metal

phys.org

82 pointsadventured16 comments

I thought "metal" exclusively referred to a metal element, but it seems the definition is broader than that: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal)

  Many elements and compounds that are not normally classified as metals
  become metallic under high pressures.

Don't forget the astronomers, for whom a metal is any element that isn't hydrogen or helium.

Add enough pressure and you can even get metallic hydrogen, which has been predicted to be a room temperature superconductor.

Not that you'd want to be in any room with that kind of pressure (250k atm).

But if this is true and can be demonstrated, I guarantee that there are people who will want to try to commercialize it.

Perhaps I'm misreading your phrasing... but why wouldn't they?

It is hard to commercialize a substance that we are unable to create/maintain the conditions to use.

But if someone can demonstrate how to make and hold solid hydrogen in a configuration where superconduction can be demonstrated at room temperature, then you've clearly gone several steps towards addressing feasibility, and you've demonstrated the existence of potential commercial opportunities.

To most physicists, a metal is something that conducts electricity AND gets more conductive as it gets colder. The second condition is important to distinguish metals from insulators and semiconductors. (This is a good, but not perfect, definition.)

Metal is a substance where the electrons flow "freely" in a lower potential created by the nuclei. That's different from, for example covalent crystals, where electrons are "locked" into a region, and ionic composts, where electrions distribution is quite like the one on free atoms.

Now, I put "free" and "locked" inside quotes because they are not completely so. There is a continuum, and no substance is at the extrema.

Also, at astronomy "metal" has a completely different meaning.

This is exactly the opposite of the music industry, which has been turning metal into fake rock for years.

That is an interesting result. The ability to create contained electrons on demand would allow for creating what minecraft folks think of as red bricks :-). More seriously though it you can pass an electric field over otherwise insulating surfaces you can do lots of clever things. Not the least of which is interfering or enhancing the transmission of signals through such materials.

I think you are referring to redstone, and I personally find it somewhat painfull to work with. Don't even think about making that a thing.

I'm kinda thinking of turning concrete into solar cells.

Looks promising, could we 3d print houses now? The last part of engineering which have now been automated.

I want something like cement-metal protection on my car paint coating, ceramic coating and or sapphire based coating. Ie something super hard and non-sticky to dirt and non corrosive.

This will wreak absolute havoc in the lives of game programmers who are going to have to deal with reflective surfaces friggin' everywhere. Come on! Hasn't science gone far enough?