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Confirmed: New phase of matter is solid and liquid at the same time
Solid, liquid, gas … and something else? While most of us learn about just three states of matter in elementary school, physicists have discovered several exotic varieties that can exist under extreme temperature and pressure conditions.
Now, a team has used a type of artificial intelligence to confirm the existence of a bizarre new state of matter, one in which potassium atoms exhibit properties of both a solid and a liquid at the same time. If you were somehow able to pull out a chunk of such material, it would probably look like a solid block leaking molten potassium that eventually all dissolved away.
“It would be like holding a sponge filled with water that starts dripping out, except the sponge is also made of water,” says study coauthor Andreas Hermann, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Edinburgh whose team describes the work this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Alfred on Tuesday April 16 2019, @04:12PM (11 children)
Algorithms are not proof of anything, ever. There will always be latent variables and incomplete models that prevent simulations from being able to truly prove anything. It is possible that an anomaly that falls out of the simulation could lead to something being proven, but that must provable separate from the simulation. Like the london subway stair fire. Simulation showed a new fire behavior but until actually tried the simulation validity was just as suspect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Cross_fire [wikipedia.org]
Nevermind that "extreme temperature and pressure conditions" probably refers to the supercritical region where we already knew the states of gas and liquid blur.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @04:37PM (4 children)
"Solid and liquid at the same time" was a dead giveaway that this is another example of millennial science, brought to you by the generation which thinks that genders can be superimposed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @05:14PM (3 children)
They can at the quantum level, with amplitudes that are one over root-2.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:10PM (2 children)
That probably went whoosh over most readers' heads :-)
simplified wave function of 2 electrons [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:27PM (1 child)
The bit that I like most about that wiki page on Slater functions is this:
shows a bit how far ahead theory is to practice in some science fields. They didn't have computers to calculate the overlap function, let allone correlation functions, for a system with 2 electrons.
In 1929. I think they used sticks with lines on them [wikipedia.org]. (never seen one myself, but I once had to work with a machine that had a nonius scale [wikipedia.org], and that was k00l also). I think i digress and have to sleep now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Wednesday April 17 2019, @06:44AM
I studied this a bit in college (had to for BSEE) and the more I learn, the more I'm blown away by what they were figuring out theoretically way back. Very little empirical data, yet quantum mechanics, Heisenberg, Bohr, Einstein, Fermi, Pauli exclusion, etc. And we had Maxwell and his equations predating electronic circuits by many many decades. And the list goes on. Einstein proposed his derivation which resulted in E = m c^2 in 1905. Ever look at a 1905 car, or 1905 radio?
All the great physicists, esp. staring with Newton, wrote equations modeling what they somehow observed, postulated, dreamed up, correlated, substituted, manipulated, transformed, derived, etc. Slide rules were for actual numerical calculations- plugging in the numbers- which you do after all the derivation craziness.
I have some measuring tools that have Vernier markings- micrometers and calipers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Tuesday April 16 2019, @04:49PM (3 children)
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
printf ("Computing data set \"%s\".\n",argv[0]);
printf("Please standby...\n");
sleep(5);
printf("Note that data set size will determine run time...");
sleep(argc+5);
printf( "Analysis complete.\n Congratulation! Thesis confirmed!!!\n");
return 0;
}
compiling...
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday April 16 2019, @07:06PM (2 children)
You're missing the most important function call, between your last two printf:
getMoreFunding(soMuchPromisingData, $time);
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Wednesday April 17 2019, @06:46AM (1 child)
Just increase the sleep time, adding a rnd factor, and they'll throw more money at the problem.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday April 17 2019, @07:54AM
Better yet, drop the sleep and replace it with a cache / RAM heavy polynomial pi factorizer and you'll get yourself a nice gaming rig out of it. For a lan party write a research proposal for distributed networks, neural networks and cryptocurrency. And if not into gaming, a cryptocurrency miner should workout as well.
compiling...
(Score: 2, Disagree) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday April 16 2019, @05:59PM (1 child)
We had no observable indication that black holes existed either. Until last week...
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday April 16 2019, @07:29PM
Chances are it is the effects of a black hole but to speak in absolutes at this point is Sith like behaviour.