Latest Glass physics Stories
Glass is something we all know about. It's what we sip our drinks from, what we look out of to see what the weather is like before going outside and it is the backbone to our high speed communications infrastructure (optical fibers).But what most people don't know is that "glass transitions," where changes in structure of a substance accompanying temperature change get "frozen in," can show up during cooling of most any material, liquids through metals. This produces...
The secret life of water just got weirder. For years water has been known to exist in 15 phases -- not just the merry threesome of solid, liquid and gas from grade school science. Now, University of Utah chemists have confirmed the coexistence of ice and liquid after water crystallizes at very low temperatures. They describe their work in the June 21 issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).It takes more than a swizzle stick and a...
Supercooling, a state where liquids do not solidify even below their normal freezing point, still puzzles scientists today. A good example of this phenomenon is found everyday in meteorology: clouds in high altitude are an accumulation of supercooled droplets of water below their freezing point. Scientists from the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the ESRF have found an experimental explanation of...
In research published in the March 4 issue of the journal Nature, Northeastern University physicists have pioneered the development of large-scale computer simulations to assess how cracks form and proliferate in materials ranging from steel and glass to nanostructures and human bones. For years, scientists have tried to understand the propagation of cracks and how they affect the materials in which they form, said Alain Karma, distinguished physics professor and lead investigator on the...
Metallic glass that's stronger and lasts longerThe normal structure of metals is crystalline. Glass, on the other hand, is amorphous. But it's possible to make amorphous forms of metal, metallic glasses, which can be remarkably strong, having many properties equal to or better than their crystalline metal cousins. The catch is that bulk metallic glasses are highly susceptible to fatigue, a severe problem for their use as structural materials.Now researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's...
Many households harbor a threat to young children that safety regulations, surprisingly, have overlooked: glass-topped tables and tables with glass panels. A review by Children's Hospital Boston, in collaboration with Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, finds that glass-table injuries aren't as rare as one might think, and that many could have been avoided had tempered glass been used.The report appears in the March issue of Pediatric Emergency Care. Consumer tips and...
Scientists can easily explain the structural order that makes steel and aluminum out of molten metal. And they have discovered the molecular changes that take place as water turns to ice. But, despite the fact that glass blowers have been plying their trade since the first century BC, we have only just begun to understand what makes molten glass solid.One hundred and fifty years after the construction of Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition, scientists at The University of Nottingham...
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is part of an international team of scientists that is learning more about how cracks form in brittle materials. The team used both computer modeling and experimentation to investigate how cracks grow at low speeds in silicon. This information has potential applications in the development of a variety of materials ranging from armor to machine parts. The research team published their findings in the October 30th edition of Nature.Using the computer...
By Tartaglia, John M Lazzari, Kristen A; Hui, Grace P; Hayrynen, Kathy L This study was conducted to compare the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) resistance of austempered 4340 steel with quenched and tempered (Q&T) 4340 steel with an identical yield strength (YS) of 1340 MPa (194 ksi). A baseline comparison showed that the austempered steel with a lower bainite microstructure exhibited higher hardness, tensile strengths, Charpy V-notch (CVN) impact toughness, and ductility at both low 233 K (-40...
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Water has some amazing properties. It is the only natural substance found in all three states "” solid, liquid and gas "” within the range of natural Earth temperatures. Its solid form is less dense than its liquid form, which is why ice floats. It can absorb a great deal of heat without getting hot, has very high surface tension (helping it move through roots and capillaries "” vital to maintaining life on Earth) and is virtually incompressible.A less commonly known...
