The Most Magnetic Material Yet [Magnets]

Iron cobalt was the most magnetic material on Earth until physicists created what's in this man's hands. It's an iron and nitrogen compound which is 18 percent more magnetic and potentially disproves theories about how magnetic a material can be.

Jianping Wang, a physicist at the University of Minnesota, created the compound, but he's actually not the first to do so:

In 1996, researchers from the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi in Japan made the same iron and nitrogen compound. Their research also showed that the material exceeded limitations set by traditional theories. However, scientists were unable to duplicate their experiments.

Apparently Wang has 'taken special care to allow other scientists to duplicate his experimental setup' because of these failed attempts of the past. It's a shame that his experiment doesn't count as proof of the original compound's creation for some reason though.

[Gizmodo via MN Daily via Pop Sci]

Connecting the Quantum Dots to More Than Double Hard Drive Capacity [Science]

Scientists have developed a new type of semiconductor structure—using microscopic crystals called magnetic quantum dots—that could more than double current hard drive storage capacity. That's just for starters.

The crystals themselves aren't new; they've been around for over a decade in computer chips, solar cells, and LEDs, according to CBC News. This particular application, though, is unprecedented:

The new work, reported today in the journal Nature Materials, describes a class of quantum dots that not only control electrons, but also have good magnetic properties allowing them to read the electron's spin.
The research team claims it's the first successful synthesis of magnetic quantum dots above room temperature.
The breakthrough came after two years of research, when the team was able to get the right concentration of manganese combined with the germanium matrix of the quantum dot. Makes perfect sense! But however high-level the science, the end result is clear: a new breed of semiconductor could be on the way, bringing with it speed, efficiency, and storage increases bordering on the exponential. The only question now is how long?

[Gizmodo via CBC News]

Engineers Solve 80-Year Old Puzzle to Make Computer Modeling 100,000 Times Faster [Science]

A quantum physics breakthrough that can predict the kinetic energy of electrons in simple metals—and semiconductors—will enable computers to simulate the behavior of new materials up to 100,000 times faster than they currently can. That's huge.

Princeton engineer Emily Carter led the project, which took an equation by Llewellyn Hilleth Thomas and Enrico Fermi that calculates how many electrons are distributed in a theoretical gas with evenly distributed electrons and figured out how to apply it to real, imperfect materials:

'The equation scientists were using before was inefficient and consumed huge amounts of computing power, so we were limited to modeling only a few hundred atoms of a perfect material,' said Emily Carter, Princeton engineer who led the project.

'Important properties are actually determined by the flaws, but to understand those you need to look at thousands or tens of thousands of atoms so the defects are included. Using this new equation, we've been able to model up to a million atoms, so we get closer to the real properties of a substance.'

The results of that effort mean that principles of quantum mechanics, previously limited to small bits of matierals, can now be applied on a large scale. Modeling, then, for anything from fuel-efficient cars to electronic devices, will happen exponentially faster than it does today. Innovation just got an upgrade.
[Gizmodo via Princeton via PopSci]

Thorium, the Next Uranium [Science]

Wired has a fairly epic look into a material that could make nuclear power both clean and safe called thorium—named after the Norse god of thunder. Of course, scientists recognized its promise back in the 1950s.
Whereas uranium is extremely rare, requires purification and creates waste that will be with us for hundreds of thousands of years, thorium is extremely common, burns more efficiently in reactors and leaves less, less radioactive waste (that can't be turned into a nuke).
In fact, if it weren't for the Soviet Union building uranium reactors in the 60s (and us responding in typical Cold War fashion), we'd probably be using thorium today.
But as Wired explains, thorium may be poised for a comeback. [Wired and Image]

New spongy material instantly hardens on exposure to magnetism [Materials]

A new kind of material (of which currently no actual picture exists anywhere) with the consistency of pudding that hardens instantly when exposed to magnetism has been developed by a team of researchers at Japan’s Yamagata University. And once the substance, a mix between high polymer and iron oxide granules, hardens, it can become up to 500 times stiffer than plastic.
The researchers say when the magnetic field is 300 milli-tesla strong, for example, the material hardens 300-fold in under one second. The iron oxide granules are spread randomly throughout the gel-like material, but when magnetized, they align in rows and stiffen the gel, which is made of more than 50% water.
The gel could be used in card and trains one day to dampen vibrations. Furniture makers could adjust the softness of chairs and other furniture.
[CrunchGear via Nikkei]

NASA Can Now Create Objects Using Electron Beams [Manufacturing]

Instead of using traditional 3D manufacturing, NASA has developed an electron beam fabrication system capable of creating any object. And hey, if it uses electron beams that means it's awesome, no matter what.

The new method, called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3), uses the electron beam to melt raw material inside a vacuum. The beam can create any mechanical part you want for a small fraction of the cost of previous methods:

Normally an aircraft builder might start with a 6,000-pound block of titanium and machine it down to a 300-pound part, leaving 5,700 pounds of material that needs to be recycled and using several thousand gallons of cutting fluid used in the process.
With EBF3 you can build up the same part using only 350 pounds of titanium and machine away just 50 pounds to get the part into its final configuration. And the EBF3 process uses much less electricity to create the same part.

NASA says that this method will not only help aircraft manufacturers on Earth, but also astronauts, who may one day use it to make replacing parts during missions in remote bases. [Gizmodo via NASA]