PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

How does hydrogen metallize?

2013-07-30
(Press-News.org) Washington, D.C.— Hydrogen is deceptively simple. It has only a single electron per atom, but it powers the sun and forms the majority of the observed universe. As such, it is naturally exposed to the entire range of pressures and temperatures available in the whole cosmos. But researchers are still struggling to understand even basic aspects of its various forms under high-pressure conditions.

Experimental difficulties contribute to the lack of knowledge about hydrogen's forms. The containment of hydrogen at high pressures and the competition between its many similar structures both play a part in the relative lack of knowledge.

At high pressures, hydrogen is predicted to transform to a metal, which means it conducts electricity. One of the prime goals of high pressure research, going back to the 1930s, has been to achieve a metallic state in hydrogen. There have been recent claims of hydrogen becoming metallic at room temperature, but they are controversial.

New work from a team at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory makes significant additions to our understanding of this vital element's high-pressure behavior. Their work is published in two papers by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Physical Review B.

New theoretical calculations from Carnegie's Ronald Cohen, Ivan Naumov and Russell Hemley indicate that under high pressure, hydrogen takes on a series of structures of layered honeycomb-like lattices, similar to graphite. According to their predictions the layers, which are like the carbon sheets that form graphene, make a very poor, transparent metal. As a result, its signature is difficult to detect.

"The difficulty of detection means that the line between metal and non-metal in hydrogen is probably blurrier than we'd previously supposed," Cohen said "Our results will help experimental scientists test for metallic hydrogen using advanced techniques involving the reflectivity of light."



INFORMATION:



The research for both papers was supported by EFree, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences; the U.S. National Science Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Aberrant splicing saps the strength of 'slow' muscle fibers

2013-07-30
HOUSTON (July 29, 3013) – When you sprint, the "fast" muscle fibers give you that winning kick. In a marathon or just day-to-day activity, however, the "slow," or type 1 fibers, keep you going for hours. In people with myotonic dystrophy, the second most common form of muscular dystrophy and the one most likely to occur in adults, these slow or type 1 fibers do not work well, wasting away as the genetic disorder takes its grim toll. In a report that appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Thomas A. Cooper, professor of pathology & immunology ...

Decision aids reduce men's conflict about PSA screening, but don't change their decisions

2013-07-30
WASHINGTON – Men who decide to be screened for prostate cancer and those who forgo PSA screening stick with their decisions after receiving materials explaining the risks and benefits of the test. The decision aids greatly increased their knowledge about screening and reduced their conflict about what to do, but did not have an impact on their screening decision when measured a year later. That's the finding of a new study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine that examined both web-based and printed tools aimed at helping men make informed decisions about PSA testing. In ...

Playing college football linked with high blood pressure risk

2013-07-30
College football players, especially linemen, may develop high blood pressure over the course of their first season, according to a small study in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation. Researchers documented higher blood pressure levels among 113 first-year college players. Only one player had already been diagnosed with hypertension before the season and 27 percent had a family history of hypertension. At post-season, researchers noted: 47 percent of players were considered pre-hypertensive, while 14 percent had stage 1 hypertension. While previous ...

Treatment for back pain varies despite published clinical guidelines

2013-07-30
Management of back pain appears to be variable, despite numerous published clinical guidelines, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Spinal symptoms are among the most common reasons patients visit a physician and more than 10 percent of visits to primary care physicians relate to back and neck pain, the authors write in the study background. John N. Mafi, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues used nationally representative data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital ...

Adolescent kidney transplant recipients appear to be at higher risk of transplant failure

2013-07-30
Patients who received their first kidney transplant at ages 14 to 16 years appear to be at increased risk for transplant failure, with black adolescents having a disproportionately higher risk of graft failure, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. Existing medical literature does not adequately describe the risks of graft failure among kidney transplant recipients by age. Organ losses by adolescents are partly due to physiologic or immunologic changes with age but psychological and sociological factors play a role, especially ...

Decision aids associated with increase in informed decision making about prostate cancer screening

2013-07-30
Both web-based and print-based decision aids appear to improve patients' informed decision making about prostate cancer screening up to 13 months later, but does not appear to affect actual screening rates, according to a study by Kathryn L. Taylor, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and colleagues. A total of 1,893 men participated in the study, with 628 men randomly given a print-decision aid, 625 men used a web-based interactive decision aid, and 626 men received usual care. Researchers measured the participants' prostate cancer knowledge, decisional ...

Breastfeeding duration appears associated with intelligence later in life

2013-07-30
Breastfeeding longer is associated with better receptive language at 3 years of age and verbal and nonverbal intelligence at age 7 years, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication. Evidence supports the relationship between breastfeeding and health benefits in infancy, but the extent to which breastfeeding leads to better cognitive development is less certain, according to the study background. Mandy B. Belfort, M.D., M.P.H., of Boston Children's Hospital, and colleagues examined the relationships of breastfeeding duration and exclusivity ...

Glucose intolerance, diabetes or insulin resistance not linked with pathological features of AD

2013-07-30
Glucose intolerance or insulin resistance do not appear to be associated with pathological features of Alzheimer disease (AD) or detection of the accumulation of the brain protein β-amyloid (Αβ), according to a report published by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. Glucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus have been proposed as risk factors for the development of AD, but evidence of this has not been consistent, the study background notes. Madhav Thambisetty, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, and colleagues investigated ...

Physicians should counsel patients about sex life after cardiac event

2013-07-30
Healthcare professionals are urged to counsel heart and stroke patients on how to resume a healthy sex life, according to a joint statement published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation and the European Heart Journal. It is the first scientific statement to offer detailed guidance for patients. "Patients are anxious and often afraid sex will trigger another cardiac event – but the topic sometimes gets passed over because of embarrassment or discomfort," said Elaine Steinke, A.P.R.N., Ph.D., lead author of the statement and professor of nursing at Wichita ...

BIDMC study suggests worsening trends in back pain management

2013-07-30
BOSTON – Patient care could be enhanced and the health care system could see significant cost savings if health care professionals followed published clinical guidelines to manage and treat back pain, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and published in the July 29 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. "Back pain treatment is costly and frequently includes overuse of treatments that are not supported by clinical guidelines, and that don't impact outcomes," says lead author John N. Mafi, MD, a fellow in the Division of General Medicine and Primary ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Study links teacher turnover to higher rates of student suspensions, disciplinary referrals

How harmful bacteria hijack crops

Crowded conditions muddle frogs’ mating choices

A new way to guide light, undeterred

Researchers uncover how COVID-19 may linger in cancer patients and affect treatment outcomes

Tiny metal figurines from Sardinia's Nuragic civilization in around 1,000 BC reveal extensive ancient Mediterranean metal trading networks

Natural microfibers may degrade differently to synthetic materials under simulated sunlight exposure in freshwater and seawater conditions, with implications for how such pollutants affect aquatic lif

Indian new mums report better postpartum wellbeing when their own mum acts as their primary support - while women whose mother-in-law is the primary caregiver instead report significantly lower overal

Young adult intelligence and education are correlated with socioeconomic status in midlife

Traditional and “existential” wellness vary significantly between US regions

Smartwatches detect early signs of PTSD among those watching coverage of the Oct 7 attacks in Israel

The pandemic may have influenced the trainability of dogs, as reported by their owners

The withdrawal of U.S. funding for tuberculosis could lead to up to 2.2 million additional deaths between 2025 and 2030 inclusive

A ‘universal’ therapy against the seasonal flu? Antibody cocktail targets virus weak spot

Could robots help kids conquer reading anxiety? New study from the Department of Computer Science at UChicago suggests so

UCSB-designed soft robot intubation device could save lives

Burial Site challenges stereotypes of Stone Age women and children

Protein found in the eye and blood significantly associated with cognition scores

USF study reveals how menopause impacts women’s voices – and why it matters

AI salespeople aren’t better than humans… yet

Millions of men could benefit from faster scan to diagnose prostate cancer

Simulations solve centuries-old cosmic mystery – and discover new class of ancient star systems

MIT study explains how a rare gene variant contributes to Alzheimer’s disease

Race, ethnicity, insurance payer, and pediatric cardiac arrest survival

High-intensity exercise and hippocampal integrity in adults with cannabis use disorder

“Brain dial” for consumption found in mice

Lung cancer rewires immune cells in the bone marrow to weaken body’s defenses

Researchers find key to Antarctic ice loss blowing in the north wind

Ten years after the discovery, gravitational waves verify Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Area Theorem

Researchers uncover potential biosignatures on Mars

[Press-News.org] How does hydrogen metallize?