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

Disorder + disorder = more disorder?

According to new paper in 'The Journal of Chemical Physics,' adding a disordered boundary to an already disordered charged fluid can have a counterintuitive effect: Lowering the overall disorder of the system

Disorder + disorder = more disorder?
2014-11-04
(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, D.C., November 4, 2014--If you took the junk from the back of your closet and combined it with the dirty laundry already on your floor, you would have an even bigger mess. While this principle will likely always hold true for our bedrooms, it turns out that in certain situations, combining messes can actually reduce the disorder of the whole. An international team of researchers from Slovenia and Iran has identified a set of conditions in which adding disorder to a system makes it more orderly. This behavior is known as antifragility, a concept introduced recently to describe similar phenomena in statistics, economics and social science.

In a paper published Nov. 4 in The Journal of Chemical Physics, from AIP Publishing, the researchers found a counterintuitive interplay between two different types of disorder. One is thermodynamic disorder, or entropy. The other is the structural disorder—defects in an idealized system that can change its properties.

"One expects that different types of disorder just add to one another to one final mess at the end," said Ali Naji, the lead author of the paper and a researcher from the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Tehran. "But surprisingly, we find that in some cases, structural disorder can counteract the thermal disorder, making the system overall more ordered."

The exception that the researchers identified involved the interaction between the structural disorder of charged surfaces and the thermal disorder of Coulomb fluids—collections of mobile charged particles, either ions or larger molecules, that interact with each other.

They compared two different types of charged surfaces. In the orderly one, the charges were evenly distributed across the surface. In the messy one, positive and negative charges were spread randomly across the surface, though they maintained their positions once placed--a situation called "quenched disorder."

When the researchers put each of these surfaces in contact with a Coulomb fluid, they found that the ions in the Coulomb fluid were more strongly attracted to the disordered surface than to the ordered one. Surprisingly, when they then calculated the entropy of both systems, they found that the randomly charged system had lower entropy than the uniformly charged one—the addition of structural disorder opposed the effects of the Coulomb fluid's thermal disorder.

Unfortunately, the finding won't revolutionize our approach to cleaning anytime soon. "This only works for certain cases and under certain conditions," Naji said. "We find out that the disordered charges have to interact strongly with the mobile charges in the Coulomb fluid in order to have this behavior." However, the researchers eventually hope to identify these systems in areas more directly applicable to human lives.

"One wonders in what other systems one could observe even more spectacular cases [of these systems] that would help us stave degradation, spontaneous disordering and aging of materials and instill robustness and resilience," said Rudolf Podgornik, a researcher from the Jozef Stefan Institute and University of Ljubljana, Slovenia who is the senior coauthor of this paper. "Chaos is not necessarily bad for us if we know how to counteract it with a little properly applied disorder of our own."

INFORMATION: The article, "Asymmetric Coulomb fluids at randomly charge dielectric interfaces: Anti-fragility, overcharging, and charge inversion," is authored by Ali Naji, Malihe Ghodrat, Haniyeh Komaie-Moghaddam and Rudolf Podgornik. It was published in The Journal of Chemical Physics on November 4, 2014 and can be accessed at: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/141/17/10.1063/1.4898663 The authors of this paper are affiliated with the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Tehran, Iran; the J. Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and the University of Ljubljana, also in Ljubljana.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The Journal of Chemical Physics publishes concise and definitive reports of significant research in the methods and applications of chemical physics. See: http://jcp.aip.org

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Disorder + disorder = more disorder?

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Fast food marketing for children disproportionately affects certain communities

2014-11-04
A newly published research study examining only marketing directed at children on the interior and exterior of fast food restaurants has found that the majority of black, middle-income and rural communities are disproportionately exposed to such marketing tactics. Authored by Arizona State University researcher Punam Ohri-Vachaspati and her colleagues, the study is the first to examine the use of child-directed marketing on the interior and exterior of fast food restaurants and its relationship to demographics. It adds to a substantial body of literature on the effects ...

Where'd you get that great idea?

2014-11-04
PITTSBURGH—It's commonly believed that creativity is a process that involves connecting ideas and building on the past to create something new. But is it better to "think outside the box," using unrelated concepts to get the creative juices flowing, or to build on something more closely related to the problem one is trying to solve? In a paper newly published in Design Studies, recent University of Pittsburgh graduate Joel Chan and his mentor Christian Schunn of Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center, along with Carnegie Mellon University's Steven Dow, ...

NASA's Aqua satellite sees Hurricane Vance headed for landfall in western Mexico

NASAs Aqua satellite sees Hurricane Vance headed for landfall in western Mexico
2014-11-04
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Vance on Nov. 3 as it started moving in a northeasterly direction toward the northwestern coast of Mexico. On Nov. 4, a Tropical Storm Watch was in effect from Mazatlan northward to Topolobampo, Mexico. Hurricane Vance is forecast to make landfall in northwestern mainland Mexico on Nov. 5. On Nov. 3 at 20:50 UTC (3:50 p.m. EST) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Hurricane Vance off Mexico's west coast. The eastern quadrant of the storm ...

Why does red meat increase the risk for cardiovascular disease? Blame our gut bacteria

2014-11-04
New research provides details on how gut bacteria turn a nutrient found in red meat into metabolites that increase the risk of developing heart disease. Publishing in the November 4th issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism, the findings may lead to new strategies for safeguarding individuals' cardiovascular health. Previous research led by Dr. Stanley Hazen, of Lerner Research Institute and the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, revealed a pathway by which red meat can promote atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Essentially, ...

Granger causality test can make epilepsy surgery more effective

2014-11-04
ATLANTA—A new statistical test that looks at the patterns of high-frequency network activity flow from brain signals can help doctors pinpoint the exact location of seizures occurring in the brain and make surgery more effective, according to researchers at Georgia State University and Emory University School of Medicine. The findings are published in the journal Epilepsia. Emory researchers Dr. Charles Epstein, Dr. Robert Gross and Dr. Jon Willie; Dr. Bhim Adhikari, a post doctoral researcher at Georgia State, and Dr. Mukesh Dhamala, an associate professor of ...

Mayo Clinic researchers discover genetic markers for alcoholism recovery

2014-11-04
ROCHESTER, Minn. — In an international study, Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators have identified genetic markers that may help in identifying individuals who could benefit from the alcoholism treatment drug acamprosate. The findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, show that patients carrying these genetic variants have longer periods of abstinence during the first three months of acamprosate treatment. Acamprosate is a commonly prescribed drug used to aid patients in recovery from alcoholism. Mayo researchers studied the association between ...

Are there as many rats as people in New York City?

2014-11-04
Urban legend states that New York City has as many rats as people: roughly 8 million; but a new analysis suggests there are nowhere near as many. The analysis classified rat sightings by city lot, of which there are roughly 842,000 in New York City. The researchers estimated 40,500 rat-inhabited lots in the city. By liberally assuming that 40 to 50 rats belong to a typical colony and that one full colony occupies each rat-inhabited lot, the researchers concluded that 2 million would be an extremely generous estimate of the city's rat population. "While the rat population ...

Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease may share deep roots

Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease may share deep roots
2014-11-04
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) appear to have a lot in common. They share risk factors such as obesity and they often occur together. If they also share the same genetic underpinings, then doctors could devise a way to treat them together too. With that hope in mind, scientists applied multiple layers of analysis to the genomics of more than 15,000 women. In a new study they report finding eight molecular pathways shared in both diseases as well as several "key driver" genes that appear to orchestrate the ...

Research in the identity of agricultural pests has broad implications

2014-11-04
A global research effort has resolved a major biosecurity issue by determining that four of the world's most destructive agricultural pests are one and the same. The Oriental fruit fly, the Philippine fruit fly, the Invasive fruit fly, the Carambola fruit fly, and the Asian Papaya fruit fly cause incalculable damage to horticultural industries and food security across Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of South America. More than 40 researchers from 20 countries examined available evidence and determined that the Carambola fruit fly is a distinct species, but the other ...

Many future health professionals drink too much alcohol

2014-11-04
A new study found that 43% of nursing students indulge in hazardous alcohol consumption, with 14.9% of men and 18.7% of women meeting criteria for hazardous drinkers. Hazardous drinkers were more likely to be young, to smoke, and to live outside the family nucleus. "Alcohol-prevention activities should envisage greater protection of university settings, particularly where future health professionals are involved," wrote the authors of the Journal of Advanced Nursing study. INFORMATION: ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.

Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation

ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy

How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease

A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet

Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice

Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast

Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds

The experts that can outsmart optical illusions

Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk

Scientists uncover novel immune mechanism in wheat tandem kinase

Three University of Virginia Engineering faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

Unintentional drug overdoses take a toll across the U.S. unequally, study finds

[Press-News.org] Disorder + disorder = more disorder?
According to new paper in 'The Journal of Chemical Physics,' adding a disordered boundary to an already disordered charged fluid can have a counterintuitive effect: Lowering the overall disorder of the system