Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Science I Can't Even Wrap My Head Around This
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 1:24 PM
"Scientists Create Metal That Pumps Liquid Uphill"
Uh, buh:
Guo and his assistant, Anatoliy Vorobyev, use an ultra-fast burst of laser light to change the surface of a metal, forming nanoscale and microscale pits, globules, and strands across the metal's surface. The laser, called a femtosecond laser, produces pulses lasting only a few quadrillionths of a second—a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire electric grid of North America does, all focused onto a spot the size of a needlepoint, he says.
Apparently, this will be useful for cooling processing chips, causing metal to reflect almost all kinds of light or only certain kinds of light (thus making the metal different colors), making more energy-efficient light bulbs, and creating antibacterial surfaces.
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3
Second to 2
Also, what's the point of making enery efficient light bulbs with a process that takes a ridiculous amount of energy?
Also, what's the point of making enery efficient light bulbs with a process that takes a ridiculous amount of energy?
4
Cool, cool, cool. I've read a little about this kind of stuff (i.e. the color-changing), and it blows my mind how cool this is, for all sorts of things.
5
Wrong, #2 (and 3).
The N.A. grid delivers power - a measurable quantity of energy per unit time - to a vast aggregate of electric loads (lights, heaters, motors, etc, etc).
The femtosecond laser delivers power at the same rate (in the form of photon energy per unit time).
The N.A. grid delivers power - a measurable quantity of energy per unit time - to a vast aggregate of electric loads (lights, heaters, motors, etc, etc).
The femtosecond laser delivers power at the same rate (in the form of photon energy per unit time).
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