
Physicists discover keys to improving magnet technology, etc.
Date: Sunday, November 20, 2005 @ 17:27:13 UTC Topic: Science
Permanent magnets are important in a broad variety of commercial
technologies, from car starters to alternators for wind power
generation to computer hard drives. Researchers at the U.S. DOE's
Argonne National Laboratory have found new clues into ways to make
those magnets longer-lasting and more powerful.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news8305.html
Using the Western Hemisphere's
most powerful X-rays at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, the
researchers were able to see new details of rare-earth ions, a critical
component of permanent magnets. The examination of the ions, probing
their magnetism with unprecedented resolution, revealed that the
presence of rare-earth ions in more than one atomic environment reduces
the magnetic stability of the best-performing permanent magnets to
date. This knowledge will enable manufacturers to manipulate the
rare-earth ion atomic structure for optimization of future magnets.
The research is published this week in Physical Review Letters.
Rare-earth ions come from metallic elements that share similar
chemical properties; they are not especially rare, but they are used
sparingly because of the high cost in preparation of the materials.
Rare-earth ions play an important role in determining magnetic
stability again demagnetizing fields, and therefore in magnet
performance.
"The
research found that rare-earth ions in dissimilar crystalline
environments compete with one another, and undermine the magnetic
performance of the highest performance magnets," said Argonne scientist
Daniel Haskel, who led the research team. "These findings point to the
need for specialized atomic engineering of the material – manipulating
the rare-earth local atomic structure to fully utilize the rare-earth
contribution in next generations of magnets."
Source: Argonne National Laboratory
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BEYOND EINSTEIN: A LIVE WEBCAST FROM AROUND THE GLOBE, November 18 Thursday, December 1, 2005 from 12:00 to 24:00 CET
CERN and the World Year of Physics International Steering Committee are
partnering with some of the world's leading physics laboratories,
science museums and technology partners to present a twelve-hour live
webcast to celebrate Einstein and look beyond the World Year of Physics
2005.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news8318.html
SPACE-TIME VORTEX, November 17
Is Earth in a vortex of space-time? We'll soon know the answer: A
NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently
finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results,
which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of
space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news8256.html
NATURE IS 'ALWAYS MORE CRAZY THAN WE ARE', November 16
Astronomers say more than a thousand planets might be lurking in our
galactic neighborhood. That's the conclusion they reached in explaining
the genesis of a giant planet discovered in July by Maciej Konacki,
then at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news8245.html
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