Gizmorama - September 21, 2015

Good Morning,

Are you ready for a hydrogen economy? I don't know what that is either, but color me intrigued. Check out the article below... it's a gas!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*--- Scientists conduct most precise test of light speed ---*
BERLIN - The speed of light is a constant. A new test -- the most precise test of a photon's speed -- confirms it.

The results of the test support the concept of Lorentz symmetry, the idea that the laws of physics are constant in all directions.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia and Humboldt University of Berlin measured the spatial consistency of the speed of light using two cryogenic sapphire oscillators. Two pieces of sapphire are vibrated at identical frequencies and supercooled with liquid helium, thus freezing the exact frequency.

Microwave frequencies within the cavities containing the two sapphires were then monitored for two years. The sapphires are aligned at perfect right angles, so that any variance in the speed of light along any axes would be detected, as it would throw off the finely tuned frequencies of the two sapphires.

Researchers say their experiment produced results ten times more precise than previous Lorentz symmetry experiments.

"If this were to change depending on the direction it was facing it would indicate that Lorentz symmetry had been violated," Stephen Parker, a quantum physicist at Wester Australia, said in a press release. "But the frequencies didn't even change down to the 18th digit (the smallest part of the measurement of frequency), which is remarkable that this symmetry of nature still holds true at such tiny levels."

Parker, who helped lead the new research, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, says his research team is working on incorporating new sources of light into their experimental setup. Their goal is to continue looking for instances of invariance, under various and more precisely measured circumstances.

Researchers are keen to find Lorentz invariance, as a number of theories that attempt to unify the two models of physics -- general relativity and the standard model of particle physics -- rely upon the violation of Lorentz symmetry.


*-- Study: Efficient new catalyst may pave way for hydrogen economy --*
MADISON, Wis. - Many researchers continue to hold hope for an eco-friendly hydrogen economy -- a comprehensive energy-delivery industry based on hydrogen.

Hydrogen can be burned to create heat or used in fuel cells to make electricity. It is also an efficient way to store energy. And unlike fossil fuels, which give off harmful emissions when burned, water is hydrogen's only byproduct.

But like so many other alternative energy panaceas, the technology remains prohibitively expensive. Oxidation-resistant noble metals, like platinum, which are used in water splitting devices, are rare and expensive -- limiting hydrogen's potential as alternative fuel source.

Catalysts are substances which lower the amount of energy necessary to initiate chemical reactions.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have discovered a cheap and efficient alternative to the use of noble gases as a catalyst in hydrogen production -- a combination of phosphorus and sulfur (common elements) and cobalt, a metal 1,000 times cheaper than the cheapest noble metals.

Because electricity is currently used to split water and produce hydrogen, some have questioned the true environmental benefits of a hydrogen economy. But engineers have been improving hydrogen-making technologies that use solar energy for water-splitting.

Researchers at Wisconsin say their new catalyst also works with sunlight-powered water-splitting devices.

"We have demonstrated a proof-of-concept device for using this cobalt catalyst and solar energy to drive hydrogen generation, which also has the best reported efficiency for systems that rely only on inexpensive catalysts and materials to convert directly from sunlight to hydrogen," Song Jin, a chemistry professor at Wisconsin, said in a press release.

Jin is the lead author of a new paper on the technology, published this week in the journal Nature Materials.

"If you want to make a dent in the global warming problem, you have to think big," Jin said. "Whether we imagine making hydrogen from electricity, or directly from sunlight, we need square miles of devices to evolve that much hydrogen. And there might not be enough platinum to do that."

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