#scientists
The first picture of a black hole opens a new era of astrophysics
This is what a black hole looks like.
A world-spanning network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope zoomed in on the supermassive monster in the galaxy M87 to create this first-ever picture of a black hole.
“We have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole,” Sheperd Doeleman, EHT Director and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said April 10 in Washington, D.C., at one of seven concurrent news conferences. The results were also published in six papers in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“We’ve been studying black holes so long, sometimes it’s easy to forget that none of us have actually seen one,” France Cordova, director of the National Science Foundation, said in the Washington, D.C., news conference. Seeing one “is a Herculean task,” she said.
That’s because black holes are notoriously hard to see. Their gravity is so extreme that nothing, not even light, can escape across the boundary at a black hole’s edge, known as the event horizon. But some black holes, especially supermassive ones dwelling in galaxies’ centers, stand out by voraciously accreting bright disks of gas and other material. The EHT image reveals the shadow of M87’s black hole on its accretion disk. Appearing as a fuzzy, asymmetrical ring, it unveils for the first time a dark abyss of one of the universe’s most mysterious objects.
“It’s been such a buildup,” Doeleman said. “It was just astonishment and wonder… to know that you’ve uncovered a part of the universe that was off limits to us.”
The Future of Materials summit in Luxembourg took place on 13th-14th November 2017 and examined how 3D printing, robotics, more customisation and high-performance computing will shape the future of manufacturing. But nothing will impact how things are made, and what they are capable of, more than the materials manufacturers use.
Advancements in material science are at a turning point. From programmable matter to smart polymers and self-healing concrete, the application of new materials could unlock new avenues for traditional industries to take off and possibly solve some of the greatest challenges facing our planet. But human beings are still inefficient at turning raw materials into useful ones, and useful ones in products. The road from discovery to production is long and strewn with pitfalls.
You can watch highlight videos from the summit below:
Videos of the speakers’ presentations are available from here: https://www.digitalnewsagency.com/stories/11804-the-future-of-materials-summit-2017
On this day in 1834, Michael Faraday wrote about his continued failure to isolate fluorine.
(Hey, you win some, you lose some).
The element had been identified in minerals, but as fluorine is extremely reactive and forms compounds with most other elements, it had never been isolated before.
This is what happens when fluorine gas hits coal…
Faraday experienced the problem of fluorine’s reactivity 184 years ago today, when he tried using electrolysis to disassociate fluorine from a lead fluorine compound.
Watch this video to learn more from our archives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihOD0F8Ukbc
Humphry Davy had previously attempted to isolate fluorine using electrolysis (which had led him to successfully isolate sodium and potassium). But Davy worked with hydrofluoric acid, which is corrosive and damaged his eyes.
Davy recovered, but many other experimenters with the dream of being the first to isolate fluorine, ended up poisoning themselves, and became known as the ‘fluorine martyrs’.
After 74 years and many chemists’ trial and error, elemental fluorine was eventually isolated via electrolysis by Henri Moissan in 1886, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906.
Thanks to their hard work, now we can do fun things like putting fluorine (most reactive non-metal element) and caesium (super reactive metal element) together:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLOFaWdPxB0
Sir Tim Hunt resigns from UCL over women in science comment
One female scientist took to twitter to share her #distractinglysexy pose
The Nobel laureate faced a backlash of criticism following his comments at a recent World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea, he said, ‘Three things happen when they are in the lab – you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry.’
UCL confirmed that Hunt had resigned on Wednesday from his position as honorary professor with the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, following his comment.
Hunt has since apologised for any offence, saying he meant the remarks to be humorous – but added that he ‘did mean the part about having trouble with girls’.
Following Hunt’s comments, female scientist have hit back with a Twitter campaign mocking his sexist comments. The hashtag #DistractinglySexy is being used by women working in the fields of science to show exactly what their jobs entail and posting pictures to show just how “distracting” they are while doing it.
Have any of you had a #distractinglysexy moment in the lab? Tweet us @materialsworld
In other news:
· Bloodhound supersonic car gets its ‘feathers’
· World Coal Association urges G7 to invest more in cleaner technologies
· Engineers create origami battery
· Wiggins smashes cycling record on Jaguar and Pinarello engineered bike
To find out more on materials science, packaging and engineering news, visit our website IOM3 or follow us on Twitter @MaterialsWorld for regular news updates.
The legend
Henry Bessemer (1813-1893) was a prolific inventor and talented businessman. His most significant contribution to engineering was a new low-cost process for making steel. Before Bessemer’s process, cast and wrought iron were the predominant construction materials, as although steel was superior, it was too expensive.
Through his invention, Bessemer kicked off the proliferation of steel across the globe from Sheffield, UK.
Bessemer discovered that by blowing cold compressed air into molten pig iron, carbon and other impurities burned off. Central to the process is a large vat, now known as a Bessemer converter. Previously, steel was made by re-processing wrought iron. Bessemer took out a patent on the invention in 1856.
The facts
- Bessemer made his first fortune through the development of a copper powder, which could be added to paint to give it a gold-coloured sheen. He kept the manufacturing process for the powder a closely guarded secret, giving his own business a monopoly.
- One of his earlier inventions was an anti-forgery stamp developed for the Royal Mail.
- Bessemer invented a new type of spinning projectile for cannons, but the iron barrels were not strong enough to fire them. Searching for a stronger material to make the barrels was the impetus behind the discovery of his process.
- It took many years to perfect the Bessemer process. One stumbling block was that only iron that did not contain phosphorous could be used. It was Sidney Gilchrist Thomas who solved this problem around 1878, by developing a new refractory lining.
- Bessemer had more than 100 patents at the time of his death in 1898.
- A former steelmaking town in Jacksonville, Alabama, is named after Bessemer. With iron ore, coal and limestone all mined nearby, it was a prime site for making steel in the early 20th century.
The quote
‘I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right.’