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How can we grapple with the environmental, social and geopolitical challenges caused by the extraction and use of these critical resources?
Platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok will now have to face lawsuits that accuse them of making their online products addictive to adolescents and young adults after a judge's ruling yesterday.
Not Science Fiction: Scientists Around the World Shocked by Self-Healing in Metal
Source: Sci Tech Daily
Dr. Michael Demkowicz predicted self-healing in metal; this summer it was finally observed, shocking scientists around the world.
A microscopic crack grew in a very small piece of platinum when placed under repetitive stretching. The experiment, designed to study fatigue crack growth, continued as predicted for a while. But then, something unexpected happened. The crack stopped growing and instead began to get shorter, effectively “healing” itself.
This incredible observation was made by a group of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories while conducting fracture experiments on nanocrystalline metals. The findings were recently published in the journal Nature.
“We didn’t set out to find healing. My student, Guoxiang Xu, was doing simulations on fracture,” Demkowicz said. “We accidentally observed spontaneous healing in one of his simulations and decided to follow up.”
Then, just like now, the results in 2013 were surprising. Demkowicz added that he, his student, and his colleagues were all somewhat skeptical of the original theory. However, his simulation models would see many reproductions and expansions by other researchers in the intervening years.
“It became clear that the simulations were not in error since others saw the same effect in their modeling work,” Demkowicz said. “However, experiments were out of reach until now.”
Both the 2013 models and the recent experiment used nanocrystalline metals that have a crystal structure, or grain size, measured on the nanoscale (one-millionth of a millimeter). While not widely used in engineering applications, most metals can be made in this form, according to Demkowicz.
He further explained that nanocrystalline metals make studying self-healing easier because their small grain size allows for more microstructural features that even small cracks can interact with.
Both studies found that one such feature, grain boundaries, can affect crack healing depending on the direction of boundary migration relative to the crack. Demkowicz added that these features are common in many metals and alloys and can be manipulated.
What Futures May Come
“The main impact of the current work is to move the original theoretical prediction ‘off the drawing board’ and show that it occurs in reality,” Demkowicz said. “We haven’t really started optimizing microstructures for self-healing yet. Figuring out the best alterations to promote self-healing is a challenging task for future work.”
Potential applications of this work could vary widely. Demkowicz suggests that self-healing could be possible in conventional metals with larger grain sizes, but future investigations will be needed.
#Scala's #Metals, the LSP-based IDE, is great, actually.
My $work happens in IntelliJ IDEA, but unfortunately, it's not good for enthusiasts. I can't use my $work license on my personal computer, and many language plugins are only available for the Ultimate edition.
All my play time gradually moved to #VSCode (e.g., Rust, C++, Python, Ruby, Haskell, OCaml, and now Scala). I'm truly thankful that Metals exists. And it works fine, better in some cases ❤️
The #Canadian 🇨🇦 #Minerals and #Metals Plan 📆 2019 : #SpaceMining refers to the use of raw materials from #asteroids or #planetary bodies. Early action from #Canada regarding mining new frontiers would demonstrate leadership, signal that Canada welcomes innovation and investment, and support the transfer of technology between sectors. The #SpaceSector is one of Canada’s most R&D intensive.
Mining in northern, remote, and isolated communities and in #space 🌌 face common challenges related to exploration, infrastructure development, and operating in harsh and remote environments. The minerals sector is taking advantage of #SpaceSolutions such as #robotics, remote sensing, and aerial and earth #observation technologies to create safer, cleaner and more efficient operations. https://natural-resources.canada.ca/sites/nrcan/files/CMMP/CMMP_The_Plan-EN.pdf
Meanwhile in Germany, Aurubis (Europe's largest #copper producer) has found 'massive' shortfalls in stock (against its records) leading the firm to suspect it has been subject to a major theft.
The #metals sector is increasingly looking like it needs to keep a better eye on its assets; you'll recall a few months ago, supposed bags of nickel were found on inspection to contain stones (a fraud perpetrated on Trafigura).
This makes stealing copper wire from railways look like hobby-criminality!
Scientists accidentally capture metals 'healing' themselves (www.popsci.com)
Materials scientists witnessed metals—in this case copper and platinum—undergoing the process of 'intrinsic self-healing.'