Hydrogen is a colorless gas, but for this scientific breakthough, U.S. scientists were able to create metallic hydrogen. This is such a huge success; scientists call it the "holy grail of high pressure physics."
Harvard researchers Ranga Dias and Isaac Silvera are behind this project, and they say that this is the first time that a solid metallic hydrogen has ever existed on Earth. According to Daily Mail Online, the scientists succeeded in squeezing hydrogen so intensely that it has turned into a metal. This created an entirely new material that could be used as a highly efficient electric conductor or a superconductor.
Controversial Project May Have Fulfilled 80-Year Quest
If this is accurate, physicists say that this controversial claim fulfills a more than 80-year quest to produce what many would consider be a wonder material. Dias and Silvera say that the quantity of metallic hydrogen created so far is tiny - the amount is less than the cross section of a human hair. But in time, they believe that ways could be found to boost its production.
To achieve this, the scientists squeezed a cell containing a small sample of molecular hydrogen between two synthetic diamonds. Their goal was to pack the atoms of hydrogen so close together that they formed a crystal lattice and started to share their electrons - behaviour that is exactly that of a metal.
Some Scientists Are Not Convinced And Questioned This Work
However, some experts are not convinced that this achievement is real. Some say that Dias and Silvera may have mistaken something else for the important metal. One scientist even said that the paper is not convincing at all, Independent reported. Other researchers have also criticized the lab's approach and methods, arguing that it could lead to false positives.
Dias and Silvera cannot show off the piece of metal yet because they say that it is still stuck between the jaws of the anvil, and removing it might cause it to disappear entirely. Other scientists question why the team published the results even before they have taken the material out of the anvil.
