Important Innovations Collection

Brand New Material & Phenomena Discovered by German Scientists                                        Source:  University of Konstanz 20 Year Prediction Comes True Physicists in Germany have discovered an entirely new state of matter - liquid glass.  The team at Germany's University of Konstanz says the new material is unlike anything they've seen and has very unusual properties.  The new state of matter is a mysterious process that takes place between liquid and solid states of glass.  The atoms of liquid glass can move but they can't rotate.  The molecules appear to be locked in a endless struggle between the liquid and solid states of glass.  For more than 20 years, scientists have predicted the possibility of liquid glass and have worked to discover it.  The German team is the first to do it. Significance of the Discovery - Explain...

German Scientists' Breakthrough Invention Source:  Max Planck Institute Potential Wide Applications Scientists at the Max Planck Institute and the University of  Bayreuth in Germany have invented a transparent, extremely thin material that both conducts and insulates heat simultaneously.  That's a first.  The scientists say the first application is for the creation of high-performance LEDs.  But it could be even bigger than that. Everyday Life Applications Thermal insulation and thermal conduction are important to our everyday lives from heating our homes to computers, where it's important to dissipate heat as quickly as possible.  The new material has the potential of widespread impact as it both conducts and insulates heat at the same time. Novel Breakthrough The team made the material by manipulating how heat travels.  They stacked wafer thin plates of glass in layers and placed polymer chains between them.  The co...