…when atacamite is exposed to a magnetic field, its temperature changes, a rare and valuable behavior that could help shape the future of cooling technologies…
Journal article:
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.216701
Garbage article.
We have been well aware of this type of magnetic interfering crystalline structure in materials like ferrite.
And there is absolutely nothing new or novel about heating and cooling when magnetic fields are applied and released.
Hot air.
So I’ve had this thought for 20+ years but can’t seem to get it to work. Maybe someone smarter than me can make it work.
The Curie point of Gadolinium is around room temperature. If you put a high powered magnet on one end and then generate some external heat and an include a spring (or crank arm) on the magnetic end, you could produce a piston, similar to a sterling engine.
Now, if you add this cooling material as a heat sink, you could likely rapidly cool the gadolinium material back below the Curie point, making a more efficient engine, perhaps even producing something that could do a bit of work.
I made some prototypes back in the day, but the ferromagnetic material would always eventually get locked with the magnets. My rudimentary engineering skills could never get the external heat source quite right. Perhaps someone with a bit more ingenuity will take this and run with it.
Also, old broken microwaves are a great way to salvage some pretty strong magnets.
And be careful when handling gadolinium, it’s known to cause kidney and nerve damage.
Where are the magnets?
edit I’m an idiot lol
Caveat: Old open old microwaves if you REALLY know what you’re doing! They can absolutely still hold enough power in capacitors to kill you instantly.
This behavior has been studied awhile and is no surprise to physicists and chemists who have been studying and looking for materials with a greater amount of the properties. The article is great but the title for this post feels like something typical of youtube.
I’m on your side, not one thing here is novel.
We have been well aware of this type of crystalline structure for… I don’t know a century? Ferrite anybody? And magnetic heating/cooling are child’s play concepts.
That’s science reporting in general.
I mean we make these titles though. We don’t need to do this.
The title is from the article.
The problem is deeper than the title of some random article though. The basic currency of any reporting is attention, and that’s the case not only for media intended for the non-scientific public, but also for scientific papers.
At the same time, a lot of science, especially basic research, is really boring. Because basic research is per definition without a real application (yet), and pretty much any research is years if not decades away from being commercially available.
To get around this dilemma, every level of science reporting needs to be sensationalist. Every little thing needs to be a “break-through” that “will change the world”, otherwise it won’t get attention, and stuff that doesn’t get attention won’t get funding.
But sensationalism is inherently counter-scientific, because it requires the authors to make claims that the science doesn’t support.
So right within the core systems of modern science is a mechanic that rewards being non-scientific while punishing researchers that stick to dry science.
And that’s a real problem because it means that a large portion (estimates are at ~30%) of scientific papers are just bogus, and an even larger portion (my cynical estimate is ~90%) of what makes it into non-scientific media is pure sensationalist garbage.
Ah you know what. I did not even notice the article I went to the second link so I was like. Why are we giving it these crazy titles. My bad.
In science reporting, every result breaks a paradigm and has important applications in medicine or something else consumers relate to.
lol. you know I read it without the reporting and was like you are wack then read it properly.