http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The massive ball of iron sitting at the center of Earth is not quite as "rock-solid" as has been thought, say two Stanford mineral physicists. By conducting experiments that simulate the immense pressures deep in the planet's interior, the researchers determined that iron in Earth's inner core is only about 40 percent as strong as previous studies estimated. http://phys.org/news287996395.html Space & Earth Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:12 EST news287996395 The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that its Sequoia supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has completed its transition to classified computing in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which helps the United States ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of its aging nuclear weapons stockpile without the use of underground testing. http://phys.org/news285489133.html Electronics Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:32:24 EST news285489133 (Phys.org)—In December 2011, Caltech mineral-physics expert Jennifer Jackson reported that she and a team of researchers had used diamond-anvil cells to compress tiny samples of iron—the main element of the earth's core. By squeezing the samples to reproduce the extreme pressures felt at the core, the team was able to get a closer estimate of the melting point of iron. At the time, the measurements that the researchers made were unprecedented in detail. Now, they have taken that research one step further by adding infrared laser beams to the mix. http://phys.org/news277451076.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Jan 2013 05:44:46 EST news277451076 (PhysOrg.com) -- Although materials scientists have theorized for years that a form of super-dense aluminum exists under the extreme pressures found inside a planet’s core, no one had ever actually seen it. Until now. http://phys.org/news233392569.html Physics Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:16:24 EST news233392569 (PhysOrg.com) -- By combining high pressure with high temperature, Livermore researchers have created a nanocyrstalline diamond aerogel that could improve the optics something as big as a telescope or as small as the lenses in eyeglasses. http://phys.org/news224856698.html Physics Tue, 17 May 2011 13:12:30 EST news224856698 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University scientists have recreated the tremendous pressures and high temperatures deep in the Earth to resolve a long-standing puzzle: why some seismic waves travel faster than others through the boundary between the solid mantle and fluid outer core. http://phys.org/news204470470.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:21:26 EST news204470470 Complex-shaped components in aircraft engines can be produced quickly and at a reasonable price using selective laser melting. This has been demonstrated by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in the EU-sponsored FANTASIA project. The experts will present their latest findings at the International Laser Technology Congress AKL'10, May 5-7, 2010, in Aachen, Germany. http://phys.org/news192120283.html Technology Mon, 03 May 2010 16:10:01 EST news192120283 (PhysOrg.com) -- From detailed assessments of electronic structure, researchers at the University at Buffalo, Cornell University, Stony Brook University and Moscow State University discovered that unexpected hydrides violating standard valence rules, such as LiH6 and LiH8, become stable metals at a pressure approximately one quarter of that required to metalize pure hydrogen itself; findings that were published in an October 5, 2009 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news174564247.html Physics Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:04:31 EST news174564247 Propagation of earthquake waves within the Earth is not uniform. Experiments indicate that the velocity of shear waves (s-waves) in Earth’s lower mantle between 660 and 2900 km depth is strongly dependent on the orientation of ferropericlase. In the latest issue of Science (Vol. 325, 10.04.2009), researchers from the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Bayreuth, and Arizona State University report unexpected properties of ferropericlase, which is presumably the second most abundant mineral of the lower mantle. http://phys.org/news158840427.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:21:05 EST news158840427