Scientists discover Sixth form of Matter

Posted:
in General Discussion edited May 2015
Almost every grade school kid learns about the first three phases of matter:



Solid ..... Liquid ...... Gas



Most respectable High School Science labs have samples of an element in each state,

and by HS Science class, most students know the fourth state of matter:



Plasma (the Sun, for example)





1995 introduced the world to a fifth state of matter:



Bose Einstein Condensate or BEC

BEC may be best known for it's ability to slow down light so you can bike faster than photons

click for info



see also Scientific American mirror, as well as UMich story, and even an interactive BEC Tutorial





Now we have news of a sixth state of matter:



Fermionic Condensates

also supercooled, also with seemingly strange superparticle and superfluid properties.



- the news broke a few weeks back, so apologies it this is old stuff to some,

just when we think we're caught up, damn scientists keep discovering new things again -

Time to rewrite a few more textbooks. Once they discover properties, that is.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    The bose-einstein condensate didn't show any unexpected properties, and i don't believe that the fermionic version (basically a large scale version of electron pairs) will show any unexpected properties either.
  • Reply 2 of 29
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Strange != unexpected.



    It's strange stuff, no doubt about it.
  • Reply 3 of 29
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Guh?



    Does it dissolve in my iced tea better than sugar?
  • Reply 4 of 29
    Damn, this makes me feel ancient! Back in my school days, I only knew of 4 states of matter (and had no idea they were looking for more states). Now they got 5 and 6?! You young whippersnappers and your fancy, new states of matter! Life was just fine with just 4, but nooooooo! 4 just isn't good enough for you high-falootin types!
  • Reply 5 of 29
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Hmmm, it seems to me we need simpler names for Bose-Einstein condensate and Fermionic condensates. Plasma is such a cool name too... we need a name that tops plasma. I nominate "Matter X" for one of them. Imagine the effect this could have in cheesy scifi movies:



    Hero: "No, I have you defeated now Dr. Branard!"

    Dr. Branard "Not when I have...Matter X! Muhahahaha!"

    Hero: "Oh no! Not Matter X!"



  • Reply 6 of 29
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    We live in a country where many people can't recite the three branches of government, how are they supposed to remember six forms of matter?



  • Reply 7 of 29
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    but can they prove god made these extra phases of matter? is it taught in genesis? if not, count kansas out.



    (sorry, couldn't help it. hope there aren't any closet-jayhawks lurking around here)
  • Reply 8 of 29
    How about "jello" and "slurpy" for the 2 new states?
  • Reply 9 of 29
    I thought there were a multitude of states of matter, and that solid/liquid/gas/plasma was just a simplification/covered the basics. Any chemistry/physics majors care to explain that?
  • Reply 10 of 29
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Randycat99

    How about "jello" and "slurpy" for the 2 new states?



    You got my vote.
  • Reply 11 of 29
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    This is cool, but I was perfectly happy with 4, I find this kind of weird. Will new age Wiccans adjust their believes to accommodate for this? Why do we need so many types of matter? Do these new ones do anything really cool that we couldn't do before with the other matters? Like defy gravity? That's what we need, is a type of matter that will defy gravity, or turn from a liquid to a solid at my command telepathically.



    Hmm.. see what happens when I get up too early? *sigh*
  • Reply 12 of 29
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders

    You got my vote.





    I dunno... I've always felt Marshmallow Fluf deserved to be classified as a separate form of matter. Not precisely solid, not precisely liquid and a little bit of gas thrown in for good measure.



  • Reply 13 of 29
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    <snip>



    Sweet...
  • Reply 14 of 29
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iBrowse

    Will new age Wiccans adjust their believes to accommodate for this?



    There is far more to that aspect of occultism than you are apparently aware of.
  • Reply 15 of 29
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Randycat99

    How about "jello" and "slurpy" for the 2 new states?



    how about twinky as well?
  • Reply 16 of 29
    Shaken and stirred.



    Shaken for the bose-einstein condensate.

    stirred for the fermionic condensate.
  • Reply 17 of 29
    xionjaxionja Posts: 504member
    shit, i'm in highschool.



    i only knew the first three.
  • Reply 18 of 29
    The cool thing is when two of these matter-waves are ?mixed? together, they form interference patterns. And I know this is far fetched (okay, probably impossible seeing as the canceled out ?atoms? are just moved somewhere?s else), but if somehow they could use the wave like properties to create bands with negative energy density, and then find a way to use said exotic matter --voila! easy timespace manipulation!
  • Reply 19 of 29
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DiscoCow

    The cool thing is when two of these matter-waves are ?mixed? together, they form interference patterns. And I know this is far fetched (okay, probably impossible seeing as the canceled out ?atoms? are just moved somewhere?s else), but if somehow they could use the wave like properties to create bands with negative energy density, and then find a way to use said exotic matter --voila! easy timespace manipulation!



    This is what I was wondering. I think it was more BEC I was reading about and it was talking about canceling out atoms. Well can someone explain this in more detail? They said it isn't canceled by moved to another place...does it actually change place or does it just seem like that? How does it change place then...and how fast? I was thinking about somewhat timespace manipulation...though not easy
  • Reply 20 of 29
    Spacetime manipulation is easy--just accelerate. Get off that computer chair and find a clue.
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