![]() ![]() But it was an affirmation they were on the right track and enough to earn them access to a stronger MagLab magnet for future experiments. ![]() (As a comparison, 0.5 GPa is the pressure at 5,000 meters below the sea. Last year, the group hit a mini milestone, successfully creating pressures of 1 gigapascal (GPa) and observing promising data. They have labored through the science grunt work, gradually reaching higher pressures in the challenging environment of a high-field magnet. With a team comprising her students, MagLab specialists and a theory group led by Neil Ashcroft and Roald Hoffmann of Cornell University, Deemyad has been experimenting on lithium at the MagLab for more than five years. "It would not be feasible to develop those techniques myself," Deemyad says. MagLab scientists have developed tiny, specialized pressure cells that tolerate high magnetic fields and fit into the small space inside the magnets they have also developed sophisticated techniques to measure the signals they are looking for under those extreme conditions. For that, Deemyad needs to come to the MagLab, which has the expertise and equipment for those experiments. But working under pressure while in high magnetic fields is a very different challenge. In her own lab, Deemyad is able to put samples under pressures as high as what exists at Earth's core. The more you compress, the more you can discover. The homogeneity of everything goes away." Under pressure, Deemyad says, "Everything starts changing. Pressurizing materials is one trick scientists use to tease out interesting behaviors like superconductivity - 100% efficient electricity in which current-carrying electrons encounter zero friction. "Everything is more unstable."ĭeemyad, petite and with a ready smile, wants to make lithium even more unstable to unlock more quantum magic. "In stuff that is very light, each particle behaves more like a wave," Deemyad explains. Lighter, Deemyad explains, means more quantum: As you subject atoms of light elements to weird experimental conditions, they are more likely to do curious things, like transform into a different phase of matter or quantum state. For someone interested in probing the subatomic realm, the lighter the element, the better. It's also the third lightest element on the periodic table (after hydrogen and helium) and (under normal conditions) the lightest of all the solids and metals. Used widely in everything from batteries to medicine, lithium is highly reactive and has to be stored in mineral oil to prevent it from interacting with neighboring atoms and molecules. She specializes in high-pressure physics, and specializes even further in the element lithium. An associate professor of physics at the University of Utah, she's a former recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation Early Career Award. She's smart, enthusiastic and super positive. The incredible lightness of lithiumĭeemyad is everything you want in a captain. Meet Shanti Deemyad captain of Team Lithium. Science is, after all, a team sport.Įvery good team has a captain, and the one in this story is no exception. ![]() If you're picturing a lone scientist schlepping valiantly uphill, imagine this instead: A whole squad of them. It's more like a " Phew!" moment, a reassurance you're slogging up the right path. It's not a eureka moment, not even an " Aha!" moment. One of those little triumphs that motivates you to keep trudging down the grueling, boring stretches. This story is about one such mini milestone. Maybe that ratio is more like 1% inspiration, 95% perspiration and 4% incremental breakthroughs. Most of the time, they're wading through the salty, smelly perspiration that makes up 99% of what they do. Get real: Scientists get precious few of those. This isn't a story about a grand discovery or life-changing eureka moment. ![]()
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