Slowhand wrote:You couldn't handle your own Dyson sphere

There is a 99.9 percent chance of a magnitude-5 or greater earthquake striking within three years in the greater Los Angeles area, where a similar sized temblor caused more than $12 million in damage last year, according to a study by NASA and university researchers.

Until recently, diamond was the hardest known naturally occurring material. But a new physical process applied to carbon has uncovered a substance that a group of scientists say is even harder.

Researchers at North Carolina State University say they have developed a technique for creating a substance they are calling Q-carbon, which represents a third phase, or distinct form, of carbon alongside graphite and diamond.

But Mr. Narayan and his colleagues say the potential for creating synthetic gemstones pales next to possible applications of Q-carbon, which the researchers said is magnetic, fluorescent and electroconductive.

The technique used to create Q-carbon, which was pioneered over the summer, was described on Monday in the Journal of Applied Physics. A tiny laser beam is trained onto a piece of amorphous carbon for 200 nanoseconds, heating it extremely fast. The spot then cools in a process known as quenching, creating Q-carbon.

Monkeyboy wrote:WFO just killed Tinkerbell.

thephan wrote:Germany made a star today. Well, not completely, but at 0930 EST they ignited a fission reactor for 1 second. That is a star, an as they pulsed it with a laser to start the hydrogen reaction, then shut it down, it is technically a failed star. Bonus answer is that the out product of this fission reaction is helium. It is an awesome accomplishment.

Read more: http://www.iflscience.com/physics/watch-germany-switch-their-experimental-fusion-reactor-live