New super strong alloy discovered

What's it made of?

Atomic level is always less than 0, that's why electrons curve at the very last moments. Otherwise too straight particles begins of no light enough. Big bang ? Black hole ?? Aliens ???

This is a very bad report because it does not once mention the wonderful material it is discussing. Nor is there any link to further information. The departments in question have been issuing reports on nitrides, but both their own and 'Nature' news lag this unfortunate press release.

The bronze alloy is made of aluminium, zinc, magnesium and copper heated to 460°C before undergoing a rapid hardening process, i.e. quenching.

Mean, dig on Hawking. That's why I've been a gardner.

I thought it was because you were a rather lucid indigent who really enjoyed smoking his plants.

Yeah, very disappointed in this article. All i know is that it is "stronger then predicted", and a little about the microscopy used to study it.

When your headline reads: "New super strong alloy discovered", you better be able to back that up with something. So much hyperbole on this site.....

Doesn't say what it is, what it's made of or how strong it is. I think it is an alloy of butter and Osmium which is at least .001% stronger than all previous heavy butter alloys. Extremely ductile for smooth spreading.

If they don't call it Hulk Hogium I'm going to be very upset.

Also please remember people that this was created by a University and in order to gain profit off of the discovery they need to file all the international patents on it and then sell the rights to a few select companies to collect money. You do a press release stating the finding and the measurements but to bring in money to the university you do not ever release the composition, atomic weight or any other unique information that would allow antoher company to beat you to the money. But you need the press release to get a few interested buyers to come knock on your door.

Maybe something along the lines of:

Transparent aluminum: http://en.wikiped...aluminum

Neutronium: http://memory-alp...utronium

Tritanium: http://memory-alp...ritanium

Duranium: http://memory-alp...Duranium

yyz: Great links. Those brought a good laugh today.

Now, Zhu plans on working on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum. He's collaborating with the Department of Defense on a project to make magnesium alloys strong enough to be used as body armor for soldiers.

Is anyone else struck by the potential for unintended consequences inherent in this notion?

I don't think that I would want to be wearing magnesium-alloy body armor in a firefight.

What if the developer/manufacturer overlooked some critical chemical-bonding or energy-state discontinuity in the alloy, and this stuff started oxidizing while you were wearing it? Being cooked like a turtle in its shell is something that holds no appeal for me.

This is a very bad report because it does not once mention the wonderful material it is discussing. Nor is there any link to further information. The departments in question have been issuing reports on nitrides, but both their own and 'Nature' news lag this unfortunate press release.

Theres probably [money] a very good [money] reason for that [money].

Now, Zhu plans on working on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum. He's collaborating with the Department of Defense on a project to make magnesium alloys strong enough to be used as body armor for soldiers.

Is anyone else struck by the potential for unintended consequences inherent in this notion?

I don't think that I would want to be wearing magnesium-alloy body armor in a firefight.

What if the developer/manufacturer overlooked some critical chemical-bonding or energy-state discontinuity in the alloy, and this stuff started oxidizing while you were wearing it? Being cooked like a turtle in its shell is something that holds no appeal for me.

There was a problem with Bradleys and their aluminum armor igniting like thermite:
http://www.g2mil....inum.htm

Now, Zhu plans on working on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum. He's collaborating with the Department of Defense on a project to make magnesium alloys strong enough to be used as body armor for soldiers.

Is anyone else struck by the potential for unintended consequences inherent in this notion?

I don't think that I would want to be wearing magnesium-alloy body armor in a firefight.

What if the developer/manufacturer overlooked some critical chemical-bonding or energy-state discontinuity in the alloy, and this stuff started oxidizing while you were wearing it? Being cooked like a turtle in its shell is something that holds no appeal for me.

There was a problem with Bradleys and their aluminum armor igniting like thermite:
http://www.g2mil....inum.htm

Exactly. Plus I once watched a burning VW bus's engine catch fire in exactly the same way. It was fascinating. Obviously a big problem, though.

What's it made of?

It's bronze alloy made of aluminium, zinc, magnesium and copper (Al-2.0Zn-1.8Mg-0.7 Cu) quenched after heating to 460C.

Aw jeez jigga somebody already posted that...oh sorry it was you, jigga.

Let us not forget the Falklands war. One of the British ships made from Aluminium Alloy was hit by an exocet (french) missile. It burned quite brightly and caused a massive loss of life to the crew.

It may not have been a massive loss of life but it was a massive loss of ship. From memory I recall that it burned up, which would have been nasty to be on board.

what's the dislocation-storage capacity of the alloy? is that where defects accrue?

Odd indeed! Given the below quoted text it makes it sound as if 'this super strong allow' is "DONE". After all it presents no challenges in scaling nor materials cost or some other 'devil in the details' that always seem to put themselves right in the soup. Given who this researcher seems to be getting his funding from I'm not all that surprised that 'those pesky details' seem M.I.A. (yes, maybe a pun was intended).

Now, Zhu plans on working on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum. He's collaborating with the Department of Defense on a project to make magnesium alloys strong enough to be used as body armor for soldiers.

A bit more meat for this story:

http://www.gizmag...l/16307/

Using a technique that creates a new nanoscale architecture, researchers have created an aluminum alloy just as strong as steel but with reasonable plasticity to stretch and not break under stress. Importantly, the technique of creating these nanostructures can be used on many different types of metals and the team plans to work on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum that could be used to make strong, lightweight body armor for soldiers.

We like to think of big 'breakthroughs', but end up having to settle for small gains. Incremental gains, however, can and do add up. Look at the difference between an Amish cart and a new Lincoln.

Re: magnesium body armor... If you were to actually sustain an impact capable of spontaneously igniting it, do you really think you would survive anyways?

I hear at Burning Man there are a few groups of people who buy old magnesium engine blocks and burn them in a pit at the show. Could you imagine if some high raver kid fell in there? No one would ever even know unless they saw him go in.

Story is vague in science content and does not quantify the strength obtained vis-a-vis other comparative elemental alloys. No data in support is listed. May we avoid giving weight-age to such stories.

Sure ... WE can.. :) but clearly the publishers can do as they sees fit. :(

What is REALLY bizarre..and I've done this personally myself..is that a Brown's gas torch will bring magnesium up to full brightness...exactly as if it is burning (so bright if that if you turn your head away with black goggles on and eyes clenched tight, it still blinds you)..but it WILL NOT, I repeat, WILL NOT ignite it.

Put that in yer thinker and smoke it.

This is a very bad report because it does not once mention the wonderful material it is discussing. Nor is there any link to further information. The departments in question have been issuing reports on nitrides, but both their own and 'Nature' news lag this unfortunate press release.

Yeah, sometimes that happens, but that is what Google is for: http://www.nature...062.html

The impressive part of the report is that these are two standard aluminium alloys subjected to rapid quenching. (Fast cooling.) If the crystal structure maintains itself over long periods of time (decades) This is a fairly simple added step in manufacturing with no added raw materials.

I think the big deal here is the potential uses in the aerospace industry, where aluminum is currently king.

What is REALLY bizarre..and I've done this personally myself..is that a Brown's gas torch will bring magnesium up to full brightness...exactly as if it is burning...but it WILL NOT, I repeat, WILL NOT ignite it.

If you did this, you did it with a magnesium block. (Not necessarily a car engine block.) The ignition temperature of magnesium is high, but so is the conductivity. Try to light the corner of a block, and you can try all day--the conductivity takes away more heat than convection and radiation heating can transfer in.

Which means you can burn holes in magnesium rather than drilling them. If you do it with a laser from below, the magnesium dripping out of the hole provides most of the heat needed.

It just looks so cool to see the drops coming out of the hole burning, and disappear within a foot or so. (They float on the laser beam. ;-)

If you want to ignite magnesium, cut some cross-hatching in one corner.