A team of scientists say they have successfully turned hydrogen into a metal, potentially confirming a prediction made 80 years ago.
In 1935, scientists predicted that the element hydrogen could become a metal if subjected to enough pressure. Teams have been attempting to confirm the prediction ever since, but have not been able to construct a vise capable of squeezing the element enough without breaking the equipment.
But a team of scientists at Harvard University published a paper this week in the peer-reviewed journal Science saying they managed to squeeze hydrogen in a diamond vise to the point that the element became reflective, a key property of metals.
The study is not merely a parlor trick. Metallic hydrogen is thought to be a superconductor, meaning it could conduct electricity without any resistance. Electricity traveling through normal circuits loses energy to resistance overtime, often in the form of heat. This is why it is harder to send electrical currents (say, through the electricity grid) over long distances than short ones. But a current traveling through a superconducting material loses nearly zero energy. More at Source
