<ul><li>The global market for lab grown diamonds (<keyword id="10733616" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="lgd" source="Orion">LGD</keyword>) that the Indian government has decided to focus on is expected to rise to $5 billion by 2025.</li><li>Besides, the jewellery industry, LGD are used in computer chips, satellites and 5G networks.</li><li>The LGD has vast application in the field of defence, optics, jewellery, thermal and medical industry.</li></ul>Chennai, The global market for lab grown diamonds (LGD) that the Indian government has decided to focus on is expected to rise to $5 billion by 2025 and exceed $15 billion by 2023 from the $1 billion in 2020.<br /><br />Besides, the jewellery industry, LGD are used in computer chips, satellites and 5G networks as they can be used in extreme environments due to their potential to operate at higher speeds while using less power than silicon-based chips.<br /><br />The LGD has vast application in the field of defence, optics, jewellery, thermal and medical industry.<br /><br />As the government figures, exports of cut and polished (worked) LGD from India has been growing at fast clip.<br /><br />During FY21 the exports were $637.97 million and shot up to $1,348.24 million in FY22. This fiscal -- FY23 -- the exports of LGD between April-December stood at $1,387.33 million.<br /><br />Presenting the Budget 2023-24 in the Parliament recently, Indian Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="nirmala-sitharaman" source="Orion">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword>, said: "The LGD is a technology and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential."<br /><br />"These environment-friendly diamonds have optically and chemically the same properties as natural diamonds. To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research and development grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years," she added.<br /><br />As per a recommendation made by the <keyword id="113018" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="department-of-commerce" source="Orion">Department of Commerce</keyword>, the research grant of Rs 242 crore over a period of five years to <keyword id="55119" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indian-institute-of-technology" source="Orion">Indian Institute of Technology</keyword>, Madras (IIT-M) has been approved.<br /><br />It is proposed to establish an India Centre for lab grown diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT-M with the estimated cost of Rs 242.96 crore over five years.<br /><br />The aim of this project is to provide, in mission mode, technical assistance to the industries, and entrepreneurs in the country, in promoting indigenous manufacturing of both chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) systems along with the recipes for expanding the LGD business at the upstream end.<br /><br />Research efforts would make the technology available for start-ups at affordable cost, increase employment opportunities, increase exports of LGD, thus play a significant role in fuelling India's economic growth.<br /><br />According to the Indian government, the gems and jewellery sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy, contributing around nine per cent to India's total merchandise export.<br /><br />Over the past decade, there has been several positive developments in the gem and jewellery sector globally. One of the major technological developments in this sector has been the LGD.<br /><br />Though, India is one of the leading producers of LGD using CVD technology it has to depend on other countries for the supply of critical machinery components and 'seeds' -- which are the raw material for producing synthetic diamonds.<br /><br />It is, therefore, imperative that India develops its own, indigenous technology for producing the critical machinery component seeds to remove the import dependence that we have in the case of natural diamonds, the government said.<br /><br />Good quality LGD with qualified certification, produced from the developed equipment and process parameters will attract many foreign customers increasing the export volume of LGD and scalability of production.<br /><br />The documented process parameters and the developed recipe will encourage new entrepreneurs to enter the LGD business making it easier and cost-effective to set up the facility, start the business and generate employment.<br /><br />"This is indeed the right time to set up a diamond factory in India, given that diamonds have thermal and electrical properties making them superior to contemporary technologies like silicon, <keyword id="1437475" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="silicon-carbide" source="Orion">silicon carbide</keyword> and gallium nitride. IIT-Madras will work towards producing diamond wafers suitable for electronic applications," V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT-M, had said.<br /><br />SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-chrome-rolls-out-memory-and-energy-saver-modes-heres-how-you-can-use-it/articleshow/98118135.cms">Google Chrome rolls out Memory and Energy Saver modes: Here’s how you can use it</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/oneplus-11-concept-video-reveals-a-large-camera-and-a-rear-panel-that-lights-up/articleshow/98112845.cms">OnePlus 11 Concept video reveals a large camera and a rear panel that lights up</a><br />

Not just jewellery, lab grown diamonds used in satellites, computer chips too

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53429837.cms" /> <br /> <keyword id="3519744" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jayant-Baliga">Jayant Baliga</keyword>, the electrical engineer who is best known for his work in power semiconductor devices, has a lot of other achievements that he can justifiably claim to take pride in. The list, however, is topped by a theory that related the properties of semiconductor materials to the performance of power devices, way back in 1979.<br />
 <br />
The theory resulted in an equation that bears his name, using which engineers can predict the outcome of replacing silicon with other materials. <br />
 <br />
Baliga was then working at GE, and had got a small team to work on gallium arsenide, a well-studied material. However, his global fame was to come for a different reason. He had also invented the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) around the same time. The device combined the virtues of two other kinds of transistors.<br />
It was because of using IGBT that power devices multiplied all around the world, and on an estimate, the device is supposed to have saved the world $24 trillion because of improved energy efficiencies. The uses range from electric cars to household appliances.<br />
 <br />
Baliga won several awards because of this invention, including the prestigious Global Energy Prize, with his name being mentioned in some science circles as a potential Nobel Prize winner.<br />
 <br /> However, his original equation is what still sits in his mind, as it predicted that a material called <keyword id="1437475" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="silicon-carbide">silicon carbide</keyword> will be a hundred times more efficient than silicon. Even though the said material was not well understood then, things have significantly improved since the 1980s. <br />
 <br /> Baliga now serves as the director of the Power Semiconductor Research Centre in <keyword id="283601" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="North-Carolina-State-University">North Carolina State University</keyword>, and is putting efforts in developing silicon carbide devices that can be used in commercial applications.<br />
 <br /> Yes, even if it means killing his own invention, the <keyword id="3520416" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="IGBTs">IGBTs</keyword>. <br />
 <br />
"I told them that we would replace the IGBT eventually," Baliga told <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/meet-jayant-baliga-the-inventor-of-igbt-who-is-working-to-kill-his-own-invention/articleshow/53424523.cms">ET</a> when he was in India to be the chief of guest of IIT Madras alumni night. "And since I am the father of both it doesn't feel so bad."<br />
 <br />
Silicon carbide could one day replace IGBTs if they are successful, but its chips would cost more than IGBT chips, as much as ten times. Hence, the North Carolina State University is running a programme to bring this cost down to the level of IGBTs.<br />
 <br />
<a href="https://research.ncsu.edu/results/files/2015/07/43-Baliga-small.jpg"><em>Image source</em></a><br />


Jayant Baliga, the IGBT inventor who wants to KILL his own invention

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/583f4882ba6eb61b008b6de1-2400/undefined" alt="silicon carbide alien life illustration science" data-mce-source="Lei Chen and Yan Liang/BeautyOfScience.com; Caltech" data-mce-caption="Artist rendering of organosilicon-based life."><p class="source"><span>Lei Chen and Yan Liang/BeautyOfScience.com; Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of a fictional organosilicon-based blob beast.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Scientists have coaxed life to do something it has never done before: bond silicon to carbon.<p>You're probably already familiar with a few products products that use carbon-silicon, or organosilicon: glues, caulks, and pesticides, to name a few.</p><p>But the new biological trick, which was forcefully evolved in bacteria, is safer and 15 times more efficient than synthetic, industrial chemistry at making organosilicons that are useful to industry and research.</p><div title="Page 2"><p>This new bioengineering by Caltech researchers, described <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aah6219">in the journal Science</a>, may not improve the prospects of silicon-based alien life - contrary to a colorful illustration sent to members of the press (shown here) - but it could enable biologists to ask sci-fi-level questions.</p></div><p>"Why does life look the way it does? We can start asking, for the first time, what happens if you put silicon in place of carbon in living systems," <a href="http://www.che.caltech.edu/faculty/arnold_f/">Frances Arnold</a>, a Caltech bioengineer and biochemist who co-authored the study, in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_OTCQ_fxuc">a video</a> about the work.</p><p>More immediately, the process could also revolutionize a whole class of chemistry that's useful in electronics, medicine, and other fields.</p><h2>Silicon and carbon are remarkably similar - to a point</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/583f68fde02ba760658b5f40-2400/silicon%20carbide%20shutterstock381335113.jpg" alt="silicon carbide shutterstock_381335113" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" data-mce-caption="Silicon carbide crystals."><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p><p class="caption">Silicon carbide crystals.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p><a href="http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele014.html">Silicon</a> atoms outnumber <a href="http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele006.html">carbon</a> atoms in the Earth's crust more than 1,000-fold, yet the two elements are remarkably alike, chemically speaking. In fact, they're stacked right atop one another on the Periodic Table.</p><p>Yet life as we know it is organic, or based on carbon - from DNA to proteins to how it stores and uses energy. So why are we carbon-based and not silicon-based?</p><p>Chemist Raymond Dessy, in a 2010 Scientific American article titled "<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-silicon-be-the-basi/">Could silicon be the basis for alien life forms, just as carbon is on Earth?</a>", explored this question in detail. First, he explained how similar silicon and carbon are: They have the same number of electrons (four) available for bonding. They bond easily with oxygen. And they can link up to form polymers, or long chains of molecules, with oxygen - a foundation to making DNA and other genetic material.</p><p>But the similarities essentially end there.</p><p>When silicon is burned, it forms solids like silicon dioxide, better known as silica or quartz. Meanwhile, burning carbon compounds produces gases like carbon dioxide.</p><p>So silicon, at least in the environment of Earth, "would pose disposal problems for a living system," Dessy said, since waste products couldn't dissolve or float away. They'd instead stick around and accumulate.</p><p>Silicon-silicon bonds are also <a href="https://labs.chem.ucsb.edu/zakarian/armen/11---bonddissociationenergy.pdf">twice as weak</a> as carbon-carbon bonds, which causes all sorts of problems as they are linked up (compared to carbon). And there's a more complex aspect here related to chirality or "handedness" of molecules. Silicon generally doesn't form unique versions of the same molecule, but carbon often does - and that chemical diversity gives life a lot of room to play.</p><p>"The complex dance of life requires interlocking chains of reactions. And these reactions can only take place within a narrow range of temperatures and pH levels," Dessy wrote. "Given such constraints, carbon can and silicon can't."</p><p>Still, we don't know this for sure. There might be some environments where silicon-based life might exist.</p><p>Organosilicons could help researches probe the details of why life is carbon-based, and perhaps if there may be a chance for a <a href="http://www.startrek.com/database_article/horta">Star Trek-like "horta" creatures</a> out there in the universe.</p><p>"It's very hard to explore that, chemically, unless you have organisms that can make these bonds," Arnold said in a video. "[But] we're not actually trying to find life in rocks, we're more trying to put rocks in life."</p><p>And doing so, Arnold said, could "promote new chemical reactions" that could help people on Earth.</p><h2>Speeding up evolution and chemistry for industry</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/583f70b5e02ba75d658b5ec6-2400/iceland%20blue%20lagoon%20shutterstock522339559.jpg" alt="iceland blue lagoon shutterstock_522339559" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" data-mce-caption="Iceland's Blue Lagoon, where Rhodothermus marinus bacteria grow."><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p><p class="caption">Iceland's Blue Lagoon, where Rhodothermus marinus bacteria grow.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>Lately, scientists have found organosilicons a key material in <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jm3010114">developing new medicine</a>, since - as close-but-not-quite cousins to carbon - they mimic yet don't replace the stuff in our bodies, possibly aiding drug potency, release, and inhibition, as well as medical imaging technologies.</p><p>However: "No living organism is known to put silicon-carbon bonds together, even though silicon is so abundant, all around us, in rocks and all over the beach," Jennifer Kan, a researcher in Arnold's lab and the study's lead author, said in <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/bringing-silicon-life-53049">a Caltech press release</a>.</p><p>As a result, we rely on synthetic chemistry to make organosilicons. And it's expensive, requiring rare or precious elements like rhodium, iridium, and copper - atoms that can catalyze, or speed up, a chemical reaction. Unfortunately, those reactions also require dangerous <a href="https://www-internal.psfc.mit.edu/esh/halosolv.html">halogenated solvents</a> (which form toxic gases when exposed to air).</p><p>So Arnold, Kan, and their colleagues found a way to hack nature to get the job done more cheaply and safely, using a relatively new process called <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028181-700-evolution-machine-genetic-engineering-on-fast-forward/">directed evolution</a>.</p><p>Directed evolution takes fast-growing bacteria (like Escherichia coli), mixes them with huge libraries of mutated genes (which might lend the bacteria new abilities), and shocks the mixture (to trick the bacteria into randomly incorporating the mutated genes). It then screens the billions of bacteria for the handful that do what researchers desire.</p><p>Altogether, it can take mere days to evolve microorganisms to do one's bidding.</p><p>Kan's team started with a bacteria called Rhodothermus marinus: an organism which lives in Icelandic thermal springs. The microbe has a well-studied, iron-based protein called "cytochrome c" which, the team discovered, could form carbon-silicon bonds.</p><p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:calc(100% / 1.39)"><iframe src="https://gfycat.com/ifr/PessimisticFatherlyIcterinewarbler" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="100%" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></p><p>After a bit of time in their evolutionary torture chamber, a strain emerged that could make organosilicon compounds 12 times more efficiently than ordinary cytochrome c. But they kept evolving the bacteria, focusing on the mutated bits of DNA that seemed to make a difference.</p><p>Ultimately they created a new bacteria species - and a new, triply-evolved version of cytochrome c - that could forge organosilicons 15 times more efficiently than "the best synthetic catalysts for this class of reaction," they wrote in the study. It also worked to build 20 different organosilicons, using different starting chemicals.</p><p>Since R. marinus is tough to grow (it requires scorching temperatures), they migrated their genetic masterpiece into E. coli, which is commonly grown in the lab. And it worked nearly as well.</p><p>"This iron-based, genetically encoded catalyst is nontoxic, cheaper, and easier to modify compared to other catalysts used in chemical synthesis," Kan said in the release. "The new reaction can also be done at room temperature and in water."</p><p><a href="https://www.chemie.tu-berlin.de/menue/ueber_uns/mitarbeitende/personen/k/klare/">Hendrik Klare</a> and <a href="http://www.organometallics.tu-berlin.de/organometallics/menue/home/">Martin Oestreich</a>, two chemists at Technische Universität Berlin who weren't involved in the study, wrote in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aal1951">a Science commentary</a> that the study "closes a crucial gap between biological" and synthetic chemistry.</p><p>"The impact is unforeseeable, but it seems that we are a big step closer to potentially facilitating industrially relevant reactions," they wrote.</p><p>As for making possible blobby, silicon-based beasts that congregate around hot springs? Perhaps those are better left to Star Trek, and the imagination.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-9">Stephen Hawking warned us about contacting aliens, but this astronomer says it's 'too late'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RzeTAyNjE6gtR_2DvSKCIS3S7yEAsIlS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'RzeTAyNjE6gtR_2DvSKCIS3S7yEAsIlS',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Scientists have made a bizarre lifeform that bonds carbon to silicon

Scientists have evolved a remarkable new form of life that can bond silicon to carbon

<ul><li><strong>Tesla's plan to cut its use of silicon carbide sent some semiconductor stocks falling on Thursday.</strong></li><li><strong>Wolfspeed, ON Semiconductor, and STMicroelectronics use the rare earth metal to produce semiconductors.</strong></li><li><strong> Tesla said its next generation powertrain will use a magnet motor that uses 75% less silicon carbide.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/tsla-stock">Tesla's</a> recent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-master-plan-part-three-investor-day-elon-musk-2023-3">investor day revealed plans for the company</a> to significantly reduce its use of rare earth metals in its next generation vehicles, and that's dragging down a lot of stocks related to the sector.</p><p>Tesla said its next-gen powertrain will use a permanent magnet motor that will reduce its use of silicon carbide by 75%, enabling it to scale its vehicle production more efficiently. </p><p>"Silicon carbide is an amazing semiconductor, but it's also expensive and it's really hard to scale. So using less of it is a big win for us," Tesla's VP for powertrain engineering Colin Campbell said.</p><p>That development was digested as bad news by investors of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/wolf-stock">Wolfspeed</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/on-stock">ON Semiconductor</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/stm-stock">STMicroelectronics</a>, all of which are semiconductor companies that produce chips with silicon carbide.</p><p>Shares of Wolfspeed fell as much as 14% on Thursday, while STMicroelectronics and On Semiconductor fell 7% and 8%, respectively. </p><p>But some investors are buying the dips in these semiconductor stocks as Tesla gave no timeline as to when its next-generation advancements will be implemented into its production process, and the company has a history of announcing future products but severely missing their production timeline <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-delays-cybertruck-production-2023-years-later-elon-musk-prediction-2022-1">(see: Cybertruck)</a>.</p><p>In defense of Wolfspeed, Roth MKM analyst Craig Irwin said in a note: "In our opinion, Tesla has a history of overstatement, so in all likelihood this claimed improvement in heat extraction accelerates industry adoption to WOLF's benefit." </p><p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/bac-stock">Bank of America</a> analyst Vivek Arya defended ON Semiconductor and argued that if Tesla's silicon carbide advancement does come to fruition, it could ultimately lead to a drop in silicon carbide prices and help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. Such a development could help ON Semiconductor offset a decline in volume via more electric vehicles. </p><p>Bank of America maintained its "Buy" rating on On Semiconductor with a $90 price target, while Roth MKM maintained its "Buy" rating and $95 price target for Wolfspeed. </p>

Tesla's plan to slash its use of rare-earth metals in future vehicle production sends semiconductor stocks tumbling

The <keyword id="55119" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Institute-of-Technology" source="Orion">Indian Institute of Technology</keyword>, Madras (IIT-M) will receive ₹242 crore as research grant for research and development of <keyword id="8933855" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lab-grown-diamonds" source="Orion">lab grown diamonds</keyword> (LGDs), the institute said on Thursday.<br /><br />The research will be focused on driving indigenisation of the LGD manufacturing process.<br /><br />Presenting the Budget 2023-24 in the Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said: "The LGD is a technology and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential."<br /><br />"These environment-friendly diamonds have optically and chemically the same properties as natural diamonds. To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research and development grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years," the Finance Minister added.<br /><br />As per a recommendation made by the Department of Commerce, the research grant of Rs 242 crore over a period of five years to IIT-M has been approved, the statement said.<br /><br />"This is indeed the right time to set up a diamond factory in India, given that diamonds have thermal and electrical properties making them superior to contemporary technologies like silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride. IIT-Madras will work towards producing diamond wafers suitable for electronic applications," Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT-M, said.<br />SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/budget-to-aid-flagging-affordable-home-segment-boosts-demand-with-infra-push/articleshow/97556770.cms">Budget to aid flagging affordable home segment, boosts demand with infra push</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/credit-cards-personal-loans-more-indias-youngest-adults-lead-in-credit-inquiries/articleshow/97553940.cms">Credit cards, personal loans &amp; more – India’s youngest adults lead in credit inquiries</a><br />

IIT Madras to get ₹242 crore for R&D on lab grown diamonds

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"Diamond planets" in the universe could contain the substance in abundance.</li><li>Researchers tested the existence of such planets by subjecting silicon carbide – a mineral thought to exist on carbon-rich planets – to extreme heat and pressure. </li><li>With the addition of water, the mineral was converted into <keyword id="6368047" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="diamonds">diamonds</keyword> and silicon, showing that diamond planets are possible. </li><li>Researchers say the universe could contain trillions of diamond planets, even if such worlds are rare.</li></ul><p>On Earth, diamonds are considered precious partly because they're fairly rare: The <keyword id="46100" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="planet">planet</keyword>'s diamond content is about .001%. </p><p>But on other planets in the universe, diamonds may be as common as ordinary rocks.</p><p>According to <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abaa3e#psjabaa3es4">new research</a> published in The Planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Journal, planets with high carbon-to-oxygen ratios – known as carbide exoplanets – could form large quantities of diamonds if those planets also contain water. </p><p>The researchers behind the finding, a team from Arizona State University and the University of Chicago, found that under high-heat, high-pressure conditions like those found inside the Earth, certain planets may be making vast quantities of diamonds beneath their surfaces. So much so, in fact that they're primarily made of the material. </p><p>"In the universe, there are about 100 billion planets in our galaxy and 100 billion galaxies in the universe," Harrison Allen-Sutter, the study's lead author and graduate assistant at Arizona State's School of Earth and <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> Exploration, told Business Insider. "Even if diamond planets are only one-in-a-billion, the near-unfathomably vast size of the universe means there could still be upwards of trillions diamond planets in the universe."</p><p>These worlds, known as carbide exoplanets, contain far more <keyword id="66463" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Carbon">carbon</keyword> than Earth. Near their cores, the planets are are also theorized to contain molten silicon carbide, a molecule made up of silicon and carbon. </p><p>By simulating the conditions on such a planet in the lab, the researchers confirmed that if heat and pressure get extreme enough — and if a planet has water — silicon carbide can convert to silica and super-compressed carbon crystals, otherwise known as diamonds. </p><div type="image" title="diamond planet" height="749" width="1119" msid="78177399" hostid="261"></div><p>In a lab, the researchers mimicked what this chemical reaction would look like on a carbon-rich planet by first submerging silicon carbide in water. Then they placed samples of the material into a device called a diamond-anvil cell, which consists of two anvil-shaped diamonds that can compress small bits of material using extreme pressure when pressed together. The scientists then superheated the pressurized sample using a laser.</p><p>At the end of the process, the sample had indeed converted into diamonds and silica – just as the researchers had predicted. It was confirmation that, yes, it's possible diamond planets exist. </p><p>"These exoplanets are unlike anything in our solar system," Allen-Sutter said in a <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20200909-carbon-rich-exoplanets-may-be-made-diamonds">press release</a>. That's because carbon-rich planets can only exist near stars with relatively high carbon-to-oxygen ratios, which our sun lacks.</p><p>Diamond planets, assuming they exist, would have harsh environments: The researchers theorized that their atmospheres would have to be rich in methane and other gases that are low in oxygen. Plus, the planets would be too hard to be geologically active – a characteristic that keeps temperatures stable.</p><p>For these and other reasons, diamond planets aren't likely to harbor life. <a href="https://www.space.com/23138-diamond-planet-super-earth-discovery.html"></a></p>

The universe likely has trillions of planets made primarily of diamonds, scientists confirmed

Los Angeles, Apr 15 () Ultraviolet LEDs can decontaminate surfaces that have come in contact with the novel coronavirus, according to a study that explains how the light can lead to better ways of reducing transmission of the virus.<p> According to the study, published in the journal ACS Photonics, ultraviolet light disinfection is used widely for disinfection, however, its large-scale efficacy against the spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is yet to be shown.</p><p> "One major application is in medical situations -- the disinfection of personal protective equipment, surfaces, floors, within the HVAC systems, et cetera," said  study co-author Christian Zollner from the University of California Santa Barbara in the US. </p><p> Zollner, whose work centers on advancing deep ultraviolet light LED technology for sanitation and purification purposes, added that a small market already exists for UV-C disinfection products in medical contexts.</p><p> Pointing out the different types of ultraviolet light, Zollner said, UV-A and UV-B are light the Earth gets courtesy of the Sun with important uses, and the rare UV-C is the light of choice for purifying air and water and for inactivating microbes.</p><p> "UV-C light in the 260 - 285 nanometre wavelength range most relevant for current disinfection technologies is also harmful to human skin, so for now it is mostly used in applications where no one is present at the time of disinfection," Zollner said. </p><p> According to Zollner, "many technological advances are needed for the UV LED to reach its potential in terms of efficiency, cost, reliability and lifetime."</p><p> In the research, the scientists reported a more easy method for fabricating high-quality deep-ultraviolet (UV-C) LEDs.</p><p>  According to the study, this involves depositing a film of the semiconductor alloy aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) on a base made of silicon carbide (SiC) -- a departure from the more widely used sapphire substrate.</p><p> According to Zollner, using silicon carbide as a substrate allows for more efficient and cost-effective growth of high-quality UV-C semiconductor material than using sapphire. </p><p> He explained that this is due to how closely the materials' atomic structures match up.</p><p> "As a general rule of thumb, the more structurally similar (in terms of atomic crystal structure) the substrate and the film are to each other, the easier it is to achieve high material quality," he added. </p><p> The better the quality, the better the LED's efficiency and performance, Zollner said.</p><p> Silicon carbide, he added, is far less expensive than the "ideal" aluminum nitride substrate, making it more mass production-friendly.</p><p> As the world races to find vaccines, therapies and cures for COVID-19, Zollner believes disinfection, decontamination and isolation are the few weapons to defend people, and the solutions will need to be deployed worldwide. </p><p> He said in addition to UV-C for water sanitation purposes, the light could be integrated into systems that turn on when no one is present.</p> "This would provide a low-cost, chemical-free and convenient way to sanitize public, retail, personal and medical spaces," he said.  VIS  VISVIS

UV LEDs to disinfect surfaces against coronavirus: Study

Watch how this putty can increase your car's horsepower

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e1ca739b2e66a64e7462606-2400/221025.jpg" alt="stardust" /><p class="source"><span>Image courtesy of NASA, W. Sparks, R. Sahai, and Janaína N. Ávila.</span></p><p class="caption">Places in the universe like the Egg Nebula (pictured) could be sources of stardust particles like the ones found in the Murchison meteorite.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>In 1969, a 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite struck Murchison, Australia.</li><li>The meteorite contained fragments of stardust called presolar grains.</li><li>This stardust is between between 5 billion and 7 billion years old - older than the sun and our solar system.</li><li>Most of the grains in the Murchison meteorite came from various stars that formed around the same time. This suggests stars are born in bursts, rather than at a constant rate.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Meteorite fragments found in Australia appear to have brought rare, interstellar passengers to Earth: pieces of stardust older than the sun.</p><p>The space rock broke up in the atmosphere above Australia on September 28, 1969, and scientists later collected pieces scattered across the town of Murchison in the state of Victoria.</p><p>These fragments, called presolar grains, are incredibly tiny - about 100 would fit on the period at the end of this sentence. But they offer astronomers insight into how stars formed in the early stages of our galaxy.</p><p>For <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1904573117">a new study</a> published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists analyzed presolar grains from one of these meteorite fragments.</p><p>They discovered that the grains are the oldest solid material ever found on Earth. They're between 5 billion and 7 billion years old. </p><p>"They're solid samples of stars - real stardust," Philipp Heck, the lead author of the study, said <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2020-01/fm-mct010820.php">in a press release</a>.</p><p>The grains were incorporated into the ancient meteorite (which was later named Murchison after the spot it touched down) 4.6 billion years ago, during the time when the solar system was forming, Heck told Business Insider. </p><h2>Indestructible stardust</h2><p>Stars form when clouds of dust collapse and heat up. They burn for billions of years then eventually collapse and cool, scattering some of their ingredients into space. Over time, the freed stardust particles condense to form new stars and planets, or -  in the case of these particular grains - meteorites.</p><p>Each individual grain of stardust has a chemical composition unique to the parent star it came from. So measuring the carbon and silicon isotopes each grain contains allowed Heck's team to determine what type of star it came from.</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e1c864cf44231453b067216-2400/221066.jpg" alt="presolar grain" /><p class="source"><span>Janaína N. Ávila</span></p><p class="caption">A microscopic photograph of a presolar grain. This grain is about 8 micrometers in size.</p><p>The group looked at 40 grains made of a mineral called silicon carbide, which "is almost as hard as diamond and can survive for billions of years unchanged," Heck said.</p><p>The researchers were able to determine the grains' ages based on their chemical composition, since that reveals how long a grain was exposed to cosmic rays over the course of its lifetime. These rays are high-energy particles that zip through space at the speed of light and pierce solid matter. </p><p>"Some of these cosmic rays interact with the matter and form new elements. And the longer they get exposed, the more those elements form," Heck said in the press release. </p><p>His team discovered that about 60% of the grains are between 4.6 and 4.9 billion years old, while some other grains are even older: 5.5 billion years or more. Our sun, by comparison, is 4.6 billion years old, and Earth is 4.5 billion years old.</p><p>That makes this stardust is the oldest material from the solar system ever found on Earth. It beats <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L76mti4OVC0">the oldest rocks on Earth</a>, which were previously considered the most ancient material: zircon crystals discovered in Australia in 2014. Those are only 4.4 billion years old.</p><p><a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2014/pdf/2348.pdf">Previous studies</a> have noted that similar presolar grains have ages ranging from 5 billion to 4.6 billion years old, but the upper age limit of this Murchison stardust takes the the cake.</p><p>That makes these presolar grains useful pieces of evidence in the study of our galactic history.</p><h2>Diamonds in the rough</h2><p>Meteorites containing stardust are incredibly rare. Heck said about 70,000 meteorites are currently known to science, and of those, "at most 5% of these contain presolar grains."</p><p>"Only a few meteorites are as large as Murchison and as rich in grains as Murchison," he said.</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e1c88f324fe123fd86753e8-1853/murchisonmeteorite0459g.jpg" alt="Murchison_meteorite" /><p class="source"><span>Jon Taylor</span></p><p class="caption">A fragment of the Murchison meteorite that fell to Earth on September 28, 1969, in Victoria, Australia.</p><p>The microscopic size of these grains - the biggest is only 30 micrometers across - make them challenging to study, however. </p><p>"It starts with crushing fragments of the meteorite down into a powder," Jennika Greer, a co-author of the study, said <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2020-01/fm-mct010820.php">in a press release</a>. Then the crushed meteorite gets dissolved with acid until only the presolar grains remain.</p><p>"It's like burning down the haystack to find the needle," Heck said in the release. </p><p>Tens of thousands of presolar grains were extracted from the Murchison meteorite, but only 40 were large enough to be dated, he added.</p><h2>Presolar grains tell us how and when stars formed in the early universe</h2><p>Since the majority of the 40 grains Heck's team studied were around the same age, his team hypothesized that most came from stars that formed in one big burst.</p><p>Astronomers have long debated whether new stars form at steady rate or in accelerated bursts. The new study is evidence of the latter. </p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e1c8a14b2e66a4a2e5e1c62-936/geminid-meteor-shower-night-sky-shooting-stars-stargazing-nasa-jpl.jpg" alt="perseid meteor shower night sky shooting stars stargazing nasa jpl" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/tag/meteor/">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span></p><p class="caption">A snapshot of the Perseid meteor shower.</p><p>"Thanks to these grains, we now have direct evidence for a period of enhanced star formation in our galaxy 7 billion years ago," Heck said in the release.</p><p>In other words, he added, "there was a time before the start of the solar system when more stars formed than normal."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/king-tut-dagger-made-from-meteorite-space-egypt-2016-6">Researchers say King Tut had a dagger made from space rock</a></h3>                    <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/g7CTvDKF-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;"></iframe>            

A meteor that struck Australia brought indestructible stardust more ancient than the sun. It's the oldest solid material ever found on Earth.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b3683d5ea02cb1c008b4813-2400/ap18152749763339.jpg" border="0" alt="Toys r us" data-mce-source="AP/Julio Cortez" /><p class="source"><span>AP/Julio Cortez</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>In this op-ed, Greg Knight, CEO of manufacturing firm GT Advanced Technologies, <span>discusses how his company emerged from bankruptcy stronger. </span></strong></li><li><strong><span>GT Advanced Technologies, based in New Hampshire, is a former supplier to Apple.</span></strong></li><li><strong>Knight shares advice for executives who are plotting the path to post-bankruptcy success.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p style="font-weight: 400;">While high-profile bankruptcies like Sears and Toys R Us may grab the headlines,<span> </span>thousands of business entities across the United States quietly declare bankruptcy every month and the number is on the upswing. The most recent statistics from the American Bankruptcy Institute show that commercial Chapter 11 filings increased 75 percent in October 2018 on a year-over-year basis.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">History shows only a fortunate few of these companies will actually emerge from Chapter 11. Reports and studies indicate that about 10 to 15% of Chapter 11 cases result in successful reorganizations. Ultimately retooling for growth and success is no small feat.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">As the leader of a company fortunate enough to emerge from a restructuring, I believe there are valuable lessons to consider. The road to rejuvenating a brand includes many potholes that most bankruptcy advisors cannot predict or manage.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">I know from experience that cleaning up problems from the past while positioning for future business success is exceedingly challenging.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">Four years ago, GT Advanced Technologies was de-listed from Nasdaq.<span> </span>The previous incarnation of the Company had massively overextended itself in connection with a contract to manufacture and sell sapphire to be used in next-generation mobile phones. In a matter of weeks, the Company went from being a $2 billion market cap entity to bankruptcy.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">The old GT Advanced Technologies didn't fade from the map, however. It came back from bankruptcy two years later with a new leadership team, a clean balance sheet and an entirely new business plan. We exited and monetized business segments and technologies which did not have a path for growth and doubled down on important technology innovations for the future. These included the perfection of a material called Silicon Carbide, which plays an important role in the growth of electric vehicles and the implementation of 5G technology.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">The pieces have largely fallen into place for us as planned - except for the one caveat I will call the "bankruptcy hangover."  Although we are a completely different company today, it's a lengthy process to remind customers and the capital markets of that reality.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">For business leaders and advisors plotting the path to post-bankruptcy success, consider the following initiatives:</p><ul style="font-weight: 400;"><li><strong>Invest in Fence Mending.</strong> As dichotomous as it may seem, it takes money to go bankrupt. It can cost tens of millions of dollars in professional fees to guide a mid-size company through the bankruptcy process. Once a company emerges from bankruptcy, significant professional fees may still be incurred as the bankruptcy case can take years to close. Management continues to spend valuable time negotiating claim settlements with its creditors. This can cause havoc with your supply chain, especially if you plan on using the same vendor base going forward. Because an efficient process is critical to post bankruptcy success, consider this while the plan of restructuring is being developed and negotiations with financial stakeholders are taking place.</li><li><strong>Plan to Reintroduce Your Brand. <span> </span></strong>Your legal, financial and investment banking advisors - while important - are largely limited to advising on their areas of expertise.  There's usually no one in the room that is a "relationship advisor" to help mend fences with customers, investors, suppliers and other vendors whose debt or investment your old estate discarded during bankruptcy. In short order after emergence, these former stakeholders once again become current and potential stakeholders. Spend a significant amount of time on your company's brand positioning and perception.</li><li><strong>View Communications and Marketing as Business Priorities.</strong><span> </span>Trust has been broken during a bankruptcy and must be re-earned.  Reach out to continually communicate the new business plan and show how the new enterprise is committed to all stakeholders' success. This may be done through a new website, fresh content and ongoing engagement with friends in the media. Ultimately, trust is reestablished with successes - wins may start small and grow to larger significance - but many goals achieved along the way are steps that can be communicated and used to rebuild the foundations of trust.</li></ul><p style="font-weight: 400;">In summary, don't fear evolving into a new company. Don't be afraid to proactively take the necessary steps in the early days of post-bankruptcy to prepare your enterprise and its stakeholders for what could be great things to come.</p><p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">- Greg Knight is the CEO of GT Advanced Technologies, based in Hudson, New Hampshire</span></em></p><p class="tagline"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/future-of-retail-ai?IR=T&amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;utm_medium=ctgr&amp;utm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_content=ecommerce_ctgr_leadgen&amp;utm_campaign=ecommerce_ctgr_leadgen_future-of-retail-ai"><img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/5bd9f37e5f1f7538f668523b" alt="Exclusive FREE Slide Deck: Future of Retail:AI by Business Insider Intelligence" border="0" style="width: 100% !important" /></a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-human-breasts-big-2018-2">The science of why human breasts are so big</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/6KyrlYzy-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

My $2 billion company went bankrupt in a matter of weeks, and I took away 3 lessons anyone can use to bounce back

<p><a href="http://businessinsider.com/digital-industry-insider"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57801fb48b987d737b9924a0-803-150/ge-digital-industry-insider-article-803x150v7.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5787a72888e4a779638b7adc-2400/20160712-153833-2-ig.jpg" alt="20160712 153833 2 IG" data-mce-source="GE Reports"><p class="source"><span>GE Reports</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>People have been making&#xa0;things from iron and steel for more than 3,000 years. Machines built from their alloys have landed on the moon and reached the very bottom of the ocean. But engineers such as GE Aviation's Sanjay Correa now believe that "we're running out of headroom in metals."</p><p>Correa and his team at GE say that a new class of materials called <a href="http://www.gereports.com/post/123737823440/up-up-and-away-ges-billion-dollar-bet-on/">ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) </a>is set to revolutionize everything from power generation to aviation, and allow engineers to build much more powerful and efficient jet engines before the end of the decade. "This is a huge play for us," he says.</p><p>A pair of the first commercial jet engines with CMCs inside debuted on Tuesday at the Farnborough Internal Airshow in England, when they powered Boeing's next-generation <a href="http://www.gereports.com/weve-got-an-exclusive-look-at-boeing-brand-new-737-max-jet/">737 MAX</a> jet.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5787a76a88e4a725238b7d18-1024/20160712-152332-2-1024x683.jpg" alt="20160712 152332 2 1024x683" data-mce-source="GE Reports"><p class="source"><span>GE Reports</span></p><p class="caption">GE's ADVENT engine with CMCs inside may one day power the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, seen up top hovering over Farnborough. The plane can go as fast as Mach 1.5, but also take off and land vertically. Above: The LEAP on the Boeing 737 MAX includes CMC shrouds.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>Correa has an inside view. He leads the CMC program at GE Aviation, which is investing $200 million to build two new CMC factories in Huntsville, Alabama.</p><p>The Rocket City factories -a nickname tied to Huntsville's role in&#xa0;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0526/130.html" onclick="javascript:window.open('http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0526/130.html'); return false;">launching Americans to space</a>&#xa0;-will be supplying raw material to the first American CMC plant, which GE opened last year in Asheville, North Carolina. The company also already operates two CMC "lean labs" in Newark, Delaware, and Cincinnati, Ohio, that are looking for new applications for the materials and new ways to make them. "Opening the new plants in Alabama is a key step in building up the supply chain we need to make CMC parts in large volumes," Correa says.</p><p>GE scientists have been working on CMCs for two decades. These "super ceramics" are as tough as metals, but they are also one-third as heavy and can operate at 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit-500 degrees higher than the most advanced alloys. This combination allows engineers to design lighter components for engines that don't need as much cooling air, generate more power and burn less fuel.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5787a80488e4a79f178b7de5-1024/aetd-engine-1024x512.jpg" alt="AETD engine 1024x512" data-mce-source="GE Aviation"><p class="source"><span>GE Aviation</span></p><p class="caption">GE Aviation received $1 billion to develop the ADVENT jet engine for sixth-generation striker. It includes CMCs and could one day power the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Image credit.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>Correa and his team believe that CMCs could allow designers to increase jet engine thrust by 25 percent and decrease fuel consumption by 10 percent by 2020.</p><p>While these numbers are pregnant with promise, CMCs have been extremely difficult to mass-produce. Until fairly recently, their use was limited to the space industry and fighter jet exhaust systems.</p><p>GE's first applications were less lofty, but also more practical. Starting in 2000, GE's Oil &amp; Gas business tested CMCs inside a 2-megawatt gas turbine in Florence, Italy. By the middle of the decade, turbines with CMC shrouds-special parts directing the flow of air into the hottest parts of the machines-were running for thousands of hours without a hitch.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5787a0fc88e4a74e018b8032-1024/jetenginege.jpg" alt="JetEngineGE" data-mce-source="Adam Senatori for GE Reports" data-mce-caption="A jet engine turbine blade made from CMCs."><p class="source"><span>Adam Senatori for GE Reports</span></p><p class="caption">GE brought this jet engine turbine blade made from CMCs to the 2015 Paris Air Show. Top: The ADVENT adaptive cycle engine holds some of the most advanced GE technology, including CMCs. They could one go even.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p><span>GE's aviation business picked up the technology in 2007 and started looking for jet engine applications at its lean laboratory in Delaware. (This is an example of the vaunted "GE Store"-the transfer or technology and knowledge between GE businesses.)</span></p><p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5787a8ab4321f1c62f8b79d4-1024/cmc_hardware_525a0757_008-1024x640.jpg" alt="CMC_Hardware_525A0757_008 1024x640" data-mce-source="GE Aviation"><p class="source"><span>GE Aviation</span></p><p class="caption">GE is testing CMC parts inside engines for passenger planes as well as fighter jets.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></em></p><p>GE Aviation first used the material for CMC shrouds in the hot section of its F136 fighter jet engine, but their application quickly spread. Static CMC parts are already flying inside the LEAP on the Boeing 737 MAX, Airbus A320neo and Airbus A321neo jets. The LEAP's maker, CFM International-a 50/50 joint venture between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines of France-has received more than 10,800 orders and commitments for the engines valued at more than $150 billion (list price).</p><p>In 2015, GE started testing CMC components in a GEnx engine - the type used by many Boeing Dreamliners - to mature the technology for its latest large engine: the GE9X. Now on a test stand at GE's boot camp for jet engines in Peebles, Ohio, the <a href="http://www.gereports.com/are-you-ready-for-the-worlds-largest-jet-engine-its-as-wide-as-a-boeing-737-and-super-fuel-efficient/">GE9X engine </a>&#xa0;is the largest jet engine ever built with 11 feet in fan diameter, and it is capable of producing of titanic air compression (60:1, if you ask)-arguably the highest ever in the history of aviation. "We expect a 10-fold increase in demand for CMCs when these and other engines take off by the end of 2020," Correa says.</p><p><div><iframe width="800" height="450" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/is1BBilkyUM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></p><p>Correa's team is far from finished, though. Earlier last year, it tested the first spinning parts inside the latest-generation <a href="http://www.gereports.com/post/121760198405/ge-and-air-force-unveil-the-ultimate-flying/">ADVENT adaptive cycle engine</a>, a demonstrator engine for the U.S. Department of Defense. GE Aviation just received a $1 billion contract to develop the engine further. The machine which has 45,000 pounds of thrust could one day also power the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. "This is extremely important to us," says Jean Lydon-Rodgers, GE Aviation's vice president and general manager for military affairs.</p><p>GE researchers have now started replacing rotating metal components with CMCs. This is a&#xa0;big deal because shedding their weight by two-thirds will produce a knock-on&#xa0;effect by lowering the centrifugal force inside the engine. For example, it will allow designers to reduce the size of the engine's main shaft and cut engine weight further.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5787a9384321f102278b7ff5-1024/f414_cmc-lpt-blade_ecb-coatings1-1024x680.jpg" alt="F414_CMC LPT blade_ECB coatings1 1024x680" data-mce-source="GE Aviation"><p class="source"><span>GE Aviation</span></p><p class="caption">The ADVENT's low-pressure turbine with blades from CMCs. Some of them are covered with a special yellow environmental coating.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>As the name implies, composite materials such as CMC are made from separate materials, which are then joined together. Concrete, for example, is a primitive but simple example of a composite.</p><p>GE makes CMCs from tiny silicon carbide fibers embedded in a silicon carbide matrix. The fibers are five times as thin than a&#xa0;human hair and coated with a "very highly proprietary coating," Correa says. The result is "tough like a metal [but] not brittle like a ceramic," he says.</p><p>GE first started producing the fibers in Japan in 2012, after it formed a joint venture company, NGS Advanced Fibers Co., with Nippon Carbon and Safran. NGS owns one-half of the company and the GE and Safran split the rest. One of the new Huntsville plants will be the first such facility of its kind in the U.S. It will supply GE businesses and also the U.S. Department of Defense. The second facility will take the fiber and make a highly-proprietary CMC tape for use by the GE CMC plant in Asheville.</p><p>The other two components of GE's CMC ecosystem-the lean labs in Ohio and Delaware-are already looking for new applications for the materials and new fabrication methods, respectively.</p><p>Before long, you maybe flying to China in a plane powered by ceramics.</p><p><em>This content was originally published on <a href="http://www.gereports.com/space-age-cmcs-aviations-new-cup-of-tea/" target="_blank">GE Reports</a>&#xa0;and is part of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/digital-industry-insider" target="_blank">Digital Industry Insider</a>.</em></p><p class="tagline">Find out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sponsor-posts">more about Sponsor Content</a>.</p>

Space age ceramics are aviation's new cup of tea

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55cb84a1dd0895f6048b4570-3162-2371/graphene-6.jpg" alt="graphene" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="A piece of silicon carbide disk is covered with a layer of graphene." /><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A piece of silicon carbide disk is covered with a layer of graphene.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Flexible computer screens, long-living batteries, and lightening fast microcomputers are just a few examples of the countless potential applications of graphene - one of the the world's thinnest yet strongest materials ever synthesized.</p><p>Despite graphene's promise, though, no one has exactly figured out what to do with it. But scientists sure are trying.</p><p>Andre Geim, a physics professor at the University of Manchester, discovered graphene in the early 2000s. The media touted it as a "wonder material" that could "change the world," according to a story about graphene in <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/material-question:">The New Yorker</a>.</p><p>Graphene is essentially made by shaving graphite - a crystalline structure composed of many layers of carbon atoms - until only one atom-thick layer remains.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55cb84a2dd0895f6048b4571-4147-2288/graphite crystal.jpg" alt="Graphite crystal" data-mce-source="James St. John/Flickr" data-mce-caption="Graphite crystals are essentially carbon-rich rocks." data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/17982122872/in/photolist-tp25Df-8CQTgb-8CQThA-8d4mhe-87UeAW-jKtYW5-8JGsti-5QYmVv-4yzroU-gcT9YC-fut3Zn-bpbdNv-boHdKa-k4uZrF-sssPjg-8CMMJK-8CMMHH-5KDvuq-884eNq-aeoGWi-iTWkdx-nMRcob-bpSJ4a-6kCfVL-i94Sq-7uJEFv-5Kt1yc-aCUDUr-dmR8D6-33mPsN-pLDH4j-e5j1zV-oVvMgg-7ryLKo-8JJR93-m6jDet-8JJTFY-bqUM8w-ecP3Yz-p1mtnL-pLByHg-pLGGyN-q4aZGC-oGzhaT-mHTskc-ebfUrL-bxHrTc-5YGPgu-nKsp3a-dSgkKD" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/17982122872/in/photolist-tp25Df-8CQTgb-8CQThA-8d4mhe-87UeAW-jKtYW5-8JGsti-5QYmVv-4yzroU-gcT9YC-fut3Zn-bpbdNv-boHdKa-k4uZrF-sssPjg-8CMMJK-8CMMHH-5KDvuq-884eNq-aeoGWi-iTWkdx-nMRcob-bpSJ4a-6kCfVL-i94Sq-7uJEFv-5Kt1yc-aCUDUr-dmR8D6-33mPsN-pLDH4j-e5j1zV-oVvMgg-7ryLKo-8JJR93-m6jDet-8JJTFY-bqUM8w-ecP3Yz-p1mtnL-pLByHg-pLGGyN-q4aZGC-oGzhaT-mHTskc-ebfUrL-bxHrTc-5YGPgu-nKsp3a-dSgkKD">James St. John/Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">Graphite crystals are essentially carbon-rich rocks.</p></div><p></p></div></div>This simple sheet lattice of carbon atoms has incredible heat and energy conducting properties, giving it the potential to revolutionize everything from medicine to electrical engineering and physics. Its applications are seemingly endless.</p><h2>Displays everywhere</h2><p>Tomas Palacios, a scientist in charge of the Center for Graphene Devices and 2D systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is "perhaps the most expansive thinker about the material's potential," according to <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/material-question:">The New Yorker</a>. Instead of using the supermaterial to improve upon current technologies, though, he's looking instead to harness graphene to create something completely new.</p><p>One of Palacios' groundbreaking ideas involves coffee cups, shoes, and windows. Palacios believes that graphene could turn everyday objects like these into an endless array of devices that can easily compile and transmit information, he <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/material-question:">told The New Yorker</a>.</p><p><strong>"Basically, everything around us will be able to convert itself into a display on demand," he said.</strong> Think the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/10/defusing-the-internet-of-things-time-bomb/">Internet of Things</a> on steroids.</p><p>To make this possible Palacios' lab is designing a new 3-D printer that uses graphene as its ink - but getting it to work is the tricky part. They need to figure out how to create graphene in a liquid form so that they can use it as ink in a printer to produce on demand graphene-based objects, or to paint graphene directly on to the surface of an object. As of late 2014, the printer only knew how to spit out plastic, according to the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/material-question:">The New Yorker</a>.</p><p>Palacios' most impressive project yet is the creation of "graphene origami," a self-folding graphene sheet that can mimic living structures, such as the curves, wrinkles, and folds of the inner components of human cells, or it can act as "smart dust," which he thinks could be used to collect data about pollution or scan for viruses and sent real-time data back to your cell phone.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55cb84a2dd0895f6048b4572-7201-5474/graphenestrain1.jpg" alt="graphene strain" data-mce-source="University of Manchester" /><p class="source"><span>University of Manchester</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As with any new materials, the road to developing graphene for commercial use has been taking a long time. Joshua Goldberger, a chemist at The Ohio State University, <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/07/finally-know-graphene-good-origami/">told Wired</a> that these types of graphene technologies could take 10 to 20 years before they become available.</p><p>But still, graphene has been called the "<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/211437-extremetech-explains-what-is-graphene">granddaddy of the modern boom in materials science</a>," and for good reason. If successfully incorporated into future technologies, it has the potential of being one of the biggest disruptive innovations ever made.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hackers-ashley-madison-client-information-2015-7">Here's the type of info hackers have after breaking into the extramarital hookup site Ashley Madison</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ViaDFkdjqYAnmokhNuwEhJWAd8e5-lu0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'ViaDFkdjqYAnmokhNuwEhJWAd8e5-lu0',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Scientists are obsessed with this incredible material, but have no clue what to do with it yet

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53541149ecad042303dc96b6-1200-600/graphene-5.jpg" border="0" alt="graphene" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Kacper Pempel</span></p><p class="caption">A piece of silicon carbide disk is covered with a layer of graphene (2012).</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Graphene has been touted as a wonder material -- the world's thinnest substance, but super-strong. Now scientists say it is so easy to make you could produce some in your kitchen.</p>
<p>Thus far, graphene has proven elusively hard to manufacture on an industrial scale. Methods have required a choice between high quality graphene in small quantities, or large batches with defects.</p>
<p>A team from England and Ireland, however, reported on Sunday they had used a blender to make microscopic sheets of graphene.</p>
<p>They placed powdered graphite, the stuff from which pencil lead is made, into a container with an "exfoliating liquid", and then mixed at high speed.</p>
<p>The result is miniscule sheets of graphene, each about a nanometre (a billionth of a metre) thick and 100 nanometres long, suspended in a liquid.</p>
<p>The force generated by the rotating blades separated the graphite into graphene layers without damaging their two-dimensional structure.</p>
<p>"We developed a new way of making graphene sheets," Trinity College Dublin chemical physics professor Jonathan Coleman, who co-authored the study in the journal Nature Materials, told AFP.</p>
<p>"This method gives lots of graphene with no defects."</p>
<p>The team used industrial equipment called shear mixers, but successfully repeated the experiment with a kitchen blender.</p>
<p>The liquid so produced can be spread onto surfaces as films of graphene sheets, like paint, or mixed with plastics to produce reinforced, composite materials.</p>
<p>"In the lab, we produced grams. However, when scaled up, tonnes will be produced," said Coleman.</p>
<p>Graphene is the world's thinnest substance, transparent but stronger than steel -- a conductive super-material made of carbon just one atom thick.</p>
<p>There is a surge of interest in it to replace semiconductors in next-generation computers, touch screens, batteries and solar cells.</p>
<p>Graphene was aired as a theoretical substance in 1947. But for decades, physicists thought it would be impossible to isolate, as such thin crystalline sheets were bound to be unstable.</p>
<p>The problem was resolved in 2004 by a pair of scientists who used ordinary sticky tape to lift a layer from a piece of graphite.</p>
<p>That layer was itself pulled apart using more tape, and the process repeated until just the thinnest of layers remained -- a graphene sheet.</p>
<p>Coleman said a company that sponsored the study has applied for a patent on the new method.</p>
<div class="nc_footer">
<p>Copyright (2014) AFP. All rights reserved.</p>
</div>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="http://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT0xMmZhNjU0OWJlZmU3MGMwMWM4NDY4NmE4ZGU3ZDllZCZub25jZT1hNmYxMDg1OC04NzljLTQ1ZjAtOTViYS1kMmE0MTJmODFlNjkmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p>

You Can Make Wonder Material Graphene In Your Kitchen

<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/535fc390eab8ea8717082a96-1053-710/screen shot 2014-04-29 at 11.21.32 am.png" border="0" alt="graphene" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/story/image-gallery/">The University of Manchester</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>The "super material" isn't ready yet, but it's going to make future technologies so awesome.</p>
<p class="p3">Graphene, the pure carbon material that's just one atom thick and nearly transparent when laid out in sheets, manages to be roughly 200 times stronger than steel, even though it's 60,000 times thinner <a href="http://engineering.columbia.edu/graphene-confirmed-strongest-material" target="_blank"><span class="s1">than Saran Wrap</span></a>.</p>
<p class="p3">Graphene is also an excellent conductor of energy, can be synthesized from unique carbon sources - anything from pencil lead to <span class="s1"><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/424914/graphene-from-girl-scout-cookies/" target="_blank">Girl Scout cookies</a> </span>- and it has thousands of possible applications.</p>
<p class="p3">How is it possible for one material to have so many ideal characteristics? <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=graphene&amp;es_sm=91&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=cVxhU92YCKnhsAT8loCQDA&amp;ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&amp;biw=1309&amp;bih=618" target="_blank"><span class="s1">When you search "graphene" on the web</span></a>, the most common picture you'll see is a molecular lattice that resembles a honeycomb, or chicken wire. In reality, this depiction of graphene is perhaps the best way to understand its incredible properties: The structure is remarkably strong and efficient - even self-repairing - but it is essentially two-dimensional. As such, graphene is the most chemically reactive form of carbon, which also makes the material highly conductive and flexible, as well as strong.  </p>
<p class="p3">Since graphene was finally isolated in 2003, scientific interest in the material has exploded thanks to a "land rush of patents" filed by companies like Apple, IBM, Lockheed Martin, and others around the globe. <a href="http://www.cambridgeip.com/industries/nanotechnology/graphene/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">According to British patent consultancy CambridgeIP</span></a>, China has filed for more than 2,200 graphene patents - the most of any country - followed by the U.S. with more than 1,700 patents, and South Korea with just under 1,200 patents.</p>
<p class="p3">Graphene still has a long way to go before it reaches commercialization, but when you consider what could be made possible by this unusual form of carbon, it's easy to be excited.</p>
<h2 class="p4"><strong>Appetizing Applications</strong></h2>
<p class="p3"><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">1. Batteries.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Probably the biggest issue with most mobile devices is that they constantly need to be recharged. But since 2011, when </span><a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/11/batteries-energy-kung.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Northwestern University engineers found graphene anodes are better</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> at holding energy than anodes made of graphite - with faster charging up to 10x - researchers have been hard at work experimenting with graphene compounds that can be scalable, cost-efficient, but most of all, powerful. </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Last May, </span><a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/03/vo2-20130315.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Rice University researchers found</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that graphene mixed with vanadium oxide (a relatively inexpensive solution) can create battery cathodes that recharge in 20 seconds and retain more than 90% of their capacity, even after 1,000 cycles of use.</span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5354113f6bb3f7695cc791b0-1200-858/rtr39p39.jpg" border="0" alt="graphene" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Kacper Pempel</span></p><p class="caption">A piece of silicon carbide disk is covered with a layer of graphene.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p3"><strong>2. Computer circuits.</strong> Last year, <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2690.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">MIT and Harvard engineers successfully</span></a> used DNA templates to pattern graphene into nanoscale structures that could eventually be fashioned into electronic circuits, although the researchers still need to improve the overall precision of the process before it can replace silicon in computer chips.</p>
<p class="p3">The methodologies are still experimental and expensive, but the potential for graphene-based electronics, considering the upsides of the material, is simply too good to ignore.</p>
<p class="p3"><strong>3. Smartphones.</strong> Between batteries and computer chips, it's possible graphene will be the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/graphene-for-smartphones-2014-5" target="_blank">chief material used to compose the smartphones of the future</a>.</p>
<p class="p3">It could even be used for unbreakable smartphones, where users can soon twist and bend their phones at will since graphene can be used to create a rigid metal housing but also allow for a flexibility, even in the <a href="http://www.graphenetracker.com/samsung-patents-graphene-networks-for-touch-screens/"><span class="s1">touch-screen display</span></a>.</p>
<p class="p3"><strong>4. Energy cells.</strong> Graphene could help us har<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ness energy like never before. Batteries for phones and smartwatches are one thing, but solar and </span><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/521651/graphene-supercapacitors-ready-for-electric-vehicle-energy-storage-say-korean-engineers/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">electric power</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> could stand to benefit tremendously from the material, as well. </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Last year, </span><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130820135049.htm" target="_blank"><span class="s1">the Michigan Technological University found graphene could power solar cells</span></a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> by replacing platinum, which is a key ingredient in solar cells but a highly expensive one at $1,500 an ounce. Thanks to its molecular structure, graphene has the conductivity and catalytic activity needed to harness and convert the energy of the sun without losing any efficiency of its own.</span></p>
<p class="p3"><strong>5. Living tissue applications.</strong> A March 2012 issue of Nature predicted graphene could be used to create bionic implants, but more recently, the University of Manchester's <a href="http://aravind.weebly.com/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Aravind Vijaraghavan</span></a> said graphene <span class="s1"><a href="http://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/news-and-events/?archive=twelvemonths&amp;id=10831" target="_blank">could interact with one's biological systems</a> </span>- or "talk with one's cells," as he put it - which could eventually take the Internet of Things to new heights. Graphene isn't the material doing the actual talking; the graphene simply lies beneath the synthetic phospholipid layers that do all the work, but does showcase the versatility of graphene and its ability to play nice with our own biological systems.</p>
<p class="p3">Besides <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/512496/first-graphene-audio-speaker-easily-outperforms-traditional-designs/"><span class="s1">consumer electronics</span></a>, the range of applications for graphene is practically endless. Since graphene's properties are only exploited when the material is combined with other elements like gases, metals, and other sources of carbon, researchers are experimenting with graphene to create antennas, saltwater filters, windows, paint, airplane wings, tennis rackets, DNA-sequencing devices, tires, ink, and so much more. </p>
<h2 class="p4"><strong>A Long Way To Go</strong></h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Reuters" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a58de76bb3f7a0257cbf57-960/graphene-graph.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a58de76bb3f7a0257cbf57-1200-1200/graphene-graph.jpg" border="0" alt="graphene graph" /></a><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p3">Samsung, which owns roughly a quarter of South Korea's graphene patents, is dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into research for the material.</p>
<p class="p3">In April, Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), in conjunction with a local university's applied sciences department, <a href="http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=35576"><span class="s1">announced a new method</span></a> to produce graphene in large quantities without the material losing any of the electric or mechanical properties that make it unique.</p>
<p class="p3">"This is one of the most significant breakthroughs in graphene research in history," the SAIT Lab researchers said in a statement. "We expect this discovery to accelerate the commercialization of graphene, which could unlock the next era of consumer electronic technology."</p>
<p class="p3">With so many upsides to graphene, it's easy to see why the technology world is so excited about the material's potential. But just because it can do things better at silicon doesn't mean companies are willing to overhaul their manufacturing processes just yet.</p>
<p class="p3">Though Samsung's recent development is promising, there is still not a foolproof way of mass producing graphene with machines, which means there's no way to make money from it.</p>
<p class="p3">Nobel laureate Sir Konstantin Novoselov pointed out in his October 2012 paper, "<a href="http://moodle.epfl.ch/pluginfile.php/1509224/mod_resource/content/1/Graphene%20Roadmap.pdf" target="_blank"><span class="s1">A Roadmap for Graphene</span></a>," that it will take a while for graphene to supplant more established materials since their applications will need to justify the hefty cost of the material, as well as the "cost and disruption of changing existing industrial processes."</p>
<p class="p3">"The entire industry is built on silicon," Vijayaraghavan <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10103363/Miracle-material-the-graphene-revolution.html" target="_blank"><span class="s1">told The Telegraph</span></a>. "Not because other materials can't do it better, but because silicon does it well enough for the price you are willing to pay. Companies like Intel have spent billions of pounds on facilities optimized for silicon. So if you want them to switch to graphene, you are going to have to drag them kicking and screaming. They are not going to give up silicon easily."</p>
<p class="p3">It may take years or decades for graphene to fully manifest itself in industrial manufacturing, but until it becomes cheap enough to entice companies to use the material at a large scale, all we can do is daydream about the potential of this ultra-strong, ultra-thin super material and its effects on our technological lives.  </p>

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