Scientists Turn Hydrogen Into Metal Which Could Revolutionize Technology And Spaceflight

Brace yourselves science loving people for we are in for an alchemic-like treat! Turning hydrogen into metal has been a dream of many a scientist for nearly a century, but now it seems this dream is on the verge of becoming reality.

As journal Science reports, scientists over at Harvard University have finally succeeded in this amazing endeavor of creating possibly the most valuable material on the planet.

Metallic hydrogen could theoretically very much revolutionize technology, enabling the creation of:

• ultra-fast computers,
• high-speed levitating trains,
• ultra-efficient vehicles,
• dramatically improved technology involving electricity.

This means it could also allow humanity to explore outer space and go where no human or human creation has ever been before.

The next step for scientists is to establish whether the metal is stable at normal pressures and temperatures. Professor Isaac Silvera, who made the breakthrough with Dr Ranga Dias, said the following:

“This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics. It’s the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen on Earth, so when you’re looking at it, you’re looking at something that’s never existed before.”

Exploring The Outer Planets

If it turns out that metallic hydrogen is stable at room temperature, Professor Silvera says its properties a super-conductor could immensely improve any technology that uses electricity.

“As much as 15 per cent of energy is lost to dissipation during transmission, so if you could make wires from this material and use them in the electrical grid, it could change that story,” said Silvera. “It takes a tremendous amount of energy to make metallic hydrogen.”

“And if you convert it back to molecular hydrogen, all that energy is released, so it would make it the most powerful rocket propellant known to man, and could revolutionize rocketry. That would easily allow you to explore the outer planets.”

To infinity and beyond!