Record high pressure squeezes secrets out of osmium
Monday, August 24, 2015 - 11:20
in Physics & Chemistry
An international team of scientists has created the highest static pressure ever achieved in a lab: Using a special high pressure device, the researchers investigated the behavior of the metal osmium at pressures of up to 770 Gigapascals -- more than twice the pressure in the inner core of the Earth. Surprisingly, osmium does not change its crystal structure, but the core electrons of the atoms come so close to each other that they can interact.