Fluid

First luminescent molecular system with a lower critical solution temperature

Depending on their solubility, solids can completely dissolve in liquids to form clear solutions, or form suspensions that still contain undissolved solid. Solutions of polymers often have a lower critical solution temperature; only below this temperature is the polymer completely soluble at all concentrations.

However, it is rare for non-polymeric mixtures to have a lower critical solution temperature because small molecules usually become more soluble as they are heated.

Osaka University researchers have now created a mixture of small organic and inorganic molecules that has a lower critical solution temperature. Their luminescent mixture is easily switched from a solution to a suspension and back again, simply by changing the temperature. The system, which has a different emission color depending on whether it is in the solution or suspension state, will be useful for the development of new thermo-responsive materials that change color when heated. The study was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

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So you like chemistry puns...

BeerBellyBlunt

Golf Ball 70,000fps 150mph. 

The straight up physics of deformation at high speeds is fascinating. Although what is also fascinating is the one thing we really take for granted. TIME. The high frames per SECOND is the only thing that makes this possible to view.

This is a visual example of what happens when you can see TIME, AND physics. I think we forget how important time is in our lives, yet it’s one of the most fascinating. Without time you have no-thing.

Light speed

Travelling at the speed of light would initially cause everything to appear further away.

You would almost be able to see behind you as you would be keeping up with the photons travelling with you. 

When travelling at the speed of light, to an observer you would appear to be almost frozen in time. 

Travelling at the speed of light from point A to point B assuming point B was 100 light years away, when you reached point B it would be 100 years ahead of you as you would experience time moving much slower meaning that you would not have aged those 100 years.

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End to the universe ends your ideas of infinite

If the big rip or vacuum decay takes place then numbers can’t be infinite, infinity to finite

Physical Science...In Space!

Each month, we highlight a different research topic on the International Space Station. In May, our focus is physical science.

The space station is a laboratory unlike any on Earth; on-board, we can control gravity as a variable and even remove it entirely from the equation. Removing gravity reveals fundamental aspects of physics hidden by force-dependent phenomena such as buoyancy-driven convection and sedimentation.

Gravity often masks or distorts subtle forces such as surface tension and diffusion; on space station, these forces have been harnessed for a wide variety of physical science applications (combustion, fluids, colloids, surface wetting, boiling, convection, materials processing, etc).

Other examples of observations in space include boiling in which bubbles do not rise, colloidal systems containing crystalline structures unlike any seen on Earth and spherical flames burning around fuel droplets. Also observed was a uniform dispersion of tin particles in a liquid melt, instead of rising to the top as would happen in Earth’s gravity. 

So what? By understanding the fundamentals of combustion and surface tension, we may make more efficient combustion engines; better portable medical diagnostics; stronger, lighter alloys; medicines with longer shelf-life, and buildings that are more resistant to earthquakes.

Findings from physical science research on station may improve the understanding of material properties. This information could potentially revolutionize development of new and improved products for use in everything from automobiles to airplanes to spacecraft.

For more information on space station research, follow @ISS_Research on Twitter!

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