A bartender once asked a patron, hey What
is the matter
The guy at the bar replied: matter is anything
which has mass and occupies space
haha no but seriously what is matter?
Hey everyone Julia here for DNews
It’s one of the basic things you learn about
in science class.
The difference between solid, liquid, and
gas.
Objects can move through different states
of matter depending on the density of their
particles.
Solids exist when their particles become so
densely packed together they don’t move
around so much.
And their atoms don’t move at all, they’re
in a fixed position.
Solids don’t change shape based on what
container their in.
In liquid atoms can move freely, but they
remain touching.
These particles are held together by weak
intermolecular attraction.
You might remember that it takes the shape
of whatever container it’s in, but still
retains a consistent density, like a subway
car during rush hour.
Gases on the other have have no volume or
real shape.
Their molecules are too far apart.
But they bounce against each other a lot so
a gas will expand indefinitely.
Because of this bouncing, gases have a high
kinetic energy.
Plasma, while not so common here on Earth,
is found throughout the Universe and might
even be the most abundant form of matter in
the universe!
You might recognize plasma in that glowing
gas that makes Neon signs glow.
Or maybe from our sun!
Which is just big ball of burning gas roiling
into a plasma.
When gas gets energized, electrons get freed
from atoms and makes ions, turning the gas
into a plasma.
Plasmas, like gas, take the shape of whatever
contain they’re in and are really good conductors
for magnetic fields and electricity.
So that’s the big four of states of matter.
But is that all there is to the story?
Just like the recent additions to the periodic
table were made in a lab, so were these new
states of matter: Bose-Einstein condensates,
degenerate matter, supersolids and superfluids,
and quark-gluon plasma, which is created inside
of particle accelerators.
And the latest edition: Jahn–Teller metals.
An international team of researchers published
their findings the journal Science Advances.
The researchers created a new type of material
that could change the way we make electronics.
A Jahn-Teller metal does all kind of things,
it acts like insulator, superconductor, metal,
magnet.
But its superconducting properties are the
most interesting.
Superconductors are super exciting.
They’re currently used in MRI machines,
making digital circuits, and in highly sensitive
scientific equipment like particle detectors.
These materials can transfer electricity without
resistance or losing any energy through heat
or sound.
Unfortunately, these materials only work when
it’s super cold, like -405 degrees fahrenheit.
Which costs a lot of money to cool down.
But this discovery can conduct at a “high”
critical temperature, -211 degrees, which
could be cheaper and more versatile.
The material is composed of buckyballs, which
are a type of round molecule made up of carbon.
Rubidium atoms put pressure on these molecules
and control the distance between them, changing
the phases the material goes through.
It can shift from an insulator to a metal.
Let me put that in English, by changing the
pressure on the material, it can change the
way it conducts electricity.
It doesn’t conduct well at low pressure,
and basically acts like an insulator, but
at high pressure becomes a metal.
But during this transition, it’s in a state
that’s never been seen before!
It still looks like an insulator, but the
electrons can move around just like in a conductor.
While we’re still a long way off from using
this material practically, it’s still really
cool.
It could be one step on the way to high-temperature
superconductivity.
Speaking of what’s the matter… what about
dark matter?
We may have evidence that it exists!
Julian breaks down subatomic particles and
explains why 
in this video.
