Self-Healing Metal Oxides could Protect against Corrosion

Researchers find an ultrathin layer of aluminum oxide, though solid, can flow like a liquid instead of cracking. Researchers have found that a solid oxide protective coating for metals can, when applied in sufficiently thin layers, deform as if it were a liquid, filling any cracks and gaps as they form.

The thin coating layer should be especially useful to prevent leakage of tiny molecules that can penetrate through most materials, such as hydrogen gas that could be used to power fuel-cell cars, or the radioactive tritium (a heavy form of hydrogen) that forms inside the cores of nuclear power plants.

Most metals, with the notable exception of gold, tend to oxidize when exposed to air and water...

Artistic composition of the radio telescopes in space and on the ground observing NGC 1275, the central galaxy of the Perseus cluster of galaxies at a distance of 230 million light years. This radio image shows a newly forming jet that is about 3 light years long. The central black hole is inside the bright spot at the top of the image. The details visible in the image are smaller than the Oort’s comet cloud around our solar system. Credit: Pier Raffaele Platania INAF/IRA (compilation); ASC Lebedev Institute (RadioAstron image)

An international team has imaged newly forming jets of plasma from a massive black hole with unprecedented accuracy...

Artistic composition of the radio telescopes in space and on the ground observing NGC 1275, the central galaxy of the Perseus cluster of galaxies at a distance of 230 million light years. This radio image shows a newly forming jet that is about 3 light years long. The central black hole is inside the bright spot at the top of the image. The details visible in the image are smaller than the Oort’s comet cloud around our solar system. Credit: Pier Raffaele Platania INAF/IRA (compilation); ASC Lebedev Institute (RadioAstron image)

An international team has imaged newly forming jets of plasma from a massive black hole with unprecedented accuracy...

A tightly wound-up magnetic field used as initial state in the simulation. Credit: K. Gourgouliatos, R. Hollerbach, U. Durham, U. Leeds

A study of the evolution of magnetic fields inside neutron stars shows that instabilities can create intense magnetic hot spots that survive for millions of years, even after the star’s overall magnetic field has decayed significantly. The results will be presented by Dr Konstantinos Gourgouliatos of Durham University at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS) in Liverpool on Wednesday, 4th April.

When a massive star consumes its nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity in a supernova explosion, it can result in a neutron star. These very dense objects have a radius of about 10 kilometres and yet are 1...