- 2 days ago
Scientists have done something incredible — they recreated a rare substance found only inside certain meteorites, and it may become one of the strongest tools we have to protect our planet. This material forms under extreme cosmic conditions, and now researchers have managed to make it right here on Earth. Why does that matter? Because this substance could help shield spacecraft, build tougher technology, or even form the basis of future planetary-defense systems. In this video, we’ll explore how scientists managed to reproduce it, what makes it so extraordinary, and why something born in deep space might one day save us from deep-space threats. Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00We've now reached a point in scientific development where we can simply invent materials that don't exist naturally on Earth.
00:08A team of scientists responsible for this amazing discovery has managed to put together a substance that has only been found in meteorites so far.
00:18This material, called tetrayonite, is a mixture of two metals, nickel and iron.
00:23Sure, we have plenty of nickel and iron right here on our planet, but not in this precise combination.
00:31The difference is that when these two metals travel through space in meteorites, they get cooled down over the millions of years of their journey.
00:40You may think of a meteorite in this case as a floating washing machine, only this one never stops working.
00:47It keeps spinning materials over and over again at a very low temperature.
00:51These conditions were responsible for creating tetrayonite.
00:55But why is this material so important?
00:59It turns out that this unique substance is extremely useful for creating magnets, not just any kind.
01:06High-end ones, also called permanent magnets.
01:10They're used in a lot of expensive machinery these days.
01:13For example, in electric vehicles or even in space shuttles.
01:17You might know that magnets are crucial pieces in many devices we use today, especially in those that need to transform electrical power into some sort of movement.
01:30Things like electric clocks, whose hands need to constantly keep moving to tell the time.
01:36Or cars.
01:37Which need some sort of power to spin their wheels in order for the vehicle to move.
01:42The problem is most of these magnets are pretty easy to produce and quite cheap.
01:48But they're not very powerful.
01:50In advanced devices like space shuttles, we need stronger magnets.
01:54They need to resist extreme temperatures and amounts of pressure for long periods of time.
02:00Let's take space shuttles, for instance.
02:02Whatever we send out into space needs to be as low-maintenance as possible.
02:08Why?
02:09Because every time a device needs fixing, it'll need to make a trip to Earth and back.
02:14This can get extremely expensive and even dangerous, especially when astronauts are also involved.
02:22For a magnet to become permanent, it needs to contain something special.
02:26Rare Earth.
02:27It might sound like some sort of a magical amulet from a fantasy book, but the explanation is pretty simple.
02:35Rare Earth elements, also called RE, are a set of 17 metallic elements.
02:41They're featured in the periodic table.
02:43You know, that thing in chemistry class that contains a lot of elements?
02:47Most of which you've never heard of?
02:49Regardless of your feelings towards high school chemistry, these elements are super important.
02:54Since they're used in more than 200 products these days.
02:59I bet it's the first time you heard you have these rare elements in your house.
03:04Let me name a few devices.
03:05Your cell phone, the hard drive of your computer, your flat screen monitor, or even your TV.
03:11You might even have these elements in your car if you have an electric or hybrid one.
03:16Most of the time, these elements are only found in real small amounts in these devices.
03:22But without them, such gadgets wouldn't work.
03:26That's where tetrataionite might come in handy.
03:29It's a pretty good candidate for replacing these Rare Earth elements.
03:33Why do we need to replace them in the first place?
03:36Well, for starters, because they're pretty rare, obviously.
03:39But also, because they're too expensive to extract and process.
03:44Most of the time, rare elements aren't found in nature on their own.
03:47They are combined with other elements, and taking them apart needs a lot of time and effort.
03:54If this new element could be synthetically developed in labs,
03:57it might mean less hassle in the future to develop new and more advanced pieces of technology.
04:04Scientists have also just invented the world's blackest black, or the darkest material on Earth.
04:11Let's call it that.
04:12In fact, it's a pigment that can easily confuse your eyes.
04:17You can't determine its shape and form when looking at it.
04:20It's called Vantablack, and it's made out of carbon nanotubes.
04:25They absorb 99.96% of all light that hits their surface.
04:30For comparison, any other standard black surface, like that of your hoodie, or a wall, or anything else you can imagine,
04:37can absorb anywhere between 95% and 98% of light rays.
04:43It's easy to see why people describe this material as a black hole.
04:48It's cool to look at, sure, but I don't think you'd look good in a piece of clothing covered in Vantablack.
04:53That's because the shape of the human body would become invisible altogether, and you'd end up looking two-dimensional.
05:01There's a whitest white in our world, too, but it can be found naturally.
05:05It has a lot to do with a pretty cool insect, the Sifoculus beetle.
05:10It is considered a pest in Southeast Asia, but its white scales can be brighter than any other white surface found in nature.
05:19Scientists have carefully studied this creature and invented a new type of super-white coating.
05:25The substance found in it is called chitin, a chemical compound closely related to glucose.
05:32It reflects light very well.
05:35Most of the white products we find in stores today, like sunscreen or toothpaste, have special particles that reflect a lot of light.
05:43But in most of them, these particles are titanium dioxide, or zinc oxide.
05:49Do you want to know how powerful the new white pigment is?
05:53If you've ever had to paint a wall white, you know you need to apply a couple of layers to make it look crisp.
06:00If you paint it with this super-white coating, you'll only need a coating as thin as a strand of hair.
06:08This chemical isn't available for commercial use yet, but once scientists finish testing it in different environments, we might begin to see it in cosmetics or even food.
06:19A team at the University of Chicago has invented a type of plastic that acts more like a metal.
06:25At least, if we look at one characteristic, and that's the ability to conduct electricity, the researchers don't have a clear theory as to why this works so well.
06:37But the molecules in this unusual plastic are mixed together in a way that conducts electricity similar to how metals do.
06:45Before this discovery, metals were the only material used in circuits.
06:50In order for electric currents to travel in a certain device, it needs to go through a certain material.
06:57Regular plastic doesn't allow electricity to run through it smoothly.
07:02That's why plastic is most of the time used as an insulator.
07:05Its purpose is to protect us from getting electrical shocks when touching an electric device.
07:11This discovery is important because it might lead us to even more materials that conduct electricity but are easier to shape.
07:18As opposed to plastic, metals are generally more rigid and need special treatment to function properly inside an electrical circuit.
07:28How about an artificial material that acts as if it's alive?
07:33Cornell University specialists have invented this one too.
07:37So what does this material do?
07:39For starters, it has the three key components of every living organism.
07:44Metabolism, self-assembly, and organization.
07:47It's not alive though, despite looking like moving slime.
07:52In fact, it's made out of special polymers, which are organized in chains and can grow and change in size.
07:59They basically give this material its own DNA-like properties.
08:04The researchers have called the whole project DASH.
08:07A series of chemicals involved in making this material can turn its outside environment into energy, just like our bodies do.
08:16Scientists are not looking to create cyborgs resembling humans.
08:19Don't worry.
08:20This material is not technically alive.
08:22But they are looking to expand their current research into creating materials that can regenerate and, as such, reduce waste.
08:31The information it comes pre-programmed with, that's similar to human DNA, is kind of a pre-set instructions sheet.
08:38It lets the material know how to behave and what to do when under pressure.
08:44Scientists working on this project hope that one day, these types of materials can even be self-replicating.
08:50Do you know that our planet has scars?
09:00One of them is located in North America.
09:02This scar can tell us many cool things about the history of Earth.
09:06But the most interesting thing is that it could change the appearance of our continents and break our world.
09:13But for some reason, this scar hasn't done it yet.
09:16And that's not even the most interesting part.
09:19The coolest thing about this scar is that it might hold a giant source of clean, cheap energy.
09:26So let's go to Kansas to find out what it is.
09:30So 1.1 billion years ago, a giant rift formed in the crust of our planet on the territory of the modern U.S. Midwest.
09:39It's called Broken Heart.
09:41This giant crevice is filled with solidified magma.
09:45And from afar, it looks like a real scar.
09:48But how did it show up?
09:50Broken Heart was an ancient rift valley, a huge geological fault forming elongated hollows in the Earth's crust.
09:59It occurred because tectonic plates had moved apart.
10:03It's like the details of a jigsaw puzzle that suddenly started to separate.
10:06At that moment, thousands and even millions of tons of magma spilled out from the depths of our planet.
10:14That event looked like a real apocalypse, lasting about 100,000 years.
10:19But then it stopped.
10:21And scientists don't know why.
10:23If the rifting process had lasted longer, then, most likely, the continent of North America would look different today.
10:30Or it wouldn't even exist at all.
10:34Right now, this fault looks like a giant horseshoe that stretches from Kansas, north to Lake Superior, and south to Michigan.
10:41But some studies indicate that the fault may be larger and extend even further south.
10:47And the width of the fault might equal the width of the Red Sea.
10:52After the rifting stopped, the entire valley got covered with hills and trees.
10:57The fault itself is covered with a thick layer of sedimentary rocks, so it's quite difficult to track.
11:04The most noticeable parts of the rift are in the Lake Superior area.
11:07Now, everything looks calm and beautiful, but in the past, there were fountains and rivers of lava, earthquakes, a boiling pot on a planetary scale.
11:19All that remains of it are deposits of basalt, a dark, dense rock that forms from cooled lava.
11:26There was so much basalt that its weight pushed the valley deeper and deeper into the Earth's crust.
11:31Even when the eruptions and rifting stopped, the valley continued to sink because of the huge mass of the sediment.
11:40Then, massive sections of the Earth's crust on both sides of the valley began to contract,
11:46and the pieces of the puzzle slowly started to come together.
11:50This led to a large-scale ejection of volcanic material upward.
11:54And along with basalt, deposits of copper rock appeared in the valley.
11:58People mined this copper for about 8,000 years, until the end of the 20th century.
12:04The copper mines were eventually shut down.
12:07But now, it seems, the industry is making a comeback.
12:11However, Broken Heart is not interesting to people just because of its copper reserves.
12:17It holds something more valuable and useful for our civilization.
12:21Scientists believe that this valley hides massive reserves of hydrogen.
12:26And this substance can help us switch to a cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient energy source.
12:32If hydrogen fuel becomes widely available, everyone will switch to it,
12:37leaving behind the costly, noisy, and polluting process of oil production.
12:42Now, I'll bet hydrogen is a remarkably familiar word to you.
12:46It doesn't sound like the discovery of the century, and people have been using it for a long time.
12:51On one hand, you're right, but not quite.
12:56Ninety percent of the hydrogen produced by humans is used as a raw material for the chemical industry.
13:03Hydrogen is used to produce ammonia for fertilizers, methanol for fuel and solvents, and to purify crude oil.
13:10Manufacturers of glass, cement, steel, and other metals are considering using hydrogen at their factories for more efficient production.
13:18Hydrogen can become an alternative to fossil fuels, that is, oil and gasoline produced from them.
13:25Cars, ships, trains, airplanes, and power plants, all of these may switch to hydrogen soon.
13:33In this case, production can become cheaper and better for nature.
13:37But this will work only if we find open sources of hydrogen.
13:42You see, about 95% of the hydrogen we use is produced from fossil fuels.
13:47We'd gasify coal, oxidize hydrocarbons, and extract hydrogen from methane.
13:54All of these production methods require energy.
13:57But the worst part is that they lead to large emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
14:03But what if we find sources of pure hydrogen that don't require processing?
14:08Then we'll save energy for its production and make the planet cleaner.
14:13But where can we find such sources?
14:15Scientists say that there are many of them all over the planet.
14:20And one of the largest is located in the Rift Valley in the U.S. Midwest.
14:25But what's the problem with going and mining it?
14:28Well, it's not that simple.
14:30To extract pure hydrogen, you need three conditions.
14:34The first is the source of hydrogen itself, which is quite logical.
14:38The second is reservoir rocks, that is, natural containers, where this hydrogen is stored.
14:45And the third is natural seals, which prevent the gas from escaping.
14:50In other words, these seals work like a cap on a bottle.
14:53They don't allow the substance to escape.
14:56So in general, it's necessary to find where hydrogen is released, where it accumulates, and where it's stored.
15:02When these conditions are met, natural resource extraction companies can start working.
15:08But how does hydrogen appear altogether?
15:11Well, let's go over the basics of chemistry.
15:14Hydrogen and oxygen compounds form water.
15:17This means you need to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen.
15:21This process often occurs in nature.
15:24There are many places all over the planet where this happens.
15:27Scientists are confident that at least 30 U.S. states have hydrogen reservoirs.
15:33And if people detect them, we will accelerate the energy transition to safer and more efficient fuels.
15:39Thousands of cars drive around using gasoline.
15:43Many of you know the smell of exhaust fumes, that thick, polluted air that's hard to breathe.
15:48What about electric cars?
15:49They must be improving the situation, right?
15:52Well, here's another problem.
15:54Producing batteries for these vehicles harms nature.
15:57The materials used to make batteries are lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
16:02Their extraction involves a large release of toxic materials, not only into the air, but also into the water.
16:09Transporting these batteries also creates a large carbon footprint.
16:13Producing a single electric car emits about 4 tons of carbon dioxide.
16:18To make up for that, the owner needs to drive it for at least 8 years.
16:22That's how long it takes to offset the emissions a regular car would produce.
16:27What about reliability and convenience?
16:29What will you do if the battery runs out during the trip and there are no charging stations nearby?
16:35This problem will be solved in the future with the growing popularity of electric cars.
16:41Scientists believe that over the past billion years, the Earth's crust has split enough water into hydrogen and oxygen.
16:48Our planet keeps this gas in the ground, waiting for us to start using it.
16:53According to calculations, even considering all the technologies and production capacities of our civilization,
17:00the reserves of hydrogen in the bowels of the planet are enough to supply us with energy for 170,000 years.
17:08That's why the giant rift in Kansas attracts scientists from all over the world.
17:14Huge quantities of basalt and other rocks can react with water to release hydrogen.
17:20And now scientists are looking for places where this material accumulates and is stored.
17:26That's it for today.
17:27So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
17:32Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
Be the first to comment