Inexplicable Superconductor Fractals Hint at Higher Universal Laws

[n2doc]

By Brandon Keim August 11, 2010



What seemed to be flaws in the structure of a mystery metal may have given physicists a glimpse into as-yet-undiscovered laws of the universe.

The qualities of a high-temperature superconductor — a compound in which electrons obey the spooky laws of quantum physics, and flow in perfect synchrony, without friction — appear linked to the fractal arrangements of seemingly random oxygen atoms.

Those atoms weren’t thought to matter, especially not in relation to the behavior of individual electrons, which exist at a scale thousands of times smaller. The findings, published August 12 in Nature, are a physics equivalent of discovering a link between two utterly separate dimensions.

“We don’t know the theory for this,” said physicist Antonio Bianconi of Rome’s Sapienza University. “We just make the experimental observation that the two worlds seem to interfere.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/superconductor-fractals/

[closeupready]

1. When I use the wheel on my mouse to move the image on the left up and down rapidly,

it creates an interesting optical illusion, as if it is a window on an underlying pattern. Hard to explain. Anyone else? :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Like the blue lines aren't shifting? I noticed that, and that it seems to have to

do with the spacing of those lines and how one quite a bit lower feels like it jumps up into the exact same place of the one I was staring at.

[closeupready]

3. Exactly.

Neat-o. :D

[mike r]

4. Another attempt at relevance by string theorists

There is a plausible explanation out there, without having to invoke the untestable 10-dimensional string nonsense.

[laconicsax]

5. I like your style. n/t

[Fumesucker]

6. Obama is way ahead of the string theorists..

He has been playing eleven dimensional chess for years and years.