Pressure Turns a Metal into a Magnet
A crystal of osmium dioxide, OsO₂, is like a stubborn teenager: under ordinary conditions it behaves like a typical metal, but press hard enough and its character changes.
Squeezed, pressed, and peeked into the soul of a superconductor
Imagine trying to overhear a whisper between two people in a noisy hall. That's roughly the challenge physicists face when they want to understand how electrons pair up inside a superconductor. And if the "hall" is also squeezed by a giant press to pressures of hundreds of thousands of atmospheres, the task seems impossible.
The authors of the new study found an ingenious solution.