Bizarre Properties of Glass Revealed

Bizarre Properties of Glass Revealed
By Robin Lloyd, Senior Editor
posted: 23 June 2008 01:47 pm ET

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in the bizarre properties of glass, which behaves at times like both a solid and a liquid.
The finding could lead to aircraft that look like Wonder Woman's plane. Such planes could have wings of glass or something called metallic glass, rather than being totally invisible.

The breakthrough involved solving the decades-old problem of just what glass is. It has been known that that despite its solid appearance, glass and gels are actually in a "jammed" state of matter — somewhere between liquid and solid — that moves very slowly. Like cars in a traffic jam, atoms in a glass are in something like suspended animation, unable to reach their destination because the route is blocked by their neighbors. So even though glass is a hard substance, it never quite becomes a proper solid, according to chemists and materials scientists.

The deceptively liquid-like behavior of glass can be seen when you look at glass in the windows of an old building. The glass begins to sag and distort internally over the centuries, due to the effect of gravity.

Work so far has concentrated on trying to understand the traffic jam, but now Paddy Royall from the University of Bristol, with colleagues in Canberra and Tokyo, has shown that glass fails to be a solid due to the special atomic structures that form in a glass when it cools.
Icosahedron jams

Some materials crystallize as they cool, arranging their atoms into a highly regular pattern called a lattice, Royall said, but although glass "wants" to be a crystal, as it cools the atoms become jammed in a nearly random arrangement, preventing it from forming a regular lattice.

In the 1950s, Sir Charles Frank in the Physics Department at Bristol suggested that the arrangement of the "jam" should form what is known as an icosahedron, but at the time he was unable to prove it.

An icosahedron is like a 3-D pentagon, and just as you cannot tile a floor with pentagons, you cannot fill 3-D space with icosahedrons, Royall explained. That is, you can't make a lattice out of pentagons.

When it comes to glass, Frank thought, there is a competition between crystal formation and pentagons that prevents the construction of a crystal. If you cool a liquid down and it makes a lot of pentagons and the pentagons survive, the crystal cannot form.

It turns out that Frank was right, Royall said, and his team proved this experimentally. You can't watch what happens to atoms as they cool because they are too small, so Royall and his colleagues used special particles called colloids that mimic atoms, but are large enough to be visible using state-of-the-art microscopy. The team cooled some down and watched what happened.

What they found was that the gel these particles formed also "wants" to be a crystal, but it fails to become one due to the formation of icosahedra-like structures — exactly as Frank had predicted.

"It is the formation of these structures that underlie jammed materials and explains why a glass is a glass and not a liquid — or a solid," Royall said.

The findings are detailed in the June 22 issue of the journal Nature Materials. The research was supported in part by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as well as the Royal Society.

Preventing jetliner disasters

Knowing the structure formed by atoms as a glass cools represents a major breakthrough in the understanding of meta-stable materials and will allow further development of new strong yet light materials called metallic glasses, he said, already used to make some golf clubs. This stuff is generally shiny black in color, not transparent, due to having a lot of free electrons (think of mercury in an old thermometer).
Metals normally crystallize when they cool, however stress builds up along the boundaries between crystals, which can lead to metal failure.

For example, the world's first jetliner, the British built De Havilland Comet, fell out of the sky due to metal failure. When metals are be made to cool with the same internal structure as a glass and without crystal grain boundaries, they are less likely to fail, Royall said. Metallic glasses could be suitable for a whole range of products, beyond golf clubs, that need to be flexible such as aircraft wings and engine parts, he said.

Glass is not what it seems

Royall is part of a group of scientists who think that if you wait long enough, perhaps billions of years, all glass will eventually crystallize into a true solid. In other words, glass is not in an equilibrium state, (although it appears that way to us during our limited lifetimes). "This is not universally accepted," Royall told LiveScience. "Our work will go some way to making that point more accepted. I think there is a growing weight of evidence that certainly many glasses 'want' to be a crystal."Still, glass "looks like a liquid and this is one of the great riddles that we have gone some way to solving," Royall said. "It has always been thought that glass has same structure as a liquid, and that's why it looks like it. It does not have same structure as liquid."

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Interesting article! But the sentences about "The deceptively liquid-like behavior of glass can be seen when you look at glass in the windows of an old building. The glass begins to sag and distort internally over the centuries, due to the effect of gravity. " remains doubtful as there are no concrete evidences for this statement. Even if it's true, the time it takes for the atoms to move due to gravity effect remains unknown and how can we possibly benefit from something that slow? Unless we can create a force much bigger than our gravity, but wouldn't we all be pulled in if we did? Oh well... just thought this was an interesting article!

IPCC Underestimated Ocean Temperatures and Sea Level Increases by 50%

IPCC Underestimated Ocean Temperatures And Sea Level Increases By 50 Percent, Says Study

Submitted by News Account on 18 June 2008 - 10:26pm. Oceanography

The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was wrong, say a group of researchers, but not about whether there was global warming. Rather, the report underestimated its effects concerning ocean temperature and associated sea level increases between 1961 and 2003 - by 50 percent.

The report in the June 19 edition of Nature compared climate models with observations that show sea levels rose by 1.5 millimeters per year in the period from 1961-2003. That equates to an approximately 2 inch increase in ocean levels in a 42-year span.
Not exactly WaterWorld but not insignificant either.

The research say they corrected for small but systematic biases recently discovered in the global ocean observing system, and used statistical techniques that "infill" information in data-sparse regions.

They say their new results increase confidence in ocean observations and demonstrate that climate models simulate ocean temperature variability more realistically than previously thought.

"This is important for the climate modeling community because it demonstrates that the climate models used for assessing sea-level rise and ocean warming tie in closely with the observed results," Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory climate scientist Peter Gleckler said.
Climate model data were analyzed from 13 different modeling groups. All model data were obtained from the WCRP CMIP3 multi-model dataset archived at the LLNL's Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI)

Although observations and models confirm that recent warming is greatest in the upper ocean, there are widespread observations of warming deeper than 700 meters.

Results were compared with recent estimates of other contributions to sea-level rise including glaciers, ice caps, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and thermal expansion changes in the deep ocean. When these independent lines of evidence are examined collectively, the story is more consistent than found in earlier studies

The oceans store more than 90 percent of the heat in the Earth's climate system and act as a temporary buffer against the effects of climate change. The ocean warming and thermal expansion rates are 50 percent larger than previous estimates for the upper 700 meters of oceans, and greater than that for the upper 300 meters.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak," Gleckler said. "Our ability to quantify structural uncertainties in observationally based estimates is critically important. This study represents important progress."

The team involved researchers from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CSIRO), the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and LLNL.

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Small temperature change (~2-3 deg. C) in the climate system has already shown its effects to mankind. The higher occurences of typhoons, super storms, hurricanes, and even earthquakes are indications of the fragility we have subjected mother nature to through our use and abuse of what the world has to offer us. Knowing that we have been wrong-footed in the measurements should make us more aware of how serious global warming issue is. The ocean temperature is definitely rising far more rapidly than we thought, just looking at the rate of ice caps melting at both poles. Continual melting of the polar caps will result in more increase in the sea level which will then post threats to people living both by and near the beach. How are we preparing ourselves for the inevitable?

I don't think global warming is a force that can be stopped. If 10% world population are making effort to reduce their portion towards global warming, there's still 90% more who can't or won't due to economic reasons. All these scary images and thoughts about the force of nature will not only happen, it's already happening whether we like it or not. Question is, what are we doing to mitigate the effects?

29th International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA) – A Report

The International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA) is a programme created by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1967 to support astronomy in developing countries and further strengthen and promote the development of professional astronomers in the international arena. The programme is essentially a series of lectures held consecutively for the duration of three weeks comprising not only class-based lectures, but also incorporating seminars, practical exercises, observations and exchange of experiences in pre-selected topics of astronomy as selected by the hosting country. Participants are typically students at academic levels between BSc and PhD. ISYA seeks to broaden the participants’ perspective on astronomy through the exposure and lectures delivered by an international and experienced faculty. Another aim of ISYA is to reinforce and to structure the astronomy programme in the country where ISYA is held.


The 29th ISYA was Malaysia’s second time playing host to this field of studies, with the first back in 1992. With the establishment of the Langkawi National Observatory (LNO), the National Space Agency (AAN) ensured that the observations and practical sessions were satisfactory to the participants and lecturers. The 29th ISYA saw the rare opportunity for participants to receive hands-on experience with Solar Observatory apart from the norm Spectroscopy and Deep-Sky CCD Imaging. All 38 participants from 12 countries around Asian regions were subjected to series of lecturers covering on the Solar System, Helioseismology, Solar Convective Dynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), Stellar Modelling, Close Binary Structure and Evolution, Astronomical techniques i.e. Astrometry, Photometry and Spectroscopy, Radio Astronomy, Cosmology, Virtual Observatory (VO), Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF), and etc. There were altogether three public lectures held throughout this programme on (1) The Birth and Death of Stars (Prof. Michele Gerbaldi, 6th March 2007); (2) Present Trends in Radio Astronomy (Prof. Udaya Shankar, 8th March 2007); and (3) Our Place in The Universe (Prof. Edward Guinan, 18th March 2007). There were also bonus lectures on (1) Giving Great Presentation (Prof. Edward Guinan); (2) How to Write A Resume (Prof. Edward Guinan); and (3) Writing A Scientific Paper and Getting It Published (Prof. Jean-Pierre De Greve).


The 29th ISYA was successful in bridging the gap between neighbouring Asian countries through the plantation of seeds for future collaborative works in various fields of Astronomy. After being closely tied for three weeks together in lectures and social events, participants had adequate time to know each other better and exchange research interests and experiences. With the completion of ISYA, it is then hoped that the ties forged during ISYA will not only remain strong in the upcoming years, but will also ensure success for the astronomical community within Asian regions in particular, and the rest of the world in general.

The International Symposium Asian Collaboration in IPY 2007-2008 – A Report


The International Symposium Asian Collaboration in IPY 2007-2008 was organized by the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) on the 1st of March 2007 at the Auditorium in Science Council of Japan. It was the first official activity held to mark the kick-off of the IPY. This symposium provided an early platform for scientists participating in IPY to exchange information among the projects and scientists activities. Through discussions at the symposium, any cooperation among the projects is sought in terms of execution, analysis and data management. In this manner, high-level results are expected to be produced most efficiently to ensure the success of IPY 2007-2008.

The International Polar Year (IPY) is a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctica. This is the fourth polar year following those in 1882-3, 1932-3 and 1957-8 and is organized through the International Council of Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). In order to have full and equal coverage of the Arctic and the Antarctica, IPY 2007-2008 covers two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009. This IPY involves over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics. IPY notably presents an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate, follow, and get involved with cutting-edge science in real-time making it invaluable to the progress of mankind and further understanding of the Earth system and structure.

The main themes for IPY 2007-2008 are as follows:

· to determine the present environmental status of the polar regions by quantifying their spatial and temporal variability;
· to understand past and present environmental and human changes in the polar regions in order to improve predictions;
· to advance our understanding of polar-global interactions;
· to investigate unknown at the frontiers of science in the polar regions;
· to use the unigue vantage point of the polar regions to develop and enhance observatories studying the Earth’s inner core and its magnetic field and geospace;
· and to investigate the cultural, historical, and social processes that shape resilience and sustainability of the circumpolar human societies.

The International Symposium Asian Collaboration in IPY 2007-2008 was a one-day event from 0845-1830JST which kicked-off at 0900JST (0000UT) with five 20-minutes talks respectively to mark the starting of IPY. The five talks focusing on IPY National Activities covered research plans from Japan, scientific contributions from China and Korea, IPY scientific programmes from India and also on sustaining Malaysia’s interest in Antarctica.

Japan, an IPY participator since the second IPY, is involved in 84 projects with 102 distinct Japanese scientists in various IPY projects. Being relatively senior in polar research with respect to other nations, Japan has established two permanent stations at both poles. Their Antarctica station, Syowa Station, erected in 1957 is located on an island, Ongul Island off the Coast (69°00’S, 39°35’E). The accumulated data for fifty years now has become a legacy on its own. Their Arctic station, established in 1992, is placed in Ny Alesund in Svalbard (78°55’N, 11°56’E) and is an unmanned station. Japan is one of the few countries who operate satellites for scientific observations. Their satellite observations cover both Polar Regions. The establishment of three satellite stations, Mizuho-, Asuka- and Dome-Fuji Stations around the Syowa Station, although operated in limited years intensively for specific disciplines, is indicative of the seriousness of Japanese involvements in polar science and space science which are now deeply related to each other. Of our considerable interests, however, are their involvement in the Upper Atmospheric Science (2 projects) and Atmosphere Science (16 projects). Their clear intention in international collaborations were made explicit during the Symposium by offering the common use of facilities in all Japanese stations, vessels and even ice breaker, Shirase.

China involvement in IPY 2007-2008 is through the PANDA (The Prydz Bay, Amery Ice Shelf and Dome-A Observatories) programme which includes both Polar Regions. PANDA’s main research geographic areas include Prydz Bay, Amery Ice Shelf, Zhongshan Station, Zongshan-Dome-A transect, Lambert Basin and Dome-A in an area of 60°~80°E, south of 53°S. China is planning to dispatch two cruises to the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean in the northern summers of 2008 and 2009, respectively, to carry out multidisciplinary investigations on oceanography, sea ice, biology, sedimentation, meteorology, CO2 and balloon air and ozone detections.

Polar research in Korea began in 1987 with the establishment of “King Sejong” research station at Antarctica on King George Island in 1988. By 2002, an Arctic station “Dassan” was established on Svalbard in 2002. The King Sejong Station is used to closely monitor atmospheric, marine and terrestrial environment. The Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) is participating in a series of international IPY projects in various fields, such as paleoclimate, oceanography, atmosphere and glaciology.

India has identified five major scientific programmes throughout IPY in fields of oceanography, climatology, marine and anthropology. During the Symposium, the presentation was focused on studies on seismotectonics and geodynamical processes between India and Antarctica.

Malaysia interest in Antarctica was expressed in 1983 through the 38th United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) although the lack of support and experience has prevented early involvement in polar research. Realizing the significant cost that is involved in polar research, Malaysia understands there is a need of cooperation and collaboration to introduce traditional non-polar countries to research in the Polar Regions. In 1997, Scott Base in Antarctica was offered by New Zealand for Malaysia to begin their research in the South Pole. Research was geared towards the field of climate change and biodiversity in Antarctica. Thus was formed the Malaysia’s Antarctica Research Programme under the task force of the Academy of Science. With that, Malaysia had its first scientific field research in the Antarctic on 13th to 25th October 1999. For the IPY 2007-2008, Malaysia submitted fourteen expression of intents (EOIs) to the international community. These EOIs were clustered under ‘Microbiological & Ecological Responses to Global Environmental changes in polar regions’ (MERGE), Scientific Community on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Evolutionary Biology of Antarctica programme, and Interhemispheric Conjugacy Effects in Solar-Terrestrial and Aeronomy Research (ICESTAR) programme.

After the IPY National Activity presentations, the introductory poster session took place. Each poster presenter was given a minute to introduce their poster for the poster session that will take place after lunch. There were all together 46 poster presenters with minor absentees covering various research topics on both poles. After the poster session, presentation on IPY projects took place for the rest of the evening.

The International Symposium Asian Collaboration in IPY 2007-2008 was a brief but purposeful symposium that marked the launch of IPY 2007-2008. Many scientists were able to meet and exchange research projects and pursue collaborations in order to ensure the smoothness and success of IPY. Although many more IPY activities will be taking place throughout the IPY duration, nevertheless, the importance of early information awareness cannot be denied for better short term direction and fruitful long term planning.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid: Gone BUT Not Forgotten

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid

Lecturer and Senior Fellow of Institute of Space Science

Supervisor (Master & PhD)

Lecturer (Communication Systems & Satellite Communications)

26 syaaban 1381 - 15 ramadan 1427

2 february 1962 - 8 october 2006

Allahyarham Dr. Zainol Abidin was an inspirational lecturer equipped with knowledge not just within class environment, but outreaching to life values and principles. His humble yet rather quirky attitude was strikingly attractive and put many instantly at ease around him. Being new in the fields of research, I have only heard, seen and read of (yet to experience) his numerous achievements that happened in an amazingly short span of time. From Tiung-Sat, to Muslim In Space, to Innosat (just to name a few), Allahyarham was a true scientist whose thirst for knowledge never cease to end.

I am truly honoured that I was given the privilege to be his student, to have had experience his supervision for Master, and a brief 3-months-supervision for PhD. He was by far the most dedicated supervisor I've ever had the pleasure of working with (the most taxing as well :)). His consistent appearance alone was a more than adequate motivating factor to keep me working day and night in the lab. If he does not show up at the lab, then I'd be fidgeting about showing him my work. But if he does show up, then I'd be resisting the temptation to run away just to avoid showing work that might have been poorly done or have not quite met his expectations... ha ha ha. It was thrilling, yet exciting, special in its own way, BEST of times...

Although deeply saddened by his passing, I'm still glad I was given the chance to have known someone as special as Allahyarham Dr. Zainol Abidin. He was truly a diamond in the rough and its always the best of people that will leave us first for Allah S.W.T.'s blessings are immense. He once told me that educating oneself is noble and we should always hope that we'd be placed amongst pious scholars when we face Allah S.W.T. for their place is honourable in the Hereafter. May he be placed amongst the honourable and pious of people... insyaALLAH.

Dr. Zainol, you will be missed.

Al-Fatihah...