Watch: Eighty years after it was predicted, hydrogen has been converted into a metal (and it's huge)
This really could change everything. At least, a lot of things.
It could theoretically revolutionise technology, making super-computers and high-speed levitating trains possible. It will improve the performance of anything that uses electricity and even make outer space exploration easier.
More than 80 years after scientists first predicted it in 1935, researchers at Harvard University have finally been able to convert hydrogen into a metallic form.
But there is one catch. Scientists are yet to test hydrogen in this new state, and find out whether it is stable at normal temperatures. Only then can its full potential be realised.
“This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics,” Harvard University professor Isaac Silvera, who made the discovery with Ranga Dias, says in the video above. “It’s the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen on Earth, so when you’re looking at it, you’re looking at something that’s never existed before.”
The Harvard professors have published their findings in an article in Science.