Sourceofarticles.com Menu
Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
Sourceofarticles.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup
Search the articles

Articles Main Categories
Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing
Subscribe
Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter your name

Enter your email

Syndicate

















Related Products
Computer Programming for Geographers, David J. Unwin, J
US $2.73
End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 12:33:03 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $2.73
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Lladro Boy w/ Kitten on His Computer - Programming Pals
US $19.99 (1 Bid)
End Date: Tuesday Dec-02-2008 19:40:27 PST
Bid now | Add to watch list

Instant computer programming in B*A*S*I*C 2nd edition
US $0.99 (0 Bid)
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 2:44:56 PST
Bid now | Add to watch list

NEW BOOK Computer Programming For Teens Farrell, Mary
US $21.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 7:40:13 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $21.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Techniques in Computer Programming, Philip M. Sherman,
US $1.00
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:09:34 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $1.00
Buy it now | Add to watch list

PHP Computer Game Programming Beginners Guide Book NEW
US $6.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:23:17 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $6.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

NEW Computer Game Software Engineering Programming Book
US $9.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:23:49 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $9.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

HUGE Computer Game Programming Tricks Intermediate Book
US $14.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:24:56 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $14.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Computer Game Programming C++ Scripting New Guide Book
US $8.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:26:58 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $8.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Computer Game Programming Beginning C/C++ Book Compiler
US $15.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:27:00 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $15.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Computer Game Interface Programming Design Graphic Book
US $12.99
End Date: Wednesday Dec-03-2008 12:27:02 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $12.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Home::Technology & Science

A cluster of atoms

Author : Khalil A. Cassimally
Imagine a new variety of compounds; compounds that have properties never seen before or simply compounds that have properties more pronounced than those which we already know of at present. It would be really cool. No, in fact it is really cool! Indeed, an entirely new class of compound is on the verge of getting everybody’s attention.

Only some times back, it has been shown that a new division of compounds could exist. A new study now confirms the idea that a cluster of atom of an element, behaves differently from a single atom of the element. It is as if, a new element is being created.

For example, a cluster of 13 aluminium atoms behaves like a halogen (chlorine, bromine, iodine, etc). In addition, the aluminium cluster can react with halogens to form halogen compounds with novel properties!

However a cluster of one more aluminium atom, that is to say, 14 aluminium atoms, will act not like a halogen but rather like an alkaline earth (calcium, barium, etc) atom. And the ions that are hence formed are in fact totally new types of salts! For instance, when the 14 aluminium atom cluster reacts with 3 iodine atoms, an ion with an absolute charge of –3 is formed. Surprisingly this resulting ion is very stable.

The atom cluster thing has also been a source of debate in the scientific community. According to Shiv Khanna, co-leader of the study, the periodic table must be altered to accommodate the clusters or ‘superatoms,’ as he calls them.

How? Simple. Just add a 3rd dimension to the periodic table. The 13 aluminium atom cluster will then be in the same row and column as iodine since it acts more or less like the latter. Only difference is that it will be in a new plane. Same thing for the 14 aluminium atom cluster in the alkaline earth group and for the other ‘superatoms.’

As if the periodic table wasn’t complicated enough! But I guess that it will be even more so if the additions are made. So don’t you dare think that your generation’s college chemistry was hard!

About the Author

Khalil A. Cassimally is currently Senior Columnist at BackWash.com and Columnist for bbc.co.uk h2g2 The Post where he writes 'Not Scientific Science' column.

Related articles


  1. Magicroam low cost calling sim cards in America, Europe, Asia, Caribbean
  2. Endoacustica electronics introduces latest & exciting ranges of spy phones.
  3. Have you done your homework before hiring a limo?
  4. CryptoPhone...! probably the first secure mobile phone.
  5. A Bug that works like a phone: Surveillance Technology goes GSM.
  6. Recording business conversations on the go and unnoticed!
  7. A cellphone or... a spy?
  8. Even Bugs have ears!
  9. Are our kids safe? Technology can lend us a hand.
  10. Thailand: Extending SIM Card Usage
  11. Road Safety and Cell phones
  12. Living Astrology: Declinations Convertor - Astrological technique
  13. How do search engine spiders and robots work?
  14. Treo Accessories - Palm Centro accessories - Treoshack.com
  15. How do you know The Watches Over The Years ?
  16. Why Don't Moths Fly to the Moon?
  17. Pre-empt the Radiation or Die
  18. Traffic Zoology
  19. Glyco Nutrients & Stem Cell Production
  20. A Wake Up Call To The Scientific Community
  21. Alchemy: Turning Rocks to Gold Since the Middle Ages!
  22. How Satellite TV Systems Originated
  23. Tsunami Defined
  24. Why Condition Your Boiler Water?
  25. Get Hot on Combustion
More related feeds
A+cluster+of+atomshttp://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?hl=en&q=A+cluster+of+atoms&ui=blg&ie=utf-8&num=10&output=rssIt's me :): Quantum Theory Demystified!
Had a wild thought of the nightmare I had for my chemistry class in PUC-, with azimutal quantum theory, atoms and molecules and how cluster of atoms form a molecule. And then several of molecules form a mass or matter which we can feel. ...

AlphaGalileo.Org - the Internet-based news centre for European ...
For example, twenty gold atoms form a tetrahedron, a sort of pyramid. The nineteen-atom cluster is a truncated pyramid, which can be formed by cutting off one corner atom from the twenty-atom gold pyramid. The structures have been ...

The Stranger | Slog | A Thanksgiving Morning Brain Teaser
Based on limited high school science, this is what I came up with: The x, y, and z represent how a molecule is configured in space due to the various attractions/repulsions of the atoms and their electrons. The left cluster shows C3H4 ...

News Service: Iowa State University
The defense department has also provided $250000 for a computer cluster featuring high-speed graphical processing units. Gordon's Craig Chair at Iowa State also provided support for the computer cluster. Gordon's work has focused on the ...

SGI Molecule Packs 10000 Atom Cores, One Ton of Awesomeness ...
That's 10000 cores in one single computer, or 40 more times the processing power of your typical 1U x86 cluster node. Is this possible? How do they expect to do this without actually creating a hole full of molten metal and plastic? ...

Looking for info about "cluster orbitals"
The answer is probably not meant to be very elaborate, "Because it is specific for a cluster which differs from a single atom" probably suffices (the question isn't formulated exactly like I wrote before, it is about interpreting a ...

Electronically excited rubidium atom in a helium cluster or film
We present theoretical studies of helium droplets and films doped with one electronically excited rubidium atom Rb (P). Diffusion and path integral Monte Carlo approaches are used to investigate the energetics and the structure of ...

Briarpatch Magazine · Living behind the uranium curtain: The ...
... leukemia in a cluster of European studies. Though nuclear power is promoted as “the peaceful atom,” catastrophic nuclear accidents have and will continue to release radiation equal to nuclear weapons across continents and oceans. ...

Cluster-induced crater formation [arXiv:0810.4242]
Using molecular-dynamics simulation, we study the crater volumes induced by energetic impacts ($v= 1- 250$ km/s) of projectiles containing up to N=1000 atoms. We find that for Lennard-Jones bonded material the crater volume depends ...

Request for Suggestions
I'm looking for work that deals with the following cluster of topics: - politeness - conversational norms/maxims governing conditions of disagreement - conversational norms and sensitivity to differences in power relations ...

 


 

2008 sourceofarticles.com - All Rights Reserved