Here's an interesting discovery. One of those serendipitous things and "... the first time since the 1920s that anyone has discovered a new electrical form of solid material,”
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Scientists in Denmark have made a curious and awesome discovery - cooled down, solid laughing gas can contain an enormous electric field.
The discovery occurred when physicists at Aarhus University were observing how electrons travel through nitrous oxide, or 'laughing gas', frozen to minus 233 degrees Celsius. When brought down to this temperature, the gas formed a thin, solid film, about one tenth of a micron thick, hovering over a strip of gold..."
"It was supposed to be a routine experiment, but the team soon realised something was amiss. A potential of around 14.5 volts appeared spontaneously on the film, which in turn produced an enormous electrical field of more than 100 million volts per metre. Based on widely accepted notions in physics, there should have been no electric current whatsoever...."
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
- Isaac Asimov"
