Four Revolutions in Diamond Synthesis: The Vindication of Edisonian Chemistry

1997 ◽  
Vol 495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rustum Roy

ABSTRACTCareless claims by scientists are often expanded further by journalists and grossly distort the scientific “truths” passed on to the public and policy maker. Recently, such overclaims have invaded the field of materials synthesis.The real first principles of materials synthesis, based on the work of V.M. Goldschmidt (and Linus Pauling), have proved to be, and continue to be, very successful. By combining such principles with Edison's methodology of careful observation, precise experimentation and rapid feedback, thousands of new (inorganic) phases have been, and continue to be made (since 1948, several hundred from our own laboratory), producing dozens of useful, widely commercialized materials.In contrast, in spite of seventy years of trying, the so-called “first principles” calculations (from the quantum mechanics of cores and electrons) have utterly failed to actually predict and synthesize a single new material or add anything to the deep and reliable insights of well known chemical theories. It is clear that what students and researchers in contemporary materials synthesis need most is a thorough grounding in crystal chemistry and phase equilibria (including metastable equilibria).The history of the “C3N4” failure, as a harder than diamond candidate, is prototypical of the”calculating” approach to synthesis. It is contrasted with short summaries on four recent real advances into completely new processes for diamond synthesis.

Author(s):  
Chris Keith

This book offers a new material history of the Jesus tradition. It shows that the introduction of manuscripts to the transmission of the Jesus tradition played an underappreciated but crucial role in the reception history of the tradition that eventuated. It focuses particularly on the competitive textualization of the Jesus tradition, whereby Gospel authors drew attention to the written nature of their tradition, sometimes in attempts to assert superiority to predecessors, and the public reading of the Jesus tradition. Both these processes reveal efforts on the part of early followers of Jesus to place the gospel-as-manuscript on display, whether in the literary tradition or in the assembly. Building upon interdisciplinary work on ancient book cultures, this book traces an early history of the gospel as artifact from the textualization of Mark in the first century until the eventual usage of liturgical reading as a marker of authoritative status in the second and third centuries and beyond. Overall, it reveals a vibrant period of the development of the Jesus tradition, wherein the material status of the tradition frequently played as important a role as the ideas about Jesus that it contained.


2007 ◽  
Vol 336-338 ◽  
pp. 2517-2520
Author(s):  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Xue Gao ◽  
Jia Xiang Shang ◽  
Xiao Ping Han

First-principles calculations have been widely used to describe the ground state properties of materials over almost 20 years. Recently, a great progress was made in the first-principle calculations. Thermodynamic properties can also be gotten by calculations of the phonon densities of states (phonon DOS) and phonon dispersions of materials, which show widely potential applications in material researches. In the present work, the energetics and bonding properties of interfaces between ZrO2 and Ni metal were given by first-principles calculations. The results show that alloy element impurities (Al, Cr and Y) influence remarkably the adhesion of the ceramic and metal. On the other hand, the phonon densities of states and phonon dispersions of ZrO2 were calculated with density functional perturbation theory. From the phonon DOS, the thermodynamic properties were derived and the phase transformation of ZrO2 was discussed. By this method, the thermodynamic properties of material can be gotten from atom and electron levels without any experiment data. It is a new approach to design and study the thermodynamic properties in new material system.


Author(s):  
Vladimir S. Okolotin

The article is devoted to the study of the activities of enterprises of cooperative and local industry of Ivanovo Region in 1941-1942. for the production of military products and consumer goods. It refl ects the problems of production of products to equip the acting army, as well as meet the needs of the civilian population of the region. Signifi cant attention is paid to the specifi cs of fi nding solutions to solve them. These actions provided not only for the maximum mobilisation of local resources, but also for the development of various forms of socialist competition. The article examines the role of enterprises and the population of the region in the seasonal washing and repair of the Red Army uniforms, shoes, boots, etc. It is noted about the production of explosives and dextrin, as well as the urgent need for the production of consumer goods. In the end, all this worked for the defence of the country and brought closer the defeat of the enemy. The article is based on the materials of the state archive of Ivanovo Region, the Russian state archive of socio-political history, as well as the local periodical press. It summarises new material on the subject of most archival documents are introduced into scientifi c circulation, which allows to expand the knowledge of researchers and the public about the contribution of area residents to the victory over Nazi Germany and its allies. The results of this study may be of interest to specialists in the fi eld of regional economy and the history of War


2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (12) ◽  
pp. 1025-1029
Author(s):  
Min-Wook Oh ◽  
Tae-Gu Kang ◽  
Byungki Ryu ◽  
Ji Eun Lee ◽  
Sung-Jae Joo ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Valentina M. Patutkina

The article is dedicated to unknown page in the library history of Ulyanovsk region. The author writes about the role of Trusteeship on people temperance in opening of libraries. The history of public library organized in the beginning of XX century in the Tagai village of Simbirsk district in Simbirsk province is renewed.


Author(s):  
Bashkim Selmani ◽  
Bekim Maksuti

The profound changes within the Albanian society, including Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia, before and after they proclaimed independence (in exception of Albania), with the establishment of the parliamentary system resulted in mass spread social negative consequences such as crime, drugs, prostitution, child beggars on the street etc. As a result of these occurred circumstances emerged a substantial need for changes within the legal system in order to meet and achieve the European standards or behaviors and the need for adoption of many laws imported from abroad, but without actually reading the factual situation of the psycho-economic position of the citizens and the consequences of the peoples’ occupations without proper compensation, as a remedy for the victims of war or peace in these countries. The sad truth is that the perpetrators not only weren’t sanctioned, but these regions remained an untouched haven for further development of criminal activities, be it from the public state officials through property privatization or in the private field. The organized crime groups, almost in all cases, are perceived by the human mind as “Mafia” and it is a fact that this cannot be denied easily. The widely spread term “Mafia” is mostly known around the world to define criminal organizations.The Balkan Peninsula is highly involved in these illegal groups of organized crime whose practice of criminal activities is largely extended through the Balkan countries such as Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, etc. Many factors contributed to these strategic countries to be part of these types of activities. In general, some of the countries have been affected more specifically, but in all of the abovementioned countries organized crime has affected all areas of life, leaving a black mark in the history of these states.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Pizzocchero ◽  
Matteo Bonfanti ◽  
Rocco Martinazzo

The manuscript addresses the issue of the structural distortions occurring at multiple bonds between high main group elements, focusing on group 14. These distortions are known as trans-bending in silenes, disilenes and higher group analogues, and buckling in 2D materials likes silicene and germanene. A simple but correlated \sigma + \pi model is developed and validated with first-principles calculations, and used to explain the different behaviour of second- and higher- row elements.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Pedersen ◽  
Björn Alling ◽  
Hans Högberg ◽  
Annop Ektarawong

Thin films of boron nitride (BN), particularly the sp<sup>2</sup>-hybridized polytypes hexagonal BN (h-BN) and rhombohedral BN (r-BN) are interesting for several electronic applications given band gaps in the UV. They are typically deposited close to thermal equilibrium by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at temperatures and pressures in the regions 1400-1800 K and 1000-10000 Pa, respectively. In this letter, we use van der Waals corrected density functional theory and thermodynamic stability calculations to determine the stability of r-BN and compare it to that of h-BN as well as to cubic BN and wurtzitic BN. We find that r-BN is the stable sp<sup>2</sup>-hybridized phase at CVD conditions, while h-BN is metastable. Thus, our calculations suggest that thin films of h-BN must be deposited far from thermal equilibrium.


2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (8) ◽  
pp. 232-234
Author(s):  
Patrik Fouvy

The history of the forests in canton Geneva, having led to these being disconnected from productive functions, provides a symptomatic demonstration that the services provided by the forest eco-system are common goods. Having no hope of financial returns in the near future and faced with increasing social demands, the state has invested in the purchase of forest land, financed projects for forest regeneration and improvement of biological diversity and developed infrastructures for visitors. In doing this the state as a public body takes on the provision of services in the public interest. But the further funding for this and for expenses for the private forests, which must be taken into account, are not secured for the future.


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