clhs sciblog

A team of researchers lead by Toronto chemistry and physics professor R.J. Dwayne Miller has demonstrated that gold gets harder, not softer, when heated to high temperatures. The scientists heated the gold at greater than one billion degrees per second. Mr. Miller stated “The gold was heated at rates too fast for the electrons absorbing the light energy to collide with surrounding atoms and lose energy.” Then, he went on to say “This means the electrons are on average further away from the atomic nucleus and there is less screening of the positive nuclear charge by these heated electrons. The bonds between atoms actually got stronger.” Click Here to read more