Artificial Black Hole Created in Chinese Lab

cool. that's a great innovation can't wait 'til they're mass produced

Me neither i cant wait till some idiot tries to make a larger one and ends up destroying a few hundred miles of the Earth's surface.

so this could be a new way to use stoves.

uses no electricity or gas

perhaps stronger ones could be used in vaccuums

and eventually artificial graviy on space stations.

Brilliant

Actually, there appears to be an error in this article. Other sources say that only microwaves where used, not all electromagnetic radiation. However, that makes this black hole only slightly less cool. If they can develop this for all electromagnetic radiation then not only could this be used to harvest said radiation but also as a means to shield spacecraft from harmful rays, at least of some types. Do gamma rays and alpha rays constitute electromagnetic radiation?

Xiong_Weilun - gamma radiation is electomagnetic. It's up there above x-rays. There isn't any higher energy electromagnetic radiation above gamma.

Alpha radiation isn't electomagnetic. It is high energy helium nuclei.

... and to be complete. Beta radiation is high energy elctrons and/or positrons (anti electrons).

There is no error. The author doesn't say that the device is currently capable of absorbing all wavelengths of the EM spectrum. The author did suggest that this device could do so in the future and offered a simple potential use for this technology.

gamma rays are electromagnetic, alpha rays are actually alpha particles (which have mass); so gamma rays should get absorbed, but not alpha particles.

The article misrepresents: title "Artificial Black Hole..." then it says "unlike a regular black hole..."; therefore, the artificial black hole is not really a black hole, since it can't trap mass; you can call it EMBH (ElectroMagnetic Black Hole). If you look at it, a regular antenna is a "black hole", one that can only "absorb" certain frequencies/wavelengths and turn them into electrons. You can also hypothesize GBH (Gravitational Black Holes), one that trap mass, but not electromagnetic rays. And you can have GEMBH (Gravitational/ElectroMagnetic Black Holes), which are the one in space that suck everything in.

Applications: Can the EMBH be used as a ultimate antenna to absorb large/entire telecommunications spectrum? Set it up around a building as a security to absorb spy's eavesdropping rays? Can we use EMBH as a absorbent of nuclear waste radiation, and turn the waste into heat/electricity? On the battlefield, use EMBH as a protection from nuclear explosion? What if you face two EMBH at each other, and then drop an electron in the middle? I guess the electron would stand still? Maybe two EMBH facing each other would create some kind of "wormhole"/"tunnel" between them?

Lots of questions. Ok, students, write some dissertations.

At least EMBH turn rays into heat; what would GBH turn mass into? Would GBH grow in size and out of control?

wait.....if it absorbs "all the electromagnetic radiation you throw at it" ...... how'd they take a picture of it?

The nuclear shielding potential for this, if it works as advertised, is so fantastic, and more than that, could something like this be used as a magnetic monopole? If even one of these answers is yes, the world will owe the Chinese a debt we can hardly repay.

maybe we can use it to absorb/eliminate our $10trillion+ debt.

then again, mom said if it sounds too good to be true...

Do the scientist students that made it still oscillate at 14 rads? This is so extreme that an extreme test will have to be performed, or just call it disinformation. Someone who says it can operate as stated stands in a room with a fatally toxic lump of material on the other side of this thing, and if it's real, he walks out and is Geiger tested, with the source and the test provided by MIT or something like that.

I am sure i have one of those in my garage already somewhere.. in fact, it resembles the inner workings of a speaker i took apart when i was 12!

Next, i totally expect this thing to be integrated into a robot toy for kids!

Here son, Play with this! It is the NEW "De-construction" set!! HA

Something's wrong with this picture! The disk is NOT black and featureless. If it were a black body radiator as claimed it should reflect no light and therefore appear totally black. It simply absorbs microwave radiation and little else.

Black Hole. Made in China

Nevermind the one that was already created in the US. BOILER UP!

www.newscientist.com/article/dn17980-black-hole-for-light-created-on-earth.html

"absorbs all the electromagnetic radiation you throw at it"

Author: did you intend "all" here to mean "100% of", or, "energy from the full spectrum, but not 100%/completely absorbed"...

Obviously the latter since the picture reveals reflected visible light...

Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
Do not let journalists write science articles please.

Just dont put your fingers inside it, it wont be nice...

Sharp sowrd, short temper, any questions?

the words 'black hole' in this report is misleading.

all this does is convert light into heat.

"These discs don't destroy the energy of the trapped light, and emit heat when trapping ambient radiation. That means these metamaterial black holes could serve as the basis for solar panels that capture every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum."

go to newscientist, popsci sucks.

This is not a gravitational black hole (which certainly would be a bad idea to place in your back pocket - assuming it didn't EAT YOUR HAND whilst placing it there). It IS a neat disc that has surface features that trap energy aimed directly at it. There are definitely a number of applications where this could be useful, but it is not going to destroy fingers or hundreds of square miles.

OMG, well it's not a black hole, of course. And, if it could absorb all light then it might look, well, black of course. Lastly, it's no trick to turn light into heat so the fact that it is 'artificial' means nearly nothing.

From the looks of it, I bet I could go into my yard and find a black rock with as impressive specs, ha.

THAT SAID, I feel bad for the actual scientists who apparently.. did.. something? But was completely lost in translation?

Shame on the article author for not showing at least some scientific common sense.

"That means these metamaterial black holes could serve as the basis for solar panels that capture every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. And do so near-perfectly, to boot."

Nice leap.

Seriously, who writes this stuff? And sadly, who actually believes it?

Could that clear out the radiation in nuclear waste?

ya, aerosphere, that was my first hope, too, but no. and no word on the efficiencies they are reaching, which you would think mates this device to certain applications, but not others, depending on levels of energies needed by type, thermal to kinetic, etc..

yay!!! buy your own pocket sized black hole! only $10^29 dollars! buy now! supplies are limited! call in now. great gift for people that want to be converted into hawking radiation!

perhaps we should use it to get rid of nuclear waste?

Totaly useless until some solid numbers come out. What if for every hour it only produced .000005 wats? Until solid numbers it is only a prototype and those only have potential, not applications.

sience it dont destroy the light it exorbes ti could direct it at anything at the center of the disk.
that leads me to believe that the level of light will greatly icrease unless exorbed by another object.
so maybe if the light keep accumilating and all that energy stays in one place thaeir could be an explosion.

With out explaining myself or giving reason, I will just say I don't believe it.

Instead of calling it a blackhole as IT IS NOT a blackhole, it should be termed as 'radiation storage' material. But then as this was made in a chicom university who knows if its even a true.

Instead of calling it a blackhole as IT IS NOT a blackhole, it should be termed as 'radiation storage' material. But then as this was made in a chicom university who knows if its even a true story or a hoax like big foot.

Wow, that is absolutely brilliant!

RT
www.anonymous.ua.tc

Genius

Ninja suits?

first of all, lets clear the air, radiation absorbtance only applies to electromagnetic radiation not nuclear radiation.

and just because something absorbs all electromagnetic radiation doesn't mean it won't emit any. the definition of black body emitter is that it absorbs all light in all spectrums, and emits all light at all spectrums.

as far as solar energy use, I'm sticking with selective surfaces. If you aren't familiar with selective surfaces, they have different emittance/absorbtance characteristics for different wavelength ranges. They absorb/emit the maximum for the spectrum that the sun operates at (where Temp. of the source is T=5777K and the emittance/absortance is high, but the collector doesn't emit at this temperature), and emits the minimum for the operating range of the solar collector (where temp is usually around T=450K and the emittance/absorption is low, but its ok because there isn't much infra-red radiation from the sun, yet that is all the radiation that a collect would emit). This allows the collectors to maximize how much radiation is absorbed compared to how much is radiated back to the sky.

In case you understood nothing of the paragraph above, absorptance and emittance are usually equal for certain ranges. the absorptance depends on the source termperature (the sun) while the emittance depends on the surface temperature. Since the sun emits in one range, and the collector emits in another range, minimizing emittance in the surface's range, while maximizing in the sun's range produces a nearly ideal absorber

as for the reason why you can see the "black hole"; for one, its not a "black hole" its mislabled. its merely a device that can absorb electromagnetic radiation at any part of the spectrum (no ever said it wouldn't EMIT any radiation now did they?) so that is why you can see it.

oh yeah, it doesn't store energy either, it turns it into heat, just like anything left in the sun, it gets hot, and it won't explode

Read the specs guys. EM radiation is only absorbed when incident in the radial direction. Its not a gravitational black hole, and it won't absorb nuclear radiation. It doesn't destroy any energy, it just traps it and converts it to thermal energy. We can see a picture of it because we are viewing it at an angle; it only acts like a EM black hole when viewed straight on in the radial dimension. It is, though, a very cool device and a very cool concept which could definitely lead to solar tech breakthroughs. The ability to absorb all wavelengths can be very useful in trying to harness as much solar energy as possible in one device. Think of it as a coil of fiber optic cable, except it will carry all wavelengths, not just the visible spectrum, and the EM radiation can't get out once it gets in.

could this type of device be used as a front end for the megabuck accelerators, giving them their photons that they need to create their optically pumped beam, if not the electron induction they need to charge the tube? Any savings on those projects would be a plus, finding a way that they would not have to be tied to the grid for anything other than safety would be optimal.

So if a soldier wore a lot of those on his uniform, especially after dark, would he become invisible?

If your house were covered with them in the wintertime, and if they could be reversed in the summer, would they increase the heat in your house when you need it, and decrease it when you need that?

It sure would be nice if folks stayed on topic instead of bringing up the completely irrelevant -- to this article -- U.S. national debt (for example).

Though not myself a scientist,even I could figure out (in a few milliseconds) that the title is indeed misleading. I don't know which of the proposed names by others is most accurate, but clearly this isn't the same thing as a star-eating black hole around the cosmos.

It does sound as if this device has the potential to be part of an energy storage and/or energy generating system. Another commenter here made the point that some hard numbers are needed, especially concerning conversion rates, if we want to look at this in terms of solar power. After all, if it's going to take a miles-square area covered in these discs to power just my tv or laptop, thanks, but no thanks.

Another contributor commented that since this is coming out of China -- "chicom" is outdated Cold War terminology, by the way, so for you youngsters, it's shorthand for "Chinese Communist" -- we can't be sure the thing even really exists, much less what its performance characteristics may be. As an American who lived in China a number of years (teaching in universities) and who was married a number of years to a "chicom" from Beijing, I can say a question mark does tend to hang over claims coming out of mainland China's laboratories when those claims are for revolutionary change, not merely incremental.

That said, China is on the rise in certain fields, including in developing energy, so research into creating a disk like this one does fit in. They also are pouring huge amounts into their education system in an attempt to have a least a few truly world-class universities, including in the form of sending students to the MIT's of the world so they can return to take up posts. In other words, the cream-of-the-cream going home to in turn teach some of the cream-of-the-cream, but teach them locally (and, thus, far less expensively). As one who has taught some of the best and brightest in China, albeit in the humanties, not in engineering or science, I can attest to the fact there are plenty of very, very bright Chinese who can stack up against anyone, anywhere. So, it's not correct to deride their intellectual capabilities simply because they're Chinese, or chicom, or whatever other meant-to-be-a-slur one wishes to call them.

BTW, I'm *not* an ABC -- "American Born Chinese." In fact, I'm a TBC -- m"Texas Born Caucasian"!

Octomom APPROVES!

".. lock up light for good." Hmmm, I guess it isn't working since they were able to take a photograph of it. Perhaps it isn't 'turned on'? Where do the batteries go?

They at least should have spray painted it black.... hehe