17 Jun Space Crystals Needed for Magic Items
Space Crystals Needed for Magic Items
Believe it or not, scientists in white lab coats really do grow crystals to make electronics that are so advanced they seem like magic, and near perfect geometric mineral creations are now required for even more rapid calculations and energy transmutations. Today scientists need crystals grown in space.
All Semiconductors Use Different Types of Synthetic Crystals
Electricity and crystals were made for each other, and this fundamental truth was first noticed by ancient writers long before either of these two concepts were fully isolated or understood; gemstones were magic.
Crystals and Ancient Magic
Theophrastus in 381 BC had in his possession a magic gemstone called Lyngourian which would attract bits of straw and dust when it was heated. Today we believe the stone was made of amber, which isn’t a gem at all, but fossilized tree sap. Amber was the first precious stone noted in human history, and has been used as a healing stone and protective amulet for at least 7000 years. This is probably because amber becomes electrically charged when rubbed vigorously with cloth or fur, causing it to attract small particles. Archeological evidence found alongside its presence in burial mounds suggests that it was an object of wonder for ancient man.
Tourmaline is a Piezoelectric Crystal
The gem called tourmaline has also long been considered magical; its electrical properties seem to manifest themselves in the strangest situations including during electrical storms and when heated, or in one famous case, by the action of a cotton curtain rubbing a fist sized stone to make static discharge that rippled blue light up the white fabric. The occurrence was documented in 1800s London by gem collectors and it did scare the living daylights out of the original homeowners who must have believed the rock to be possessed by spirits trying to burn down their house.
Piezoelectric crystals are transducers which convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. So that means if they are physically squeezed they will make a voltage.
Piezoelectric Ceramic Transducers are used in Sonar Fishfinders
Certain piezoelectric crystals will vibrate when electrified, and they make sound which is a type mechanical energy. The ping of sonar is what you hear when piezoelectric crystals turn electricity into sound. We don’t use sonar in our everyday lives, but might own a TV remote control or a fishfinder that uses piezo crystals, and both of these contrivances are rather magical gadgets that are made with lead zirconate titanate crystals grown by white coated lab workers.
The use of piezoelectric materials to harvest mechanical power is becoming more popular these days.
Piezoelectric materials harness a crystalline ability to transform mechanical strain energy into electrical charge. Piezo elements are being embedded in public walkways to recover the people power of thousands of footsteps. Some sensational European nightclubs use piezo energy harvesting pressure plates under the dance floor to electrify their strobe lights and complimentary sound systems. The club owners advertise the gimmick as people powered dance parlours, and its quite a show when the errant force of hundreds of people pounding on piezoelectric lined dance floor affects music and sound. A famous exercise gym in Portland Oregon is powered by a combination of piezoelectric weight machines and generators applied to stationary bikes.
What are the Magic Products of the Future?
Piezo electric crystal insoles will cushion new running shoes to recover energy spent walking and use it to charge devices and illuminate clothing, or perhaps someday it will power an invisibility cloak! Already today there are energy harvesting backpacks http://gearjunkie.com/piezoelectric-pack with straps that contain piezoelectric crystals to produce enough power to charge GPS devices, headlamps, a cell phone, or an iPod Nano inside the pack, while on the go.
Most piezoelectric sources produce very small amounts of power, but better crystals and more knowledge and engineering science could see them become much better power sources, recovering some of the huge amounts of energy we spend simply moving every day.
Crystals grown in space will be the next big step toward improving semiconductors for use in next-generation communication systems, more advanced computers, a fusion power propulsion engines.
The Space Shuttle Program Grew Low Gravity Protein Crystals in 1992
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11536985
Protein crystal growth aboard the U.S. space shuttle flights STS-31 and STS-32 showed very promising results. The report states that the “…results from these missions indicated that the microgravity grown crystals for a number of different proteins were larger, displayed more uniform morphologies, and yielded diffraction data to significantly higher resolutions than the best crystals of these proteins grown on earth.”
Certain semiconductor alloy crystals which are special blends of germanium and silicon must be grown in space because the crystals simply won’t form in Earth’s gravity. These advanced crystals will be used to make magical products like self-charging cell phones and personal conveyance devices that never need fuel – the stuff of magic.