Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Today’s Test Tubes

August 1, 1997

Picture that icon of science, the test tube. Now forget it-or at least envision it as a vastly smaller and differently shaped vessel that is leading to a much faster, more organized, and less expensive way to develop drugs, agrichemicals, and advanced materials.

The square-inch grid shown here contains 128 troughs-new-wave test tubes-filled with varying combinations of metallic oxides that scientists examined for their ability to form high-temperature superconductors. A research team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, led by physicist Xiao-Dong Xiang and chemist Peter Schultz, used a gun-like mechanism to deposit the chemicals. After applying heat to mix and stabilize them, the scientists lowered a plate with 128 probes to test which compounds showed negligible electrical resistance at certain temperatures-an indication of potential superconductivity.

In a process known as combinatorial chemistry, scientists are using such grids to assemble and evaluate large numbers of permutations of compounds at one time. To continue their research, for example, Xiang and his colleagues created one-inch grids with 1,024 troughs earlier this year.

This photograph, which shows molecular combinations diffracting light like paints in a miniature watercolor palette, was taken by Felice Frankel, artist-in-residence at MIT’s Edgerton Center. Her forthcoming book On the Surface of Things (Chronicle Books, 1997) will include a similar image, among many other photographs, and text by George Whitesides, a Harvard University professor of chemistry.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.