Deuterium is a type of atom that is similar to hydrogen but has an extra particle in its nucleus. It is sometimes called "heavy hydrogen" because it is slightly heavier than regular hydrogen.
Deuterium is often used in scientific research and as a fuel for nuclear fusion reactions.
Full definition
Using a Cameca NanoSIMS 50L multicollector ion microprobe at Carnegie, the researchers measured the amount
of deuterium in the samples compared to the amount of regular hydrogen.
Drosophila appears able to recognize the presence of
deuterium in odorant isotopomers by a vibrational mechanism [12].
The team succeeded by using deuteration, or the substitution of
deuterium atoms for hydrogen atoms, to study how hydroxyl is produced.
The particles carry up to 30 times as much of the hydrogen
isotope deuterium as typical terrestrial materials.
Mainstream fusion power schemes fuse hydrogen isotopes
called deuterium and tritium to make helium nuclei, releasing large amounts of energy in the process.
They concluded that this excess energy could not have come from any electrochemical process but must have resulted from the fusion of
deuterium nuclei.
This will be done
using deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to identify the structural characteristics and conformational rigidity of nucleosomes assembled from 1) CENP - A, 2) histone H3 or 3) histone H3 carrying the centromere targeting domain of CENP - A.
Researchers used a multicollector ion microprobe to study hydrogen -
deuterium ratios in lunar rock and on Earth.
Inside is a polished beryllium sphere measuring 2 millimetres across (bottom centre), which
contains deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen.
Carbon can come as one of two isotopes (carbon - 12 or carbon - 13); hydrogen can also take two forms, including
as deuterium — an isotope of hydrogen with one extra neutron.
In a recent paper in Science Express (19 June, 2008) Stevensen et al. estimate
from deuterium isotopes in Greenland ice cores a the rise in about 4 degrees C at the Youngest dryas took place over a few years!
This is a schematic image of trapped electron instability and the mechanism for the suppression of turbulence in
deuterium plasma.
But the amount of radioactive waste that is produced
by deuterium - tritium fusion is so much less than from a fission reactor that it's got to be a better solution for producing energy.
New insights into Southern Hemisphere temperature changes from Vostok ice cores using
deuterium excess correction.
Nuclear reactors often use
deuterium oxide to control reactions, because the liquid slows down neutrons without capturing many.
Burke's research takes an innovative approach by combining several sophisticated biophysical and biochemical techniques, including hydrogen -
deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimetry and functional assays.
Limiting the amount of cool
deuterium at the edge of the plasma reduces the difference in temperature between the hot plasma center and the cooler edge, and reduces turbulence.
By
fusing deuterium and tritium, ITER should generate more energy than it consumes
The original branch of the field focuses on infusing
deuterium into a palladium electrode by turning on the power, Nagel explains.
Because there tends to be
more deuterium further from the sun, each possible source of lunar water should give a different ratio.
Tom, is your objection that the ice core is 600000 years old, or do you object to the reconstruction of temperature based
on deuterium?
CE: The big bang
produced deuterium 3 — 20 minutes after the universe began, 13.8 billion years ago.
The catastrophic collapse of these bubbles heats the deuterated acetone to the point at
which deuterium atoms collide and fuse, the authors argue.
The sun has a much lower
deuterium concentration than our oceans, suggesting that much of Earth's water comes directly from the initial pre-solar cloud.
Most hydrogen atoms consist of a proton and an electron, but some also boast a neutron,
forming deuterium.
The experiments showed that the ability of ultrathin lithium films to
retain deuterium drops as the temperature of the molybdenum substrate rises — a result that provides insight into how lithium affects the performance of tokamaks.
The Dome C temperature anomaly record with respect to the mean temperature of the last millennium8 (based on original
deuterium data interpolated to a 500 - yr resolution), plotted on the EDC3 timescale13, is given as a black step curve.
To test the idea, Shchepinov and colleagues substituted
deuterium for regular hydrogen in two essential dietary fatty acids and introduced them into yeast cells.
Because comets formed so far from the sun, they tend to have
high deuterium / hydrogen ratios — much higher ratios than in the moon's interior, where the samples in this study originated.
The chondrites had significantly
less deuterium than comets, the team found, «so they probably formed closer in to the sun», says Alexander.
Two other companies, Energy Matter Conversion Corp. (EMC2) and Tri Alpha Energy, are developing reactors that use proton - boron fuel, which requires even higher temperatures than
deuterium does but allows almost direct conversion of fusion into electricity, without boiling water to drive a generator.
For instance, the cost of the fingertip - size «hohlraum,» the target chamber or «oven»
where deuterium and tritium fuel is cooked, was $ 10,000 each.
Amazingly, we can test the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis theory by finding the
primordial deuterium, helium, and lithium that remain today.
When deuterium and helium - 3 fuse, they produce high - energy protons rather than neutrons.
Researchers have long thought that this was because the early solar system violently ripped apart interstellar ice — a richer
deuterium source that dates to before the formation of our sun — and then reformed it as water.
Any planets that formed would have water made with
deuterium instead of hydrogen, which is toxic to life in our universe.
There is no question that small differences do exist
between deuterium and hydrogen compounds.
We have a general idea of what's generating the heat, but the details —
how deuterium nuclei get together to fuse — have yet to be resolved.