ScienceDaily (July 20, 2011) — A violation of one of the oldest empirical laws of physics has been observed by scientists at the University of Bristol. Their experiments on purple bronze, a metal with unique one-dimensional electronic properties, indicate that it breaks the Wiedemann-Franz Law. This historic discovery is described in a paper published July 20 in Nature Communications.
Apparatus from the original 1853 paper in which the Wiedemann-Franz Law was first established. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Bristol)
New fundamental discoveries are being made in physics every day! Not that we'll be covering the Wiedemann-Franz Law in class, but it's still fascinating when these kinds of discoveries are made. 150 years is a LONG time in science!
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