New type of material that heat can't bloat.(Physics)(metallic compound)(Brief Article) From: Science News | Date: November 1, 2003 | COPYRIGHT 2003 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Most substances expand when warmed. That can be bad, especially in devices such as precision telescopes, whose components must maintain their shapes across a wide temperature range. Now, scientists have discovered a metallic compound that nixes thermal expansion by what appears to be an unprecedented mechanism.

Mercouri G. Kanatzidis and his colleagues at Michigan State University in East Lansing created the compound by heating a mixture of equal parts of ytterbium, gall...