Hydrogen gas squeezed at tremendous pressures has transformed into a
metal in the laboratory. So say a pair of scientists in Germany, whose
bold claim is being met with skepticism.

Many scientists have tried to make metallic hydrogen since its
existence was first predicted in 1935. The exotic substance is thought
to form at high pressures, such as those in Jupiter’s core. It may be
a superconductor at room temperature, useful for making wires that
carry electricity with little loss of current. And NASA hopes to one
day put it to work as a rocket fuel that would be more powerful than
anything around today.

“Making metallic hydrogen is often considered the Holy Grail for
high-pressure physics,” says Mikhail Eremets, a physicist at the Max
Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, who with Ivan Troyan
reported the results online November 13 in Nature Materials.

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