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Pushing Toward Victory

In 1975 Carnegie’s Peter Bell and Ho-Kwang “Dave” Mao used the diamond anvil cell to break the longstanding megabar barrier in high-pressure research.

Revealing the Unseen

Carnegie scientists are innovators when it comes to using high-pressure, high-temperature laboratory techniques to synthesize novel materials and to mimic the conditions found in the depths of our own and other planets.

A material's properties are altered when its surrounding conditions shift. For generations, Carnegie geophysicists and materials scientists have been pushing boudaries—subjecting samples extreme pressures and temperatures to induce structural changes.

Using high-pressure devices, large-volume presses, and novel shock compression techniques, Carnegie researchers mimic planetary interiors in the lab. This can help them understand the potential habitability of distant worlds, particularly the Super-Earths that are so common in other planetary systems.

In conjunction with high-powered computational programs, these same high-pressure tools enable Carnegie scientists to predict and synthesize novel materials with many potential practical applications in the energy, aerospace, and computing sectors.

Related Divisions

Under Pressure

Our researchers examine the fundamental properties of materials under extreme conditions. 

Extreme Environments

We draw on expertise and equipment from a broad swath of plant biologists, cellular and molecular biologists, astrobiologists, geophysicists, and geochemists to answer fundamental questions about our planetary habitability and the origins of life.

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Clathrate synthesis artist's concept

Extreme Materials

Utilizing experimental and theoretical approaches to understand fundamental chemical processes and interactions and to create new and advanced technological and energy-related materials.

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Quartz crystals with a white background.

Mineralogy and Mineral Physics

Investigating the origin and dynamic evolution of Earth and planetary interiors, from their crusts to their cores, and the processes that lead to surfaces capable of supporting life. 

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