For nearly 100 years, scientists have dreamed of turning the lightest of all the elements, hydrogen, into a metal. Harvard scientists claim to have created metallic hydrogen in a paper they published in Science. The astonishing feat could revolutionise space flight and technology, while this stunning act of alchemy means it is the first sample of metallic hydrogen on earth. Metallic hydrogen could theoretically revolutionise technology, enabling the creation of super-fast computers, high-speed levitating trains and ultra-efficient vehicles and dramatically improving almost anything involving electricity. And it could also allow humanity to explore outer space as never before.
But the prospect of this bright future could be at risk if the scientists’ next step – to establish whether the metal is stable at normal pressures and temperatures – fails to go as hoped. Professor Isaac Silvera, who made the breakthrough with Dr Ranga Dias, said: “This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics.
“It’s the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen on Earth, so when you’re looking at it, you’re looking at something that’s never existed before.”

source: Independent.co.uk