"You can't tell what will happen, but it's exciting and new," says Eric Eliel, one of Silvera's post-doctoral students.

"It's not important that I specifically create metallic hydrogen, but I do want to do something that requires technical inventivity."

But Silvera hopes his project will pay off. "At normal pressure and temperature, diamonds should return to carbon graphite, but it takes millions of years for it to change back." Silvera says, expressing the hope that metallic hydrogen will act the same way. "There's also an exciting prediction that it will become a liquid, which would give it some amazing properties," he adds.

The scientists admit that there is some competition among research groups around the world to attain the material, but it is a "friendly" battle, they say.

"There's a reasonable amount of competition," Cornell's Ruoff says, adding that the groups hold occasional meetings and seminars to discuss progress and exchange ideas.

"I also have great fun playing basketball with him [Silvers] at the conferences," he adds.

"We think we know what the others are up to," Eliel says, adding. "As far as competition goes, we're making a bigger investment than most groups."

But Silvers still faces several hurdles--and the toughest is creating the necessary several million atmospheres of pressure.

Until recently, it was very difficult to get 100,000 atmospheres, but with the new diamond cell, they can predictably attain at least 1 million atmospheres, Silvers says.

They are currently in the process of constructing the cell and he predicts that--provided his calculations are correct--they may attain the necessary pressure within a year.

"We're dealing with micro-units and the diamonds have to be exactly parallel," he explains, adding that there is also the complication that there is also the complication that the diamonds themselves may be unable to withstand the high pressure.

Silvera began his work on metallic hydrogen while at the University of Amsterdam, where he taught for 11 years until 1982, when he joined the Harvard faculty. He has also worked at the Roskwell International Science Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He received his degree from the University of California at Berkeley