Q: How does hydrogen turn into a metal? A: Hang on a second, I need to train my AI supercomputer first

Scientists have trained a neural network on a supercomputer to simulate how hydrogen turns into a metal, an experiment impossible to reproduce physically on Earth. Under extreme pressures and high enough temperatures – such as in the cores of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – hydrogen enters a strange phase. The electrons normally bound to its nuclei are free to move, and they collectively whiz around to conduct electricity, a common property in metals. The physics behind the process is difficult to study. Attempting to replicate the conditions inside those planet cores here on Earth is pointless – the sheer amount of energy required is impractical.