Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kaian-a-coel]

I, uh, what?
Took me a second to realize I wasn't in the "WTF" thread.
Will look at that.

[Scoops Novel]

There's new strong evidence for a new element with atomic number 115. Here's a article that's taking this as confirmation, http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?news_item=6082&id=24890, and a BBC article to go with it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23849334. How long is it taking us to discover new elements, by the way?

[10ebbor10]

Long

[Scoops Novel]

When was the last time?

[MonkeyHead]

The fact that most large elements have multiple decay chains that are often ever so similar to other large elements makes it very hard to say with certainty what the bits you have left over at the end were when still together.

[Osmosis Jones]

When was the last time?

Livermorium (formerly Ununhexium) was named in 2012, so pretty recently.

[lemon10]

Yeah, its pretty cool cause I am going to school (only community college though) in Livermore, CA right now. I looked at the periodic table in the science lab, and was like "Wait, what? Is that the real name? Cause I am sure it wasn't that last time I saw it."

[kaijyuu]

So, someone made a ball literally disappear.
(see the sidebar/insert thingy labeled "Analysis")

The aim of the experiment was to see what would happen if a microscopic sphere was spun as fast as was technically possible.

The team balanced it on a laser beam in a complete vacuum and then spun it using the light itself.

They saw it spin faster and faster until it reached 600 million rpm - and then it seemed to vanish!

The researchers don't know what happened to the sphere - but one possibility is that the object may have reached some theoretical speed limit - after which it changed in some way.

The next step for the researchers is to discover what became of the object and whether they really have discovered a completely new physical phenomenon.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

God damn it, quit tearing asunder the fabric of the universe!

[ChairmanPoo]

There's new strong evidence for a new element with atomic number 115. Here's a article that's taking this as confirmation, http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?news_item=6082&id=24890, and a BBC article to go with it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23849334. How long is it taking us to discover new elements, by the way?

Elerium!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There's new strong evidence for a new element with atomic number 115. Here's a article that's taking this as confirmation, http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?news_item=6082&id=24890, and a BBC article to go with it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23849334. How long is it taking us to discover new elements, by the way?

Elerium!

No matter what name they give it, I'm calling it Elerium and so should you.

I really, really hope they'll name it that all the same. There's no laws on what you get to name elements.

[Solifuge]

So, someone made a ball literally disappear.
(see the sidebar/insert thingy labeled "Analysis")

Well, it was a very small ball made at the molecular level; small enough that it could be suspended by the force of a laser. I suspect that it was spinning fast enough that the molecules couldn't be held together by molecular forces, and all disintegrated into the vacuum.

However, acceleration of a mass can dilate time relative to other objects, so I'm secretly hoping that as the molecules rotated at closer to relativistic speeds, the particles/object did something weird in time/space.

[kaijyuu]

Yeah, in all likelihood it disintegrated into ions, but we can dream that it crossed dimensions.

[Another]

Official press-release used words "breaking apart".

Quantum friction that they mentioned will be the focus of their research reminds me of Hawking radiation but for momentum.

[Drakale]

Neat test of spaceX grasshopper rocket

http://www.spacex.com/news/2013/08/14/grasshopper-100m-lateral-divert-test

Not groundbreaking, but pretty impressive how a somewhat heavy rocket can land without spending much time and fuel stabilizing it first.