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[dragdeler]

I have been thinking recently they should actually be turning stuff into charcoal and filling old mines or something like that. But you're just going to be tempted to burn the coal sooner or later. We got it from the moors why not pump it back into the moors, heh.

[anewaname]

Artificial-bog industries... I bet someone has looked into it.

[Great Order]

I have been thinking recently they should actually be turning stuff into charcoal and filling old mines or something like that. But you're just going to be tempted to burn the coal sooner or later. We got it from the moors why not pump it back into the moors, heh.

Bonus, if society collapses we'll have that store of energy dense material to kick start the industrial revolution again!

[Loud Whispers]

I have been thinking recently they should actually be turning stuff into charcoal and filling old mines or something like that. But you're just going to be tempted to burn the coal sooner or later. We got it from the moors why not pump it back into the moors, heh.

It'd have to be some place deep and lifeless. Cos it's been an old truth that smashed up charcoals and ash mixed into soil are super good for enriching the soil with carbon, encouraging the kind of bacteria and plant growth that kinda defeats the point of being a "carbon sink" that encourages the release of carbon already stored in the soil. Might be a decent alternative to agrochems tho. Like imagine vineyards or orange plantations making their own organic fertilisers

[wierd]

I had considered "solar sintered glass entrapment" in sealed saggar crucibles several times.

When done under hermetic conditions, the environment inside the kiln rapidly depletes all available oxygen, and the carbon cannot turn into CO2, and instead "Just melts" and mixes with the glass. This should produce a geologically stable form of carbon that is mechanically sequestered, and the energy to perform the process can come from low-tech, inexpensive solar sources.

Doing this with human garbage (specifically, plastic wastes, but the chemistry shouldn't care too much about other organic impurities in the waste stream) could in theory resolve a number of ecological and economic problems all at once, but good luck getting the funding to start a pilot waste disposal operation.

the NIMBY folks will swear to heaven and back that the resulting black glass causes cancer and disruptions to their orgone responses, or some other nonsense.

To work correctly, the glass must melt below 400C, which means a high-soda glass, but there are numerous ways to accomplish that.

[Loud Whispers]

I had considered "solar sintered glass entrapment" in sealed saggar crucibles several times.

When done under hermetic conditions, the environment inside the kiln rapidly depletes all available oxygen, and the carbon cannot turn into CO2, and instead "Just melts" and mixes with the glass. This should produce a geologically stable form of carbon that is mechanically sequestered, and the energy to perform the process can come from low-tech, inexpensive solar sources.

Doing this with human garbage (specifically, plastic wastes, but the chemistry shouldn't care too much about other organic impurities in the waste stream) could in theory resolve a number of ecological and economic problems all at once, but good luck getting the funding to start a pilot waste disposal operation.

the NIMBY folks will swear to heaven and back that the resulting black glass causes cancer and disruptions to their orgone responses, or some other nonsense.

To work correctly, the glass must melt below 400C, which means a high-soda glass, but there are numerous ways to accomplish that.

One of the funniest things I've seen from NIMBY was the woman who managed to block a charging port for EVs outside her house then when she got an electric car couldn't get the council to put a charging port outside her house or even in her neighbourhood, citing the stop order she had filed for

[StrawBarrel]

One of the largest eruptions in Earth’s history could have wiped out humans. Here’s how scientists say some survived
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/21/africa/toba-supervolcano-early-human-migration-africa-scn/index.html

“People start to increase the percentage of fish in the diet when Toba comes in. They’re capturing and processing almost four times as much fish (as before the eruption),” he said.

“We think the reason for that is because if Toba is in fact, creating more aridity, that means it’s going to be a shorter wet season, which means longer dry season.”

The team theorized that the drier climate, counterintuitively, explains the increased reliance on fish: As the river shrank, fish were trapped in water holes or shallower streams that hunters could more easily target.

Blue vs. green corridor
The fish-rich water holes may have potentially created what the team described as a “blue corridor,” along which early humans moved north out of Africa once they were depleted of fish. This theory contradicts most other models that suggest that humanity’s main migration out of Africa took place along “green corridors” during humid periods.

“This study … demonstrates the great plasticity of Homo sapiens populations and their ability to adapt easily to any type of environment, whether hyper-humid or hyper-arid, including during catastrophic events such as the hyper-explosion of the Toba volcano,” said Ludovic Slimak, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Toulouse, in an email. Slimak was not involved in the research.

John Kappelman's study does sound like it presents an interesting theory regarding human migration.

[Duuvian]

Whoa this stuff sounds like some kind of unobtainium except it turns out that it is not
Megapykrete
https://thedebrief.org/biomolecular-engineers-create-entirely-new-class-of-materials-with-unique-properties-called-glassy-gels/

Spoiler: Chunks from the article (click to show/hide)

“We’ve created a class of materials that we’ve termed glassy gels, which are as hard as glassy polymers, but – if you apply enough force – can stretch up to five times their original length rather than breaking,” said Michael Dickey, corresponding author of a paper on the work and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State. “What’s more, once the material has been stretched, you can get it to return to its original shape by applying heat.”

“Creating glassy gels is a simple process that can be done by curing it in any type of mold or by 3D printing it,” says Dickey. According to the researchers, this ease of creation means that their material is not only versatile but could also end up being cheaper than current industrial methods.

“A key thing that distinguishes glassy gels is that they are more than 50% liquid, which makes them more efficient conductors of electricity than common plastics that have comparable physical characteristics,” explained Meixiang Wang, co-lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at NC State.

The researchers also say that the surface of their glassy gels is highly adhesive, which is unusual for hard materials. Oddly, they still don’t know why their glassy gels are so adhesive.

“Maybe the most intriguing characteristic of the glassy gels is how adhesive they are,” says Dickey. “Because while we understand what makes them hard and stretchable, we can only speculate about what makes them so sticky.”

Also interesting is the fact that although the glassy gels can contain as much as 60% water in some cases, they don’t dry out or evaporate.

“Considering the number of unique properties they possess, we’re optimistic that these materials will be useful,” Wang says.

[Duuvian]

This stuff is pretty cool. There was some sort of sensor or something that was listed as a limitation to some sort of uber tech I keep reading about in these Debrief articles. It was vulnerable to interference due to being sensitive. I can't recall what it was for, maybe astronomy.

https://thedebrief.org/scientists-invent-ultrathin-film-that-protects-electronics-by-absorbing-electromagnetic-radiation/

It appears to be a composite involving carbon nanotubes. Now I have a question, science. Will Elmer's Glue stick these nanotubes onto tinfoil or will they fall off onto my shoulder?

[Eric Blank]

If it doesn't, you can sew them on with thread. The holes made shouldn't decrease performance too much.

[McTraveller]

Just watched a video on a claimed "loophole" in Newtonian physics.

None of the YouTube comments mentioned what I am thinking, which is that anything that looks like a paradox is generally due to an ill-formed situation.  Some of the comments talk about discontinuous derivatives and the like, or time reversal symmetry, or Zeno's paradox.

My observation is that the paradox at least as formulated in the video seems to be failing to account for the missing second dimension. It is looking only at accelerations in the "height" direction, but doesn't look at the acceleration in the radial direction. The only way the ball can move radially is if there is a nonzero net force in the radial direction, which doesn't seem to be addressed in the model.  That is, the model seems to be neglecting the normal force of the dome surface and conservation of momentum in the radial direction in general.

Maybe it's just a failure in the presentation of the video?

EDIT: the idea is "Norton's Dome" if you want to look it up.

EDIT 2: I also have a problem with the description of the alternate solution to the equations, because it is a piecewise equation and had a step discontinuity in the snap when the mass starts moving. There's no explanation for why this is sensible. That is, there is a claim the solution is physical, but the only way acceleration can change over time is with nonzero higher-order terms. So what causes the snap at the discontinuity?

[Duuvian]

I didn't watch the video and I stopped mathing when the Community College had me taking classes I did passably in high school and never saw again, so I can't help you there. It seems like it's likely not taking something into account somehow from the stuff I read about it. Does atomic level stuff have differening ability to balance? Without looking up proper terminology and to infuriate my science teachers I was wondering if the spinny bits were in some sort of balanced pattern such as a gyroscope if such motion has an effect at that level. Also if it's somehow related to gravitational force, I've read about ways to generate a gravitational force recently; I'm not sure if the conjecture argument is based on natural gravity but perhaps if the rule isn't "one standard" for gravitational pull the genrated gravity perhaps could be generated to have a desirable property for the balance so that it would be a steadier force to use for the purpose. I clearly don't know much about that though. If some kind of influence by a reverse time flow is the cause of the difficulty in balancing if I understood the conjecture correctly that would be neat though. These two already taught me that!

Science Breakthrough! Quantum tier internet!! Now to figure out how to THROTTLE IT SO MY STEAM TAKES FOREVER
https://thedebrief.org/major-quantum-teleportation-breakthrough-achieved-using-crowded-internet-cables/

[Duuvian]

A groundbreaking invention that produces fuel from thin air could transform atmospheric carbon dioxide from a threat into a potentially valuable resource.
https://thedebrief.org/breakthrough-solar-system-makes-fuel-from-thin-air-transforming-pollution-in-to-power/

Spoiler: From the article (click to show/hide)

According to the researchers, a semiconductor powder “absorbs the ultraviolet radiation to start a chemical reaction” that converts the captured CO2 into a synthesis gas (or “syngas”). A combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, syngas can be used as a precursor to traditional fuels or as its own combustible fuel.

Syngas is metal! Hydrogen and Cardon Monboxides rule...

It does sound like it would be more useful than pumping underground and I think sometimes paying rent for the facilities for a long time.

Spoiler: From the article (click to show/hide)

In the study outlining the technology, the researchers emphasized the significant benefits of their process over energy generation using fossil fuels. The team also notes that by capturing atmospheric CO2 without added energy input beyond the power of the sun, their device offers a powerful new approach to reducing the increasing levels of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere that doesn’t involve simply storing away the CO2 for future generations.

[martinuzz]

Now the question is, is it more efficient than just growing plants for biofuel, and how environmentally damaging is mining for the resources to create this artificial plant?

[Starver]

Sounds like the long-known process of taking water (...because you clearly also need hydrogen) and carbon-dioxide to produce basic hydrocarbons, which is one of the ways that rocket fuel is going to be created on Mars, etc.

Didn't see enough detail to see if it was a new approach. And, effectively, is what plants do (including after they get buried and compressed/heated in sediment), and can be considered equivalent to trickle-charged solar battery storage for when you need a burst of energy later.