saients

Latest Posts by saients

lab partner: *hands me precisely 1 mole of a substance*

me: *vine voice* an avogadro!!! thanks!!

Why not just buid a solar panel around the sun to solve all energy problemss?

Behold the Dyson Sphere

Dyson sphere is a hypothetical mega-structure that completely encompasses a star and captures most or all of its power output.

Over the years many variants have been explored:

The simplest such arrangement is the Dyson ring, in which all ‘energy harvesting structures’ share the same orbit.

Add multiple Dyson ring structures and you will get a Dyson swarm.

Now what if you didn’t like a consistent orbit for your structures, you could employ a solar sail to continuously modify its orbit( called a statite ).

Such an arrangement would be known as a Dyson Bubble

Then there is the fictionally popular version - The Dyson Shell, where a uniform solid shell of matter just encapsulates the entire star.

And many many more. But you get the gist.

Could there be Dyson Spheres out there?

When scientists were monitoring the brightness from some stars, they found that it fluctuated in some odd ways like so:

                          Brightness v/s time for KIC 8462852

It is common for such dips to occur since when a planet eclipses a star, there would a drop in the brightness observed from the star.

                       Brightness v/s time for a binary star system

But what was baffling was the duration and period of occurrence of these dips.

Although the main line of rationale remains as asteroid impact remnants or interstellar collisions causing these aberrations in data.

But to say that these could the signs of an alien civilization does remain to be the more entertaining interpretation.

Great Question. Thanks for asking !

** For more information. check out this TED talk

Today is a remarkably profound day in American history, and an even more profound day for humankind.

After years of delays for perfection, SpaceX has successfully launched its FALCON HEAVY rocket, defying the force of gravity, and make its way onto an elliptical heliocentric orbit near Mars. The payload - Elon Musk’s personal midnight cherry red Tesla Roaster, with a dummy named Starman wearing a SpaceX space suit in the driver seat, playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity on repeat, with “Don’t Panic” (Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy reference) on the screen. This car is set to orbit for the next billion years, or upon destruction. This car has potential to outlive the Earth.

Now, this launch is utterly profound for too many reasons to list (although I’ll try). First and foremost, this finally begin the tangible reality of the ultimate goal of SpaceX - to make humans an interplanetary species. This rocket has the capability to take humans, to and from Mars. And although this will not be the rocket that does it, it has shown it is possible. Today marked the first move for humans going to Mars from a paper idea, to a pragmatic reality.

Furthermore, SpaceX, as a private company has entirely reconfigured space travel by its stupid-simple innovations. To simply, basically, space travel is expensive. Really expensive. Part of this reason was because the first stage and second stage (the most expensive parts of the rocket) would crash down into the ocean after use, rendering it useless. Essentially, this is like getting a new McLaren F1, to drive from NY to Boston, just to throw it away once finished. Obviously, this is extremely economicaly inefficient. However, no agency has actively sought to fix this problem because it was viewed as incorrectable, and because space travel has been dominanted by government agencies.. and as we know, government agencies spend frivolously and often don’t care about price.

What SpaceX has done to correct this giant problem was devise away to have the first stage booster descend back to Earth, and slowly and surely drop on a pad either on land or on a tracked floating device in the ocean (to understand how preposterous this is, try to imagine a 25 story building, falling from space, landing on a autonomous pad in the ocean that’s the size of a football field). This was LONG declared as impossible by numerous scientists and physicists, but despite the odds, a private company has not only managed to do this, but do successfully over 15 straight times. This was viewed IMPOSSIBLE in early 2016. Today, we viewed two boosters simultaneously land with the Falcon Heavy launch - AND these two boosters that were used today were previously recovered ones from past Falcon 9 missions. For record of how much cheaper this has made space travel:

Nasa Space Shuttle Launch - cost around 500 million

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch - cost around 50 million

The other reason why SpaceX has managed to make space travel 450 MILLION dollars cheaper is because of how it make its products. EVERYTHING IN SPACEX (and Tesla, btw) IS MADE IN HOUSE. Everything. Everything made on American soil, by American workers, IN FUCKING HOUSE. It is of course immensely difficult to build a fucking rocket from scratch, but SpaceX has perfected it. Instead of buying a computer from this company (who has to mark up to get a profit) who gets their mother board from this company (who has to mark up to get a profit) who gets their chips from this company (who has to mark up to get a profit) - everything is made IN house. As a quick example on how expensive mark up prices become after running through a few companies - A mass amount RADIOS for Tesla through a company would normally cost around 100,000 dollars, but when Musk’s team learned how to perfect it for cheaper, they brought thay price way down to 5, 000 dollars. This in house economic principle has made space travel FAR more plausible for the public then we ever could have imagined. And as SpaceX gets better, prices will continue to plummet.

After many stagnant years, there has been little to any innovation in the improvment of space travel. Since 1969 and the Apollo mission to the moon, there has been little for the public to cheer on, with regards to NASA and American space travel. However, SpaceX has given our generation a voice. It has given our generation a profound meaning. Many of us will witness the day when humans set foot on Mars, and many will witness the moment when humans first begin to colonize the red planet. Our generation has something unbelievable to stand behind - not only as a very proud nation, but as a world united. Curiosity and knowledge connects people all over the world, and traveling the cosmos and becoming an interplanetary species will have a uniting effect far greater than any of us can imagine. We are living in a very special time. Days like today will always be remember in American history, demonstrating the amazing capability of determined humans, when curiosity strikes. Lastly, it is also a reminder that many creations today were once rendered as impossible - having a Tesla flying throughout the solar system launched by the most powerful rocket currently in the world is a giant middle finger for all the thousands who have sworn that both Tesla and SpaceX would never ever be able to make it. Both began as startups with a small team of determined workers, both became near bankrupt in 2009, and today, we witness a cherry red Tesla heading into space playing David Bowie to visit the red planet. If that’s not motivating, I don’t know what is.

Cristobalite, Hematite

SiO2, Fe2O3

Locality:

Caspar quarry, Bellerberg volcano, Ettringen, Mayen, Eifel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

An interesting homoepitactic intergrowth from brown and black hematite  

Photo: Michael Förch

Cristobalite is a silica polymorph that is thermodynamically stable only at temperatures above 1470°C, up to the melting point at 1705°C, at atmospheric pressures. It commonly metastably persists or even forms at much lower temperatures in silica-rich volcanic and sedimentary environments. It can form crystals in cavities, probably vapour-deposited, or spherulites in obsidian or other silicic volcanics.

Hematite is rather variable in its appearance - it can be in reddish brown, ocherous masses, dark silvery-grey scaled masses, silvery-grey to black crystals, and dark-grey masses, to name a few. What they all have in common is a rust-red streak.

From the right angle, Saturn’s moon Mimas looks like the Death Star and has a Pac-Man heat signature. Source Source 2

The world’s smallest snowman is only 2.7 microns tall (for comparison, a human hair is 75 microns thick). To create it, scientists stacked 3 tiny silica spheres, added a nose and arms made of platinum, and cut the eyes and mouth with a focused ion beam. Source

Why the fuck would you taste it?!

Yes, sure its fun to see a lady spin around like that, but I had one of my friends ask me - “Where do you even use this mate?”

Here’s one application that I know very well off.

Spin Stabilization

If you have ever seen a rocket launch, you might know that sometimes the rockets are given a spin while launching. This is known as spin stabilization.

Basically, the rotational inertia of the rotating body will stabilize the rocket against any disturbances and help maintain its intended heading.

The same principle is used in rifling of firearms as well. **

YoYo DeSpin

Okay, now there is the question how to “De-spin” the rocket:

Well, you do what the lady does: stretch out your arms and you will slow down !

The rocket has weights connected to a cable that stretch out and almost immediately the rocket slows down. This maneuver is known as the YoYo DeSpin. ( Damn good name ! )

All thanks to the conservation of angular momentum !

Have a good one !

* Another method to stabilization : 3-axis stabilization

** Bullets spin stabilization - post

** Source rocket launch video

The Drake Equation

In 1961, following an early SETI experiment using radio telescopes called Project Ozma, astronomer Frank Drake arranged a historic meeting at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. The ten attendees - among them a young Carl Sagan - discussed the feasibility and methodology of detecting extraterrestrial civilizations using radio astronomy. They formulated the Drake Equation - a rough, speculative means of estimating the possible number of current technologically-advanced civilizations in the galaxy. 

N = the number of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations potentially detectable by radio signals in the Milky Way Galaxy.   

Depending on the values used for each variable, N can work out to be hundreds of thousands or more, or very few. 

R* = Rate of new star formation. 

One estimate is 7 stars per year.

Fp = Percentage of stars with planetary systems around them.

New solar systems are being discovered every year. 

Ne = Number of planets per star system capable of sustaining life. 

Depending upon the temperature, type, and size of the star, the habitable zone of a planet for Earth-like life may be nearer or further from its star. Based on our own solar system, we might guess 1 or 2.

Fl = Fraction of those planets upon which life appears. 

How many of those habitable planets upon which life has developed is difficult to estimate. In our own solar system, it’s at least 1 - there is a good chance that at one point, life developed on Mars, though traces of it have yet to be found.

Fi = Fraction of those planets where intelligent life appears.

Estimates vary wildly. We know it’s happened at least once here on Earth. As ‘intelligence’ is subjective, it may be that it has developed in other non-human, communicating species, like whales. 

Fc = Fraction of those societies that develop advanced communication technology and send signals into space.

Intentional or unintentional, other civilizations might transmit identifiable signals into outer space that modern Earth technology could pick up.

L = Lifetime of communicative civilizations. 

Do technologically-capable civilizations inevitably self-destruct, or can they last forever? This is an immensely uncertain question. We’ve been communicating with radio waves for fewer than 100 years, with the long-term survival of our species and our status as ‘technological’ uncertain. 

please drop some rad megalodon facts my sweet dude

Reaching lengths of up to 60 feet and an estimated maximum weight of over 60 tons (that’s 20x as heavy as todays Great White), the Megalodon is the largest known predator in Earth’s history. The only existing marine animal that’s larger is the blue whale, which can grow as big as 100 feet and weigh more than 150 tons.

While most adult Megalodon teeth fell into the 4-5” size range, a few massive, fossil teeth have been found in excess of 7”. The largest verifiable Megalodon tooth is a 7.48” tooth found near Ocucaje, Peru.

Contrary to popular belief, fossil evidence shows that the Megalodon is NOT in fact closely related to the Great White Shark.

Computer models estimate the Megalodon’s bite force between 24,000 to 40,000 pounds (10,900 to 18,100 kilograms), This is 6-10 times that of the Great White shark and modern crocodiles, This is also 2-3 times that of the estimated bite force of 12,800 pounds for T-Rex and the large Mosasaurs.

According to accounts dating back to the Renaissance, massive triangular teeth were often found buried in rocky mountains and were believed to be the fossilized tongues of dragons and snakes. It wasn’t until 1667 that they were recognized by Danish naturalist Nicolaus Steno as shark teeth.

Megalodon pups were born an estimated 2 to 4 meters in size (6.6.ft – 13.1ft) at birth.

There are three main theories on how Megalodon went extinct:

Oceanic Cooling: This first theory suggests that accelerated changes in global circulation caused by the closure of the Central American Seaway (along with possible other factors such as Pliocene climate) set the stage for the build of of glaciers in the northern hemisphere consequently creating Ice Ages which cooled the oceans substantially. The Megalodon preferred warmer water so this may have impacted their resulted and eventual demise.

Decline in Food Supply: By the end of the Miocene many species that the Megalodon relied on for sustenance became extinct. Also the closure of the Central American Seaway caused further extinctions as well as cause faunal redistribution. This resulted in decreased diversity and abundance of great whales suggesting that most surviving species headed towards polar regions.

New Competition: This last theory is one of the least popular. It suggests that the emergence of raptorial killer whales contributed to the demise of the Megalodon. Fossil records show that the ancient whales could survive the new cold climates thus outlasting the mega tooth sharks.

“Megalodon” originates from two Greek words — megas, signifying “big”, and odont, signifying “tooth”.

Before anyone gets too excited, we have a post here explaining how it’s not possible that Megalodon is still alive,

Nope.

Saturn aurora, taken by Nasa Hubble.

js

Physicists: we don’t really understand how the big bang happened

Secondary media:

The Magnus Effect - When a small amount of spin is added to a dropped object, the object moves forward

some of my favourite absolutely SICK facts about the trappist-1 exoplanets: - theyre all very close to one another and to their star, so the length of a year on them varies from 1 to 20 DAYS - since they’re so close, the star appears a lot bigger than our sun from earth, and from one planet you could easily see the rest, some would even appear bigger than the moon from earth. you could literally see the surface of another planet with the naked eye!!! - they’re probably tidally locked to their star like our moon is locked to earth, meaning only one side of a planet ever faces the star, and on the other side it’s always night. the sun never sets or rises on any of the planets - the star is red, so the sunlight is red/orange, meaning if, for example, plants were to grow there, they could be black and that’s just what we know now, imagine how much cool stuff we have yet to discover about the trappist-1 system

The origin of the universe was not by a singularity, since in a singularity, the laws of nature are not valid or do not exist,

Your body is an incredibly bizarre machine.

“What you see is a myosin protein dragging an endorphin along a filament to the inner part of the brain’s parietal cortex which creates happiness. Happiness. You’re looking at happiness.”

The Chimaera, known informally as the “ghost shark” or “rat fish”, is a deep sea cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes. Living at over 8,000 ft below the surface, the Chimaera is well adapted to the deep, dark sea. The dots on its nose are sensory organs that detect electrical fields in the water - helping the Chimera find its prey. While little is known about the Chimaera’s diet, it’s speculated that it feeds on molluscs and crustaceans that it crushes open with the grinding plates in its mouth. The spines on the top of its body are loaded with venom; the Chimaera uses these spines to defend itself.

Giant squids might be even bigger than we realized

According to research from Charles Paxton, fisheries ecologist and statistician at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, published in the Journal of Zoology this month, the giant squid could grow to reach as much as 65 feet. But even that is a “conservative analysis,” as size could protect against their #1 predator.

Follow @the-future-now

Know Your Cephalopods!

Cost per kg for human spaceflight

via reddit

hey guys!! it has been a while :’))

however, i have finished my first semester of chemistry (pre-ib) and i felt as if that i did pretty well in this subject even though i had minimal background knowledge on it. i initially struggled with the concepts we did, but after studying hard and trying my best i have gotten used to it and have been improving so here are my tips and tricks for chemistry!

please understand that i have not been through all the topics in chemistry, i have only learnt about atomic structure, periodicity and bonding so my links and tips may only help you for those topics but they should help with the other topics also. (this is most likely a general chemistry masterpost btw)

important study tips:

ask questions in class!!!!!! this is incredibly important, as also for every subject but if you don’t understand the concept you will struggle like how i did in the beginning :( if you are too shy to ask your question in front of the class, go up to the teacher when you have some time or even email them. even just ask your friends or classmates who may have a better understanding of the concept, it definitely helps having different explanations on the same topic, having different perspectives and all

find good resources, go through past tests, past exams and worksheets so that you can have good practice of what may come in your tests and exams. my teacher was very organised and had plenty of resources for me to use to revise and learn in my spare time out of class. it also gave me the experience of the ib tests and exams so i knew what was to come

as said in my maths masterpost, try teaching others when they need help (if you understand the topic and they don’t) because this really seems to help me when studying for tests, i helped my friend with her questions about atomic structure and found myself learning and revising at the same time because of this

repetition!!! you may not get it right the first time, or even the second, but after lots of tries and times you will get there!! trust me :’))

if you don’t have resources, go search for some. there are plenty of studyblrs who do chem as a subject and im sure they are more than happy to help you (me too but i haven’t through many of the topics lol) once you have been through all the past papers you own, go google for some, especially ib kids, theres some out there for you!

have a periodic table with you at all times when studying chem! its a bit obvious but you would most likely need it

apps + websites: 

periodic table apps (there is loads on the app stores but here are some i found)

periodic table [ android | ios ] very indepth and informative (glad i just found this one, im downloading it rn)

periodic table (this one is different) [ android | ios ]

there is plenty, so find the app which suits you and your learning needs

molview (this website allows you to draw molecules!!)

ibchem.com for my fellow ib chem students, this website has notes and other resources to help you with your studies

2016 ib data booklet (there is probably going to be a 2017 one soon but anyways this will be useful

khan academy chemistry (honestly this website is a blessing to all students, so helpful !!!!)

sparknotes chem

other chemistry masterposts:

chemistry by @areistotle​ 

ap chemistry by @etudiance​

chemistry resource masterpost originally by @physicnerd

general chemistry masterpost by @ellielearnsthings​

my other masterposts:

chinese masterpost

app masterpost

bullet journaling

maths masterpost

advice for new studyblrs

physics masterpost

i hope that these resources and tips will help you in your chemistry studies c:

studygram: acadehmic

I would have aced biology if the teachers all taught the course like the narrator

After 40 years, scientists may have solved the mystery of the “Wow!” space signal

In August of 1977, a group of astronomers examining radio transmissions in Ohio received a mysterious signal from an unknown source.

Shocked by its incredible length — 72 seconds — one scientist scribbled “Wow!” next to the recording, inadvertently giving the unusual communication a nickname that would last decades.

Now, after 40 years of grappling with possible explanations for the Wow! signal — which even include the possibility of aliens — scientists at the Center for Planetary Science have finally solved the puzzle.

A comet unknown to researchers in the 1970s likely caused the signal, and researchers were able to test that theory in a recent fly-by. Read more (6/8/17)

follow @the-future-now​

Newest LIGO Signal Raises A Huge Question: Do Merging Black Holes Emit Light?

“The second merger held no such hints of electromagnetic signals, but that was less surprising: the black holes were of significantly lower mass, so any signal arising from them would be expected to be correspondingly lower in magnitude. But the third merger was large in mass again, more comparable to the first than the second. While Fermi has made no announcement, and Integral again reports a non-detection, there are two pieces of evidence that suggest there may have been an electromagnetic counterpart after all. The AGILE satellite from the Italian Space Agency detected a weak, short-lived event that occurred just half a second before the LIGO merger, while X-ray, radio and optical observations combined to identify a strange afterglow less than 24 hours after the merger.”

Whenever there’s a catastrophic, cataclysmic event in space, there’s almost always a tremendous release of energy that accompanies it. A supernova emits light; a neutron star merger emits gamma rays; a quasar emits radio waves; merging black holes emit gravitational waves. But if there’s any sort of matter present outside the event horizons of these black holes, they have the potential to emit electromagnetic radiation, or light signals, too. Our best models and simulations don’t predict much, but sometimes the Universe surprises us! With the third LIGO merger, there were two independent teams that claimed an electromagnetic counterpart within 24 hours of the gravitational wave signal. One was an afterglow in gamma rays and the optical, occurring about 19 hours after-the-fact, while the other was an X-ray burst occurring just half a second before the merger.

Could either of these be connected to these merging black holes? Or are we just grasping at straws here? We need more, better data to know for sure, but here’s what we’ve got so far!

Victoria LaBarre was climbing out of a canyon and into a bright, vast, seemingly lifeless landscape when she started to experience an astronaut’s nightmare.

“Suddenly,” she said, “I couldn’t breathe.”

The symptoms were real — maybe from claustrophobia, or from exertion at high altitude. But LaBarre didn’t unlatch her helmet to get a breath of fresh air because, in this simulated Mars exercise in the Utah desert, she was supposed to be an astronaut. The canyon was standing in for Candor Chasma, a 5-mile-deep gash in the Red Planet’s surface. On Mars, there’s no oxygen in the air — you do not take off your helmet.

So, instead, LaBarre radioed for help from fellow members of Crew 177. The team of students and teachers from a Texas community college had applied together to live and work for a week this spring in a two-story metal cylinder at the privately run Mars Desert Research Station near Hanksville, Utah.

Elijah Espinoza, a freshman assigned to be a crew engineer and geologist for the week, heard LaBarre’s call and walked her through some breathing exercises.

“I think that’s really one of the best things about Mars — the teamwork,” said LaBarre.“I don’t think you could live without it.”

To Prepare For Mars Settlement, Simulated Missions Explore Utah’s Desert

Photos: Rae Ellen Bichell/NPR

Flame color guide of various materials combustion  

Artists impression of ‘Hot Jupiter’ exoplanets.

Credit: NASA, ESA, D Sing