quantumaniac:

Quark ‘Soup’

Known more scientifically as Quark-gluon plasma (QGP), this incredible phase exists only at extremely high temperature and density. Everyday, observable matter is made up of particles called hadrons (such as protons and neutrons.) Protons and neutrons are a special type of hadron called a baryon, in which there are three even smaller components called quarks.

QGP is a state of matter in which the hadrons are freed of their attraction to one another in an atom’s nucleus - and the remaining quarks are free to float around - also known as being deconfined. In normal baryonic matter, gluons hold the nucleus together by being exchange bosons of the strong force. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN created multiple QGP’s during January 2012 - at temperatures of tens of trillions of degrees Kelvin. 

To create QGP, matter must be heating up to outstanding temperatures - about 2×1012 K. The most intuitive way of doing this is by colliding two large nuclei moving at ultra-relativistic speeds . At CERN, the particles used for these collisions are gold nuclei. Although the chances of a perfect collision are small - when it does happen the energy involved is enormous, and QGP is the result.

jtotheizzoe:

ikenbot:

Newfound Alien Planet is Best Candidate Yet to Support Life, Scientists Say

A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.

The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface.

“It’s the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it’s not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze,” Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said. “It’s right smack in the habitable zone — there’s no question or discussion about it. It’s not on the edge, it’s right in there.”

The tidal wave of exoplanets continues. We all know how I feel about jumping too quickly on the “habitable zone” excitement wagon, right? I take these findings with an exoplanet-sized grain of salt.

We need to be used to the idea that there are just bazillions of exoplanets out there, and that a huge number of those will be in the “habitable zone” of their stars, where temperatures and other factors are just right to support life.

But that’s like turning your oven on and and expecting hot brownies to come spilling out. It takes many more ingredients to make life. I think it’s possible that it’s out there, and on a habitable zone planet (or moon). But if we get our astronomical dresses in a ruffle every time we find an exoplanet in the hear future, it’s going to get very “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” around here.

Oh, and I don’t like the expression “Holy Grail”. I’m not being a downer. I promise. We just need to be realistic.

fuck its going to be horrible when we can fuck with baby dna to make our perfect kids were going to have horrible pieces of shit in the future
and then people are going to be able to gender switch with the flip of a button or be born with both genitalia

the future looks very much bleak

i look forward to the end of humanity and the beginning of the age of genderqueers

ruled by tumblr

no one gets anything done

no rules

triggers everywhere 

no school

abelism

chaos reigns supreme

staceythinx:

Bleigiessen by Heatherwick Studio.

About the project:

The Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research charity, commissioned the studio to design a sculpture for the atrium of its new headquarters. The site for the sculpture was within an eight-storey high atrium space above a pool of water…

The vertiginous quality of this space, coupled with the presence of water, suggested the idea of exploring ways of capturing the dynamic shapes of falling liquids. Following extensive experimentation, pouring molten metal into water was found to create extraordinary and complex forms in a fraction of a second. No two experiments produced the same result. Over four hundred of these were produced before a five centimetre piece was created and selected as it was felt it would work well with the building and is the basis of the final thirty metre project.

This original piece was digitised and exactly replicated using 142,000 glass spheres suspended on 27,000 high tensile steel wires; 15 tonnes of glass and just under a million metres of wire. The spheres, made in Poland in a spectacle lens factory, were the result of a collaboration with Flux Glass, their shifting colour and brightness coming from a layer of dichroic film set between the two hemispherical lenses that make up each sphere.

mspandrew:

I rolled an H, so I’m going to answer only questions submitted by users whose name contain an H, but do not begin with an H. Here we go.

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rustypolished:

I decided, as I sat and watched Hugo today, that the solution for my little issue of having too many Scalemates and not enough space was pretty obvious. It’s the holidays! I’ll do a giveaway!

SO. Here’s the deal:

- This giveaway is for ONE Scalemate in the colors of your own choosing. I have access to a lot of colors but not every color, so please have like, three options in mind in case you have something I can’t accommodate.

- This Scalemate will be “made to order”, and I want to have time to let people hop on board so I can’t promise anything will be at your door by Christmas - Please keep that in mind!

- I only ask that you help cover shipping. For something so light, US shipping will be like $5-6 and I’m totally happy to do international but that will have to be calculated by wherever you’re at - and I’ll mark everything as a gift on customs sheets, of course, but I have absolutely no control over customs fees or holdings.

Here’s how you enter:

- Like or reblog this post. A like counts as one entry, a reblog counts as one entry. So that means each person can enter twice, that’s it.

- You do not have to follow me.

- Please have your ask box open or I will not be able to contact you.

- The contest will be over on DECEMBER 16th. I live in the Eastern time zone, so that may fall on a different day for some of you. I’ll announce a winner at some point that day.

- The winner will be chosen via random number generator for maximum fairness.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

steveholtvstheuniverse:

Gotham needs its true hero.

jtotheizzoe:

Here’s a really nice illustration of a very important principle of evolution.

While we’re talking about good illustrations of evolution, have you seen the Line Drawing Test before?