Science Era |OT| Never trust atoms, they make up everything

[Frank]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for a place to discuss science in all its forms. I'm personally interested in the nature of reality and how all that works together to give us the world we see around us. With that said, here's some interesting science:

Explanation: The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper arepresent in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life. The featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements, such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171024.html

 

[Unconditional]

Awesome OT idea. Science!

 

[Xe4]

Cool thread. Cool title as well! Hope it takes off. I'll try to help.
Here's some questions I came up with to discuss, with my replies to them as well.

Why do you love science?
I love understanding more about the world around us, and the methods through which we learn about nature.

What are your favorite areas of science?
I love physics particularly. I have a soft spot for astronomy and geophysics. I also love biology, even if I'm not very good at it

Are you a researcher, student, enthusiast, or something else?
I'm an undergrad physics student specializing in atmospheric physics (for now).

What got you into science?
Carl Sagan, Issac Asimov, Nova, PBS science shows. Pretty typical answers, but wow did they inspire me and fill me with such a wonderful sense of joy.

 

[Achire]

Well, this is my first post on ERA so I guess I could introduce myself in Xe4's format.

I don't have any sort of philosophical approach to science. As a scientist I get to do cool stuff, that's enough of a reason to love science for me. And I get to travel to places on other people's money! Furthermore, the amount of freedom, challenge and variety in the stuff that I do is substantial.

I'm mainly interested in physics and chemistry, and on the other hand macroeconomics. All of these answer the important question: why does the world work the way it does, just from different perspectives.

I am a senior PHD student in solid state chemistry dabbling in condensed matter physics a lot of the time. I was wondering if there's enough of people for a Grad school or Academia OT (there were some threads on this on that other forum), but that might be a no for now.

How did I get into science? Well, I was an undergraduate planning to work in the industry like every other chemist. Then worked in a research group for a summer, and after that I've wanted to be a scientist. Now I'm perfectly aware that the majority of people graduating from a PHD program will never get a permanent job in academia, but I'll see how far as I go as long as it's fun and interesting. I've got a teaching degree to fall back on if (when) it all goes tits up.

 

[All Possible Ways]

Ok, lets do this!

Why do you love science?
It reveals the inner beauty of the laws of Nature. I love learning how the world works, and I marvel at it. Its just so intricate, subtle, elegant, and beyond anything anybody could imagine.

What are your favorite areas of science?
Primarily physics, but I am also fascinated by biology.

Are you a researcher, student, enthusiast, or something else?
I'm a particle physicist (theoretical). Currently in postdoc purgatory.

What got you into science?
I blame Stephen Hawking and Beakman's World.

 

[Rocket Man]

Going to a 'State of Nuclear Fusion' forum next weekend for work, will share my notes with you guys!

 

[fierrotlepou]

Watching this thread! Thanks for making it.

 

[ghostemoji]

Why do you love science?
I like removing the ambiguity around the questions of 'why?' in life. The scientific method, while not perfect, is best way to find objective truth.

What are your favorite areas of science?
I am a geologist, and as such love rocks. My favorite subsections of geology are igneous petrology and structural geology.

Are you a researcher, student, enthusiast, or something else?
I have a BSc in Geology and currently work for an environmental consulting company in Chicago drilling holes throughout the midwest doing soil and groundwater sampling. Looking at getting back into grad school in the near future and trying to get into mapping geology or exploration geology.

What got you into science?
Long time under achiever in school who casually enjoyed science. Listening to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe every week, and reading The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery inspired me to go back to school to study climate change, and in the process I fell in love with Geology. Initially wanting to study glaciology and then fell in love with volcanoes and structural geology.

Ask me about rocks. Let me talk about rocks.

 

[Ghrellin]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for a place to discuss science in all its forms. I'm personally interested in the nature of reality and how all that works together to give us the world we see around us. With that said, here's some interesting science:

Explanation: The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper arepresent in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life. The featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements, such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171024.html

Click to shrink...

so I've been grappling with this concept of the idea our elements come from stars and whatnot, and don't get me wrong I'm a science dude, but some things just don't make sense. For example at the moment of conception - when the sperm fertilizes the egg all of
these elements that come from stars are in that zygote? (I think it's called - I'm speaking about pre-human..the moment of conception) Calcium from our bones, iron for our blood carbon for skin and H2O, etc..yet we don't have bones or blood at this stage of growth ( we're like a pile of puke), and to say these elements are physically there, that they come from the stars is essentially accurate, but the DNA in my body knew to replicate these elements via cellular division, thus I grew. I weigh about 160 pounds: blood, bone, muscle, sinew, etc.. from this perspective - yeah I could see portions of what makes me - me coming from a star, but spermatozoa, and eggs? I can see carbon, but calcium, iron? It's gotta be so miniscule.. saying we come from stars seems akin to saying I'm 180th Native American..I wish I was a geneticist
;(

 

[Xe4]

so I've been grappling with this concept of the idea our elements come from stars and whatnot, and don't get me wrong I'm a science dude, but some things just don't make sense. For example at the moment of conception - when the sperm fertilizes the egg all of
these elements that come from stars are in that zygote? (I think it's called - I'm speaking about pre-human..the moment of conception) Calcium from our bones, iron for our blood carbon for skin and H2O, etc..yet we don't have bones or blood at this stage of growth ( we're like a pile of puke), and to say these elements are physically there, that they come from the stars is essentially accurate, but the DNA in my body knew to replicate these elements via cellular division, thus I grew. I weigh about 160 pounds: blood, bone, muscle, sinew, etc.. from this perspective - yeah I could see portions of what makes me - me coming from a star, but spermatozoa, and eggs? I can see carbon, but calcium, iron? It's gotta be so miniscule.. saying we come from stars seems akin to saying I'm 180th Native American..I wish I was a geneticist
;(

Click to shrink...

I'm not a biologist. I'd love to have a biologist in here to correct me on this, but for the moment, take everything I say on biological matters with a grain of salt.

The iron, calcium, zinc, etc. does come from cellular reproduction which is fueled by nutrients that we eat/water we drink. So we're made of "star stuff" because we ate and drank a whole lot of star stuff.

And we're made up of more remnants of dying stars than you'd think. Because we're mostly water, the human body is around 65% oxygen by mass, and including carbon, nitrogen, calcium, etc. we're around 90% dead stars by mass.

If you just consider atomic percent (ie the total number of hydrogen, oxygen, etc. atoms) in you, then you are actually 66% hydrogen, which means you're mostly big bang stuff with a little bit of star stuff mixed in.

Again, I'm not a biologist. I'd love for one to come in and school me on how the different nutrients lead to cell division and our growth. However, I can go into stellar fusion and explain where stuff like oxygen, iron, zinc, etc. comes from physically, if you'd like : )

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

Can I just say I love the thread subtitle? It's a silly old joke, but still a great one. :)

 

[Xe4]

As someone who does atmospheric physics, this will never not be cool to me.
If you're interested in the explanation, you can turn the sound on. It's not necessary though.

 

[All Possible Ways]

As someone who does atmospheric physics, this will never not be cool to me.
If you're interested in the explanation, you can turn the sound on. It's not necessary though.

Click to shrink...

Wow, this looks really cool. Its amazing how fast computing has advanced to allow for such a detailed simulation.

By the way its a pity this thread is so dead. I thought more people would be into it given the interest when science news are posted, even if half the posts are "it's aliens" and the other half is "we are in a simulation, it's glitching!"

 

[Himynameischris]

I'll keep the party going,

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2017/20171115-ross-128b.html

 

[Ghrellin]

I'll keep the party going,

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2017/20171115-ross-128b.html

Click to shrink...

The following is just my opinion:

I think it's great we have the means to detect and analyze distant planets, but regardless of if they support/harbor life essentially broadcasting it like a revelation is irrelevant if we can't even manage to go beyond the Van Allen Radiation; let alone outside our solar system (safely)..to me these discoveries are nothing more than glorified points on our ever growing galactic map for the future space-faring generation - whenever that is... we need better propulsion tech in order for me t really care about these discoveries, bur regardless I am hopeful.. wish I could live to see it.

 

[Joezie]

Here goes nothing!

Why do you love science?
I'm curious, and to date Science is the most firm yet open field that has allowed me to entertain my curiosities as well as sate a few of them!

What are your favorite areas of science?
I never really had a favorite per say, but back in HS I did specialize myself in the area of Environmental science and Agricultural engineering for a time. With the former I was even on our High School Envirothon team and we ended up winning county! Though Sadly did not conquer the state level D:

Are you a researcher, student, enthusiast, or something else?
Just an enthusiast over here. It's never too late for a career change admittedly and I'm still young enough to pull it off, but we shall see if it remains that way.

What got you into science?
My Dad's housework, Bill Nye and tons of cool looking science documentaries.

 

[All Possible Ways]

New Kurzgesagt on emergence:

As always they make great videos that can convey advanced ideas in plain language.

To me this topic is fascinating, how complex structure and behavior emerges from simple rules, like in cellular automata.

In physics condensed matter is the field where it appears most strikingly, where you may get all sorts of exotic things like superfluids and topological insulators just from the simple physics of electrodynamics repeated over many atoms.

This is also why even if we had a theory of everything, it would be completely useless for predicting anything but the simplest and most fundamental phenomena.

 

[KarlAM]

Hi all. Great to see a science hangout here, I'm always up for chatting science and hearing what other scientists are up to.

I studied physics at first, then I took a scientific computing M.Sc., and now I'm two-and-a-bit years deep into a Ph.D. in bioinformatics. Bioinformatics is a cool field (though I'm biased!) that studies the relationships between different kinds of biological data -- like how a genetic sequence relates to the structure of a protein, or how different proteins network with each other to form signalling or disease pathways, or whether we can predict protein-drug interactions based on knowing things about the protein and the drug. Most of my time is spent programming but the field is super interdisciplinary between biology, chemistry, and data science, so I get to think about a lot of varied problems.

 

[Galaxytrancer]

I'm not a biologist. I'd love to have a biologist in here to correct me on this, but for the moment, take everything I say on biological matters with a grain of salt.

The iron, calcium, zinc, etc. does come from cellular reproduction which is fueled by nutrients that we eat/water we drink. So we're made of "star stuff" because we ate and drank a whole lot of star stuff.

And we're made up of more remnants of dying stars than you'd think. Because we're mostly water, the human body is around 65% oxygen by mass, and including carbon, nitrogen, calcium, etc. we're around 90% dead stars by mass.

If you just consider atomic percent (ie the total number of hydrogen, oxygen, etc. atoms) in you, then you are actually 66% hydrogen, which means you're mostly big bang stuff with a little bit of star stuff mixed in.

Again, I'm not a biologist. I'd love for one to come in and school me on how the different nutrients lead to cell division and our growth. However, I can go into stellar fusion and explain where stuff like oxygen, iron, zinc, etc. comes from physically, if you'd like : )

Click to shrink...

This just made me spit my water out

 

[Galaxytrancer]

:)

 

[Xe4]

Happy Darwin Day!
Here's some cool info about life on Earth and evolution (mostly on its history rather than mechanisms):
Single celled life appeared about 4 Billion years ago (though we're not sure of the exact mechanisms involved yet).
Photosynthesis appeared about half a billion years after that, coming from evolution of cyanobacteria!\
Multicellular life has evolved at least many, many times independently.
Animals arose only slightly more than 500 million years ago. We're a pretty new kingdom.
Extinction is an extremely common event when a species fails to adapt. Despite the incredible diversity of life on Earth 99.9% of all species that have ever lived are now extinct.

I'll add more as I think of them. Have any Darwin day facts you want to share?
As always feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Daria]

ScienceERA!

Does anybody have suggestions on how I could prepare for general CHM I and II over the next year? I've taken biology/ecology, anatomy but never a CHM course since HS (10+ years). I've checked out Boozeman Science on YT but he seems to only have an AP chem playlist with short videos.

 

[hapankorppu]

This seems like best thread to ask.
Where should i buy science / lab equibment?
I'll construct frame for my experiment myself but I'll need some parts I can't diy.
Where to buy double slit plates(edit. i can actually diy this one but as option pricision made plates would be good too), polarizers, bbo and eventually a better uv laser (i have 5w led laser currently).
eventually I also need to be able to beam quantum entangled electrons (spin entangled)
I have wanted to do this for a long time and I finally can afford things so please help.
I have tried googling but with no good results.