Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 10 months ago
    "The exact reasons for IUPAC’s decision to award 113 to the Japanese team should become clear in 2016 when the details of the research are released."

    Mustn't let the Russian and US scientists get all the honors. Tax their discoveries at 25% and give it to the Asian scientists because they have never been honored.
    F$%^ing Socialist Politics, NOT science!
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    • Posted by gaiagal 8 years, 10 months ago
      I've found that, in order to keep the hair on my head, there are times I have to ignore the politics. I found the discoveries themselves to be exciting. :)

      The naming process struck me as absurd.
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      • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 10 months ago
        That explains my hair at least ;^)
        I had that kind of socialist "logic" applied to my modest (but hard fought and earned) accomplishments in high school.
        Guess the wound from that lesson in socialism hasn't healed completely, and never will.
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    • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 10 months ago
      Most "pure" research is tax-funded. This is why the EPA, and similar agencies overseas, has such an ability to corrupt the organizations of the science establishment worldwide.

      Reason did a piece years ago on a scientist who had been blackballed by EPA and his career destroyed for suggesting that the low pH (acid content) of lakes in New England might be the result of acidic soils rather than acid rain. I have no doubt whatever that they have doubled down when it comes to climate change. Rand predicted it perfectly, and EPA is the State Science Institute.

      For what it's worth, though, funding "pure" research in a non-mooching world would be a hard problem economically, because its benefits are hard to limit to just the people who paid for them.
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  • Posted by ohiocrossroads 8 years, 10 months ago
    Pardon my crass engineer's outlook, but these ultra-heavy elements can only be created in atom colliders in nanogram quantities and only last for microseconds. What practical use are they? The Guardian article kept saying the elements were "discovered". That is wrong. They were "created".
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    • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 8 years, 10 months ago
      That was my impression also. Maybe they take the "Table name" literally..."Periodic" ...these new elements appear Periodically...(only after we do this or that) sad by funny.
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    • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 10 months ago
      Created then lay patiently waiting to be discovered. Something like Columbus discovered America. His name wasn't Columbus. The place was well known long prior to his voyage. It was named America until some 15 years or so AFTER he sat foot on an offshore island. Now when a use is discovered for those elements that really will be worth something.
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    • Posted by gaiagal 8 years, 10 months ago
      Agreed on that point. That was my disappointment after my initial excitement.
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      • Posted by plusaf 8 years, 10 months ago
        Me, too, and I replied to one of the few comments at that link, for the same reason.
        Yes, North America DID exist... had been 'created' long before Columbus knew what salt spray in the face felt like, but Never Having Seen It Before, for HIM, and many Europeans, it was Definitely a Discovery... seeing something that had been there (maybe for a very long time,) but not having been seen by certain groups (even tho Columbus wasn't the first to set foot there... for Him and His Buddies, it certainly WAS a 'discovery.'
        Now, as to the 'new elements,' odds are damned good that few, if any of them HAD existed prior to their atom-smashing Creation, and since they decayed so quickly after 'creation,' odds are even better that there Were No Such Examples of those Elements around for Anyone To Notice (i.e., discover) ever before. They were nearly simultaneously created and discovered at the same time, if you want to stretch things a little. But the Creation came first, then the detection to prove they actually existed, so someone could say they 'discovered' 'em.
        Please be more careful with logic and words.
        Thanks.... no, not you gg... the other guys.
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 8 years, 10 months ago
    Let's see... Here's my guesses as to the new names:
    Kobayashium, Obamium, Putinium, and Imperium. At least until they realize the results of the discoveries were flawed, and they actually ended up with elements 121, 122, 126, and 134.
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    • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 10 months ago
      No Trumpium?
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      • Posted by $ Susanne 8 years, 10 months ago
        While there are some notable exceptions, most well-educated scientists (at least the ones I know) are rather quite left-leaning. To such people, nothing would be more "correctly-aligned thought" and "socialistically proper" to immortalize "the anointed dear leader" with its name on the one thing that is guaranteed to transcend history - the Periodic Table.

        Then again, I understand North Korea claims that the world acknowledges their unparalleled success at discovery of all the elements above 109 on the Table... that's why they all begin with "Un..."
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    • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 10 months ago
      Hillarium always gives false results. Humor time I started using Wicked Witch of the LEFT or WWOTL pronounced Waddle. The other day or was int last night I see Hillary described as walked - crossed out -waddled up to a microphone about something or another.. Now for WWOTW pronounced Miss Lube Job.
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  • Posted by term2 8 years, 10 months ago
    Why give the socialists the results of any more work, just so they can use the results to enslave us further. I am kind of done with all this. Time to shrug.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
    It would be good to have an adequate description of these new elements in order so that we great unwashed could understand their significance.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 8 years, 10 months ago
    I sure hope they fix these names and dump the messy three letter abbreviations!
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    • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 10 months ago
      Appears elementary that updating science books should be held off until that is fixed.
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      • Posted by gaiagal 8 years, 10 months ago
        Would that be in the best interest of the companies that provide the textbooks? If so, common sense will prevail. If not...let's require the schools/kids buy each updated text.

        I've become rather cynical in my old age.
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        • Posted by $ Thoritsu 8 years, 10 months ago
          You are so right! It is critical that children understand the diversity in the development of the complete table, and particularly these man made elements that last at least 7 femtoseconds! So much more important than understanding ionic/covalent bonding, acids/bases, the significant of Avogadro's number or ideal gas laws.
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          • Posted by Steven-Wells 8 years, 10 months ago
            Many years ago when I was in high school (in New Jersey), the chemistry teacher often wielded his meter stick. When a deserving slacker offered a particularly bad answer, he's get smacked in the arm.
            When asked, "What is Avogadro's Number?" one fellow answered, "3×10 to the eighth." Smack! The same question went to the guy seated next to the slacker. "6.02×10 to the 23rd." The teacher said, "Right." The slacker said, "Oh, that was my second choice." That got him another smack, to which he responded, "I deserved it."

            Which gas law relates pressure and temperature of a gas? The girl who responded, "It's that Gay guy!" would have been smacked, but everyone, including the teacher, was laughing too hard.
            [That pressure and temperature vary directly is Gay-Lussac's Law after French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac.]
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