Schadwen
46957
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Thank you, Steven Wright
Trickytrickychaos
Amazing dump, I want more!
blahblahbushes
Geology rocks, but geography is where it's at.
Elhifel
#17 This one time, a geology professor mistook arsenic for something else (I don't remember anymore, it was twenty years ago) and left it sitting out in the open. Fortunately one of the chemists recognized it, because native arsenic sublimates, and is toxic. So geologists can screw up and kill you too.
barbarian818
#40 oh please, a hypodermic needle barely registers as pain if the professional knows what they're doing.
AgainstMethod
A *real* professional can make it exactly as painful as they want it to be.
ShimmerinStrider
#4 NOPE!
gandraw
Can I interest you in some solid ozone instead?
ArthurT
A cup of Liquid ox is about 1 stick of dynamite. Solid? I would hate to think....
https://www.reddit.com/r/charcoal/comments/3lkwgu/lighting_a_charcoal_grill_with_liquid_oxygen_the/
SmashySashimi
#6 I’d imagine that they just saw a bug on a tree that they didn’t normally see, and walk up to it, ‘cause
“Hey cool bug.”
But as they got closer, the screams would get louder and louder, until they punched the bug out of frustration, and then,
“Hey, did it just get a bit quieter again right now???”
ArthurT
They got hungry.
Where is the cook book?
geoffreyfourmyle
#43 wait, *relativistic* effects on the electron binding energies? I need to read more...
InkGoat
Electrons orbit the nucleus, and for some really big nuclei like gold, the electrons orbit so fast they are relativistic, which increases their mass and causes them to experience dilated time, which also changes the size of their orbit. All of these effects combine to make the atom do weird things. For gold, it changes the absorption spectrum to allow it to absorb more blue light, so it looks yellow instead of the gray it "should" appear to be.
QuartzPoker
#6 People figured it out really, really early on because Cicadas are edible and good with honey
yaddiex3
#40 Retired RN here. Here's the thing about the pain scale. Having a 'standardized needle' is good in theory. But not in practice. I worked in the recovery room. I could have two patients, same age, gender, race both have the exact same procedure.
For instance a laparoscopic appendectomy. One patient says afterwards, 'I feel pretty good!' The second patient is literally crying and saying 'This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me!'
Zange0
That's why I use this scale, and I pull it up if I'm in the hospital. [though I like the chronic illness pain scale someone put together in response]
Zange0
zombiejedediah
Ok, so a large number of standardized needles, is what I hear.
hygroovy
"Are you sure it feels like *this*, and not like *this*?"
NerdNerdburger
#34 can someone explain this one? This doesn't look like any reaction network that I'm familiar with
chevymonster
Yeah, my friend doesn't get it either.
jimmymcgoochie1
Oxygen and fluorine at the top, caesium at the bottom, no light noble gases and the heavier ones connected to fluorine and chlorine = reactivity? What kind, I can't figure out
OxfordWriter
#13 Oh yes, you say that now, but the way regulations are being culled in the US, I don't expect it'll be long before herds of cowtopus roam the prairies.
I mean, that's a lot of steak.
BloodyDisappointment
I think its going to be more like that meme of the college guys changing the guys butthole to be taste receptors.
Schadwen
We need octopus-chicken hybrids so everyone gets a drumstick.
OxfordWriter
They'd be too fast to catch.
theobituator
#20 I've been trying to come up with a response to "then why are there still monkeys?"
If Air Jordans exist, why are there still sandals?
Not the same, i know, but looking for a better analogy. Thoughts?
Zahnradfee
I think it's a pretty good analogy.
theobituator
Maybe If flashlights, why candles?
wabitgirl
#4 Meh, Chlorine Trifluoride is gonna be a LOT worse. Ya know stuff you use to put out fires, like ashes, or sand, maybe a bunch of bricks? Yeah, it'll burn those. Things that have ALREADY been combusted, like pure carbon? Burns that. Water? Ooooh baby, does it burn with that too.
Syovere
#30 So, obsidian actually did get some use in weaponry. The macuahuitl was, to oversimplify, a wooden sword with obsidian blades stuck into it. Reportedly sharp enough to decapitate a horse.
Sure, some blades might need replacement, but the horse isn't taking any comfort in that.
QuartzPoker
#17 Geology screwups can be worse. Way worse. Remember Asbestos? Coal mining? That debate over whether you can use Malachite as a dildo? All Geology problems.
phobosorbust
if we allow geology to encompass the use of minerals in industry then there's also mercury amalgamation and cynaide leaching of gold ore, lead pipes, the staggering carbon footprint of concrete, and more. Fuzzy border with chemistry though.
QuartzPoker
If you gotta heat it up to use it, it's chemistry, which is why I didn't include coal power plants alongside coal mines.
whydontwelookatsomedatainsteadofarguing
Dam collapses…
Pikkupanda
Thanks Paige.
pacanukeha
this is quality content. thanks @op!
Schadwen
Happy to oblige.
kmaestro
#40 "Scratches at level 6 and deeper grooves at level 7"
PaleChapter
#14 Okay, I'm the liberal arts kind of nerd, and I need this one explained. Is this a molecule whose chemical formula happens to spell out "love?" Or is it one of the brain chemicals that govern attachment or something? I'm guessing the latter, just because that's a really big molecule to have such a simple formula.
Milkarius
It's oxytocin! A hormone that plays a role in social contacts and binding such as romance, friendships, but also parent-caretaker relationships.
Source: I'm a psychology kind of nerd!
GregoryLies
It's chemical formula couldn't spell "love" in any way because the only letter they would share is O, so it's probably the responsible chemical, yeah.
astrangehop
sirdouglasbuttersworth
#17 Akshually.... when geologists screw up you can also get things like the Mount Polley disaster. It's a regulated profession just like engineering for a reason.
jimjong1
#28 is this cat alive or dead,
While it's in the box, it can't be said
GCRust
#10 Why? At that distance, all running will do is ensure I die tired.
Lugh314159
#4 welll now I want to know what non-flammable things I could set fire to if I had some solid oxygen!
barbarian818
#4 this reads like a "Things I Won't Work With" science blog post. A chemist who has a real flair for entertaining nerdery.
Voojagig
#19 Selenium should have a picture of a dying alien.
wraiththefourth
The last half of that movie was basically an ad for Head and Shoulders.
ShimmerinStrider
With a glorious mane of hair.
huzzahsallaround
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlcjdjbHgzMWZsaXU2a3hlaGFtNDJ1NHhwOTdvaDJ2dzk0bHQyMnBxNyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/a4kUaskDOZ5iU/giphy.mp4
ArthurT
Flourine should have the names of the unalived chemists:
"While isolating fluorine was exceptionally dangerous, and several chemists suffered severe poisoning, at least two chemists, Paulin Louyet and Jérôme Nicklès, died from hydrofluoric acid (HF) poisoning while attempting to isolate the element. "
History books say that the search for Florine killed 8, and disabled 3.
InTheDistanceAPlaintiveEnglishHorn
#42 the funny (sad chuckle) is that Meta downloaded libgen and trained their AI on its content. My publications are there. When normal people were reading them, fine, I don't get paid when they sell anyway. But now Zuckerberg is making money off them. Fuck him.
zombiejedediah
#26 Nope.
0° is cold
10° is chilly
20° is comfortable
30° is warm
40° is hot
AgainstMethod
This is helpful, thanks.
PaleChapter
#40 A couple years back I strained one of those perineal muscles that control both parts of your waste disposal system, and I could tell the doctors were glazing over a little when I tried to quantify how much agony I was in. "Okay, so, to me, this is a ten. Or maybe a nine? No, it must be a ten, because--like, I understand theoretically that there are probably worse pains out there, but this scale is supposed to be subjective, right? And I've never been in this much pain in my life..."
ricpaul
I once stopped breathing to avoid the pain. It only worked for a minute or so because my will to live was stronger than my pain. I gave it a 9 (lungembolism) just in case I needed to reserve the 10 for when I might feel pain that would surpass my will to live. It might have also been my autonomous nervous system that saved me by forcing me to breathe because it fuckin' hurt like a MF.
Tyrrlin
Yep. I only said “10” once in my life when I slipped a lumbar disk in my back. They gave me morphine and I still pretty much woke up the whole ER when they asked me to sit up and walk to the toilet. Morphine did nothing.
Jacksmashsteel
Diverticulitis when it gets bad is a 7-8 for me when they see me wince they give me morphine without me having to ask
eadanke
"I walked in here on my own and I can talk, so probably a 5, as long as I don't try to sit." Me after blacking out in the er after sitting.
Kehy
I once got a chemical burn on my eye. It was painful enough I could hardly move, other than whining and writhing. It got slightly better after I threw up.
Because it was only pain in one eye I gave it a 9.5/10
JadeNB1729
1/10 Would not burn this eye again, at least not with this chemical.
pgdave
Sounds like you should've given it a 20/20
CALAMOSCOPYJANE
I… see… what you did there.
apidgeon
I once had a kidney stone that I described to the doctor as "not debilitating, but distracting" before puking in the exam room. He called me a stoic and sent me to the ER.
cloudskye280k
My first kidney stone had me passed out on the floor from the pain. When i went to the ER i said "if this isnt a 10 i dont want to know what 10 is." While sweating, shaking and trying not to puke. A few years ago i got hit by a car while crossing the street and died for a minute. When they asked me then i looked at the doctor and said "id rather get hit by a car again than shoot another rock out of my dick."
bassaro
That's a good way to describe the personality of someone you don't like.
thekeyofe
I had my gall bladder try to kill me. Pretty sure it was the worst pain I've ever felt, and I was literally writhing in pain. If a 10 is "worst pain you've ever felt" then this was definitely a 10, but if a 10 is "worst pain you can imagine" then this was probably an 8, because I could definitely imagine worse pains.
pgdave
If 10 is the worst pain I can possibly imagine then the worst pain I ever had, either the time I snapped my ankle while running or the time I had dry heaves for an hour, is a 1. Maybe a 2. If I ever experienced something above a 4 it'd be impossible for me to communicate that through all the screaming and/or delirium.
Lastchariot
Like a ruptured gall bladder and then being set on fire?
BlindTreeFrog
Best explanation i've heard for the pain scale is that the number itself only kind of matters. What's important is how you say it.
If you say it's a pain level 9 or 10, but aren't screaming and can form words, you probably aren't really in a lot of pain
If you are a 4 or 5 but holding back tears and barely say the number without wincing, you likely aren't in a good place.
It's a triage tool and the pain number should be consistent with your physical reactions to the alleged pain.
That's Part 1.
Llamabuster
In theory we are taught a ten is "unconscious or unable to respond" but like, at that point you don't ask the pt the pain scale, they go right to triage or ED bed
BlindTreeFrog
Part 2 is that the number itself matters less but gives a baseline. So if you get to the ER and say "I'm hurt.. pain level 4" and they ask you to take a seat and 20 min later you are "uh.. I feel worse and am a 7 now" they can get idea of if things are getting better or worse and how quickly.
pgdave
The problem is that people's physical reactions to pain aren't consistent, and people's *perceptions* of those physical reactions to pain are even *more* inconsistent.
BlindTreeFrog
No, that's kind of the point.... It's a triage tool. Ask the pain scale, see what they say and how they say it, and make a judgement if they need to be seen now or later.
Had a leg last last year where bending it caused pain. At the urgent care I put my pain level at 4~5 and was obviously in discomfort. Family comes in with daughter who fell but was walking and talking like normal. She put her pain at 10. Maybe she was, but who should the staff worry about seeing first? (based on pain)
HelpfulCorn
Or you have fibromyalgia, and non painful stimulus is painful. I hate the pain scale
CALAMOSCOPYJANE
Or you have autism, and certain auditory or visual stimuli that aren’t painful to others are quite painful to you.
nikolateslaismyhomeboy
And/or the reverse, at the same time. Once when I was stitching an open wound in my hand with the sewing kit I had in my car, I actually had the thought “ugh I hate these goddamn socks, they are touching me weird” lol
HaveANiceFace
...may I ask how, you strained, that muscle?
phobosorbust
after a certain point in life, that could just be an unexpectedly robust sneeze.
Not sure whether to say 'hopefully it was something fun' or not, because that kind of thing can ruin fun times in the future.
PaleChapter
Going Super Saiyan 3.
HaveANiceFace
Glad to hear everything came out ok in the end.
redsmerf
#4 I am reminded of FOOF. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride
Incidentally, read that guy's whole series of things he wont work with. It's hilarious AND informative.
phobosorbust
Derek Lowe is worth reading for pharma current events too. (On the research side mostly, not the marketing and spin and stock manipulation side of the fence, although he does sometimes comment on litigation.)
ArthurT
This is just EPIC!
"Sulfur compounds defeated him, because the thermodynamics were just too titanic."
Pseudobatrachotoxin
Derek Lowe is one of the best chemistry writers out there, IMO. I am almost always tickled by the way he weaves humor into many of his stories.
EggFooYung
Reminds me of Chlorine Trifluoride, which is almost as evil but at near room temperature. https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time
t00tie
That is the best one.
redsmerf
I know, I've read them all. "Satan's kimchi" is the best description of a substance I've ever come across
filurilurl
Had the exact same thought and glad you posted a link, because it saved me digging it out from my browser history. Always worth a re-read. "Satan's kimchi" had me in tears.
redsmerf
To paraphrase from a different guy (an electrical engineer): "If a fire breaks out, what steps will I take? Fuckin' BIG ONES."
drduffer
#29 At 0.9 C, that brick would be bad for your teeth and probably a good part of the planet you’re standing on.
RanOutofWit
Apparently a 2kg brick at 0.9c has 4.13 x 10^17 J of energy. The nearest reference I can find is Tsar Bomba, which was apparently around 2.1 x 10^17 J, so 'only' double the energy of the largest tested nuclear bomb. As an impacter? Yeah, I'll be... over there, on a different continent. Sorry about your teeth.
IrrelevantOutsideOfMyBubble
I get 2.3e17 J when I put the numbers into sites like https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/relativistic-ke, so only a little bigger instead of double.
RanOutofWit
That's interesting. I'm not a physicist, so I was using E=(g)mc^2, including the lorentz factor for relativistic calculations, giving E = (~2.294) * (~1.797^17) of 4.123, and rounded up badly because tired. Omnicalc probably has someone behind it with more physics brain than me.
ZachariasWolfe
I did some reading to understand this. So the equation you used is correct for finding the energy of the mass with that gamma term in front. However, that's total energy, and assumes the entire mass turns completely to energy. Specifically the kinetic energy, the term becomes (g-1) instead. And because g worked out to be a bit above 2... You ended up with close to double the actual answer.
RanOutofWit
Thanks! That makes a lot of sense.
TheMightyMollusk
With that kind of force, you might be catching those teeth on another continent.
RanOutofWit
Loosely speaking, in that part of the dust I'm breathing in contains the vaporized remnants of the dentin, sure.
flukeysnail
#26 & #27 this isn't science it's just personal bias. Your impression is entirely based on what you're used to using. I know what 22°C is going to feel like, but 72°F means absolutely nothing to me. I know 0°C means I should expect to see ice or snow. 0°F gives me no impression of how cold it'll be, but I know what to expect at -20°C. An American would probably have the opposite impression. Humans' impression of temperature is highly subjective to begin with.
scrybot
Thanks. I always think the "Fahrenheit is how it feels" thing is so stupid. Yeah, it's how it feels to people who grew up with it, so what? Means nothing to everyone else.
Freakscar
Fahrenheit *is* arbitrary. Celsius is not. 0°C does not mean "I should see ice or snow". It means, that (at 1013,25hPa) water will freeze. Nor does 100°C mean "Dangit, I'm dead" - I mean, you would be, but that's beside the point - but instead means (again at 1013,25hPa), water is now boiling/vaporizing. 0°F was just what Fahrenheit could mix up the lowest temperature with: according to wikipedia -17.8°C using water, ice and NH4Cl.
Useful: Celsius.
Precise: Kelvin.
Vibin': Fahrenheit.
flukeysnail
From a subjective point of view it can; that's why I said the meme is not scientific. My point is that Fahrenheit is not how humans feel temperature, it's how Americans do. The 0 and 100 points on the Fahrenheit scale are not relatable to people who didn't grow up using it. Where I'm from 30°C is very hot, 37.77°C is unfathomable (give the Earth a few more years and it might be). Everything you've said is accurate, but the meme's claim wrt to "feel" is based on individual bias.
AgainstMethod
Who said it was science?
flukeysnail
The title of the post: "Dumps of Unusual Size 41: Science". Regardless though, it's simply an incorrect claim to exalt the pseudoscientific merit of a scale one group of people are more familiar with.
thundercactus
100% The F scale doesn't even make any sense. It's not a "survivable scale" Because I'd drop dead at 100F and a Texan would drop dead before 0F. The temp of the human body is stated to be a reference point for the scale but then why the FUCK is it 96F (now 98.6) and not 100F?
I fully agree with both scales being arbitrary in the sense that you're just picking a range of numbers in which you're comfortable, and those numbers are different depending on the person.