Item the 1st – Joe Rogan had Bob Lazar on several years ago. He (Lazar) was peddling his usual story about Area 51; Rogan was a lot more credulous back then I think, but he still waxes poetic about Lazar to this day, about how he knew too much, was too smart, etc. to be making stuff up. One thing that Rogan finds very convincing is “Element 115” – Moscovium. Paraphrasing:
“Lazar said they were using element 115 and had stabilized it and it had extremely interesting properties that made it unique! Element 115 wasn’t even discovered until 2003, how could Bob Lazar even know about it back 80s,90s [The time frame Lazar claimed to have worked at Nellis/Area 51]? He must be telling the truth.”
Let’s not even get into the physics of stabilizing Moscovium to use it as a building material for flying saucers. I don’t know if it’s an example of knowing enough to be dangerous but too little to actually understand what you are talking about, but that line of reasoning to support Lazar’s claims – that Rogan likes to repeat every time it comes up – is just extremely misguided.
The heaviest stable element is lead with atomic number 82; all other elements with more protons in the nucleus are unstable and will decay – some with a very long half-life, some very quickly – the half-life to the most stable isotope of the aforementioned Moscovium (Mc-290) with atomic number 115 is roughly 0.6 sec. The atomic number refers to the number of protons in the nucleus; the atomic mass, by contrast, is (modulo binding energy ) the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, e.g. Mc-290 has 175 neutrons in the nucleus. The most common form of lead, Pb-208, has an atomic mass of… 208, so (208-82) = 126 neutrons. For many lighter elements, the stable isotope tends to have the same number of protons as neutrons – e.g. the most common form of carbon is C-12 with 6 protons (atomic number 6) and 6 neutrons; C-14 with 8 neutrons is unstable to radioactive decay with a half life of ~6000 years (which is why it’s so useful as an age dating method out to 10-15 thousand years).
A brief digression into physics – I swear I’ll get back to the point. Why is there a limit to how massive we can make an element and have it be stable? Well protons have an electric charge, defined as ‘positive’. Hearkening back to basic electromagnetism, we know that ‘like charges repel’. So when we start making heavier and heavier elements by adding protons to the nucleus, under the action of electromagnetic forces, they will want to fly apart. Matter itself should not be stable! The only reason nuclei are stable, and hence matter exists, is the “strong nuclear force”. The strong nuclear force is an attractive force between nucleons, e.g. protons and neutrons. The strong nuclear force provides a binding force to counteract the electromagnetic force trying to push the protons apart. Stability for heavier and heavier elements is a balance between the increasing electromagnetic repulsion of additional protons and increased binding force of the strong nuclear force. Neutrons, by providing nuclear binding forces without additional electromagnetic repulsive forces serve to stabilize the nucleus (while adding protons changes the element, adding neutrons changes the ‘isotope’ – same element, similar physical properties and interactions, different stability). The further along the sequence of increasing nuclear mass you go, the more neutrons one needs to add relative to protons to maintain stability. But there is a limit to how many nucleons one can add, including neutrons; the strong nuclear force is very short distance, so its effectiveness decreases the ‘larger’ one makes the nucleus by adding neutrons (or protons). In the presence of weakening strong interactions, neutrons will decay (via beta- decay – an unbound neutron has a half life of ~15 minutes). So there’s a limit to how many nucleons one can jam together to make heavy elements and stable isotopes before the individual constituents become unstable and will decay to lighter elements/isotopes via beta(+/-) and/or alpha (helium nucleus) decays.
So back to Lazar and Moscovium/Elements 115. We’ve had an inkling of the above for… a 100 years. Unstable elements that don’t occur in nature have been known about and synthesized for a very long time. Many were measured and created in the 1930s through 1950s are part of the research into nuclear weapons and power; Technetium, Francium, Californium, Plutonium, Americium, etc. Several of the very heavy, very unstable synthesized elements were ‘created’ in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, all the way up to atomic numbers of 114. That’s to say, the process of synthesizing and the knowledge of how to create very heavy elements has been around for a very long time. I’m sure there’s some paper in the 60s or 70s speculating on the properties of “Element 115”. So talking about element 115 around the heyday of when groups were out trying to make the next heavier element does not speak to some deep insight or hidden knowledge – it’s something a moderately bright con-artist could very easily come up with, especially in the vague hand-wavy terms Lazar uses.
Now if he had come up with how they stabilized Moscovium, that would be something! I’m not sure it’s possible within the realm of physics to do so – matter doesn’t behave that way. I’m not arrogant enough to claim that it can’t be done – though I’d put a substantial amount of money on the proposition that its physically impossible. But it’s an extraordinary claim that goes well beyond any known physics and in fact violates many that we think are pretty well established so you better come with receipts and something beyond hand-wavy pseudo speak designed to – and if Rogan’s continually bringing it up is any indication, successfully – hoodwink the gullible who have just enough knowledge to understand how extraordinary a claim you are making, but not enough to see what complete bullshit you are slinging. I wonder if there are even more contemporary and important examples of that kind of BS, maybe in the fields of medicine.
Item the 2nd – Speaking of medicine – the director of the NIH, Jay Battacharya, was on “American Thought Leaders“, that bastion of The Epoch Times/Falun Gong dis-, mis-, and mal-information designed to lead right thinking comrades astray from the true, one might say the shining path. It was an interesting interview, nothing to earth shaking but one thing caught my ear. With regard to some of the concrete policy changes the NIH is enacting, Battacharya said something along the lines of (no I’m not going back and finding the exact quote, what am I, a Columbia Journalism Major?) – “We are changing how we have oversight of foreign researchers [getting US funding]”. That’s all well and good, but why the hell is NIH funding foreign researches at all? We can ask “researchers at all, foreign or domestic”, but lets stay with the low hanging fruit for now. In an area I’m familiar with, foreign researchers are not eligible for US funding. If they are nationals for a country that contributed to the facilitation of a research program, through hardware supply/design or direct financing of such, they can participate directly in the research. But they cannot receive any funding from US agencies – their home institutions/governments are responsible for funding them. And US researchers can’t sub-contract/transfer funds to them. Seems to work pretty well for international collaborations – why the hell to we have to transfer tax payer money to foreign researchers in the the medical field?
Item the 3rd – What? There is no item the 3rd! I’m busy! I have performance anxiety! Happens to everyone, honest! Well, WordPress editor jumping around to hidden anchor points when I try to edit text is a pain in the ass. There, that’s an item, happy? Plus I get to add another music link for Mike S., may his Glib-Soul RIP and ThreeDoor.
Element 115 wasn’t even discovered until 2003, how could Bob Lazar even know about it back 80s,90s
Insert “Boys with a time machine” meme, Art Bell version.
I have heard Coast to Coast on far too many early morning airport drives. I can’t believe the ridiculous stuff people believe.
That’s all well and good, but why the hell is NIH funding foreign researches at all?
MAGA is America First and so continuing old policies.
It’s been more-or-less “America last” for decades. See: all of the IP China stole from us/we gave to China.
Battacharya was – is – just a milk-toast moderate-maybe conservative before the rona-stupidity. I don’t say that with any dis-respect – he was more interested in his field and left the ideology alone. To the degree he was/is conservative more the chamber of commerce type. Maybe the RONA changed that to some degree? But I don’t expect a firebrand – but I also don’t understand how someone can put those words together and have the reaction be – “we need better oversight”, not “what the hell are we doing that for?”
That you can’t conceive why he doesn’t question that is a demonstration of the bubble we inhabit. We’re kinda big on principles and questioning fundamentals; most people don’t go near either of those. Most people go along with the groupthink that prevails in the sphere they inhabit.
people go along with the groupthink that prevails in the sphere they inhabit.
Well, he had the fortitude to question the groupthink in the sphere he inhabited. It would have been very easy for him to keep quiet, but he didn’t, and we all gained from his willingness to be the tall poppy. So he’s demonstrated some ability to question the status quo. I guess we disagree on the value of, let alone morality of, confiscating peoples money to fund foreign entities.
No, you and I don’t disagree, but we do disagree with a lot of other people, who won’t be bothered to actually think in the same way we do. Nor will they appreciate any effort we make in pushing them to do so.
Sorry, I was unclear. “We disagree” means Jay B. and myself. He was willing to stand up and risk his career during covid. But he doesn’t question the premise of funding foreign research. So I’m not going to condemn him as going along with group think – he’s has concretely demonstrated he can stand up. So he and I must disagree on the utility or morality of that action.
I doubt he thinks about that at all – it is science funding. If the “best” research to be funded happens to be foreign, what’s the objection? It isn’t even necessarily the wrong approach; would it really be better to fund a second rate domestic researcher?
The real question is why fund any research at all? Let classic patronage provide that, not taxpayer funding. But now you are out on the fringe with that. Even if you made a brilliant argument, it wouldn’t likely persuade – it’s just too out there.
“…his willingness to be the tall poppy.” Never heard that phrase before. My brain tells me opium is involved. 👍
Evan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome
And back to first principles JI.
Why fund it at all?
That’s the correct question but few ask it.
Tall poppy?
Heads of wheat is the adage in familiar with.
Thanks PM
I’ll never think of Moscovium in the same way again.
Or even think of Moscovium at all again.
I vaguely remember 111 (“Roentgenium”) but I had no idea we were up to 118 now and that they all had real names instead of temporary names based the number.
I demand it be renamed Rapesquashium.
I like to think of balonium. Lots of that stuff just lying around.
But it’s an extraordinary claim that goes well beyond any known physics
Well, duh. That’s how you know it was done by aliens.
Well of course. Unfalsifiable is the gold standard for bull shit artists.
Going offline for 12 days. Don’t burn the place down while I am gone.
🔥🚒🔥🔥🔥
Unpossible.
Ewwww.
Canadian music.
This guy gets it.
I can’t even.
They always punched above their weight in my book.
Yes, Rush and Triumph and Neil Young and Anne Murray and Gordan Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen all both suck and blow ant the same time but April Winerules, and The Novaks self titled debut album slaps as the kids say
Amen.
Tragically Hip and Guess Who are better than all those hacks.
DON’T YOU FORGET CHILIWACK!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43yq_DEu0lE
/fuckin degens from upcountry
Joni Mitchell is Canadian and there aren’t many better singer-songwriters.
Rush sucks. There. I said it. Again.
You misspelled a few words there. It’s okay. I imagine being a frozen tundra yeti makes typing hard.
How can so one person be so wrong?
inorite?
Rush is like Dogfish Head brewery.
Quality ingredients (except Lee) put together oddly.
You’re back! Where have you been?
I’m currently in Yuma. It is noticeably warmer than NoDak.
Yuma?!?!? JFC, all the heat and torture of Hell with none of the charm. You poor bastard. But be stoic and always remember, the future disappears into memory with only a moment between; forever dwells in that moment. In Yuma, it will seem like even MORE forever.
The only thing worse than Yuma is sitting in Yuma reading Rush lyrics.
Oh, I don’t know about that. Ever been just down the road in Gila Bend?
Normally I’d have pity on you for being in Yuma, but it must be a nice break.
It really is nice. Only upper 80s lower 90s…back to the tundra soon enough. See if I can get a damn good sunburn before we head back.
Trying to acquire a sense of Yuma?
Ya take the 3:10 in?
So basically, despite neutronmaxxing virgin protonmaxxer Muscovium still gets brutally stabilitymogged by chad Lead?
I’m sorry, I don’t speak foreign.
Who are you who are so wise in the ways of physics?
I’m sensing a “Idiocracy” sequel…
I’ll be on the zoooooooom for a bit if anyone gets bored.
Because foreign researchers can do things that US researchers can’t (legally).
Was just telling Munchkin about Rachel Wilson on Rogan this week, pretty much a conversation about how “feminism” is evil. My SiL just posted an ‘explainer’ vid about “the Patriarchy,” where the girl goes on to talk about just how real and terrible and everything it is.
Well. I didn’t watch the whole damn thing, but yeesh. Rach is remarkably all about the patriarchal bullshit. I hear all and am (in this instance) wise enough to remain silent. Of course Bro is all aboard, as well. Or he at least *acts* it. I know they’re into some swinging shit, and I’m very sure he subtly ‘manipulates’ her into agreeing with him about everything (he is *much* smarter than she is). (She’s not smart.)
The only Wilsons I am familiar with are Ann and Nancy.
Meet Gretchen Wilson
https://youtu.be/BqQkECIn738?si=NAXbjhD3KWhIt3C4
HEAVY METALS: Jerry Pournelle in one of his novels named his stable superheavy element Arthurium (atomic number not mentioned). They were mining it on Ceres where it had sunk to the core during planetary formation. But Ceres being a minor planet the core was much closer to the surface.
In Isaac Asimov’s The Gods Themselves wrote about a universe where the strong force was much much stronger than in ours, resulting in elements with wildly unbalanced proton/neutron ratios that became wildly radioactive once transfered to our universe.
I remember reading one story where there was an island of stability around 220.
I think the premise was that the metals there were used to create the FTL drive.