An atom is supposedly mostly empty space, given that mass is concentrated in a tiny nucleus. But the so-called empty space is teeming with quantum activity. #chemsky youtube.com/shorts/hBjzf...

How systems of high and low pressure are created is more mathematical than most of us imagine....

The square of the low end-estimate of the number of stars in the universe equals the number of molecules in the Earth's atmosphere.

If you're stuck on an integral while stuck in traffic, look for the Feynman Integral Truck. #mathsky #mathematics

I am not a fan of graffiti, but if someone feels compelled to do it, this is how to do it right. ☺️ #chemsky

Reduction of Ag⁺ from silver nitrate by copper metal. The reaction is irreversible because aqueous Ag⁺ is a better electron-thief than Cu²⁺. Why? Cu²⁺ is more stable by being better solvated due to its smaller size: 87 vs 129 pm for Ag⁺. #chemsky

The #orchid family includes at least 28000 species. One petal of the orchid flower is often highly modified, forming a "lip" or labellum that in many species acts as a landing platform. Orchid seeds are minute; they often include no food & must rely on fungi to germinate. They evolved ~ 70 M y ago.

S= k log W: Entropy is proportional to the number of probable states. During much of Boltzmann's career, the kinetic molecular theory & the reality of atoms were controversial among many leading physicists and philosophers of science including Mach, Ostwald and Duhem.

Most birds and planes get most of their lift from their wings. But the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird generated significant lift from its fuselage & chines at high speed. The swift spends much of its life airborne, with a body shape that helps generate useful aerodynamic forces. #flight

The first of four installments on light. How using a Galileo discovery to solve a longitude problem led to evidence that light speed is not instantaneous. #physicssky youtu.be/8yhk1EZq9tY?...

"The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an aviation accident that occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina on 24-01-1961. A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3.8-megaton Mark 39 #nuclearbombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Go...

'Even if Galileo never said "Eppur si move", it has relevance for our troubled times, when even provable facts are under attack by science deniers. Galileo’s legendary intellectual defiance-“in spite of what you believe, these are the facts”—becomes more important than ever.' shorturl.at/5zF14

In the 1950s, dynamite was a key tool used in building the Adirondack Northway in NY. Nowadays emulsions are more typically used. One example is a mixture of mineral oil(fuel), ammonium nitrate(combination of reducing and oxidizing agent) with a bit of Ca(NO₃)₂ and the emulsifier PIBSA. #chemsky

Roughly 38 different cardiac glycosides appear in lily of the valley. They're highly toxic if consumed by humans or animals, a fact exploited by Walter White in Breaking Bad. The toxin shown next to my plant is convallatoxin. There are 3 parts to it: a carbohydrate, a steroid & a lactone. #chemsky

(1/3) Asteroid (22473) is named after physicist and astronomer, Stanley Hey. On February 27, 1942, during WWII, he received reports that British anti-aircraft radar was being jammed. The interference continued during the day but waned and then vanished at night, only to return the next morning.

(1/6) How #pulsars were discovered: They were using radio telescopes designed to study interplanetary scintillation, a rapid intensity-fluctation caused by clouds of ionized gas ejected continuously from the sun to form the solar wind. After a few weeks, Jocelyn Bell noticed that there was ...

(1/2)Economist, May 2: There's little experimental support for the idea that #exercise provides a high by releasing endorphins, a form of opioid. A 2021 study blocked runners' opioid receptors, yet that had no impact on what they felt. Instead researches believe that the body's endocannabinoids, ...

Add a little math to your orange juice this morning and find the area of this function from negative infinity to positive infinity. The answer includes two transcendental fundamental constants. #mathsky

(1/3) @geraldkutney.bsky.social from Scientific American, April 2026. "A diversity of nutrient sources for once pristine alpine lakes makes it difficult for scientists to discern large scale patterns. But rising global temperatures tie together the variables--snow melts faster, lakes heat up quicker

All about the Higgs' field and the Huggs' field. There's no real dichotomy involving quantum ripples (particles) and the soul. uvachemistry.wordpress.com/2025/07/23/t...

After discovering that DF2 was a dwarf galaxy without dark matter, the Bullet Dwarf Hypothesis & its mini version have proposed mechanisms for the separation of gas/stars & #darkmatter. Author's team has found FCC 224& 240. Do these related dwarfs also lack dark matter? www.aanda.org/articles/aa/...

"Otto, a professor in climate science, stressed that we can expect "unprecedented weather extremes that would not have been observed in similar historical El Niño events that are quote-unquote cooler climates," - records will be broken because of the continued use of fossil fuels, not El Niño."

In the 1660s calculus led to the development of infinite series for approximating π. Newton used an arcsine series to compute a 15-digit approximation of π in ≈ 1665, writing, "I am ashamed to tell you to how many figures I carried these computations, having no other business at the time." #mathsky

Without quantum tunneling, there'd be no α-emissions & therefore no warming of Earth from within; no plate tectonics. Fusion depends on it; so does the formation of H₂ & H₂0 in space & enzymatic reactions when H⁺ is moved in respiration/photosynthesis. #physicssky #chemsky youtu.be/_f8zeEI0oys?...

(1/3)Checked my old reading notes, & it had a great historical example of how political & ideological inertia delayed the construction of London's first super-sewer, similar to the way we procrastinate dealing with climate change. As early as 1849, John Snow realized foul air wasn't cholera's cause.

(1/2) TOI-1853 b is a hot, massive, & dense Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the orange dwarf star TOI-1853, located in the constellation Boötes about 545 light-years away. Its high density challenges the idea that massive planets should form via pebble accretion. ... #astronomysky

(1/4)Those who responded that climate scientists understood “very well” the causes of climate change were disturbingly low and not improving over time: 28 % in 2016 and 24 % in 2023. A major divide was found by political orientation:

"LHS 3844 b may resemble a larger version of the Moon or the planet Mercury. This conclusion is based on analysing the infrared radiation received from the planet’s hot dayside. " www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/astrono... #astrosky

The tetrahedron is key to organic chemistry & life. But it's also important along shorelines. Tetrapods are made of concrete, &use a tetrahedral shape to dissipate the force of incoming waves by allowing water to flow around rather than against them, &to reduce displacement by interlocking. #chemsky

(1/3)#Galileo was both intrigued & frustrated by the fact that the length of a pendulum is proportional to the square of its period. Without calculus he could not prove it mathematically. After deriving the equation shown, one can use an approximation for small angles. #PhysicsSky

Among a wide variety of applications, Euler's formula from "Introductio in analysin infinitorum (1748)" can be used to generate trigonometric identities such as those for cos(3x) and sin(3x). #mathsky

Soapstone, a.ka. steatite, is a metamorphic rock that's mostly talc (Mg₃Si₄O₁₀(OH)₂), which is very soft as far as minerals go and therefore easy to carve. Grounded talc is known as "baby powder". #chemsky

The right substitution from a trigonometric identity makes this integral child's play. Neither Wolfram nor Maple could "see" it. ChatGpt saw it but still made a mountain out of a molehill. Claude Opus 4.7 does it efficiently. #calculus #AI

#Euler's contributions to mathematics are so ridiculously abundant that at times things he discovered are named after others to avoid overusing his name. Examples include Venn diagrams, Euler–Mascheroni constant (γ), Fermat’s little theorem, and the Basel problem (∑ 1/n² = π²/6)( Euler solved it).

Chalkboards are, in many cases, superior and more energy and cost-efficient than overrated smartboards.

One could say a curiosity that killed Newton's cat; 😀 although Newtonian physics is still useful to this day.

The classic #dirac unit of "one word per hour". 😁

(1/2)"Radiocarbon dates & isotopic patterns indicate that Chincha communities applied guano to maize fields by at least 1250 AD. Coastal people traveled by raft to collect guano from offshore islands.Their kingdom flourished between about 1000 &1400 with a population of 100k."

One of Quirks& Quarks' regulars was astronomer #CarlSagan, who made his final appearance on the show 31 years ago this week, where he spoke about the search for worlds beyond our solar system &what that may mean for the possibility of alien life. www.cbc.ca/listen/live-... www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

Light's speed is constant for all observers, regardless of the source's motion of that of observer. This plus Galileo's idea: "it's impossible to tell the difference between a moving object& a stationary one without some outside reference to compare it against" led #Einstein to special relativity.

Galileo demonstrated experimentally that a ball rolling down a ramp undergoes constant acceleration. Ditto for heavy balls falling through the air. 'Wish he could rise from the grave and see high speed photography. #physics

The atmosphere's longer path length partly accounts for the beautiful display at #sunset. How we feel about it is far more difficult to explain. I also like the non-AI version with lamposts. The sun, at some point, played a role in making any form of electricity possible.

(1/10)Shortly before the #GreenhillPark disaster of 06-03-1945, the British Ministry of War Transport sent a letter to the Canada Shipping Company, which indicated that the loading of ships in Canada violated British regulations for the carriage of dangerous goods, which, in particular, stated:

www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=newt... depending on the initial value you choose with #Newton's method, you could obtain both possible values for the #Lambert function of -⅓. Use the equation xe^x+ ⅓ =0.

The Rotten Egg #Nebula contains large amounts of sulfur. The blue gas at each end of the gaseous outflow marks where the high-speed gas is ramming into material in the surrounding environment. The violent collisions create shock fronts, which heat the material to the point at which it glows.

Poor last of the large dinosaurs. The supernovae happened before they went extinct, but they never got to see either one.

Kutkhiny Baty in Russia is a pumice rock formation. Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is rapidly ejected from a volcano. Rapid cooling &rapid depressurization cause dissolved gas to come out of the lava, creating the foamy rock. Pumice's density can be as low as 0.7g/cm³.

#Oreum (오름) refers to the 360 small extinct volcanoes on #Jeju Island. They are commonly described as parasitic cones. They were lava outlets for the major volcano Hallasan that created Jeju between 2 million and 100 000 years ago.

@geraldkutney.bsky.social The Supreme Court’s sad decision to block the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan before lower courts finished reviewing it.