Extreme Science: Launching Sounding Rockets From The Arctic

‘Incomprehensible’ birth of supercrystal explained

Two years ago, a research team led by Utrecht University published an article in Science explaining how they had created a material with unique and extremely interesting electronic characteristics. In this 'supercrystal’, the electrons move almost with the speed of photons, and the electric current can be switched on and off. This makes it ideal for ultra-fast electronics. But at the time, the researchers were at a loss to explain how this 'supercrystal’ obtained its unique structure. Now they have unravelled the mystery, and it appears to involve a completely different mechanism for crystal formation. This is an important insight for research into new materials with unique electronic characteristics. The results of their research were published online in Nature Materials.

The 'supercrystal’ develops when tiny nanocrystals form a perfectly ordered surface one layer thick. In this super-matrix, the structure of the atoms – A, B, A, B – precisely follows that of the nanocrystals itself. “But how such a neatly ordered super-matrix could be born from all of those nanocrystals was incomprehensible to us,” says Prof. Daniël Vanmaekelbergh from Utrecht University. “Now that we have insight into how the matrix is formed, we can conduct much more focused research into how we can make the structures that we would like to have.”

Read more.

i’m seeing a lot of people reblogging suicide hotlines and this is just a reminder that this is a suicide help line that works like a text-based instant messenger for people who may need to talk to someone but have trouble/are uncomfortable making phone calls

Schizophrenia Jokes

I’m here to talk about schizophrenia jokes. They aren’t funny, you aren’t clever, and we aren’t a walking one liner for you to tell. For starters, most schizo jokes are made at the expense of people with dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities) which is an entirely different thing than schizophrenia or its spectrum, (with its own stigma that I cannot speak to). This is annoying for a myriad of reasons but mostly it goes to show just how little is known about schizophrenia by the lay person and how frustrating it can be to have a disorder no one understands but everyone has an opinion about.

Schizophrenia is a spectrum, similar to the autism spectrum. Many people may have schizophrenia or an associated disorder and be perfectly able to live a normal life independent of assistance of any kind, others require round the clock care, and there are a million versions of ‘inbetween’. Everyone on this spectrum deserves the same amount of respect and kindness as people without schizophrenic disorders. There is literally no reason to assume someone that hears voices can’t hear you laughing at them. Or that someone who sees things that may not be there or believe in things they shouldn’t doesn’t know you’re a huge piece of shit.

Stop talking shit about the homeless people you see that are shouting at no one. Stop making fun of people who live in tin foil lined apartments. Stop assuming you know literally anything about another persons mental health simply because you have witnessed one symptom. Stop thinking that “hearing voices” is somehow a joke in and of itself.

I’m relatively well off, considering I’m on this spectrum, and many of my friends and family had no idea until I told them that I have this disorder. What does that mean? It means most of the time I’m telling these people after they’ve unknowingly made an insensitive remark or an offensive joke at my expense. I’m in a place where telling people about my illness doesn’t put me at risk. I’m lucky in that respect. Most people have negative opinions about schizophrenia – assuming they know what it is when they likely have no idea at all, and assuming those of us on the spectrum are incapable and utterly “crazy”. This stigma means that most people on the spectrum aren’t going to call you out on your shitty jokes for their own safty, so just stop.

If you can’t find a better word to use than schizo, crazy, insane, loopy, psycho etc then you need to beef up your vocab. We aren’t a joke. We don’t deserve to be the butt of your shitty jokes. I’m here for my schizophrenics and I’m determined to see positivity for us on this god forsaken website.

@yellowtreeelectricityfeminist replied to your post “Why are you celebrating woman scientists? How is that not…”

well i mean, non-able-bodied men are still men and still seen as capable of being scientists. and able-bodied men can still have been bullied or picked on or gone to the hospital as much as those who arent able-bodied.. i find sexism and ableism to be very very different issues and shouldnt have to be mentioned in the same post like this. not to mention that racism and sexism are different too since black men can still be sexist even if they face racism every day

Yes, that is true.  But we’re not playing Oppression Olympics here.  “Different” doesn’t mean “worse” or “less bad.”  I didn’t want to oversimplify by saying “all men” (I know I’m sorry lol), because intersectional feminism is so very important now.  But yes, intersectional bigotry is also a thing: brown men can be sexist and homophobic, gay men can be racist and misogynistic, and white women can be EXTREMELY RACIST.  (I’m not yelling at you personally, I’m yelling at my fellow white women who didn’t disavow a very bigoted presidential candidate.)  That is something that now, more than ever, I never want this blog to lose sight of.

for 2017 and onward i’m gonna exist and thrive as a mentally ill person and tell anyone who doesnt like it to go fuck themselves because that’s what Carrie did, and she would want us to do the same.

Why is this my life?

If you’re an introvert, follow @introvertunites​​​.

#crochet

I need to go to sleep, but I have new yarn.

If you knit or crochet, you can see where this is going…

Be like Neil!!