Man of science, metal bender, EUV producer, and human-powered traveler
Cambridge, MA
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*in my most woo voice*
yeah, i study the harmonics of crystals' natural energy resonances. this one is titanium:sapphire
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I did not know they were out here awarding Nobel prizes for nanocars. Forgive me chemistry, I was not familiar with your game
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How does it work? Each "wheel" is a ratchet: excite it with a photon or electron into an unstable state, and the molecule's chirality forces it to relax by twisting in a particular direction. This causes the car to drive forward every time you hit it with an electron pulse
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If you're curious, the 2016 chemistry Nobel was awarded to this paper's senior author, Ben Feringa, for molecular motors. Read about his self propelled nanocar here: doi.org/10.1038/nature10587
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First ever direct images of a single molecule: kind of looks like a bunch of adorable caterpillars?
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These images were taken with an atomic force microscope (AFM), which drags a cantilevered tip across the sample and uses a laser to read out small changes in the tip's position. This particular AFM tip was functionalized with a CO molecule, making it sensitive to individual atoms
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It's kind of amazing that no one had seen an individual molecule until 2009. Check out the original measurements here: doi.org/10.1126/science.1176…
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The x-ray tubes are so charming in person
If you're curious about the invisible electromagnetic waves called x-rays and the story of how scientists were perfectly positioned to turn an accidental discovery into a technological miracle in under 2 weeks, check out the essay I wrote! Link in the reply
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Peter Johnsen, PhD retweeted
TIL from @DandKUniverse that you can sometimes hear meteors burning up in the atmosphere *at the same time as you see them*, despite the discrepancy in the speed of light and the speed of sound.
How? Here is an abstract from a relevant paper:
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This is why scientific discovery is one of the highest arts: it goes beyond mere consumption and production
The thing “produced” was never yours, and the thing “consumed” is shared with the world
if you overhear most ppl, they’re likely just discussing what they’re going to consume next.
something like:
“we should do this.”
“i’m going there next week.”
“did you see that movie?”
“we’re trying this restaurant.”
“i might go to italy.”
it’s rare to find ppl that tend to discuss what they’re trying to change, create, or understand way way more.
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Love Maggiori’s paintings but one thing bothers me: I have NEVER seen this style of cloud in the desert
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"Mozambique has these crazy island mountains, inselbergs, that-"
"Wait even the mountains are incels now?"
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using claude code is only slightly worse than eating cyanide blue
Fuck you. Whoever made this site. You win.
I’ve never had a site get my blood boiling like this before
This is so messed up.
opusfived.dev
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Peter Johnsen, PhD retweeted
Do not be afraid to sow without immediately seeing the fruits. The sowing belongs to you; the growth belongs to God. No gesture carried out in the name of Christ is useless.
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Peter Johnsen, PhD retweeted
This is a better way to visualize Columbus’ voyages than the traditional way (that shows him traveling through a modern map)..
It looks a lot crazier and more daring when you see it as a trip into the unknown.
Marcial Cuquerella
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Awesome to see Anthropic working on this! I wrote a short post a while ago about using Claude to control a laser and letting it run some simple experiments on it.
Stoked to try more with the new standard
peterjohnsen.substack.com/p/…
Today, we're kicking off the first phase of the research preview for Model Hardware Standard (MHS): a new standard for AI agents to safely operate physical equipment in scientific research and advanced manufacturing.
Read more: anthropic.com/news/model-har…
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