26 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 The Origin of Helium

The helium which we handle must have been put together at some time and some place. We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place.
Folksonomies: science physics
Folksonomies: science physics
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Eddington incorrectly assumes Helium could not be manufactured in stars because they are not hot enough, but argues that theorist should find a hotter place. Both wrong and insightful at once.

01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Big History as a Fable

Once upon a time, about ten or fifteen billion years ago, the universe was without form. There were no galaxies. There were no stars. There were no planets. And there was no life. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The universe was hydrogen and helium. The explosion of the Big Bang had passed, and the fires of that titanic event – either the creation of the universe or the ashes of a previous incarnation of the universe – were rumbling feebly down the corridors of space. But the gas...
Folksonomies: wonder big history
Folksonomies: wonder big history
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Carl Sagan tells the story of our Universe's history as a fairy tale.

30 JAN 2011 by ideonexus

 How to Disguise a Helium Atom as a Hydrogen Atom

Donald Fleming of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues managed to disguise a helium atom as a hydrogen atom byreplacing one of its orbiting electrons with a muon, which is far heavier than an electron. Because it is so heavy, the muon sits 200 times closer to the helium nucleus than the electron it replaces and cancels out one of the nucleus's positive charges. The remaining electron then behaves as if it were orbiting a nucleus with just one positive ch...
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Neat experiment that allowed a Helium atom to act like a hydrogen one.