Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

[DShomshak]

Better drill bits? Bah. Since lonsdaleite is found in meteorites and apparently made by colliding planets (OK, dwarf planets/asteroids, but still), obviously it is a source of limitless power! With such power, one could rule the world! Don't these NPR reporters ever read comic books?

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

Wind up your origin stories, folks.  First attempt to redirect an asteroid happens later today.

[Old Man]

Asteroids!  Always coming to take our jobs!

[Bazza]

“Lonsdaleite, also called hexagonal diamond in reference to the crystal structure, is an allotrope of carbon with a hexagonal lattice, as opposed to the cubical lattice of conventional diamond.”

 

So…still a diamond. Still the hardest material. 

[Old Man]

Is it though?  The structural arrangement matters, otherwise graphite and carbon nanotubes and soot would also be diamond.

[Bazza]

Yes. 

[tkdguy]

3 hours ago, Cancer said:

Wind up your origin stories, folks.  First attempt to redirect an asteroid happens later today.

 

Impact in less than an hour (7:14 EDT/4:14 PDT), here's a live feed:

 

 

[Cancer]

... Don't miss.

Look at the rocket funnel

 

wonder what we woke up ... spoze we'll find out

[Old Man]

Watched it as it happened, you could see the asteroid's thrusters lit up in the lower left corner as it tried to evade, but obviously it didn't succeed.  We'll see how they respond to our unprovoked attack.

 

In other news, Ian's current track goes straight over Tampa Bay.  (And also a bunch of Cubans, but as an American, policy prevents me from caring about non-Americans.)

 

[unclevlad]

3 hours ago, Bazza said:

“Lonsdaleite, also called hexagonal diamond in reference to the crystal structure, is an allotrope of carbon with a hexagonal lattice, as opposed to the cubical lattice of conventional diamond.”

 

So…still a diamond. Still the hardest material. 

 

No, not a diamond.  Crystal structure changes several things...including basic color, for example.  And while there's some controversy?  Diamond potentially isn't the hardest. 

IIRC, it's also MUCH more difficult to manufacture lonsdaleite than it is to create diamond.

[Lord Liaden]

Found in a meteorite... ho hum. Been there, done that (in fiction). Vibranium is 'way cooler, including its name.

[Old Man]

But is it cooler than mithril, which was created when lightning struck a tree that contained a Silmaril that was being fought over by an elf-lord and a Balrog?  (Happens all the time I'm sure.)

[Grailknight]

1 minute ago, Old Man said:

But is it cooler than mithril, which was created when lightning struck a tree that contained a Silmaril that was being fought over by an elf-lord and a Balrog?  (Happens all the time I'm sure.)

 

Please don't refer to that blasphemy to The Silmarillion even as a joke. Wandering crusader Galadriel is bad enough but that totally unnecessary change to the lore just burns me since the location of the Silmarils are known  throughout the books.

[Old Man]

2 minutes ago, Grailknight said:

 

Please don't refer to that blasphemy to The Silmarillion even as a joke. Wandering crusader Galadriel is bad enough but that totally unnecessary change to the lore just burns me since the location of the Silmarils are known  throughout the books.

 

The part I'm waiting for is where the Elves specifically ask the Dwarves to dig for the mithril, so it'll actually be their fault that the Balrog gets unearthed.

 

Wandering crusader Galadriel is so badass I almost consider her an improvement.  Pistols at dawn?

[Grailknight]

9 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

The part I'm waiting for is where the Elves specifically ask the Dwarves to dig for the mithril, so it'll actually be their fault that the Balrog gets unearthed.

 

Wandering crusader Galadriel is so badass I almost consider her an improvement.  Pistols at dawn?

 

Only if you try to justify the swim back from from within sight of Valinor😀

[Old Man]

1 minute ago, Grailknight said:

 

Only if you try to justify the swim back from from within sight of Valinor😀

 

That was disappointing.  I was hoping to see her drag herself ashore after swimming for two years, not get rescued by castaways.

[Bazza]

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

No, not a diamond.  Crystal structure changes several things...including basic color, for example.  And while there's some controversy?  Diamond potentially isn't the hardest. 

IIRC, it's also MUCH more difficult to manufacture lonsdaleite than it is to create diamond.

 

The book referenced below is part of a series and makes clear that there is two types of diamond: cubic and hexagonal. The former has a crystal lattice ABCABC while the later is ABAB. I'm wondering if there is a possibility for a third type: 'pentagonal diamond'.

 

Wikipedia quote:

"A diamond cubic lattice can be thought of as two interpenetrating face-centered cubic lattices with one displaced by 1⁄4 of the diagonal along a cubic cell, or as one lattice with two atoms associated with each lattice point.[17] Viewed from a <1 1 1> crystallographic direction, it is formed of layers stacked in a repeating ABCABC ... pattern. Diamonds can also form an ABAB ... structure, which is known as hexagonal diamond or lonsdaleite, but this is far less common and is formed under different conditions from cubic carbon.[18]"

 

[18] Bandosz, Teresa J.; Biggs, Mark J.; Gubbins, Keith E.; Hattori, Y.; Iiyama, T.; Kaneko, Tatsumi; Pikunic, Jorge; Thomson, Kendall (2003). "Molecular models of porous carbons". In Radovic, Ljubisa R. (ed.). Chemistry and physics of carbon. Vol. 28. Marcel Dekker. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-0-8247-0987-7.

 

Book sourced from: 

Publisher: https://www.routledge.com/Chemistry--Physics-of-Carbon-Volume-28/Radovic/p/book/9780367395278

Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/chemistryphysics0028unse (borrowing required) 

 

This book might interest a certain science teacher with a background knowledge in chemistry and physics. 

[unclevlad]

That's also 2003.  As late as 2014 there were those arguing the stuff didn't exist...but there are lab tests in the last few years that have produced it.  That wikipedia article is also dated;  they're talking hardness 7-8, but that's based on natural stones that aren't representative of the pure material.    

 

It's a bizarre subject, to say the least.  Carbon is amazing.  

[Bazza]

Fair enough. Maybe these scientists have something more current, however it does establish that diamonds can be hexagonal. And as for carbon, yes it is, as shungite is a good example. 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Skyrockets in flight... stronger lonsdaleite...

 

[tkdguy]

A reminder to take extra precautions when you live near wild animals.

 

https://www.ktvu.com/news/bear-escapes-after-it-destroys-an-suv-while-trapped-for-6-7-hours

[Old Man]

Man, Fort Myers is about to have a really bad day.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Ian has taken a turn, so we're no longer getting a direct hit. Still going to get a lot of wind and rain, but much more manageable 'tropical storm' strength. 

[Cygnia]

RIP: Coolio

[wcw43921]

Ummm--apparently not.

 

EDIT: I guess he's dead after all.  Go figure.