Spontaneously Organizing Plastic, and Shrek Jokes
Bowler Hat Science from Matthew R Francis
Two very different stories this week, on the lessons astronomers learn from an exotic supernova and a new way to model complex systems using little plastic beads. For the first one, I wrote many Shrek jokes as I could fit, and my editor only removed one — and added a new one to replace it.
This Star Stripped Off Its Layers Long Before Exploding
A star 2 billion light-years away apparently shed most of its outer layers before exploding, providing new insights into stellar structure—and new mysteries for astronomers to solve.
For AGU Eos:
Two billion years ago, a massive star exploded. When its light reached Earth in 2021, it joined more than 20,000 recorded supernova candidates observed that year.
This one was unique, however. It exhibited features not shared by any other known stellar explosion: The star had shed almost all of its outer layers before it died, exposing a core rich in silicon and sulfur.
SN 2021yfj, as this supernova is labeled, revealed never before seen details about stellar interiors. Precisely how a star could die this way is a marvelous puzzle that may help researchers learn about the deaths of the most massive stars and how they spread new elements through the cosmos.
Read the rest (and count the Shrek jokes) at AGU Eos.
Active Hydraulics as Analog Computers to Solve Complex Problems
For SIAM News (so there are some equations, but you should be able to skim over those if you aren’t mathy):
Mathematical models for complicated physical systems rarely have exact solutions. In turn, models that do have exact solutions often fail to quantitatively describe real-world phenomena, though they may sometimes provide qualitative insights that facilitate the construction of more realistic theories.
Now, a new set of active matter experiments have matched an exact solution for a particular system known as the six-vertex or ice-type model. Researchers previously used this model—which dates back to the 1930s and was solved in the 1960s—in a wide range of applications, none of which explicitly matched the precise solution to the equations. However, physicists Camille Jorge and Denis Bartolo of the University of Lyon in France recently found that tiny beads in a square grid of tubes behave specifically and quantitatively as predicted by the six-vertex model’s solution.
Get Yourself Vaccinated (While You Still Can)
Since our erstwhile Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has set his sights on ending vaccinations for children at minimum (and possibly everyone eventually), I got my flu and COVID-19 shots earlier than I normally would. You should also get jabbed if you are able. Most states still offer COVID shots to adults, though availability for kids is dodgy many places.
Bowlerhattishly thine,
Matthew
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