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Blobrana


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Gold
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Cosmic crashes forging gold

Collisions of neutron stars produce the heaviest elements such as gold or lead. The cosmic site where the heaviest chemical elements such as lead or gold are formed has most likely been identified: Ejected matter from neutron stars merging in a violent collision provides ideal conditions. In detailed numerical simulations, scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and affiliated to the Excellence Cluster Universe and of the Free University of Brussels have verified that the relevant reactions of atomic nuclei do take place in this environment, producing the heaviest elements in the correct abundances.
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Blobrana


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RE: Pure gold
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Common sense tells us that when you heat something up it gets softer but a team of researchers, led by University of Toronto chemistry and physics professor Dwayne Miller, has demonstrated the exact opposite. Their findings were published online in the prestigious international journal Science Jan. 22.

"It is counter-intuitive but the gold got harder instead of softer. Can you imagine a blacksmith heating up gold to pound it thinner, only to find it got harder? But we heated the gold at terrific heating rates - greater than 1 billion million degrees per second - that approach the temperature of the interior of stars. The gold was heated at rates too fast for the electrons absorbing the light energy to collide with surrounding atoms and lose energy. This means the electrons are on average further away from the atomic nucleus and there is less screening of the positive nuclear charge by these heated electrons. The bonds between atoms actually got stronger" - Professor Dwayne Miller.

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Blobrana


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Mark Mulligan is selling what appears to be a shiny glob of tangled fishing line for at least $8,500.
These 8-millimeter thin threads are worth more than $600 an ounce because they are .999 percent pure gold.
These are left over from a spool of golden thread that went to space several years ago in satellites on two Japanese-American rockets, perfectly tucked into cylinders the size of a 40-ounce beer can.
UW-Madison Space Science and Engineer Centre technicians twisted the thread into 200-strand bundles, then soldered them on to a piece of gold-plated equipment that worked as a fridge for one of the precious instruments on the satellite. The fridge was called a "salt pill."

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