Happy Thought for 1 December 2023

Have a Happy Thought: 

 

Every once in a while, being overly pedantic can actually bring a bit of joy into your life.

 

Take me for example. There is a subtle joke on a pet rock that you can get at stores here.

It’s a little (palm-sized) stone that says “When I grow up, I want to be a boulder like my dad”

For those that didn’t watch 1980’s TV in Australia/New Zealand, this plays off of a tv commercial for a building goods store where a young boy says that he wants to be a builder like his dad.

 

Me, being pedantic, however, have problems with this since large boulders tend to turn into smaller rocks as they age, due to weathering and general erosion.

 

My bit of joy now comes with the knowledge that at least for a very specific type of rock, a small pebble can indeed grow into a boulder, or even a huge mountain range!

 

May I introduce you to : Dolomite.

This is the type of rock that makes up, and is named after, the Dolomite Range in northern Italy.

 



 

Image: rufre@lenz-nenning.at - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 at, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72661724

 

Yes, it’s that beautiful!

 

See, Dolomite (aka CaMg(CO3)2 for those that were wondering) is basically a crystal, and forms the same way that you may have made sugar crystals (or rock candy) in science class when you were about 12 years old:

 



 

Image from https://www.kidzworld.com/article/26598-make-your-own-crystals/

 

Scientists weren’t 100% sure that this was the case, because we’ve tried and failed repeatedly to “grow” Dolomite in the lab.

 

But just recently, we’ve had a breakthrough! By cycling rapidly through super-saturation (like putting heaps of sugar in the sugar water to “climb” up the piece of thread) and under-saturation (which re-dissolves the sugar back into the water), the dolomite actually grew. This explains why dolomite is generally found in coastal areas (or similar environments with high variability in salinity and/or pH).

 

Anyway, next time you see a little piece of dolomite, wish it well in its growth into a future boulder!

 

 

Thanks to RNZ’s Nine to Noon Science for making us aware of this,

Or read the paper in Science for all the details

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you, we love reading your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Thought for 30 June 2023

Image
Have a Happy Thought:     At the end of this week, possibly as you are reading this email, you get to have some separation between work colleagues and home life. (If you’re retired… well, I’m already jealous, so don’t @ me with a “ what is a week-end ” sort of quote).   But four very lucky people (yes, I’m somehow jealous of them as well), this week began a 378-day “week”, being shut in with their colleagues.   June 25 2023 was the start of the CHAPEA Mission 1 - a simulated Mars habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Centre. For just over one year, these four people will live as if they were on Mars, giving us valuable insights into logistics and human psychology. You can watch the emotional press-conference / shutting-the-door-behind-them , it’s actually very cute! Mission patch for Chapea-1 https://www.nasa.gov/chapea/mission1  with the mission motto Ad Martus A Domo and the participants' names Selariu, Haston, Jones and Brockwell.   Of course, this is far from
Read more

Happy Thought for 23 June 2023

Image
Have a Happy Thought:     The new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is opening up the origins of the universe and very distant galaxies, stars and exoplanets to our understanding.   You’d think we’re only looking that far because we’ve figured out how everything works closer to us, right?   Wrong! Science is great because there’s always something new to explore and figure out. Here are just a few of the mysteries that remain for us to solve, or maybe just a few things you didn’t know, right here in our own solar system:   Q: What is our sun’s surface actually made of? A: We’re… not 100% sure, actually! We know mostly, by analysing the light that comes from the sun. You see, every time light passes through an object, including a bunch of gas, it changes the spectrum that we see – that object, or gas, absorbs some of the energy of light at specific wavelengths (or sometimes absorbs-and-re-emits-at-slightly-different-wavelengths). So astronomers can tell what gasses a sta
Read more

Happy Thought for 26 January 2024

Image
Have a Happy Thought: While some of our holiday breaks may be fresh in mind, others may be distant memories. Either way, I hope you’re entering 2024 with at least some positive energy. One way to hold on to that (or maybe create it if that’s what you need) may be to introduce frequent, but short, breaks into your day, ideally getting out into some blue- or green-space.   Image: A stump next to a tree-shaded pathway has had googly-eyes drawn onto it so it looks like a startled face. Picture by author. In fact, taking mini-breaks might benefit your physical health as much as your mental health! A recent study out of Columbia University in the US has found that taking frequent-but-short breaks, 5 minutes out of every 30, can have really impressive impacts on physical and mental health like: Blood sugar Insulin Blood pressure Mood Fatigue Cognitive ability  (apparently, I need this a bit, it took me three tries and spell-checker to spell cogni
Read more