I'm tired and don't know how to communicate

this is technically a side blog to astral-eclipse. they/them

[shinishiny]

Perry supports the lgbtq community

[soberscientistlife]

Teach your children how to deal with emotions in a constructive way. I wish I had done this with my children.

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

When you tell your kids that they can talk to you about anything, carry through. Because if you say that and then don’t follow through on your word, they’re NEVER going to forget it.

Never.

[americiumam]

reblog w the song lyrics in your head NOW. either stuck in yr head or what yr listening to

[woulddieforperrytheplatypus]

Dan posted this on tiktok and it makes me soft 🥺

[everythingfox]

Now this is a big boi

(via)

[anais-ninja-bitch]

motherfucker unlimited and his emotional support bottle of sprite

[runes-and-feathers]

Why do I have to pick one name. Why can't I have dozens of names that people use interchangeably like I'm some kind of ancient wizard

[hazywave]

Did this round last christmas for the NADS secret Santa! Not sure if the recipient is on here, but it's one of my early attempts at digital art again since picking it up after like, an 8 year break lol. Figured I might as well post it

Lyrics and characters belong to Paul Shapera!

[mmothmanners]

I present to you all – Gramma the Firbolg. Life Cleric. All-around Grandma. She WILL support you. Made for an upcoming mini adventure.

[normal-horoscopes]

[normal-horoscopes]

Imagine the amount of rage j.d. salinger would feel if you wrote a sequel to his Important Big Boy Book in which Holden calls something "hella poggers"

[normal-horoscopes]

"kissing my boyfriend and girlfriend at the same time is hella poggers" --Holden Caulfield, after killing a vampire in Catcher in the Rye 2: Blood Moon

[websitewizard2005]

finally found the energy to come up with designs for lee and adrian hfdhhffujg

[literallymechanical]

So you know those mutant strains of radiotrophic fungus they discovered in Chernobyl?  The ones that feed on gamma radiation?  Those fungi, the radiation-eating fungi?  From Chernobyl?  They brought some on board the International Space Station and took some measurements.  Here is the paper, titled:

A Self-Replicating Radiation-Shield for Human Deep-Space Exploration: Radiotrophic Fungi can Attenuate Ionizing Radiation aboard the International Space Station

Space is full of high-energy radiation, and radiation shielding is a big engineering challenge for Martian habitats and deep-space missions.  What they figured out is that an 8-inch thick layer of mutant Chernobyl radiation-eating fungus in the walls of the spacecraft or habitat would serve as a self-replicating, self-sustaining radiation shield for long-haul missions.

This sounds like such a good and normal idea!  Let’s do it!

[king-of-men]

What is the advantage over a similar mass of lead, which would take less space and require no water?

[literallymechanical]

Lead is actually really terrible for shielding long-term space missions, it isn’t an option at all. Lead and other heavy metals do fine against medical x-rays, but against high energy cosmic rays and such you get a ton of neutron spallation, where every time it blocks a photon it scatters neutrons everywhere. Neutron radiation is very dangerous, and a ton of research is going into lightweight alternatives to lead for shielding in space. The upside of fungus is that it self-repairs, so it won’t degrade over time like more typical shielding.

As a side note, designing around damage from neutron radiation is a big part of my day job. Boron does a very good job of blocking it, so we use a lot of boron carbide ceramic, and borated polyethylene plastic.

[king-of-men]

Thanks, that’s very interesting! Still, I think the question stands: what’s the advantage of fungus over a similar mass of boron? Noting that “self-repairing” is maybe a bit exaggerated; presumably the fungus requires some human attention like any other plant we find useful. And water and nutrients, of course; I don’t think we’ll be running fully closed-loop spaceships taking only sunlight as the input quite yet. Replacing the boron shielding is not obviously more work than tending the fungus garden.

[literallymechanical]

You are asking all the right questions! Scientists are exploring all sorts of options for deep-space shielding. There’s research into some very promising high-density polymers, boron-nitride nanomaterials, hydrogen-rich materials, I think I’ve even seen proposals for various aerogels. Plain boron or boron carbide is rigid and brittle compared to more flexible polymers, so there are challenges to using it to shield a whole ship, but it definitely has its uses!

The fungal shielding proposal isn’t as crazy as it sounds. It’s an extension of ongoing research in using melanin for shielding. As anybody of north-European descent who has gone to the beach with less-pale friends and gotten burnt to a crisp can tell you (e.g. my pasty-white ass every summer), melanin is very good at absorbing radiation. Mixing in melanin with synthetic materials is something researchers have tested, and using this melanin-rich fungus is a new idea to try!

Science is never about finding one idea, saying “that’s probably the way,” and then dropping everything else. It’s important to pursue many different possibilities, tweaking them, using them in combination, and seeing what works best/cheapest.

It might be the case that while this isn’t practical for a spacecraft, it could have other applications. In a large Martian habitat, for example, the same systems used to grow crops for humans can be used to keep self-repairing fungus alive. Without a magnetic field, Mars is very radioactive and will need to be shielded much like the rest of deep space.

One of the most important parts of science is that you should never just say “nah, that probably won’t work.” Do the experiments, crunch the numbers, and give it a shot! It’s not uncommon for ideas that seem crazy on the surface to end up working out in surprising ways.

(Also, small nitpick — boron works wonders against neutron spallation from cosmic rays interacting with metal, but you still want to shield from the cosmic rays themselves. That’s where things like fungal melanin come in handy. Regardless, this is a really tough challenge, and lots of creativity is going in to solving it.)

[jaubaius]

Wow, so nice!

[rythyme]

Artist: Dallas Nagata White (website)

Dallas is a Japanese-American photographer, artist, and cosplayer from Honolulu. You can find more of her embroidery projects on her twitter.

[got-geek-vibez]

"The void" ... lol!

[pixelllls]

little blue fairy

[fjordfocused]

Modern AU. Travelercon. Jester is on stage and grabs the microphone. She shouts, Rumblecusp are you ready to get dicked down. the crowd roars. people race out of the main hall to begin the dick hunt. whoever finds The Golden Dicket gets free VIP tickets to The Traveler meet and greet.

[sketchynoodles]

Choose your fighter

[bromeliad-black]

Doodling a Clay with an eye to texture

[artemisthewiggler]

This is lovely!