Salmon Cycle
July’s print for print club!

if i look back, i am lost

Love Begins
Show & Tell
wallacepolsom
todays bird
TVSTRANGERTHINGS

祝日 / Permanent Vacation

@theartofmadeline
art blog(derogatory)
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
Misplaced Lens Cap

Kaledo Art
dirt enthusiast
Monterey Bay Aquarium

roma★
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
noise dept.
almost home
seen from Peru
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@colonelhowdy
Salmon Cycle
July’s print for print club!
Tickling the Dragon’s Trail and the Demon Core
“Gentleman, what we have here is the most powerful force ever created by mankind. Lets poke at it with a screwdriver.”
—Louis Slotin, Los Alamos laboratory
After World War II the scientists at Los Alamos laboratory found themselves in possession of a spare core originally intended for a nuclear bomb. Nicknamed ‘“Rufus” the core would have been detonated as part of a third nuclear bomb dropped on Japan, however the Japanese surrendered before the bomb could be assembled. Instead the 89mm (3.5 inch) diameter sphere of plutonium-gallium was reserved for scientific testing, in particular criticality experiments.
Critical mass is the minimum amount of mass needed for a fissile material to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. When a fissile material reaches critical mass, it becomes “supercritical”, where it releases a large amount of energy. Rufus was 5% subcritical, thus scientists thought it was ideal for use in criticality experiments. The experiment was designed to simulate critical mass by surrounding the core with neutron reflectors, in this case tungsten carbide bricks. The bricks would deflect released neutrons back into the core, increasing it’s reactivity. Completely surrounding the core would cause it to go supercritical, an event which was to be avoided because it would release a burst of neutron radiation that could kill everyone in the room. Essentially the purpose of the experiment was to see how much nuclear material could be added to the core before it would go supercritical, and measure how much energy is released in the process.
On August 21st, 1945 physicist Harry K. Daghlian Jr. (pictured above left)was conducting a criticality experiment with Rufus when he accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick on the core. The core went supercritical, releasing a burst of neutron and gamma radiation while bathing the room in a bright blue light. Daghlian promptly responded by removing the brick from core, causing his hand to instantly blister from the radiation.
Daghlian had received a deadly dose of radiation, resulting in his death 25 days later. An accompanying guard, Army Private Robert J. Hemmerly, was sitting at a desk 12 feet away but seemed unharmed by the accident, although he would die 33 years later from leukemia.
After the accident, Rufus was renamed, “The Demon Core”. A new procedure was designed to make the experiment “safer”, which was designed by physicist Louis Slotin (pictured above, right). The new procedure involved the core sitting between two beryllium half spheres. A screwdriver was jammed in between the two half spheres, creating a gap through which neutrons could escape. The screwdriver was used to manipulate the half spheres, raising or lowering them to increase or decrease the size of the gap, thus increasing or decreasing the reactivity of the core. If the two half spheres completely enclosed the core, it would go supercritical.
If this sounds completely bonkers, you probably have more common sense than the brilliant physicists who conducted these experiments. In fact the experiment was named “Tickling the Dragon’s Tail”, based on a remark by physicist Richard Feynman who compared the experiment to “tickling a sleeping dragon”. Slotin was certainly aware of the dangerous nature of the experiment, he had been at Daghlian’s bedside when he had died. The famed physicist Enrico Fermi had warned Slotin that if he continued these criticality experiments, he would be dead within a year.
On May 26th, 1946 Slotin was conducting a criticality experiment with the demon core when he lost control of his screwdriver, causing the beryllium sphere to close. The incident is almost perfectly re-enacted in the 1989 film “Fat Man and Little Boy”,
Louis Slotin died of acute radiation poisoning nine days later. Of the other seven people in the room, two would die of cancer years later, although it is unknown whether the accident contributed to their deaths.
After these two criticality accidents new experiments were designed which used remote controlled machines and cameras. The Demon Core was melted down and recycled into other cores.
Soldier, Poet, King
They’re on their way to see Jade btw.
What’s the mood Today?
Me calling for help only to realize that there’s no one there to answer…
where can i buy your art? stickers? prints?
Oh! I'm so sorry I never saw this. I need to set all of that up. No one has wanted to buy my art before, so I didn't think that far haha... I'll post a link in my bio very soon!
Tattoo isn't finished yet, but I have to say.... pretty happy with myself.
Someone wanted to practice tattooing portraits, and asked me if I'd like one. Not finished, but I will post an update when it is time!
Then, I got a gift! It's my birthday month, but it's still early. And wow... what a gift. Real signed picture of Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal, complete with a certificate of authenticity.
Thank you for reading, I'm just so excited!!
Dammek’s posters : Movie parody editions. Took some of my favorite (good and bad) action films keeping in mind ones I thought he would like and then went to town. TONS of fun. the rock and rule one is my favorite, but last action hero and SFTM have special places in my little blood bumper. They were all kinda drawn really cheap/ugly on purpose to mimic the feel of cheap movie poster paintings, but the trollbo cop one came out really stylish despite that lmao
i never see any positivity for people with “bad” teeth so
dear everyone with a noticeable gap in their teeth, or with big overbites or underbites, or teeth that follow no pattern at all, all yall who got teased and now can’t smile an open mouth without feeling nervous, all who couldn’t get braces for one reason or another and those who had to go through them: you’re beautiful and amazing and perfect just how you are
Also people with no teeth, or missing teeth, or yellow or even black teeth, or heavily chipped teeth, or teeth that would look “better” if you had taken care of them or gone to the dentist but you didn’t/couldn’t for whatever reason, ALL of y'all who were made to feel like you should hide your teeth and smile, I promise that the people who care about you love your smile and that it fills them with joy, and that you’re perfect and amazing the way you are
I have never seen such an accurate depiction of what it looks like without glasses.
For writers with good eyesight, this is a good reference for what it’s like trying to see without our glasses
HAppy homestuck day or something I MISS MY CHILDREN!!!!
The sand in Okinawa, Japan, is made up of tiny stars! These ‘stars’ are exoskeletons of marine protozoans that lived on the ocean floor up to 550 million years ago.
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Wrath of the Lamb
I simply had to paint these lovely murder husbands :/
This speaks to me on a deep, spiritual level.
Gonzo is an nb icon no takebacks
A portrait I finished earlier this year! 💜 Let me know if you like it!