#1 primordial black hole fan

making silly little posts so I remember to do my silly little assignments for my silly (not so) little university. (header: sky:cotl, pfp: @inkflowergarden)

[tismcosmology]

Im lyra, and after many years of lurking i am actually blogging on the blog website. insane

my lifelong goal has been to get my phd, so welcome to me doing that. i use this as a place to reflect on my classes each term, how i can improve, and just to chronicle my decent into madness

Academics:

starting my 3rd year of physics and astronomy (BSc) with a minor in biophysics

graduated from college pre-med before starting uni

astrophysics research interests include supermassive black holes, galaxy evolution, dark matter / energy, and cosmological models (or just cosmology as a whole)

biophysics interests are quantum biology, bioenergetics (photosynthesis and mitochondria) and quantum effects in the brain

About me:

genderqueer (he/they)

canadian, en/fr and a little asl

physically disabled

I also have. so many special interests in the sciences. far too many to list here. so go look at the post I made that has all of them

Currently reading:

[great-and-small]

One of the things I really like about Tumblr is there seems to be a healthy appreciation for invertebrate biology here, which I don’t always see as much on other social media websites. Tumblr users overall seem to love bugs, and it’s important to me that every person who loves bugs knows the name Charles Henry Turner. If you’re not yet familiar with this man, I’m delighted to introduce you to one of the most remarkable minds ever born of this earth, and a true pioneer in the field of entomology and animal behavior.

Charles Turner was born in the United States just a few years after the end of the civil war. His brilliance was evident from the start, and after graduating valedictorian of his high school class he quickly went on to earn his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in short order. While in school, Turner’s relentless curiosity became his greatest advantage. He was drawn to and fascinated by topics that were largely ignored by modern science at the time, namely the cognitive behaviors of insects and other invertebrates. While many of his colleagues believed insects to be mindless automata acting on instinct alone, Turner felt deeply that the brains of these oft overlooked animals were far more complex than the scientific community suspected. He performed extensive experiments to test his theories and found overwhelming evidence of problem solving and individualism among organisms as small as ants and spiders.

By the time Turner earned his zoology pHD in 1907 he had published dozens of papers in highly esteemed journals and had even co-authored a book. It is likely that Turner was the first African American to earn a pHD from the University of Chicago. With such a sparkling academic reputation and enormous body of research, one would expect this candidate to have no issues obtaining a professorship at a prestigious school. Though by every right Turner should have been head of science department at a top university, the systemic racism that permeated academia meant that doors a white man would have walked through were locked and bolted shut for Charles Henry Turner.

Turner did not allow this prejudice to dim in any way his blindingly bright passion for knowledge. He took a job as a high school teacher, and continued to perform and publish research on his own all while he instilled his students with a love for zoology. He published more than 70 papers in extremely respected journals and he remained passionately curious for the entirety of his life. If I tried to list here all of the incredible discoveries Turner made in his lifetime it would take me days to sufficiently express the impact he had on the field of invertebrate behavior. His experiments were so ahead of their time that entomologists today marvel at his research and wonder how much more we would know if Turner’s work had been given the attention and respect of other scientists working at the time. Turner’s mind was about a century ahead of those entomological contemporaries who had no interest in giving him a seat at the table. His tombstone simply reads “scientist”

Like many people of color throughout history, Turner’s exceptional contributions to our world have been unfairly overlooked by many. His name has historically been left out of entomology textbooks and courses, despite laying down groundwork that is still used today. I really recommend that anyone interested in entomology or even biology in general read up on Charles Henry Turner and his works. This is an excellent article that discusses his many challenges and triumphs in the field.

[charl0ttan]

x isnt always equal to a whole number but when it is ohhhh boy. oh oh boy

[charl0ttan]

electrons doing all sorts of stupid quantum bullshit right now. never forget

[caesxr]

‘beyond the scope of this paper’ is a dear friend to me. I Am Not Fucking Talking About That

[somestorythoughts]

"Look I can stay on track or this paper can be three times as long, your choice."

[bagnificentmastard]

Gee, thanks. I will go fuck myself then

[ciqqy]

I will lock in tomorrow like nobody has ever locked in before

[ciqqy]

[rinnegami]

[tlirsgender]

I think it's cute when depictions of our solar system include earth's moon. Like yeah sure the moon's invited. We just like her

[tlirsgender]

Like simplified models that don't have Literally Everything just the planets. And our moon #OurMoon

[shadytail]

We also figured out—the hard way—that the ancients probably cut each layer of linen to the proper shape before gluing them together. For our first linothorax, we glued together 15 layers of linen to form a one centimeter-thick slab, and then tried to cut out the required shape. Large shears were defeated; bolt cutters failed. The only way we were ultimately able to cut the laminated linen slab was with an electric saw equipped with a blade for cutting metal. At least this confirmed our suspicion that linen armor would have been extremely tough. We also found out that linen stiffened with rabbit glue strikes dogs as in irresistibly tasty rabbit-flavored chew toy, and that our Labrador retriever should not be left alone with our research project.

[krakenartificer]

I love this in every way possible. What is it from? Where can I read more?

[blackcatphysics]

The pitfalls of experimental archaeology and puppies.

[shrewreadings]

link to source:

“Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery, or how Linen Armor Came to Dominate our Lives.”

https://jhupress.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/unraveling-the-linothorax-mystery-or-how-linen-armor-came-to-dominate-our-lives/

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

holy shit read the article. it’s short but wild

[mounmantaka]

We found that even more of a threat than rain was one’s own sweat on a hot day. So, yes, it does need waterproofing, both inside and out. We did a number of experiments along those lines, and found that rubbing a block of beeswax over all sides of the armor provided nice waterproofing. It also makes the armor smell nice! When you wear it for a couple hours, your own body heat softens the glue a bit and makes it conform to your body shape, so it is much more comfortable to wear than rigid types of armor. Our reconstructions weighed about 10 pounds–about one third the weight of bronze armor that would provide the same degree of protection.

Honey i gotta go to war… not to smell my bee armor or hang with the boys or anything no.. uhh we need to uh do war things?

[thefibrarchaeologist]

#i've definitely read this before and i've probably reblogged it before but like.#no one in this thread is mentioning that they actually shot someone with an actual arrow in this armor.#they were like 'we've got to test this in practice' and instead of getting a mannequin or something they had an actual person wear it.

They what?

[classicslesbianopinions]

from the article:

While all of this mayhem (both scientifically controlled and free-form) convinced us that our linothorax was ancient-battlefield-ready, we still felt compelled to try a real-life scenario, so Scott donned the armor and Greg shot him. And while we had confidence in our armor, our relief was still considerable when the arrowhead stuck and lodged in the armor’s outer layers, a safe distance away from flesh.

a good life-size mannequin is expensive but i guarantee it would've cost way less than they were spending on all that linen.

[dr-dendritic-trees]

Academics are just like that.

[captainhelion]

They wrote a book about it btw

Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unravelling the Linothorax Mystery - Gregory S. Aldrete, Scott Bartell, Alicia Aldrete, 2013. and here's the "they shot a guy" pic, with one of my favourite captions ever

[ineptshieldmaid]

WOW YAY thank you @captainhelion , one for this important update and addition to my tbr and two, because I remembered you didn’t have the username On Here that I met you under but had forgotten what you changed it to!

[raccoonmilf]

When I was in grade school I used to send emails to biologists and zoologists asking them questions to get answers to include in school projects I was working on, and would cry when they did not respond because I thought I was stupid for thinking that some random kid would ever be deserving of a response from someone who does something as smart and cool and important as *checks notes* studies frog fungus.

Now, at 29, I’m lowkey having a panic attack because my academic email is filled with middle schoolers wanting me to answer their questions about pygmy raccoons and I keep putting off answering them because I’m so overwhelmed with all the other raccoon stuff I have to do.

Anyway, greatest apologies to any scientist I ever emailed as a child and also an adult.

[raccoonmilf]

I know your research is really important and I appreciate all you are doing but this is so fucking funny

[wumblr]

okay. fine. i have a solution that will make no one happy. let's make pluto a planet. if we launch one tungsten cube per day for 200 years precisely aimed at pluto's surface it will become massive enough to gravitationally clear its orbit of other kuiper belt objects. this will be completely useless and extremely expensive as well as potentially dangerous. and it will destroy the heart

[kittydealer]

u/Fine-Dog-9874

[transsexualtestified-deactivate]

your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for a graduate degree

[transguyarchive]

You do really just finish graduate school at 2:30 pm on a Monday, huh

[dyke-terra]

[luxfatale]

a study i did of “first braids to leave orbit (unconfirmed)” ft. Christina Koch and all of us🌎✨