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I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

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Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#111

Post by ekaryotic »

rbanffy wrote: post #65
kakacik wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Items degrade but what often remains is imprint of it in surrounding material, that over time becomes rock. We dumped enough shit all around us that is too smooth/right angled/whatever to look like natural product. If anybody digs enough, they will find enough evidence, direct or indirect. That is, till all currently-up tectonic plates submerge for melting. But since they don't move by same speed, some of it will pro…

It all depends on how long. Eventually all the current surface will be sucked under tectonic plates and come out after passing some time in the mantle. We can plan for that by planting evidence in places that aren’t likely to go through that, but, give enough time, most of the crust will be recycled.

the earth is old though, i'd think that the sun will have expanded and made the planet uninhabitable before all the crust is recycled. i've heard there's only 500million years left, assuming we don't destroy it before then.

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#112

Post by sidewndr46 »

ninalanyon wrote: post #59
cogman10 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually a bit wild that Chile isn't refining or smelting copper. Is it because there's not the energy capacity to run smelters? I thought Chili had a pretty abundant energy grid (mostly hydro as I recall).

Australia behaves the same way, exports ore to China and buys back the refined products. Both countries have abundant energy (hydro and solar) but have old fashioned mining interests in charge.

isn't it literally the same company, Rio Tinto?

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#113

Post by dekhn »

perching_aix wrote: post #72
dekhn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say it was a bot comment, I said it looks like a bot comment. Many of the shorts Youtube shows me are almost identical to that message.

So are you like, tentative about it, or did you conclude that it isn't a bot comment in the end? If the latter, what was the ultimate rationale? Did you check their post history or something?

Based on this thread, I do not think it was a bot comment. As far as I can tell, it was an organically sourced, honest opinion that just happens to look identical to a common bot post on youtube shorts

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#115

Post by pugworthy »

Animats wrote: post #18

By the same author: "Altered States from the Inside Out: A Physicist’s Embodied Journey Through Seizures, Psychedelics, and Consciousness"[1] [1] https://medium.com/@breid.at/seizures-crystals-psychedelics-...

At first I thought you were playing the Ad Hominem card there, but reading the article I'm assuming you mean to point out that the author seems like a rather interesting individual.

I like one of the introductory sentences where he says, "I am a strange person who has had a strange life, even relative to that of my strange and high achieving peers here."

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#116

Post by aaron695 »

jerojero wrote: post #41

I was arguing with a Chilean friend who moved a few years ago to the USA. He was telling me how Chile doesn't do good science. I challenged his claim saying Chile actually had great scientists that were severely underfunded (Chile's investment in science and research is ~0.4% of the GDP versus the OECD average of ~2.7%). I think it's sort of a big consensus with people that have never been involved in science work, i…

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Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#117

Post by evilduck »

tdeck wrote: post #20
nntwozz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If humanity suddenly died tomorrow the world would be littered with handy rectangular glass pieces all over the world. Alien archeologists would have a field day figuring out what they were for.

They're clearly a ceremonial artifact, and their reflective surface is used to perform some religious ritual or other, probably related to the sun.

They indeed were used as part of a mating ritual.

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#118

Post by abreidenbach »

Hi everyone! This is Dr. Aaron Breidenbach, the author of the article.

I’m very excited to see so much engagement here, and I just wanted to share a few updates and thoughts.

The first is that The Department of Energy recently recognized my thesis work as proving the quantum spin liquid state in Zn-Barlowite, which represents a major scientific breakthrough (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aaron-breidenbach-65363b133_l...) . Certainly, there’s still plenty of doubters in the condensed matter physics community, but I’m quite proud of this recognition.

The second thing I’d like to mention is that I got approved to do both of the measurements I suggested in this article at National labs (Argonne and Oak Ridge). These are to investigate the consequences of the higher purity of the natural crystals. If successful, many of my colleagues have said that this would represent a major breakthrough in our understanding of these materials. I’m quite excited for this!!

Unfortunately, in spite of all this, I’m out of a job and broke . I’m hoping that this will change soon, but academia can be a very tough and political environment… I’ll leave it at this for now. If anyone knows an angel investor or person that writes drop science grants that might be willing to help support me while I run my experiments, please contact me at abreidenbach@alumni.stanford.edu .

Thank you for listening!

Dr Breidenbach

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#119

Post by abreidenbach »

jerojero wrote: post #41

I was arguing with a Chilean friend who moved a few years ago to the USA. He was telling me how Chile doesn't do good science. I challenged his claim saying Chile actually had great scientists that were severely underfunded (Chile's investment in science and research is ~0.4% of the GDP versus the OECD average of ~2.7%). I think it's sort of a big consensus with people that have never been involved in science work, i…

[dead]

Re: I found ultra-pure quantum crystals in an abandoned mine in the Atacama desert

#120

Post by abreidenbach »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #87
sneilan1 wrote: post #85

I wish the author had not used the words "Abandoned Mine in the Atacama Desert" Abandoned mine would've been fine. But now you've communicated the value of your find and given a basic hint of what mines to look up. The bright side is so far, author is probably fine because nobody's buying quantum crystals yet in a futures market. At least the author has time to secure property rights and buy out old mines.

The vast copper-producing region of the US has large areas of similar mineralization. If they found it in the Atacama then you can find it in the US as well.

You sure can! Small amounts have been confirmed in Arizona. I wouldn’t be surprised if deposits were quite extensive. Over 10 different confirmed locations worldwide. See the Mindat page on herbertsmithite if you’re curious
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