Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Have Finally Sampled the Most Abundant Material On Earth
rossgneumann writes: The most abundant material on Earth didn't have a name, and, in fact, hadn't been seen — until now. For the first time ever, scientists have gotten their hands on a sample of bridgmanite, a mineral that is believed to make up more than a third of the volume of the Earth. In a new paper published in Science late last week, Oliver Tschauner of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his team describe bridgmanite for the first time.
Love that the diagrams are in kilometers and the article talks in miles!
Quality!
some info not in the summary or article:
Formula: (Mg,Fe)SiO3
System: Orthorhombic
Name:
Named in 2014 by Chi Ma and Oliver Tschauner in honor of Percy Williams Bridgman [April 21, 1882 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - August 20, 1961 Randolph, New Hampshire, USA], winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1946 for his work in high-pressure physics.
Technically, it's not "on Earth", it's "in Earth".
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Unobtainium has been obtained? Now it's "Misnamedium".
Table-ized A.I.
Compared to the volume of the rest of the planet, much of it consisting of, you guessed it, bridgmanite, water is a very thin film on the surface....water is about 0.02% of the total earths' mass
But is it actually of any practical use to us?
actually the total amount of water would only cover the entire surface with a uniform layer one fifteenth of one percent the total radius of the planet. Water is in fact, therefore, pretty scarce on Earth.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
I'm guessing that this is not settled science (whatever that is) and that at most they have a model to justify their model.
how about "dark mineral"?
It's delicious! A little bit crunchy though.
I thought stupidity was the most abundant material on earth.
You will never see that happen, just as you have never seen any of the strawman garbage you attribute to "space nutters" said by any actual person.
Liquid hot magma?
Water is in fact, therefore, pretty scarce on Earth.
That's like arguing the material a balloon is made of is scarce on a balloon. Its true that there's not much of it in the total volume of a balloon. But it still makes up pretty much 100% of the surface area ON a balloon.
Similarly bridgmanite is pretty rare on the surface, even if it is the most common by far when you start looking further down.
My two guesses were high fructose corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil
You autistics have a hard time with sarcasm, humor, and parody, eh? As for the "strawman garbage"; every time I point you to a post full of Space Nutter delusion, I never hear or see from you again.
Until the meds run out, it seems.
How's it feel to know all the sci-fi garbage you drank with a firehose as a kid will never, ever come true?
Here's a Nutter at work:
http://science.slashdot.org/co...
It's a fucking movie, not a millennial plan for the entire species, you delusional fruitcake.
How about "Gamer Tears"
You are welcome on my lawn.
Trolls aren't a "material," they're a vector. Dumbass bullshit, on the other hand, is a material.
This has never happened. On the rare occasions you actually cite a post, you ALWAYS lie about what that post is actually saying. Case in point:
Nothing in his post suggested that it was or was intended to be "a millennial plan for the entire species", you worthless liar.
...dirt.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
Water is in fact, therefore, pretty scarce on Earth.
That's like arguing the material a balloon is made of is scarce on a balloon. Its true that there's not much of it in the total volume of a balloon. But it still makes up pretty much 100% of the surface area ON a balloon.
...
Two strikes for you - first you make a poor analogy (In a completely deflated state the rubber is the entire volume and mass of the balloon), and second you missed the opportunity to make it a car analogy.
A better analogy would be that paint (or enamel) is pretty scarce on a car since such a tiny fraction of its total mass consists of paint, even though us "surfacists" consider the paint a very important characteristic of the car.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
... is untroll when you surf at (Score:2) band above.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
"How to save the human race"
You silly, absurd human being.
The Bayonne Bridgemen Drum and Bugle Corps must be thrilled!!!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Wooosssh!
You deliberately took that out of context, to pretend that it was something that the poster was advancing as a real belief in the plausibility of the events of a science-fiction film.
You have failed, as you always fail without exception, to find any Space Nutters.
Now you shriek your inadvertent confession that you are the liar you are always shown to be. Again.
Look inside yourself, and there you will find it.
No, just on reddit.
Can you explain how that quote was "out of context" when the entire context was about a movie that talked about ... the whole human race?
It's hard to argue logically with your kind of delusion. Go back to your Star Trek boxed set and masturbate to some 1960s space propaganda posters.
You guys are sad. I'm trying to help you get a grip on reality without medication. Can't you see I'm here to help you lot?
Similarly bridgmanite is pretty rare on the surface, even if it is the most common by far when you start looking further down.
That sentence should start with "conversely" rather than "similarly". Similarly implies that balloon rubber and bridgmanite are rare and common in the same places. Conversely would correctly indicate that they are rare and common in opposite places.
the Most Abundant Material In* Earth
It is the most abundant material on Facebook.
"Lame" - Galaxar
There's more water on Europa than on Earth.
I donno, lately I'm finding more tech news and geek/fandom interests by browsing reddit/all than I find on Slashdot.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Just a small technical quibble. Intelligence is of course quantifiable and limited resource. Stupidity however has no bounds, it's abundance therefore cannot really be measured.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Stupidity is a force.
Water is indeed one of the most common molecules in the universe. This makes perfect sense since its two components, hydrogen and oxygen, are the first and third most common elements, and second most common, helium, does not readily form molecules.
Water is vanishingly rare on Earth compared to the universe at large.
Have gnu, will travel.
Hmm, cat got your tongue, you depressed, misanthropic, delusional fruitcake?
You made me laugh pretty bad, I forgot to link to you the Master File of Space Nuttery:
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the...
No Space Nutters there either, I guess?
So did you send your job application to be Musk's chief eunuch ball washer in his Mars condo?
Too bad about the distance and temperature, eh? I'll bet that as you typed your comment you were wearing your bathing suit and snorkel, and speed dialing Elon Musk to "take me with you!!!"
Please keep geek culture and fandoms far, far away from here.
Most Slashdot articles seem to hit Hacker News first, but Slashdot's discussion system is (imo) somewhat better. For one thing, HN has no support for HTML -- personally I find inline links invaluable. Also, even with a certain degree of moderation abuse, Slashdot is very effective at bringing good comments to the fore. I prefer the D1 discussion system, but D2 isn't that bad either. One point that I consider to be absolutely vital is that humor is accepted and encouraged here. Hacker News has its serious pants on all the time, and Reddit I feel is often not serious enough, or the seriousness is drowned by highly-voted humor.
It's been years since I've watched much television, or been able to see very many movies. It's been damn near a decade since I had a computer good enough to run games. I've spent most of the last few years hanging out and partying on Caribbean beaches, but with the rest of my free time I like creating things and learning new and strange things about programming computers. I moved back to the Real World(tm) lately, and I was very excited to see a Queer Geek (don't judge) meetup in my local area, until I realized that they meant people who have seen Firefly and were into superhero movies. I do things, I make things, I have adventures, I follow new tech, and I have no interest in semi-social culture consumers.
If you're into that sort of thing, good for you. Slashdot is pretty indiscriminate, but it definitely is more in the "tech news" category than fandom, and I hope that never changes.
Addressing each of your screaming tantrums in order:
Yes, the context is a movie. Therefore, his statement about the movie applies to the movie, and not to anything else. You cannot explain how his statement is a suggestion that the physics of the movie are realistic, or that its events are plausible. You screamed your admission to this, by making no attempt and instead trying to push the burden of proof onto me when you know it's entirely on you, and that you failed to meet it as you always do.
Here, once again, you resort to accusing me of saying things you know I've never said, making up strawman arguments and pretending I hold them, so that you can validate your delusions of being the lone island of sanity. You're screaming at your monitor as you type, begging me to please say we're going to get starships any day now. You want me to be a Space Nutter so badly. But I'm not, and neither is anybody else, and you are enraged by that
Unlike you, I have a job and things to do besides post on Slashdot. Just because I don't reply within ten minutes doesn't mean you've somehow "beaten" me. The reason you tell yourself that is that you're desperately hoping I will simply go away, because that's the only way you can make an even remotely successful attempt to convince yourself that you've "won". You never will or can, though. You're aware that you've never once made an actual argument of any kind, even against your imaginary Space Nutters - let alone any actual people you've ever encountered.
I didn't make you laugh. You made yourself laugh. As in, you literally forced an awkward, nervous chuckle out of your throat in a pathetic attempt to distract yourself from the fact that you have - as always - failed to either find or effectively criticize any of your beloved Space Nutters.
Indeed not, as you admitted by not even trying to find any. Now that I've pointed that out, you will repeat that admission. You will either admit it by continuing this avoidance, or by lying about what someone said again. The option of simply admitting you were completely full of crap the whole time remains open, but you won't take it because you're too emotionally invested in your fantasy of being the gadfly to be honest with yourself.
You have shrieked your confession to being a filthy lying piece of shit, as I said you would. You will now do it again.
Yes, that is the sound of a fast moving electric car!
abundant - existing or available in large quantities; plentiful.
sample - a small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like.
How can something plentiful be completely inaccessible?
Yes, they correctly sampled a meteorite, they did NOT sample from the earth.
Sorry, but just because it exists in an asteroid, doesn't mean it is abundant on, or in earth.
Jason Koebler should have a lot more critical thinking in an article as important as this purported discovery.
I prefer it with "similarly".
However, I would have rather he continued "nitrogen gas is pretty common on the surface, even if it less common when you start looking further down". I think he could have focused on things near the surface, which could have been a useful reference guide.
Then, maybe come on to things that are below the surface in a separate post.
You silly, absurd human being.
This, has to be the most profound thing ever said. I truly wish I could friend you. Well, here's hoping you hang around. I like your style, and your substance. You definitely have the nutcases pegged. Unfortunately the nutcases have mod points. Do your best, knock 'em over!
How can something plentiful be completely inaccessible?
Well, it could for example be something blocking access to it.
No-one is arguing that the sun doesn't have plenty of mass. I still consider it highly inaccessible and don't think that we will be able to get a core sample anytime soon.
Presumably 'tis pronounced "brid-gma-nite"
> abundant - existing or available in large quantities; plentiful.
...
> How can something plentiful be completely inaccessible?
The key word is "or". I.e. you can condense the above definition to read (for this case): "Abundant: existing in large quantities". Doesn't have to be accessible.
I learn from all my mistakes, I intend to be a genius at the end of my life.
I was thinking along the lines of: females are plentiful, but for a lot of slashdotters they're completely inaccessible.
They sampled the most abundant material on Earth....WELL, how did it taste?
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
I believe the most abundant material on earth is not infact what they claim at all. I believe the most abundant material is actually these.
http://virulentwordofmouse.fil...
MPU!
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
If we could harness their moth-like indignation, we'd have renewable energy solved!
Plus you have to admit, reading the guy's florid prose and psychotic ramblings is a great training aid for reading the DSM-5.
Holy Cr@p! Are you implying that Buckaroo Banzai, my hero and spiritual guide, is not real?!!? Well there goes my religion.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I know, right? I'm also implying that warp drive, replicators, spaceships, planet-hopping, and friendly talkative aliens are also not real. So planning the entire human race's glorious future among the stars with chemical rockets and Low Earth orbit is a religion, yes.
If at least Space Nutters didn't take themselves so seriously! But they're gloomier than a Russian novelist in a gulag!
educated stupid
actually the total amount of water would only cover the entire surface with a uniform layer one fifteenth of one percent the total radius of the planet. Water is in fact, therefore, pretty scarce on Earth.
Earth Radius = 6,371 km (Wikipedia), 1% = 63.71 km, 1/15th = 4.24 km. That layer seems plenty deep to me, but check my math...
The obvious and accpted name should be, Alotofite
that's roughly equivalent to the wax layer on the skin of an apple.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Really? I don't see the N word used in the comments to tech articles on Reddit, just Slashdot. /. needs better moderation.
Does that include the water recently found in ringwoodite?
Or the sound of a deflating balloon
Actually, TFA links to an earlier article that discusses a sample of ringwoodite (the transition layer material between upper and lower mantles) that had water trapped inside it. The whole thing was encased by a diamond that emerged in Brazil. They claim that it "confirms predictions from high-pressure laboratory experiments that a water reservoir comparable in size to all the oceans combined is hidden deep in Earth’s mantle." The ringwoodite sample was 1.5% water by weight, so water is still a small percentage of Earth's mass, but there is more than just surface water.
Everyone knows the most abundunt material is phlogiston!
1.3 billion cubic km spread over the surface of the earth gives a depth of about 2.5 km, or closer to one thirtieth of the Earth's radius, which seems more reasonable since the average depth of the oceans is on the order of 3.5 km and they contain most of the surface water.
Funny, cause we have had space ships for like 50 years, have you been asleep?
Warp Drive is actually currently being proved to exist, the next step is to scale it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White%E2%80%93Juday_warp-field_interferometer
One you missed, but would probably rage against is reactionless thrusters, and wow, those are being developed too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive#Modern_approaches
You may think people are nutters for believing that we can do things in space and actually pushing the boundaries of our knowledge. I think you are a nutter for thinking that what we know now is all we will ever know.
Too bad about the distance and temperature, eh?
That doesn't change anything, Europa still has more water than Earth, regardless of it being frozen or an astronomical distance away. The Sun still has a crap ton of hydrogen, even though it is far away varies from really hot to extremely hot. Understanding what is out there contributes to understanding the formation of the Earth and geology of parts of the Earth that are difficult to get to.
actually the total amount of water would only cover the entire surface with a uniform layer one fifteenth of one percent the total radius of the planet. Water is in fact, therefore, pretty scarce on Earth.
How many libraries of Congress is that?
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
How's it feel to know all the sci-fi garbage you drank with a firehose as a kid will never, ever come true?
Sweet, we found someone who can prove a negative! Somebody get me the entire math community on the phone.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
English nazi's chime in.
vs. the World Crime League or it never happened!
or wait, would that actually be the new testament of Banzai-ism?
Hmm, I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter!
Nano!
Did they have to move a bunch of blue people out of the way to get to it?
Your wooosssh just got lapped. Take it out of 'Reverse' there sonny boy before you endanger everyone lapping you ...
How can something plentiful be completely inaccessible?
Women. To Slashdotters.
Have gnu, will travel.