#crystal structures

[materialsscienceandengineering]

The atomic structure of solid substances can often be analysed quickly, easily and very precisely using X-rays. However, this requires that crystals of the corresponding substances exist. Chemist Professor Oliver Oeckler from Leipzig University and his team are developing methods to make this possible even for very small crystals that cannot be seen with the naked eye. These include phosphorus oxide nitrides, which consist of phosphorus, nitrogen and oxygen and do not occur in nature. Unusual properties are attributed to this novel class of compounds, which have been difficult to access until now, because of their unusual structures. Working with Professor Wolfgang Schnick from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Oeckler and his team have developed a method that made it possible, over a decade of research, to determine the complex crystal structure of new phosphorus oxide nitrides. The scientists have just published their findings in Chemistry -- A European Journal.

When analysing crystal structure, the combination of electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation -- particularly intense X-rays generated using a special technique at a large-scale research facility -- plays a decisive role. However, the analysis of phosphorus oxide nitride shows that this is sometimes not enough. The substance, which could form the basis for novel phosphors in future studies, for example, was already produced for the first time in 2014, but its structure has not yet been elucidated, because it was previously considered a class of compounds that was difficult to access. Daniel Günther, a doctoral researcher in Oeckler's working group, has now been able to solve the puzzle together with his mentor. "It was not due to the data, but to a trick of nature. We are not talking about just one substance, but three very complicated, intergrown compounds," explains Günther, who is the first author of the study.

Read more.

[voyagerprobe]

good fucking lord we need to demystify minerals. crystals do not have healing or magical powers you guys are just getting scammed

[nights-at-crystarium]

Lightwarden AU

He takes so little, and so sparingly. To refrain from consuming living aether, to go against his, eater's, very point of existence... Frivolus may appear docile and passive, but Exarch only dares to imagine the amount of strength that goes into his perpetual inner battle. Sacrifice. Self-destruction in the name of love. Oh, how he wishes to stay oblivious to this evil irony.

[dontbeanassbutt]

there are southern lights?!

YES THERE ARE MY FRIEND AURORA AUSTRALIS THE DAWN OF THE SOTUH. CAUSE THEY'RE IN THE SOUTH

they're the exact same thing as the northern lights: a phenomenon in the atmosphere due to the interaction of the solar winds against the earth's magnetic field and gases up there

HOWEVER

they differ in one major way however: pink as a color shows up more commonly than in the north!

LOOK AT HOW PRETTY

the classic green aurora is of course still around it is one of the more common colors but pink shows up just a bit more frequently than in the north!

unobtainable watermelon

they are absolutely stunning and one of the best ways to see them is on a cruise (ehhhhhhhh) or going to antarctica!!!!!

i'm obsessed with these funky little things like look at nature's neon lights she's so pretty. they're absolutely beautiful and it is on my bucket list to see both of them

[destinysbounty]

I think one of the things that made the original series so compelling is how interwoven everything was. Sure, it wasnt always perfect, but each season brought to the table some new connections to the lore, some character growth, some advancements in continuity. Even if a character or subplot only lasted one season, you could still feel their influence on the story several seasons later.

Chen is my favorite example of this. He may have just been the villain of season 4, but his schemes introduced a lot of information about elemental powers, his defeat initiated season 5, and his impact can still be felt as late as season 7 (foreshadowing about Ray and Maya, elemental alliance stuff, etc.) In Way of the Departed theres even suggestions that Chen had Clouse use dark magic to corrupt the Time Twins, leading to their villainy and causing not just the plot of season 7, but also Kai and Nya's whole backstory. Clouse, having returned as a ghost thanks to season 5, is responsible for conjuring Nadakhan and starting season 6.

And on the note of season 5! That season introduced us to the Sixteen Realms and the Realm Crystal, which become important aspects of season 6, and Yang's temple, which became important in DotD and season 7. It also formally introduced Ronin and turned Cole into a ghost, which are *also* major plot details going forward. AND it planted the seeds for Wu's eventual character arc in seasons 7-9. This season's impact expands past itself.

A lot of times, not all the time but often enough, whenever lore gets introduced at some point in the og series, it gets utilized much later on. Captain Soto, formerly a one-off villain from season 2, becomes plot-important in season 6. The Golden Weapon is shot into space in season 2, melted into Golden Armor in season 3, then melted down back into the weapons to defeat the Oni in season 10. The Great Devourer causes Harumi's tragic backstory. Mystake, who started out as a background gag character, became a key participant not just in the show but the worldbuilding and lore. The love triangle and subsequent rift between Jay and Nya doesnt get fully resolved until season 6. The ninja return to the burnt-down monastery in season 6, DotD, and season 7, and eventually rebuild it in season 10.

See what i mean? Everything somehow ties back to itself. Its far from perfect, but there is a solid sense of continuity that connects everything in increasingly complex ways.

I think thats a big part of what makes Wildbrain feel so different. Dont get me wrong, i love Wildbrain and i enjoy a lot of it, but it definitely lacks the cohesion that had seemingly defined Masters of Spinjitzu. A lot of their Wildbrain adventures feel less like installments in a greater narrative, and more like a series of loosely connected sidequests. Exciting sidequests that are usually really fun to watch, certainly, but sidequests all the same.

With the exception of Seabound and Crystalized, you could probably watch Wildbrain out of order and not much would change. If Prime Empire or the Island happened before SotFS, none of those seasons would face any impact from that. They are largely episodic and detached from each other in ways the og series never was. But if you tried to shuffle up the season order in Masters of Spinjitzu, youd have to rewrite a lot of stuff to make it work.

I almost wanna say thats part of why Seabound and Crystalized feel like such a return to form, and why MotM is so well-beloved. MotM introduced us to Lilly, fleshed out Cole's backstory, gave Wu a lil character arc that built on what came before it (Wu feeling useless bc the past few adventures were done without him), and finally gave some kind of resolution to Lloyd's Harumi-related trust issues (not just referencing her, but actually giving him a character arc about it). Seabound introduced us to more lore about the world's history and the backstory of the FSM, gave Nya one of the most compelling character arcs in the whole show that builds on and satisfies her past arcs, even gave her name a backstory that ties into the lore, featured relevant cameos from prior seasons (Vania, Maya, the Keepers), and provided an ending that would have lasting repercussions on seasons to come. And Crystalized...well, i wont spoil anything, but you get where im going with this.

Now, obviously this isnt the only deciding factor of whether or not a season is good. Seasons 6 and 7 are a mixed bag in terms of quality, yet have very integrated lore and character arcs. But seasons 11, and 12, which many people dislike, are also the ones that most noticeably feel like theyre happening in a vacuum. Any effect they have on later seasons, or any effect prior seasons have on them, is not as significant or immediate as in other seasons.

With the original series, there was a sort of cause and effect, almost. Rebooted caused ToE, which caused Possession, which caused Skybound, and so on. Theres a clear and specific chain of causality, and the sequence of events has a large impact on the events themselves. The same cannot be said of Wildbrain.

Again, i do enjoy Wildbrain, and there are a lot of things i even think it did better than the og. But i definitely feel like it wouldnt be half as contentious among fans if it had the same cause-and-effect plot structure as the og. Like, something in ns11 being the inciting incident for season 12, and something in season 12 causing season 13...you get the idea.

Anyway brb i gotta go rewrite Wildbrain

[faelapis]

if i ever make like a big steven universe defense video after all, i feel like i would need to give it a clickbait title like "you hate steven universe because you're american."

and then explain everything from how the hays codes section on not showing "sympathy for criminals" resulted in a moralistic black/white hollywood media landscape for a loooong while even after its death, and how regardless of whether you're actually american, you are influenced by these values and standards thru consumption of american media, or you wouldnt be here.

next to that, i would go into how the "actually, i like redemption arcs as long as they're earned :)" attitude is in many ways an extension of this need to see a focus on punishment, which that section of the hays code on villains was about as much as sympathy itself.

From the wikipedia page on the Hays code / Motion Picture Production Code:

All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience, or the audience must at least be aware that such behavior is wrong, usually through "compensating moral value". Authority figures had to be treated with respect, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains. Under some circumstances, politicians, police officers, and judges could be villains, as long as it was clear that those individuals portrayed as villains were the exceptions to the rule.

The entire document was written with Catholic undertones, and stated that art must be handled carefully because it could be "morally evil in its effects", and its "deep moral significance" was unquestionable. It was initially decided to keep the Catholic influence on the Code secret. A recurring theme was "that throughout, the audience feels sure that evil is wrong, and good is right".

the focus on punishment is more emotional than rational. it presupposes that punishment is inherently good and produces good results regardless of data or context. i think this bleeds into that attitude indirectly through, for instance, the only "acceptable" redemption arcs being abuse victims who were fucked over by someone "even more evil" (ie zuko, catra, etc) people who were lower in the system and assumed disposable.

that way, even their redemption serves as a "screw you" to the Truly Evil people above them, which is now the standard of how to get your average american audience on board with redemption. punishment is still very much on the table for those "truly evil" emperors and villains above them, placating this strong desire for punishment and violent solutions.

and of course this is alive and well in wider politics too, everything from the prison industrial complex to how elected judges focus on how Tough on Crime they are and the moral outrage of "this one judge didn't give the death sentence every single time, LIB ALERT" in attack ads.

at the end of the day its all very fucking childish. i mentioned it being emotional briefly, the need for punishment and having a Good Guy with a Gun kill the Bad Guy with a Gun is this very ameribrained hyperindividualistic good vs evil conflict, but its also childish in the refusal to engage with the facts of a situation and see whats actually helpful for society outside of your own emotions.

it feels good to watch callout videos and true crime because of their simplistic focus on the evil of the criminals, but there's rarely ever a mention of how recidivism rates go up, not down, with harsher, punishment-focused sentencing. when you forget the humanity of someone and refuse to truly help socially and economically, they tend not to feel much hope for their own future and instead turn to what helped them survive before. all it does is satiate the Proper, Good People in society's demands for blood and hatred.

anyway steven universe is great not only because it says screw all that, but because it has logical reasons why killing the diamonds is a bad idea, such as how their powers are necessary in helping heal corrupted and shattered gems and thus symbolically helping heal society overall, which is something that is crucial for society, not for your emotions.

steven himself represents the emotional counterpoint - that he can't really get over the pain the diamonds caused to himself and others, and for a brief moment considers the alternative where he WAS that vengeful hero who just killed those who "deserve" it... and ends up literally hurting himself in the process. poetic cinema.

some may think i’m missing the point there, that we’re actually supposed to side with steven in that the diamonds are really evil and bad and it would be better to just shatter them, steven is just too much of a cuck to go through with it or whatever - to which i would respond that the whole episode is steven going through a mental breakdown where he’s so stricken with guilt for shattering jasper that he on some level craves the validation that other people are worse than him... only to be met with a procession line of each diamond being helpful to others, healing them emotionally and physically. that actually only makes him angrier because he really, really wanted the validation that he’s not the “monster” in this story and to feel like a better person.

to an extent, i think him running away and ending up there is an instinct to be surrounded by "fellow monsters." its a bit similar to what white diamond claimed was a part of rose's problem in change your mind - surrounding yourself with flawed people so you can feel like the best of the worst.

at the very least, the contrast between steven’s emotions and reality is illustrated very, very clearly and obviously in having him see the diamonds helping others and objectively being good for society vs still wanting to shatter them on a subjective emotional level right after having seen that. like. that’s literally what happens scene for scene, then he hurts himself and runs away trying to be a good little helper boy and suppress his trauma at little homeworld, then he confesses how much of a monster he feels, literally becomes that, to which the diamonds are a part of the group helping to calm him down despite it all. so yeah. its deliberate.

(btw the main reason i stopped with youtube is just that my computer is too weak and would freeze every 5 seconds during editing + there would be some dmca issue with every single video regardless of how relevant the clips i was showing was to the discussion of the media. so yeah this kind of text essay is the closest ur gonna get for the foreseeable future.)

[dribs-and-drabbles]

VICE VERSA 2022

[pileofsith]

Jen June - Pau'an Inspector

Final attempt at the female Pau'an from the lost TCW episodes on Utapau. She's happy to see you, too.

[falsenote]

The Structure of Crystal (1969)

[rocking-chairr]

hate to say it but with each new crystallized episode I'm becoming increasingly disappointed with how the story is playing out

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Study explores remarkable negative thermal expansion seen in layered ruthenates

A formerly unnoticed monoclinic distortion in Ca2RuO4 explains its enormous negative thermal expansion (NTE) over a wide range of temperatures, discover researchers from Tokyo Tech. The work promises a different route for the design of unconventional NTE materials, with applications in engines, thermal barrier ceramics, and precision instruments, among other things.

Most materials expand when heated, which is why railway tracks and bridges have special expansion joints to help them cope with extreme weather. But a small number of materials do the opposite. The rare phenomenon of shrinking when heated is called negative thermal expansion (NTE). A material with remarkable NTE is Ca2RuO4 (CRO), which is known as a layered ruthenate.

CRO has been a focus of research since Prof. Koshi Takenaka at Nagoya University found its NTE to extend over a 200-degree range. In a recent study published in the journal Chemistry of Materials, researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Nagoya University, Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) and National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology reveal the physical properties responsible for CRO's intriguing behavior. "Our previous work showed 6.7% volume shrinkage in a CRO sintered body, while the crystallographic change was only 1% and was quite anisotropic. Moreover, a thorough understanding of its origin was lacking, especially on how varying the oxygen content switches NTE to PTE," says Prof. Masaki Azuma, who led the study. Anisotropy refers to a variation in physical properties along different crystal axes.

Read more.

[athespaceace]

Little mermaid au Cyrus based on this post by @lanihaluki

Atlantean!Cyrus in his cave of human treasures (mystery novels mostly) as well as peeking out from behind the rocks

[rubysapphrald]

i actually would make fancams for gemstones if i had any real video editing skills. i want a pyrite one. cube fancam

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Figure 16.9A illustrates several of the structural domains in phytochrome. (...) A comparison of the domain structures of plant phytochrome with the prokaryotic phytochromes Cph1 (cyanobacterial phytochrome 1) and BphPs (bacterial phytochrome-like proteins) highlights several differences between plant and prokaryotic phytochromes, including the absence of two PRD domains and the presence of the HKRD domain in place of a functional histidine kinase domain of prokaryotes (see Figure 16.9A). (...) The crystal structure of the light-sensing N-terminal half of Arabidopsis phyB is shown in Figure 16.9B. (...) Based on studies with the bacterial phytochrome of Deinococcus radiodurans and Arabidopsis phytochrome, a toggle model has been proposed for phytochrome interconversion, as illustrated in Figure 16.9C.

"Plant Physiology and Development" int'l 6e - Taiz, L., Zeiger, E., Møller, I.M., Murphy, A.

[sukimas]

one thing i like about engage is that it makes silver weapons heavier than steel weapons finally

because:

vs.

[plokoonsdisapprovingeyebrows]

star wars media, apparently: CRYSTALSTORMS

me, squinting at the wiki page: ...you mean sand.