The Longer I Look At The Illustration My Materials Science Professor Put In His PowerPoint, The More

My plan to digitalize my notes on my iPad didn't happen today, since the Apple Pencil I bought on eBay is not working at all. Like -this thing is clinically dead. Also I had to move to the living room, since my boyfriend typing on his keyboard is currently the most annoying sound in the world to me. Needless to say, I didn't start my study session in a good mood.

But: I did what any sane person would do and made myself a macchiato and a bowl filled with sweets.

It's a beautiful day outside and I already feel a bit better, now that I've actually started.

phys.org

Scientists discover that water molecules define the materials around us

For decades, the fields of physics and chemistry have maintained that the atoms and molecules that make up the natural world define the char

OKAY THIS ARTICLE IS SO COOL

I'm going to try to explain this in a comprehensible way, because honestly it's wild to wrap your head around even for me, who has a degree in chemistry. But bear with me.

Okay, so. Solids, right? They are rigid enough to hold their shape, but aside from that they are quite variable. Some solids are hard, others are soft, some are brittle or rubbery or malleable. So what determines these qualities? And what creates the rigid structure that makes a solid a solid? Most people would tell you that it depends on the atoms that make up the solid, and the bonds between those atoms. Rubber is flexible because of the polymers it's made of, steel is strong because of the metallic bonds between its atoms. And this applies to all solids. Or so everybody thought.

A paper published in the journal Nature has discovered that biological materials such as wood, fungi, cotton, hair, and anything else that can respond to the humidity in the environment may be composed of a new class of matter dubbed "hydration solids". That's because the rigidity and solidness of the materials doesn't actually come from the atoms and bonds, but from the water molecules hanging out in between.

So basically, try to imagine a hydration solid as a bunch of balloons taped together to form a giant cube, with the actual balloon part representing the atoms and bonds of the material, and the air filling the balloons as the water in the pores of the solid. What makes this "solid" cube shaped? It's not because of the rubber at all, but the air inside. If you took out all the air from inside the balloons, the structure wouldn't be able to hold its shape.

Ozger Sahin, one of the paper's authors, said

"When we take a walk in the woods, we think of the trees and plants around us as typical solids. This research shows that we should really think of those trees and plants as towers of water holding sugars and proteins in place. It's really water's world."

And the great thing about this discovery (and one of the reasons to support its validity) is that thinking about hydration solids this way makes the math so so so much easier. Before this, if you wanted to calculate how water interacts with organic matter, you would need advanced computer simulations. Now, there are simple equations that you can do in your head. Being able to calculate a material's properties using basic physics principles is a really big deal, because so far we have only been able to do that with gasses (PV=nRT anyone?). Expanding that to a group that encompasses 50-90% of the biological world around us is huge.

Does anyone have experience with changing their major? I’m going through an existential crisis and could really use someone to ask some questions about this

Berlin

This is wayyy to aesthetic to be just candle wax. It kind of reminds me of summer vacation in France with my Family 😊

Hey guys! Today I took a break from studying to pursue my creative endeavours with...you guessed it! Candle making! 🫧 What do u guys think? Are the sea breeze scent and the ocean aesthetic going to relax your mind? Hope they do so with mine 🪸

My Personal Power-Walk Playlist:

Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man

Same energy ✨

Sometimes I see the academia aesthetic on tumblr and I’m like … not once in the entirety of my academic career has it EVER looked like that lol

"You're not being asked to come up with something pretty, you know. No one gives a damn about pretty."

-Anna Gavalda, Hunting and Gathering

Just finished this book, needless to say, I cried -a lot.