The fan of pale green translucent tabs calls to you.
You reach out, although you’re not yet certain of your approach with this strange mineral:
>
> Scritch & scratch
“Who’s a good lil mineral!” you coo, giving a few good pats before scritching around the smooth crystal faces.
With a bit of experimenting, you determine it’s Mohs hardness 3.5, exactly the same as copper.
“D’aww, you’re a softy!” you tease.
>
> Sniff
With the mineral already comfortably resting in your hand, you nestle your nose in close for a deep inhale.
“Garlic?!” you exclaim. “Fiddlesticks. You looked so luscious, but arsenic puts you firmly on the Do Not Lick list.”
>
> Bath time!
You dunk the mineral in water.
It starts to dissolve.
“Oops!” you yelp, pulling it back out to pat dry. “So... water soluble. Good to know.”
Piecing together clues so far, you give the adamite another fond pet just because you can.
>
> zap zap zap
You bust out your collection of diverse light sources. The adamite fluoresces a crisp lemon yellow.
“It’s a pity you’re so soft,” you inform it. “You’d make cool jewellery if only you were durable. And didn’t dissolve. And weren’t poisonous.”
“...maybe not.”
>
> SMASHY-SMASHY
“Fooled you!” you exclaim with an evil grin, slamming your rock hammer on the adamite.
The very brittle soft mineral shatters, tabs splitting diagonally with very good {101} cleavage, but a jagged coincoidal mess in other directions.
You inhale fine powder.
>
> Gasp in horror
“What have I done?!” you cry, sinking to your knees in regret. “It’s almost like I haven’t learned SMASHING beautiful minerals destroys them, even if I learn cleavage & fracture.”
Your wailing inhales more fine powder. Your breath take on a garlicky stench.
>
> Hospital
Realizing you’ve given yourself low-key arsenic poisoning, you shamefully abandon your shattered mineral and retreat to the nearest hospital.
...the same hospital where you were treated for eating uranium.
The doctors are not impressed.
> Recover
You rest, recooperate, and dream of rocks that came before.
I’m reading a lot of well-intentioned articles that make it clear how many scicomm peeps have no idea disaster risk reduction is a deep field with a lot of research into effective communication.
ProTip: Using fear & shame as motivation backfires when applied to public health.
I can’t write this article (or even thread!) right now as I’m under medical orders to drop my stress levels (ahahahahasob), but...
If you’re writing well-intentioned pieces trying to influence pandemic behaviour, please take some cues from disaster sociology research. It exists!
Fundamental premise:
Vanishingly few people make active choices they believe will endanger themselves or the people they love.
If they’re making “bad” choices, it’s a fundamentally different risk perception. Until you understand how & why, your argument will miss its audience.
Even if you don’t pay much attention to ground-based astronomy, you know this telescope from pop culture & movies. It’s somewhere special. nature.com/articles/d4158…
This article from just before the closing announcement is fantastic for the context of why Arecibo is so unique: space.com/arecibo-observ…
I just...
I know we’ve got a lot going on, especially with the mass casualty event scheduled shortly after US Thanksgiving.
But take some time to read the Arecibo tributes as they come out. They won’t be cheerful. But they’ll be heartfelt.
But technically landslide are fluid-like, not fluids.
Why?
Because they’re a mixed mess of materials that act differently when moving than when still. You can’t just sample a tree trunk, some peat, and water to figure out the rheologic properties (how it flows).