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Brian Heligman Profile picture
Brian Heligman
@BrianTHeligman
Abundance through biology
Sep 17, 2020 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
I think we’re on the cusp of a revolution in flight. I’d noticed more and more interest in eVTOL, but remained skeptical until I saw Celera’s proposed specs; 10x more efficient at 1/6th the price is stunning!

Maybe a cheap private jet powered by sunlight is closer than I think Given Thiel and @DouthatNYT use the stagnation in flight as emblematic of our modern decadence, wonder if this augurs anything better. Will throw some of the cool links I’ve collected below
Jun 10, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
For whatever reason it finally clicked that I’m getting a PhD in metallurgy 😂😂. If I ever wanted to leave batteries I could pivot towards making space metal. Too funny On a separate not the American Society for Metallurgist handbooks are the single greatest example of technical writing I’ve ever learned from
May 31, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I’ve had a lot of trouble finding the words to express myself during this horrible time. Not really sure what I say in a pithy tweet that makes any difference, but I will say I really find value in James Baldwin’s work. I’d recommend engaging with it.
May 12, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Spent the evening helping my roommates put up a fence and couldn’t help but think about some of my favorite writing by @jasoncrawford, an awesome article about cement! Image Cement is the foundation of pretty much all major structures 😂. Basically, you burn all the CO2 out of some rock and get a powder. Later on, someone add some water, and the mixture sucks CO2 out of the air and it turns back into rock Image
May 10, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Does anyone know the best technical review or group focusing on hydrogen production and storage? Preferably incorporating technoeconomics Should also caveat I would prefer a heavy focus on alternatives to steam reforming
Apr 28, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
21. A few other relevant resources 21a. My own thoughts from when I first read the Griffith’s book and had the idea for this thread, more than a year ago.
Apr 28, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Modern theories of everything 18a. Superstring Theory - preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2018/1…
Apr 28, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
What were the unifications in physics? 17a. Newton had the first big unification in physics, realizing the motion of objects on earth and of celestial bodies were governed by the same underlying framework. ImageImage
Apr 28, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
What is general relativity? 16a. While Einstein’s early work was defined by a deep intuition, general relativity coupled that with advanced mathematics, representing a significant advancement upon his earlier work. This also makes it a bit harder to explain.
Apr 28, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Where did Bohr's model of the atom break? How did we find the neutron? 13a. Bohr's model only worked for the simplest atom, hydrogen. It had one proton and weighed one. But during his time, people didn't quite get bigger atoms; helium had 2 protons and weighed ~ 4, lithium had 3 and weighed 7.
Apr 28, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
How do we know there’s a nucleus? 12a. Rutherford was an incredible experimentalist and the father of nuclear physics. He was the one that found radiation came in different types, calling them alpha, beta, and gamma rays, and won the 1908 Nobel in Chemistry. Also discovered radon, half-life, and more
Apr 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
How did Einstein realize light came in packets (photons)? 9a. Earlier, people found out that light could knock electrons out of a zinc plate. However, really intense lights knocked electrons out of the plate at the same energy as weak lights. This didn’t make sense; a bigger wave should knock the electrons out with more energy!
Apr 28, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
How do we know light is a wave, and what is the ether? 8a. Newton thought light was a particle, since it traveled in a straight line and bounced around. However, light went through slits and diffracted, so the community decided light was wave. But a wave needs to be a wave of something; you an ocean wave only exists in water! ImageImage
Apr 28, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Gedanken, or how to look at pollen and see atoms 7a. In 1827, Robert Brown was looking at pollen in a microscope, and saw it jumping around. Einstein thought it through and realized Brown was seeing water molecules hit the pollen! His subsequent paper enabled the first experimental proof of the atom (Perrin’s 1928 Nobel)
Apr 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
How did J.J. Thompson discover the electron? What does that have to do with Plum Pudding? 6a. Back in the 1800s, Faraday found if you put a high voltage between electrodes in an evacuated glass tube, glowing stuff shot between them, cathode rays. Schuster figured out they bent towards positive electric fields but didn’t know if it was a wave or particle. Image
Apr 28, 2020 • 22 tweets • 8 min read
1. I wanted to write some about the golden age of 20th century physics because I absolutley love it! So here’s the story of when humanity first began to understand the universe and accidentally tore physics in half. 2. Now, I’m going to try to make this interactive. Reading this thread through should be a consistent narrative, but occasionally I’ll link to more technical details. Feel free to click on these as you read; they’ll end with a link taking you right back to where you left off.
Mar 10, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Wow! Incredible performance for solid-state, and the most impressive paper I've read in a long time. Dry-room processing, 2$/kWh Ag, 1000 cycles with no precycle. High energy is due to dry-coating thick cathodes but still shocking. If there's a trick I'm missing it. cc: @ricfulop I take that back; even with normal areal loadings they'd probably still have an edge. That stack pressure might be tough for consumer electronics but definitely feasible for automotive.

Industry is so far ahead of academia in this space it's not even funny
Feb 16, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I don’t think I agree with the perspective, but I found @JigarShahDC on @jjacobs22’s podcast incredibly depressing.

overcast.fm/+SCSghk380 I was most confused by his vision of decreasing ERoEI of fossil fuels leading to a zero sum energy future. Earlier in the same episode he describes solar as a fundamentally new primitive tapping into a massive resource, and isn’t the ERoEI on that getting better? Image
Jan 4, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Everyone should make a “X’s highly recommended short stories” thread. The medium is fantastic and much easier to share than full books. I second the ones here and will add a few of my own The Garden of the Forking Paths by Borges is one I would recommend most highly. As good as The Last Question and gets way less love. Borges has a ton of amazing work beyond this too

mycours.es/gamedesign2012…
Dec 24, 2019 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
Not the prettiest dough but beef Wellington here we come ImageImageImageImage Three and 4 were rough but it came together in the end! Main event starts tomorrow ImageImage
Oct 9, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Three incredible people!
Whittingham identified a mechanism
Goodenough made the perfect crystal
Yoshino finished off the framework
(Roughly)
Nobel would be proud of work. Helps that Goodenough is such a kind person! Whittingham identified lithium could be intercalated into TiS2, but Li/TiS2 batteries had safety issues
Goodenough designed an excellent cathode that already had lithium in it, synthesizing LiCoO2
Yoshino paired it with carbon, creating the modern Metal Oxide/Carbon battery