This video comes with a quiz which you can take here: quizwithit.com/start_thequiz/1699239593841x485292329687801800

Many years ago, I read an adventure novel called The Ice Limit. It dealt with trying to retrieve a large meteorite made of some unknown substance. The substance was believed to be part of the "island of stability" that Sabine mentioned. The density and size of the meteorite, and the fact that retrieval meant that it had to be secretly unearthed and stolen via supertanker, posed all sorts of interesting challenges. Recommend if you like techno-thrillers that don't end particularly well.

At 7:24 when Sabine says that single-photon cameras are as sensitive as a camera can possibly be because they can detect a single photon, some may think that all single-photon cameras are equally sensitive, but this is not the case. Different types of single-photon detectors used in single-photon cameras have different photon detection efficiencies (PDEs) and different dark count rates (DCRs), causing them to have different sensitivities. The PDE is the percentage of photons incident on the detector that are actually detected. For example, a detector with a PDE of 50% only detects half of the photons incident on it. The DCR is the rate at which false detection events (aka dark noise counts) occur when no photons are incident on the detector. PDEs can vary from a few percent up to about 98%, and DCRs can vary from less than 1E-03 counts per second to hundreds of thousands of counts per second, depending on the detector materials, detector type, and operating temperature. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have demonstrated particularly high PDEs of about 98% with very low DCRs of about 1E-03 counts per second, and very low timing jitter of less than about 3 ps. Their drawbacks are that they typically need to operate at a temperature below 2.5 K and they are very expensive. On the other hand, semiconductor-based single-photon avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) are convenient, room-temperature, low-cost, and high-performing detectors. A fairly established technology exists for detection of visible light photons, but detectors at telecom wavelengths require significant improvement. Currently, they offer a reasonable PDE (~50%), although dark counts and afterpulsing are still challenges to be addressed. These issues are particularly important for high-speed quantum networks.

On the screen you got the density units wrong - came up a grammes per cubic metre and not centimetre! Most of us know what you meant and we love your news and satire.

Last I saw, the asteroid survey that's our source for information about 33 Polyhymnia had produced information about another asteroid's density that was later determined to be 10x too high. I wouldn't get too excited about this one -- rather than concluding it is ultra high density, we should instead conclude that we're wrong about its mass and size.

"I'm not all that smart" says the assistant professor of Theoretical Physics...

Great episode, very informative and interesting. Thanks Sabine!

10:07 and around then the units are described as g/cm3 in Sabine's commentary but the graphics show g/m3

Scientists: "It's an acronym." Normies: "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what I think you think it means."

10:10 I'll counter that the best fit for the new asteroid is more likely to be a bad measurement somewhere...

That line about the Dutch being paranoid about losing land made me shriek hysterically. For those who don't know, a lot of the Netherlands is made up of land that's been reclaimed from the ocean floor - giving the Dutch the very rare honour of being able to say they did actually create their land. "Sea above land Where they laugh at the tides And they do cause they can In the flatlands of Holland..."

GREAT job explaining the camera. I never would've understood that without your great explanation

Thanks for another informative roundup of science news! You are the best!

The dutch really do seem paranoid about losing land :D

On the note of the impact crater and dinosaurs, have you ever read up on the Tanis site dig? They found spherules that match the crater in what is now modern-day North Dakota (inhaled in fossilized fish gills, if I'm not mistaken), along with a lot of fossils that seem to have been abruptly killed all at once and rolled together.

About the dust that killed the dinosaurs. I believe its a combination of the asteroid, dust, earthquakes, huge tsunamis, India deccan traps and forest fires all around the world and no sun light that resulted earth cooling. So yeah its a combination of a lot of factors

The newest study on that asteroid dropped the mass quite a bit, but it still has a density of between 7 and 12g/cm3, which is STILL exceedingly dense, and means it's entirely metallic with an average density somewhere around silver's.

I loved the subtle dig about physicists getting shit for going outside of their field. Well played Sabine, well played indeed.

I think it's far more likely that the computation of Polyhymnia's density is wrong rather than the crazy hypothesis of super heavy elements.

Sabine: "I'm not that smart ... I have my own course on Quantum Physics, my favorite topic!" 😂 I love you, especially because of your smart brain.

Splendid video, like always! One small error in captions - density of asteroid was displayed as 75g/m^3, not cm^3.

One of the most peculiar things about science and scientists is the propensity to re-invent the wheel. Back in the late 80's, when I was studying geology at university, the professors talked about the iridium anomaly and a comet/asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs. The proof was in the crater in the Yucatan peninsula. These discussions were pretty much presented as factual and a done deal. It's great that this same hypothesis can be once again stated and published 35 years later 😁

I love your science updates . Many thanks

Have really been enjoying your videos Sabine, thank you.

With the dinos, geologists and paleologists have been using the Iridium Anomaly layer (attributed to the extinction asteroid event) for dating purposes for a while now. No dinosaur stuff above the Iridium layer. Thanks for the news.

Something i always enjoyed in your videos on physics topics was your critical assessment of the scientific basis for the ideas behind cutting edge research. i mean you didn't just repeat the interpretation of the proponents but pointed out what those ideas are based on and if (in your opinion) those ideas where sound and why. I'd really enjoy if a bit more of this style entered your weekly science reports (even if it was at the expense of a few jokes). For example in this episode an asteroid is reported to have 3x the density of the densest element we know to exist. That seems a claim which requires strong evidence. None was mentioned. How was the density of this asteroid determined and how convincing is this evidence?

How much are we paying attention? 10:03 26g/m^3 would make it less dense than hydrogen😂

I live in Chile and I once saw one of those superbolts happening overland! They are impressive!

We have seen a few super lightning bolts over the Straits of Juan de Fuca, here, between the Olympic Peninsula and Canada's Vancouver Island. They are, of course, huge. Some photos show dozens of simultaneous paths. They are always the single strike in any given storm. As if the storm is giving up all of it's pent-up charge in one fell swoop.

Dutch land jokes never get old! LOL

At the time I was growing up in Lake Placid, Florida late 60's to the mid 70's, it was considered to have the 2nd highest number of lightning strikes in the world. Maybe it was the US, I was very young when I read that, so don't quote me. I just remember seeing more lighting storms than I've ever seen in my whole life anywhere else. When I was seven or eight, I had lightning strike the road maybe 30 feet from me while I was walking home from just swimming in the lake. Very few days ended without a storm coming. It made my scalp sting and my hair stand up. Before I was born lightning split a tree less than 20 feet from our living room. Don't get me started on how many times I escaped death in some weird way.

Wow. What an information packed session. Signed up for Brilliant via your link. Looks fascinating. Been a Patreon supporter for a while now and really appreciate your efforts. Thank you and Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Keep up the great work.

I would think the highly heated atmosphere had something to with the extinction.

Love this video. Well done Dr. Hossenfelder!

The graphist sneaking in a yamcha dead meme in the thumbnail deserves a raise 😂

Dark matter “… because there’s more of it, if it exists” 🤣 You’re the best.

"...dark matter, if it exists." Thank you! I'm getting a little tired of people claiming it conclusively true.

Also not sure about the units for the generation of electricity from the solar glass. You said 1.35 kilowatt-hours (or standard units of electrical energy) per day for 10 m squared area. To me that does not seem very much as we have conventional solar panels on our roof. However on screen the units were kilowatts (ie power) which is reasonable for peak generation for that area on a very sunny day, facing the best aspect of the sun. Which did you mean?

Just think: Had the "Swiffer Duster" been invented 70 million years ago, _we'd still have dinosaurs today!_

The distribution of "hotspots" on the superbolt map reminds me of the gravity map of earth, could be related in any way? Greetings, love your videos and podcasts

The most recent analysis suggests a density for 33 Polyhymnia that is between about 4.5 and 17 g/ml, which overlaps the range for conventional matter and even for iron-nickel asteroids. The most parsimonious assumption is that it is a typical core fragment of a differentiated body. The second most parsimonious idea is that it is made of gold or something else much denser than iron-nickel, but not unknown to science. It being composed of a billions of years half life or completely stable nuclide that isn't even present in trace amounts in Earth's crust even from impact events would be decidedly odd, and would require incredibly bizarre formation and deposition dynamics to account for. The position of the asteroid in the main belt and its reasonable size also likely preclude more exotic origins and compositions including neutron stars or supernovae.

Poor Barney & Friends 🤣

9:15 Heavy breathing as a stargate fan

Driest sense of humor on the internet. Love it never change.

@Sabina, You said "cubic centimeter" and displayed cubic meter... Thank you for producing content 2x/week.

New study finds, or new study suggests. I dont feel like we've adequately characterized the error bars here, one of my biggest pet peeves.

So T. rex's final gasps came from the Pneumonultramicroscopicsilicoasteroidosis pandemic? ☄💨🦖

The roman thing sounds like trade " missions " ,baby steps like we have to do in space.

The Y axis of that graph showing the island of stability is obviously protons not photons.

What a treat for an otherwise frustrating evening programming neura networks! 😊 Thanks, Sabine!

Sabine YOU ARE AWESOME 😄👍🏼 LOVE your videos ,thanks!

Not sure about the Silica Dust explanation for Dinosaurs since it would have also affected avian reptiles, alligators, crocodiles and even small mammals as well. I cant imagine even if the remained underground for awhile in caves, they could have stayed there long enough until the air cleared. Though it may have played a role close the impact site. I think they were so large, their food supply would have dwindled even on the other side of the planet under a cold dark death shroud encircling the Earth for who knows how long.

"...they could have chimed in on the Palio diet." Excellent dry humor.

An enjoyable way to present science development, thank you.

dang who'd've thought that "Large-scale-structure-simulations-with" was a SINGLE word!!

My next recommendation is a cheesecake video, posted only an hour ago. There's an undiscovered element in it called Squash, I'm guessing because of its immense gravity...

Bacronyms can be clever when they hint at the subject matter, but FLAMINGO is... tedious and contrived.

'The Dutch seem somewhat paranoid about losing land, don't they' 🤣 love the humour!

"The Dutch seem somewhat paranoid about loosing land, don't they?" -- Low blow! XD

Well Sabine, in the first quiz that I did, I got 10 out 21 right, then 12. This week 10 out of 11 - you're slacking off - lol :-D Thanks for yet another interesting, and entertaining video. :-)

But Sabine, the dinosaurs *did* stay around. We're at the time of year when they form massive groups to relocate to warmer areas.

12:18 Still a good idea. Since many people are using window shutters (louvers) to block more or less sunlight to reduce heat, why not convert that to electric energy through nano particles in a more transparent way and maybe even automatically? That way the window glass regulates the brightness automatically and keeps it always at the same level.

I do really like most of your programs, but today I wondered about your refernece to the solar glass producing so many kWatts per day? Watts are per second already, so so it should be kWh per day?

Thanks for the video!!🥰

Благодарю Вас за Вашу работу, Сабина! Каждую неделю жду ваших видео.

I think it's far more likely that the estimates of size or mass are in error than a super-dense material is involved.

12:09 me in Chile: well, super bolts and mega earthquakes... Just another Tuesday 🤷‍♂️

Dear Prof. Hossenfelder, @9:00 the Periodic Table Chart ist presented. Unfortunately there are two flaws in it: Element no 117 (Uus for Ununseptium) is named Tenessine, Ts and no. 118 (Uuo for Ununoctium) is named Oganesson, Og.

Kudos for FLAMINGO! We work a lot with the Uni Leiden, and we do have a few alumni working with us at Surf. It is also awesome to see that our British friends are still in the game making science with the rest of Europe and the international community.

*Sabine: Great video...👍*

If you could turn down the volume of that ringing phone it'd be greatly appreciated! Or set it up in the kitchen like the good old days and get a loved one to let you know it's for you. Love your videos. I'm a big fan

While early solar windows might be relatively ineffective, we're going to need a diverse range of changes to achive net zero and beyond, so they'll have their place. And if the technology can improve, and boost output, I think this will be a super-useful invention. The main problem is that they'll be reserved for use in expensive buildings where the benefits are least useful, rather than in poorer (and likely sunnier) places where the benefits would be proportionally greater.

14:00 i love how smart people are always like "actually, im not that smart"

0:38 my parrot says you have no idea what you are talking about. And her mere existence prooves that :p

Stellar!

The solar glass is certainly useful if you switch your indoor lighting and other small consumers to solar power. Obviously storage would be required, but hopefully the improvements to this technology will make it worth the investment.

Love it, hooray Sabine!

Plenty smart.. and wicked funny! (That's a compliment around my patch of the Pale Blue Dot)

Cheers!

12:12 So no reenactments of King Lear shouting at the Tempest. Got it.

Super -lightning over the likes of Wales or Cornwall seems appropriate after reading all those Daphne Du Maurier books 🧜‍♀

"Love you too. Bye." 😂

I was thinking Argoland refers to the Greek barge Argo, which carried the Argonauts to Colchis in the Quest for the Golden Fleece.

1:30 Vredefort Crater is largest, estimated diameter of some 300km; not far from Johannesburg in South Africa... formed about two billion years ago. Chicxulub crater formed slightly over 66 million years ago when a large asteroid, about ten kilometers (six miles) in diameter, struck Earth. Chicxulub crater is estimated to be 180 kilometers (110 miles) in diameter and 20 kilometers (12 miles) in depth.

As far as I'm aware, the island of stability is supposed to mean that those nuclei are more stable than other heavy ones that came before. Meaning, they might decay in 1 second instead of 1 nanosecond, not that they are actually stable. Therefore I think the asteroid measurement is just false data, besides that it would be really random for this asteroid to have it, and why would it? I don't believe in heavier stable elements, there's no force that could hold such large nuclei together.

Sabine is so smart and i only understand half of what she's talking about, i wish there was a website i could go on to become smarter!

I think the asteroids are just bigger than measured and the density is normal. Or the calculated density is wrong. I'm sure something like that will turn out to be true when they are actually measured from a short distance.

we are so scared of loosing land Sabine, that we make our own land. Insert "roll safe" meme.jpg

13:34 1.35 kWh per day is NOT 1.35 kW, it's only 56.25 W on average, or maybe about 200 W peak assuming around 6 hours or so of usable sunlight per day.

The Dutch researchers missed their chance. they should have called the new continent Lego Land.

Thanks.

Thanks Sabine. You`re always full of interesting information, and bad jokes.

❤ Wunderbar

Sabine: "Just among you and I, I'm not all that smart." I am speechless. I've trusted you completely over many, many videos, and now you say something that is obviously untrue. You have not shattered my faith in you because I simply don't believe that statement. You are smart, clever, bright, insightful, perspicacious, wise, discerning, astute, and perceptive. I don't want to hear any more about it. Carry on.

Im pretty sure the Polyhymnia mass discrepancy is caused by a measurement error (probably some odd characteristic about it's surface that causes its size to be miscalculated)

I first read about using films to turn window glass in solar panels around a decade ago. I hope it's really gaining traction. Skyscrapers have to have film coatings anyway to keep out UV and IR (as these damage a host of materials and generate heat), as well as to prevent high intensity reflections that create "death ray" effects on the ground below. Perhaps they woulnd't supply power for the entire grid, but an office building may at least be able to offset lighting and some general power costs.

Awesome Sabine you have given me hope, because I'm not all that smart either :)

Indonesia was basically a puzzle that the tectonics were solving.

The asteroid ended an era that lasted for around 200 million years in just a few seconds.

You shouldn't say that you aren't smart. You're brilliant.