5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
18850
318
54
Mar 18, 2026 3:30 AM
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
18850
318
54
apatternlanguage
god this is trash. how have we become so scientifically illiterate. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-create-3-3-trillion-degree-particle-soup-to-mimic-the-universe/
QueefMalone
I'm pretty dumb. Wut?
thedarkcanuck
Gurl that's a bootyhole
UsertubeBandwagon
wow, OP got it all wrong. It’s like they didn’t even read the article. It’s not an atom folks. Read the article posted here by another. It’s plasma made of quarks and gluons after collision of two gold atoms.
Butzebebel
Busy little thing, isn't it.
0570
Imagine having Scopophobia and learning the entire universe exists of tiny eyes, always watching anything you do.
KilroyLichking
The abyss dies in fact stare back
hushpuppyextraordinaire
What orbits are shown?
Tolocamp
It was Demokrit, not Plato, speculating there must be some kind of Atom (means something that is indivisible) at the fundamental level of every object.
This is an ion collision and the pathways of all the fragments it produced, the visible proof of being very well divisible. This post is wrong on levels the poster was not even aware existed.
BrickaBrackaFireCracker
Umbrella
tinyfootprints
That looks too hairy. I expect atoms to be kind of fuzzy and nebulous, essentially a 3D Chladni shape. Is there some tech info related to this image?
GorillaFLicks
She played the daughter on Diff’rent Strokes, right?
thepicklebucket
That is not even an inaccurate image of an atom.
YippeeKayakOB
Because it looks like an eye? Plato thought fire, air, water, and earth were universal components made of tiny geometric shapes. And he thought that we see because some sort of invisible fire comes out of the eyes, not by light entering the eye. Plato watching the world while not being right about anything:
circlebreaker
To be fair, he lived and died about 2400 years ago. Their knowledge of the world, let alone science or quantum physics was a little lacking overall.
YippeeKayakOB
To be fair, I think a few Italians still see the world this way /j
stronomer
That's not an atom. These are the traces of particles created in a collision of two gold atoms in Brookhaven, as they are mapped by the detectors around the accelerator and the collision point. Computing back from these traces, which give charge, mass, and energy, will allow to get a good picture about what happened in the collision on a very essential level. But it's not an atom.
Pebblebro
These comments are why Imgur is still great. 👍
cuddlydingo
How was Plato right, exactly?
rbudrick
Context matters here, but so does incredible amounts of math and theory, so fuck most of us, I guess.
pushingchildrenintotraffic
about the cubes?
SunnyCameron
The cones
It’s about the cones
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
TerribleAwful
i don't believe it. atoms make up everything
WackyWavingFlailingArmTubeMan
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1bTM1ZTB4em9renZoenA4NGFmM3o2NjA2bGd3N2t6OHB1bjAzd2dvYiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/dEdmW17JnZhiU/200w.webp
JustANerdInTheWorld
FelonyRaptor
Totally.
Fentex
No, they don't. Have you heard of photons?
Raileks
What was Plato right about?
MadHatter69
No idea, they're probably referencing Timaeus but Plato didn't write anything about "atom" looking like an eye or being spherical in there...
totaleclipseofdescartes
Not an atom, it’s quark gluon plasma, which is perhaps even more fascinating
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-create-3-3-trillion-degree-particle-soup-to-mimic-the-universe/
JonWallace1985
Possibly in the very middle. This appears to be a crosssection of the entire instrument. Proton beams are crashing at close to light speed at the middle. Each line is the path of a particle from the resulting collision.
BerryButcher
glaucoma plasma? i knew it looked like an eye
CaptSchmidtGaming
dumb people make learning less fun
boxak
Most ophthalmologists would advise against getting plasma in your eye.
Marikhen
Plus the donation centers get upset when you use their machines as eyewash stations.
BerryButcher
i can handle it i
jalcantara88127001
A 2d image?
JacktheKind
Ceci n'est pas un pipe. ...your words are only pixels on my screens and were electrons mere moments ago.
NoPantsOhClock
*taps monitor* Yes sir, I believe it is.
jalcantara88127001
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1emdvMDk2ZjRubGJrcnF0anRkbnBqamttbmN6b3g1b3V1b24zN3h6dCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/AeWoyE3ZT90YM/200w.webp
NoPantsOhClock
CatPlanetQueen9000
why does it have like 12 clear dividers. like a clock?
TurnsOut42WasASlightMiscalculation
Might need to know what element it is in order to answer that
toshach33
Interesting observation.
stronomer
It's not an atom. These are sections of detectors tracking the traces of elementary particles created in a collision of two gold atoms. These detectors have sections.
circlebreaker
Two gold atoms? In this economy?
stronomer
It's from a few years back. Today, they'd use Silver.
circlebreaker
Well, that's good. At least the experiment is safe from werewolves.
stronomer
Yes – in general the high-energy physics community is trying to be werewulf- and vampire-safe, as well as not to produce black holes by accident.
stercusmoriturussum
Hmmm... wrong. dead wrong. Just because someone claims something on FB doesn't make it any more correct. That's an (stock) image of the aftermath of a collision between two relativistic gold ions from RHIC, which is brought out every time someone writes an article on the RHIC because it looks impressive.
0570
stercusmoriturussum
Ancient history... I once was involved in building these kinds of detectors and struggled with the systems to actually make sense of what happens inside them.
0570
Seems you were at the cutting edge of scientific discoveries at some point in your career. You must have some interesting stories to tell
Forensickle
I mean, anything saying "accurate image of an atom" is gonna be dead wrong, right?
Honestly, this looked more like what I pictured an atom looked like when a friend much much smarter than me (and an actual physicist from Cern) drunkenly ranted about how THE atom diagram is so very wrong, then tried to describe what he thought it should look like. Extra extra amazing because his English is... Not great
SwiftyGuy
Not just English but any language other than mathematics is going to accurately describe an atom and even then not exactly… just probabilistically lol
PballQhead
There are images of single atoms, but this ain't one of them
https://physicsworld.com/a/highest-resolution-images-ever-taken-of-a-single-atom-reveal-new-kind-of-vibrations/
Forensickle
Oh, I very much know that isn't one.
But my, albeit very limited, understanding of particle physics is such that the concept of an "accurate" picture of an atom is essentially impossible. We find new ways to see them, or ways of them being, but nothing ever that could be comprehensively "accurate". Sorry, It's also late and I have lost words
Forensickle
Imagine an italian guy too drunk for the precision he requires to explain in english, flailing his hands around and make bursting twinkling things with his fingers "everywhere, but not there, but everywhere. Look everywhere, no see, everywhere" then mumbling in Italian to himself
ChazzK
So, the family my dad remarried into, but more scientific, got it! That honestly sounds amazing.
stercusmoriturussum
LOL - no need to imagine, I also was at CERN for a little time. Imagine a room full of ~3 dozen scientists, and a greek colleague is explaining something to an italian guy on the other side of the room in English. They understood each other perfectly, while I (german) was still struggling to guess which language they were talking...
Forensickle
I only met him once he left CERN and came to Australia. But I can very much imagine the bizarre conversations happening between 3 people in 4 languages that no one speaks all of "well enough". His frustration seemed very familiar to him.
whatthewoda
Let me tell you, they got nothing on the random Japanese guy straight off the plane, that one is something. But we do have a lot of people from all around, so yeah...
RetrogradeLlama
Plato isn't even a planet anymore. What does he know.
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
leksaterve
No, plato is the amount of sugar in wort before it’s fermentation into beer
ifyoutakemeseriouslythatsonyou
I love you! You completely dropped the ball on this one! For one nobody knows that plato actually is exactely that and two, that's not how this game works. Never change.
MahadmaGaudi
so funny
CrankyCook
Plato wasn’t planet it was a dog
TripUpStairs
Hahaha!
ReelPoop
that's Pluto. Plato is the circle thing you eat food on
CaptSchmidtGaming
sharikov
dats oregano bitch
HandoB4Javert
[mammamiaing intensifies]
shorey66
Whooshed
Conejito
What? No. Plato is a delicious treat, don't tell mom
mineoc
That’s a plate. Plato is an area of fairly level high ground.
jtthemediocre
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1amNncjRvdXNocDBqcXlqZms5enV4aHBoZzNtZWt3ejJhMzZtcnM2NyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/7JsEgDMrziuJd9fFY1/200w.webp
Scobragon
No, that's plateau, Plato is the series of events in a book
750to2Kspud
That’s a plot, Plato is a type of custard apple, kinda tastes like a banana/apple/melon
cansado
(I see you, pawpaw fan. I love em too)
ReallyOG
No, that’s a fruit
A Plato is a military unit, typically composed of two or more squads or sections (roughly 16 to 50 soldiers), usually commanded by a lieutenant
NoPantsOhClock
I thought Plato was that squishy dough stuff that kids play with, or eat, I don't judge.
techknowledgey
No, that’s Play-Doh. Plato is a suburb of Dallas, TX.
guitarfourtysix
No, that's Plano. Plato is the Green Hornet's sidekick.
Euclid11010
No, That's Cato. Plato is a tall piece of land that's flat on top
zHurk777
No, that's Cato. Plato is the spanish word for Cat.
TerribleAwful
no, Plato is that Disney character that is, for some reason, horribly discriminated against
509tigerfish
I thought she was the actress who played the sister in Diff'rent Strokes
SteelyDad
We don't kink shame here. A Plato is like a mountain, but flat on top instead of pointy.
RitzBitz25
You're thinking of a plateau. A Plato is a root vegetable
KinkyTheWarrior
What?!? No! Its that stretching exercise girls do with their friends before downing a bottle of wine.
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess