The History of the Atom

Yo. Welcome to week 3. I'm realizing this newsletter is really just a compilation of things I share with my friends, which I don't think is a bad thing at all.

Something New: Problems with the model of an atom

Assuming you have taken a science class before, you've probably seen an atom depicted some what like the image below. A nucleus with electrons orbiting around it - can't argue with that.

This is Rutherford's model of an atom, where the positive charge is at the center, and the negative charges orbit around in space. He proposed this model in 1911... This was actually a big improvement on JJ Thompsons previous "plum pudding" model (1904), where positive and negative charges are scattered evenly in space, but it still left a lot to be desired (this model of the atom is still represented on the Shield of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission lol).

This leads us to Bohr's model of an atom in 1913. Instead of just randomly dispersed electrons orbiting, Bohr proposed electrons having quantized energy, meaning that they orbit at fixed distances and energies, and they could not occupy the spaces between these orbits.

Though this model worked great for a hydrogen atom (the simplest atom), it failed to describe the observations seen in heavier elements (among other things).

Finally, in 1926, Schrödinger proposed that instead of moving in fixed orbits, electrons behave as waves. Waves? What do you mean waves? Finally getting to the whole point of this: welcome to quantum mechanics. As quantum principles were developed in the early 1900's, Schrödinger proposed and then calculated that, like light, electrons could exhibit wave-particle duality (as it sounds, it can act both as a wave and a particle).

Thus, the correct model of an atom is that in which electrons are distributed probabilistically around a nucleus in very specific regions of space, called electron orbitals. After doing some math (and testing it via observations), you get the below.

This image I've stared at for longer than I care to admit, and calculated this for even longer than that. You probably haven't seen this unless you've taken a quantum class, but this is the most accurate description for the electron distribution in atoms.

Schrödinger's model has been improved slightly over the years with the introduction of the neutron and the discovery of the quark, but it still stands as the most visually and mathematically accurate model of the atom.

TLDR:

• Your mental model for the atom is wrong - its really probabilistic electron densities around the nucleus

• Atoms are incomplete without a fundamental understanding of quantum mechanics

• Basic quantum should be taught to everyone because its dope and important

Maybe this is a rant only I believe in / find interesting, but isn't that the whole point of this newsletter?

Michael Schumacher Debut Car For Sale

If you have $1.5+ million to spare and have binged all of the Drive to Survive seasons, it may time to dust off your wallet because Michael Schumacher's debut Jordan 191 car is up for auction.

After Bertrand Gachot got sentenced to prison, Michael Schumacher got to debut in F1 in the 1991 Belgium GP. His clutch failed on the first lap (lol), but it was the start of an era as he went on to win 91 races and 7 World Championships (a record that has only recently been tied ((and arguably beaten)) by Lewis Hamilton).

Though this isn't even Schumacher's most expensive F1 car (his World Championship winning Ferrari F2003 sold for £10.3 mil last year), this is a pretty unique one that honestly is cheaper than I expected. Will be cool to see who buys this one, and I'll save any debate on the GOAT of F1 for another time.

Sci-Hub and Alexandra Elbakyan

I've been reading about Decentralized Science and the Open Access movement for a variety of reasons. In the process though, I stumbled upon this story.

TLDR:

• At 23, Elbakyan developed Sci-Hub, a platform that gave free access to millions of research papers and books, with no regard to any copyrights

• When she wanted to read papers that were behind expensive paywalls, she instead pirated them, then built Sci-Hub to help people in the same situation

• Elbakyan was sued in both 2015 and 2017, losing both

• Sci-Hub still receives over 400,000 requests per day

Definitely worth the read. Not saying everything is perfect about Elbakyan or Sci-Hub, but hard to argue with the free dissemination of scientific research.

Small addition: Turns out like 4 days ago, the site (which has been bouncing around domains, but was on a Swedish domain) got shut down again. The tale continues. (Second link below)

Yubikeys - Hardware Wallet for 2FA

Everyone in the crypto movement advocates for whats called a hardware wallet - a flash drive looking thing that encrypts your private key (secrets) off of your computer. When you want to sign a transaction, you plug it in, put in your password, and hit approve. Nice.

It prevents someone from stealing your private keys unless they have both the device and your password.

Yubikeys does the same thing, but for 2FA (two factor authentication if my Mom is reading). Instead of a notification being sent to your phone, or a text, or and email, you have to plug in the device to your computer to authenticate yourself. Definitely more secure.

I've been using Yubikeys for a while, but after my old roommate got scammed recently by a professional hit - they stole his phone, wallet, and managed to get thousands of dollars spent within the hour - its definitely something I'd recommend everyone uses.

I'm not savvy enough to have an affiliate link lol but heres where you can buy it.