this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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top 16 comments
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[–] Friendlybirdseggs@sopuli.xyz 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Damn, that cat has a long half life

[–] PrimeErective@startrek.website 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

half life XVIII confirmed

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you leave a few atoms of hydrogen alone, in that amount of time, won’t it just still be hydrogen? Same for anything below iron on the periodic table, right? There’s not going to be spontaneous fusion occurring.

[–] Friendlybirdseggs@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Interesting. That article says it only applies significantly in ultra dense systems such as a neutron star. I’m still not particularly convinced that if I left a burger alone for however long, it would all be iron-56.

[–] Friendlybirdseggs@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It will it'll just take 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

If Earth has been around 4B years, do that mean there was a relative shitload of uranium when it formed? And that's why lead is so common?

[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

U-235 has a half life of about 700 million years, so it's fair to assume that there's about 1.1% as much U-235 as when the earth formed 4.6 billion years ago (about 6.5 half lives).

Most uranium on earth is U-238, though, which has a longer half life of about 4.5 billion years, so that the amount of U-238 on earth today is about half of when the earth was formed. But the meme is about U-235, so that's just background information not directly relevant to the picture.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

OH! I knew U-235 was far more rare, but I was thinking in terms of ALL Uranium decaying at the faster half-life, forgetting the isotopes. Makes more sense now. Thank you!

Nah just lots of stable lead

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

You’d still have over 10% of the sample remaining as U-235.

Also, lead was there in some minuscule quantity when the box was sealed, the only thing that’s changing is the proportion between the two.

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