https://xkcd.com/2860

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Unlike an Iron Age collapse, a Bronze Age collapse releases energy, since copper and tin are past the iron peak on the curve of binding energy.

    • palordrolap@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      First row is real. Second row, not so much.

      That said, the “one big nucleon” is pretty close in concept to a neutron star. It needs a few more nucleons than there are in a single atom though. Just a few. And it’s not really a decay mode as it is a gravitational effect.

      It’s also kind of reminiscent of superatoms - clusters of atoms that act like one single atom - but that is very much not the same. (The nuclei aren’t fused. They maintain regular, sensible, atomic distances. Electrons are free to pass between. etc.)