https://xkcd.com/2860

Alt text:

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
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    11 months 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.)