▲ 158 points
back
69 comments
The "AlAu4" structure comment got me reading about the aluminum-gold phase diagram. One component there, AlAu2, was infamous in the early IC industry for causing chip failures ("purple plague").
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold%E2%80%93aluminium_interme...
Related: "Strange crystals found inside wreckage from the first nuclear bomb test" may 2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48155450 87 comments
> hiroshimaite
Today I learned an interesting new word, which is led me to its analogues:
This is really worth a read. Although the origin is an airblast, ground structures and soil is evaporated too into an inhomogeneous plasma. The relative fast cooling adds to the crystal formation.
Interesting. Bring on the A-bomb foundries! Had this been discovered during the exploration phase of atomic bomb use we probably would have seen A-bomb foundry proposals.
There is a hypothesized process in this paper that sounds like a graduate thesis on its own.
Explosion welding is a real thing that’s a tiny bit like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_welding
What, you mean, like American Machine and Foundry building nuclear reactors?
https://www.ans.org/news/article-1858/elk-river-rural-americ...
No, I mean using atomic bombs to manufacture these alloys at scale. In the 50s a-bombs were proposed for all sorts of workaday uses. Imagine using a small a-bomb for mining just as we use ANFO today.
I am sure that somebody will take up the task of reproducing these alloys using intense heat from a non-atomic source. New alloys can be quite lucrative but developing them requires just as much experimentation as making new drugs. I'd imagine that getting to an alloy of 7 metals through progressive experimentation would take awhile. Now we know it's possible and have a possible production path. That is enough to spur some experiments down that road.
There was some truly crazy shit happening in the late '50s-early '60s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil...
Looks like every time a new “big thing” gets invented, the big thing becomes like a hammer and everything else turns into the proverbial nail. Then it was atomic everything, not its AI everything. Same pattern repeating.
IIRC in “Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman” he recalls being asked during Manhattan Project (?) for ideas to commercialize atomic energy and they patented whatever the scientists brainstormed up.
Both the US and the Soviet Union actually experimented with "nuclear fracking" in oil/gas fields. The Soviet Union also used atomic bombs to put out fires in gas fields as late as 1981.
>Imagine using a small a-bomb for mining just as we use ANFO today.
Nuclear cement kiln
Nuclear pile jetter
Nuclear tunnel boring machine.
I bet a nuclear foundry can be bundled with atomic mining ala Project Plowshare. Guess we are lucky we didn't get the future the atomic age promised.
Using the Project Orion spacecraft to get there, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propu...
Sounds like an interesting idea and I think there are things like this being done but, couldn't we accomplish the same thing on a smaller scale without all the destruction? What about fusion welding once we get that more locked in? I know it's still a WIP but if we're getting to "millions of degrees", it could speed up the process if we're able to localize the fusion. Also, what about cold fusion? The problem on any of these is the cost -- it may be quicker/better but if the cost is way too high, it's not worth it. Maybe in the future it'll be cheaper/easier.
A disgustingly large and powerful pressurized microwave would likely be sufficient if "all" they need to do is spray various mixes of vaporized metals and water into plasma. I don't know that we've had too many justifications to build these otherwise
The tiny spheres of this alloy mixed into a mess of other stuff remind me of Primitive Technology's mostly successful attempts at smelting iron the hard way. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA
> I don't know that we've had too many justifications to build these otherwise
I don't know about you, but "spray various mixes of vaporized metals and water into plasma" sounds cool. If I had tens of millions of dollars, I'd pay to see that.
Somehow it reminds me of FMA's take on Philosopher's Stone https://fma.fandom.com/wiki/Philosopher%27s_Stone
It is a previously not-made mix of metals. But nothing in the paper explains why it is interesting. Sure we have not seen alloys with that exact combination, but nor have we seen that one with 2% more Si and 3% less Mo. It lacks a "why do we care?" section. Nor are documented any interesting properties of the same other than existing. What did i miss?
'natural experiment' doing a lot of heavy lifting here. I don't know enough about chemistry to tell if this alloy has potentially interesting properties, or it's just interesting because it's something we weren't previously aware of as being possible.
Oklo, Gabon appears to have run a nuclear reactor about 1.7 billion years ago, though whether you can get a natural nuclear explosion on some chunk of rock somewhere might be difficult to tell.
This alloy is naturally the macguffin in a Godzilla and/or Sentai film.
Not the most economical manufacturing process, it has to be said.
The paper explains it more as an experimental process than a manufacturing process. Each granule of hiroshimaite captures a "unique" micro-environment. One could imagine an ethical version of this involving conventional explosives in a controlled environment containing a variety of metallic samples of different compositions.
Metals refining in space or a no atmosphere place like the moon. If an alloy is discovered that has properties we want I can see some future civilization popping nukes like pellets to produce it.
Using conventional explosives is a real thing that exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_welding
You can probably skip the town in the ingredient list.
I know you’re joking, but unironically this might be untrue. One catalyst might be something only found in cities!
Granted, you could always replace the city with the catalyst of course :P
There were some nuclear fracking experiments where the nukes cost in the range of a few hundred thousand dollars. It's probably cheaper than you think.
The real expense is in rebuilding the city every cycle
It's more of an exploration technique.
Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening which is also based on randomness.
It might be a bit tough getting the permits from the EPA.
Call it the Cheeto in Charge Manufacturing Center and you'll get a fastpass
Well it appears to be the cheapest method known to produce at least some metal alloys.
It's a real blast, though.
(In all seriousness, I hope we never, ever in this lifetime cause humans to suffer like we did on that day)
I mean, I'm probably just being contrarian and I too would appreciate it if people stopped suffering, but like, people are suffering worse than that right now as we type this.
So to make this I just mix up the metals and wait for Mango Mussolini to press the button?
it took so long to find because it's been hiding
Deliberately forging metals with nuclear blast is something we need to put in future sci-fi
In a short story titled 'Glory' Greg Egan described process where hydrogen and anti-hydrogen are forged together into a thin needle:
> The end point of this process of nuclear sculpting was a sliver of compressed matter and antimatter, sandwiched together into a needle one micron wide.
Which then explodes in a controlled way
Interesting but that doesn't scratch the itch. I imagine something more like crude metalurgist dwarves, assembling a neutrino detector sized ball shaped room, 1 kilometer underground, with demon core shaped device suspended on detonation wires. Aliens thought giving us nuclear fusion would annihilate us without them trying, but we started to using it to make shiny jewelery and fancy chopsticks.
Did they disclose the amount of human souls in that alloy?