9 comments

  • anigbrowl 2 hours ago
    '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.
  • tastyfreeze 6 hours ago
    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.

    • dotfrag 37 minutes ago
      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.
    • sunshinesnacks 4 hours ago
      Explosion welding is a real thing that’s a tiny bit like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_welding
    • GolfPopper 5 hours ago
      What, you mean, like American Machine and Foundry building nuclear reactors?

      https://www.ans.org/news/article-1858/elk-river-rural-americ...

      • tastyfreeze 5 hours ago
        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.

    • tokai 5 hours ago
      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.
  • HelloUsername 3 hours ago
    Related: "Strange crystals found inside wreckage from the first nuclear bomb test" may 2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48155450 87 comments
  • HPsquared 6 hours ago
    Not the most economical manufacturing process, it has to be said.
    • boothby 5 hours ago
      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.
      • hparadiz 5 hours ago
        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.
      • WorldMaker 3 hours ago
        Using conventional explosives is a real thing that exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_welding
    • tuetuopay 5 hours ago
      You can probably skip the town in the ingredient list.
    • sawjet 5 hours ago
      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.
      • BizarroLand 2 hours ago
        The real expense is in rebuilding the city every cycle
    • forinti 3 hours ago
      It might be a bit tough getting the permits from the EPA.
      • BizarroLand 2 hours ago
        Call it the Cheeto in Charge Manufacturing Center and you'll get a fastpass
    • perpetuallunch 3 hours ago
      Well it appears to be the cheapest method known to produce at least some metal alloys.
    • indrora 5 hours ago
      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)

      • wredcoll 5 hours ago
        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.
        • perpetuallunch 3 hours ago
          Sure.

          70,000 dying in a flash certainly puts an end to their suffering.

          • wbl 3 hours ago
            They did not get vaporized in the fireball. We have survivors at the hypocenter. Intense burns and radiation poisoning killed most plus conventional blast damage mechanisms. Half the acute deaths happened after the first day.
  • MeteorMarc 4 hours ago
    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.
  • WorldMaker 3 hours ago
    This alloy is naturally the macguffin in a Godzilla and/or Sentai film.
  • catlover76 4 hours ago
    [dead]
  • metalman 5 hours ago
    Hey! ,this is great! next we can have moskitonium, londinium(heh), and washingtondcinite, rare valuable collectables for some far future alien travellers
    • DiggyJohnson 2 hours ago
      why would you wish for this?
      • wartywhoa23 1 hour ago
        He's not wishing, he's warning sarсastically that discussing materials that happen to be byproducts of a mass human sacrifice without any regard to what it in fact was can have future repercussions.
      • samatman 2 hours ago
        It's in the user name: he's metalman.

        He collects metals. Made of men.

  • wartywhoa23 1 hour ago
    Did they disclose the amount of human souls in that alloy?