50 light-years from here is a dead star made mostly of diamond. Two-thirds the size of Earth. As heavy as the Sun. The biggest diamond ever found on our planet was 3,100 carats. This one is 10 billion trillion trillion carats.
Diamonds are absurdly common in space. Wood is the cosmic miracle.
Carbon is the 4th most common element in the universe, after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Squeeze it hard enough and it turns into diamond. Inside Neptune and Uranus, the pressure is so extreme that methane in their atmospheres comes apart, and the carbon falls as diamond rain. Some of these diamonds could grow up to a meter wide. Lab experiments confirmed it in 2017, and a 2024 follow-up showed it can happen on smaller, Neptune-like planets too. Those are among the most common types of planet astronomers find outside our solar system.
Take PSR J1719-1438 b. A planet 4,000 light-years from here, twice as dense as lead. As heavy as Jupiter, but less than half its size. Probably mostly crystalline carbon. A diamond planet, orbiting a tiny dead star that spins 10,000 times a minute.
And nanodiamonds are everywhere, even in meteorites that land on Earth. They make up about 3% of the carbon in those rocks.
Wood is harder. It needs lignin, a natural compound that turns soft plant tissue into hard wood. Lignin first appeared on Earth about 385 million years ago. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Trees have only existed for 8.5% of our planet's history.
For tens of millions of years after lignin appeared, plant matter built up in Earth's swamps faster than it could fully break down. Most of the coal humans have ever burned was once those plants.
Wood needs everything: water, photosynthesis, an oxygen atmosphere, complex life, plants with veins, and finally the chemistry to build lignin. Diamonds need just two things: carbon and pressure.
So far, every place we have looked in the universe has carbon and pressure. Only one place we know of has trees.
It’s physically impossible for an ant to fall to its death.
Thanks to their tiny size and incredibly low mass compared to their surface area, ants reach terminal velocity almost instantly when falling. This is the maximum speed they can possibly achieve, and it’s harmlessly slow.
Even from a height of 100 feet or more, an ant hits this safe speed in just a few seconds and then floats downward at a pace no stronger than a light breeze, no matter how far it falls.
This superpower comes from the perfect balance between gravity and air resistance (drag). As speed increases, drag grows until it exactly cancels out the ant’s weight, creating a gentle, constant descent. Some observations even suggest that the longer they fall, the higher their survival rate becomes.
In essence, ants have mastered the physics of falling. What would be deadly for larger animals is nothing more than a minor tumble for them — a brilliant example of nature’s adaptation at the smallest scales.
Let me tell you about naked mole rats. This live underground throughout their lives. They eat root, tubers and bulbs underground without leaving their burrow. When they come across a tuber that's big, they don't try to finish it at once.
They practice a form of sustainable harvesting.They bore into the tuber and eat little out of the softer interior flesh. They deliberately leave the thin outer epidermis (skin) mostly intact. This keeps the plant alive and healthy, allowing it to continue growing or regenerate new tissue. They'll dig around their tunnels to look for other roots and do this. In a few days, they'll go back to the big tuber, which would have regenerated to eat a little again. They're smart not to overwork the tuber or kill it. They farm and bill with sense.
Do the same wit your successful elder brother.
You do not have unlimited time.
Your death will come on an ordinary day, in the middle of unfinished plans, and the world will continue on without you.
Since President William Ruto advises @DavidNdii,Murang'a Governor Irungu Kang'ata has since taken over the duty of telling Kenyans how Singapore is a illusion,far-fetched and mirage.
Read the excerpt below. It will save you from William Ruto's pathetic and prolific woolgathering
I really wish @WhatsApp would let us block people’s statuses. I want to have you as a contact not subscribe to your life updates. Muting does absolutely nothing 😒
OFFICIAL COMMUNICADO!!
My fellow Walala Hoii, Members of Aluta Kibrit, Koinange Twitter, Tuktuk Twitter, Kamare twitter, Chokora twitter & my dear comrades with pending units since 2017. I stand before you today not as a leader,, But as a survivor. A man who has eaten the bread of suffering, drank the tea of struggle and slept on the mattress of disappointment.
For the last 5 years, I have served you diligently. I represented you when the government wanted to tax oxygen. I defended you when askaris wanted to arrest you for loitering while you are busy scouting for yellow yellow damsels along Koinange street.
I fought for Tuktuk Twitter to have Public Holidays for Hangovers. I tried to negotiate for JSS teachers to at least get salt added to their peanuts salary. Etc,,, And still, you want me to step down?
To be replaced by my competitor, a man being funded by govt operatives,,, whose only political experience is doing TikTok challenges with indigenous slay queens as he lip-syncs to Bongo music like a goat being baptized?
NO! Walala Hoii of this country deserves better. This party deserves better. Party members, since 2020 when you first elected me with a landslide, I have never abandoned you. I am the only leader who understands your struggle of counting coins to see if you can afford fulu or just the smell of fish.
Because when life slapped you, I slapped it back on your behalf. While my competitor is busy dancing for slay queens on TikTok, I'm here busy dancing with problems so you don’t face them alone.
I'm pleading with you members of Walala Hoii to give me another 5 year term, not because I’m perfect,
but because Walala Hoii is a party that requires proper finger coordination to pocket party funds without raising suspicion
WALALA HOII FOREVER! When we rise, we still remain down,, but together.👀