John Bacsa

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

I’m surprised no one seemed to think of this: fusion reactors could go underground. I imagined using a small thermonuclear source to melt rock for geothermal steam! Turns out the rock cannot contain plasma and a burst releases energy too fast to use. Underground fusion is safer.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Not everyone knows that Bob Fosse in the 1974 Little Prince movie had a massive influence on Michael Jackson.

[American Physical Society @APSphysics]

A new study in APS Open Science uses simulations to show a way to control the geometry of 3D soliton knots. The authors found electrical currents can be used to reshape them, potentially enabling control over their properties.

🔗 https://t.co/9Lkt0NEZnh

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

Staring at diffraction data for about 30 years adds up to this. Grateful for the collaborations along the way.

[Leo Gross @Leo_Gross_IBM]

The half-Möbius molecule with topology switchable by atom manipulation, now out in print @ScienceMagazine, with a one-page summary before pay barrier https://t.co/cmwmfFKxVu

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@skdh a theoretical physicist should know that spin emerges from a literal rotational degree of freedom of a structured object, with the 4π periodicity coming out of the geometry.

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@Maximumatheist Conversely, atheism offers fear of total annihilation of the soul.

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@skdh Not really, topologically electron spin corresponds to spherical rotation, a way of rotating a solid object about an axis.

[Robert Fayzullin @FayzullinRobert]

Anatomy and formation of Br···O=C halogen and nonclassical hydrogen bonds and  pi···pi stacking: insights from the conservative electronic force fields in the molecular crystal and the supermolecule of 1-(5-bromopyridin-2-yl)ethan-1-one
https://t.co/AsxB4jkz3j
@SN #SNAuthor

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@DrHelenFry The Fieseler Storch (Stork) had extreme STOL performance, and its typical landing distance was only about 18–20 meters. It would land in the middle of town squares.

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

See this Instagram video by @tardibabe https://t.co/wCUTjPLOsE

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

Sometimes I feel like that guy in the lab environment ...

[XRD Facility @tamuxray]

"García-Ruiz has hypothesized that crystals were an early catalyst of abstract thinking, symbolism, and consciousness in hominins."
Crystallography is, indeed, the oldest science!
https://t.co/ZbdjHPdSkK

[XRD Facility @tamuxray]

The best use of Festschrift in an article title.
Seriously, a good read.

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@SchelterGroup @Nature Of course not. For example, where are all the unpaired electrons in its stable states?

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@tamuxray There's a town called Fouriesburg in South Africa that is also dear to crystallographers!

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@Robert_Palgrave This results from maximizing the number of interactions between the needles, similar to how molecules behave during crystallization. The entropy and religion point is something else (maybe): order arising from mind! The mind-matter relationship is not clear.

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@skdh e^{iπ} + 1 = 0

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@skdh Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (not bee holder).

[J. Am. Chem. Soc. @J_A_C_S]

A Rational Design of Chiral Iron(III) Complexes for Photocatalytic Asymmetric Radical Cation (4 + 2) Cycloadditions and the Total Synthesis of (+)-Heitziamide A | Journal of the American Chemical Society https://t.co/IEBr2bzwxc

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@shaoliangzheng @IUCr p.s. I have seen this before and it was often a sign of twinning (the true space group symmetry was lower).

[John Bacsa @jbacsa1]

@shaoliangzheng @IUCr If the crystals rotated polarized light, then the symmetry must have been lowered. However, the symmetry may still be sufficient for the structure to be refined in a centrosymmetric space group, the local symmetry is lower. The symmetry violations in the X-ray data may be weak.