Post #18-My Personal History

Over the last month and a half, I have been working on my personal history. The way I formatted my personal history was by placing it on a Calc (a free LibreOffice version of Excel) spreadsheet and assigning different pages of the spreadsheet different years of my life. Each page consists of list of chronologically-ordered dates. For example, my 2000-2002 page on the spreadsheet starts in Spring 2000 and ends in Fall of 2002. The very first page is an introduction to aid navigation through my history. This first page also contains two disclaimers. The first one is that my history is subject to revision because I remember other important evenets in my past and record them after the initial compilation, and I will eventually add current events once I arrive in the present. The second disclaimer is that my history contains some pretty strong commentary and rebukes against certain aspects of my past.
We have all heard the adage "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is right now". I have used the principle behind this adage by writing my personal history. I look back to my life at Spokane Valley, Washington, when I was seven to ten years old, with much fondness due to the quaint old bungalow my family lived in and the adventurous half-acre yard that we had. I wish I had kept a journal when I was eight years old of those great events at that house, but I can still record that past in my history today, because if I try to do so in the future I will forget that past even more.
Writing this personal history of mine has been a very awarding task to me. In one way it is rewarding is that as I write through certain times of my life, I feel a vestige of the aura of that time. For example, as I was writing about the end of my senior year and the high school graduation, I felt semi-forgotten feelings of hopelessness (with my computer drawings for architecture), triumph (when I karaoke-sang the Linkin Park song "In the End" at my senior all-night party), and relief (when I get an A in my architecture class after the ordeal with the drawings).
Another way that me writing my personal history has been rewarding is that the trends of the time period I write in bring back semi-forgotten memories of other landmark events in my life at the time. In other words, me writing down my past helps me to remember more of it. The result is a fairly thorough summary of my past.

Post #17-My Blog Background

You may ask: Why did Nate Kloepfer choose to have a blocky background for his blog? I chose a blocky background for two reasons: to remind me of my nuclide charts which consist of integer numbers of protons and neutrons plotted against each other to display the known nuclides and their decay properties, and to remind me of one of my favorite video games, MInecraft, which consists of a world of specific "blocks".
There can only be integer amounts of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. A proton cannot be divided into thousands of smaller versions of itself: it is composed of only three elementary subatomic particles which are two up quarks and one down quark bound by virtual pions carrying the strong nuclear force. Neutrons also cannot be divided into smaller versions of themselves because they are also composed of three elementary subatomic particles: two down quarks and one up quark, with virtual pions and gluons holding them all together constituting the nuclear strong force. Protons and neutrons are part of a larger family of subatomic particles called "baryons" (bary- means "heavy") that consists of many heavier, very unstable baryons. The most stable baryon after the proton and neutron is the lambda baryon, which is the third least massive of all the baryons. It is composed of one up quark, one down quark, and one strange quark. The strange quark is unstable because its decay to an less massive up quark is exothermic, and the lambda baryon therefore decays by emitting a negative weak boson that splits into an anti-up quark and a down quark with a lifetime of a seventh of a nanosecond. The most massive possible baryon is the triple bottom omega baryon, with three bottom quarks, but it has not been observed in any experiments. I predict its mass to be around 15x the mass of a proton, or about the mass of a nitrogen atom. Its predicted lifetime is relatively long compared to other baryons, about 500 femtoseconds, because its bottom quarks can only decay via a negative weak boson to charm quarks or less frequently, up quarks. Top quarks do not form hadrons (this includes baryons) because the Standard Model of Particle Physics predicts its lifetime to be 5E-25 seconds, or about a trillion times shorter than the triple bottom omega's predicted lifetime. This lifetime of 5E-25 seconds is too short for the top quark to interact via the strong force to form any hadron (composite particle composed of quarks). The top quark's very short lifetime is due to its high mass (approximately the mass of a rhenium atom or about 186x heavier than a proton) and the presence of its third-generation cousin, the bottom quark, makes it so that its weak decay is very easy, for intra-generational decays are more rapid than inter-generational decays between quarks.

Post #16-Parallels Between Nuclei Size and Living Life

There are two types of nuclei in the world: those that are light enough to liberate energy when fused, and those that are heavy enough to liberate energy when they fission. A dramatic example heavy nuclei disintegrating is the decay chain of the heaviest isotope: ununoctium-294. Once this atom is implanted in californium-249 by fusion with calcium-48, it ejects 2-3 alpha particles and 2 fission fragments within a second. The less massive heavier elements like uranium disintegrate at much slower rates. For uranium-238, it takes almost 4.5 billion years for half of a given sample to decay by alpha emission. The lightest nuclei, hydrogen and helium, are always the first to be "burned", or fused in the core of the star because they liberate more energy. The fusion of successively heavier nuclei (carbon, oxygen, neon, silicon, etc) liberates less energy per fusion until the maxima is reached, which is iron-56.
There are also two types of people in this world: those that have overscheduled themselves to the point of death, and those that have underscheduled themselves to a point where they are missing out on major opportunities. There exists an optimal point of scheduling: prioritizing. With prioiritizing, one can take advantage of major opportunities without becoming burned out. With prioritizing, one is able to cut out the waste and excess in their lives to conserve resources. Much like all nuclei will eventually decay to iron-56, releasing all possible energy, everyone should prioritize all of their opportunities in life to release the most potential.

Post #15-My Google Profile Picture

My profile picture may seem odd to others. Other profile pictures I've observed have been actual pictures of their respective owners, cartoon characters, or default dark blue guy against a light blue background. My profile picture is the flame from a burning pop bottle cap full of hand sanitizer.
Why would I ignite a bottle cap full of hand sanitizer? My original intention was to catalyze the oxidation of hand sanitizer to aldehydes via my newly acquired platinum wire I got for my element collection. It was a warm August day in 2013, and I was reading about an experiment in John Emsley's book Nature's Building Blocks that entailed holding a platinum wire in methanol and watching the wire glow red as the methanol was oxidized to formaldehyde. I wanted to see a glowing hot wire, and so with nothing else better to do I filled a pop bottle cap full of hand sanitizer and brought it outside and stuck the platinum wire inside.
Expecting gas bubbles, heat, and steam to emanate off of the hand sanitizer, I was very disappointed to find that nothing happened when I stuck the platinum wire inside. I felt a little let down when Eureka! I realized that hand sanitizer was composed of ethyl alcohol, which is flammable. I realized that I could redeem my failed experiment by igniting the hand sanitizer and watching it burn.
I borrowed a stove lighter from my garage, brought the bottle cap full of hand sanitizer outside, and ignited it. The flame burned cold and almost invisible at first. I wanted to get a good picture of it, so I carried this little lamp into the garage and closed the door and took the picture that is now my profile picture. After a few minutes of burning, I realized that the hot alcohol flame was melting the cap plastic and that the burning hand sanitizer would escape the confines of the cap. I ran into the kitchen, got a glass of water, and doused the hot flame. The water sizzled as the flame was quenched. The plastic bottle cap, once a rigid, moderately hard translucent cap, was now an opaque rubbery useless blob.
I asked my parents if I could repeat the experiment, but they said no. Later that afternoon as they were leaving for some activity, I asked again if I could do the experiment. They said, "Definitely not."
I have always been intrigued by fire. When I was nine years old my family went out and had a campfire in our filled-in swimming pool. When I was twelve, I went with my deacon's quorum to camp out by Utah Lake by a small tumble-down playhouse called "The Wikieup". After we built the campfire over an ant hill, my scout leader threw an old lighter into the campfire. We waited with awe until fwoosh!, the lighter released a small mushroom cloud of fire. With the backdrop of a previously torched car, we scavenged around for wood, couch cushions, and christmas lights to add to the fire. The christmas lights had a hard time burning. The next morning, after this same scout leader was done cooking pancakes, he set the plastic bull with pancake batter at the bottom on top of the fire. We watched as the pancake cooked in the bottom of melting plastic bowl. We finally got to put a couch cushion on the fire, and we watched it slowly melt away. After a campout that summer, I gained a reputation in the Vineyard First Ward of a "pyro".

Post #14-Personal Narrative
A Strategic Advantage in All But the Buddy System

            I was perched on top of a dirt hill, unsure of what to do next. My fellow ward member, Aaronic Priesthood holder, and buddy, Brandon Anderson, was down the hill from me. A horde of angry boys from the other troop were trying to find us to give us a piece of their mind. I had earlier suggested to Brandon that we make our way down the hill to our camp farther north, but as he made his way down the hill, I saw the cluster of angry flashlight beams advancing across the sparse desert vegetation towards us. I scampered back up the hill, fearing the probable swear words that would be thrust at me and Brandon once this angry troop found us. However, Brandon was still down the hill from me, and too far away to quickly escape. I called to him, “Brandon, I'm going to head back to camp. I'll come back.”

            As I left, I felt a pang of guilt for ditching my buddy, Brandon. But in the light of the situation, I didn't want to be chewed out by a bunch of lunatics that accused my troop of “throwing rocks” at their tents. I looked down at their camp, nestled in between two dirt slopes that sent small avalanches of dirt down towards the tents whenever someone walked up or down the slopes. The avalanches probably caused the other troop to believe that we were actually pelting rocks at their tents. I thought, What were they thinking, pitching their tents in such a valley? Earlier, Brandon and I decided to “slide” down to their camp, sending small avalanches of dirt towards their camp. Other members of my troop had been throwing glow-sticks across the area, possibly hitting their tents, but they weren't chucking rocks everywhere.

            I walked towards the eastern mountain, away from the other troop's camp, away from their angry flashlights, and away from the route between their camp and their angry crowd. The moon was rising slowly over the eastern hills that I was walking towards, casting a beautiful pale light over the desert landscape north of Goblin Valley State Park. I felt a sense of peace moving away from the angry turbulence that existed behind me, but I also felt a growing sense of apprehension. What if the other troop finds me and chews me out? I thought.

            I slid my way down into a little wash in between the hill I was on and the main mountain, relieved that the area was deserted. I sneaked past the dark trailer where an older couple was asleep, and stole my way to camp without the detection of the other troop. But as I neared camp, I was worried about the Scoutmaster's potential reaction to Brandon's absence.

            My fear was confirmed when Brother Meyer, the Scoutmaster, asked me, “Nate, where's Brandon?”

            Worried about the reprieve that I would receive, I timidly said, “Over on that hill over there,” pointing to the hill that I came from, hanging my head with shame. At the time, I was a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, and I was invited on this campout, along with other older boys, to act as leaders for the deacons. I realized that I had not only been a poor leader, but also a poor Boy Scout in disobeying the Buddy System.

            “Why did you leave Brandon over there?” Brother Meyer asked.

            “It was a strategic advantage,” I said, wanting to provide the truth in a concise way.

            “How was leaving Brandon a 'strategic advantage?'” Brother Meyer asked, curious as to what strategy would justify me ditching my buddy.

            “I left Brandon because we were on top of the hill, Brandon being farther down than me. I realized that Brandon wouldn't be able to come to the top of the hill in time before the other troop came and found us, so I told him that I would leave and I left. The other troop was mad because they accused us of throwing rocks at their tents,” I explained.

            “Okay, well we'll go and find Brandon,” said Brother Meyer.

            As soon as we turned around to look towards the hill, the scout leaders from the other troop arrived and discussed with our leaders about what happened. The other boys from my troop came back with Brandon. After sulking in my tent for a couple of minutes, I went out by the central part of our camp to talk to Brandon about his adventure after my departure.

            “Did they swear at you?” I asked Brandon.

            “Yes,” said Brandon, “It was horrible.”

            “That really stinks,” I said, “I am sorry that I ditched you back there on the hill.”

            “It's okay,” said Brandon, “It wasn't too bad.”

            I went into my tent that night very disappointed that I was a bad example to a younger Boy Scout and that I lost the confidence that Brother Meyer had in me. I was determined to do better in the future.

            The next morning dawned clear but cold. We ate breakfast and headed over to Little Wild Horse Canyon, an eight-mile hike featuring two slot canyons. As we hiked down the second slot canyon back towards the parking lot, Brandon wanted to go ahead of the rest of the group. Wishing to redeem myself of my embarrassing mistake the previous night, I went with him, partly because I wanted to go ahead as well.

            After me and Brandon finished the hike, and after everyone else caught up to us, Brother Meyer said to me “Thank you for staying with Brandon on the hike.”

            “You're welcome,” I said, grateful that I had partially made up for my mistake the previous night.

            Six months later, I went with the deacons on a campout to Little Sahara Recreation Area. It was a cold, peaceful, moonlit night on the sand dunes, and I ran down the steep sand slope, unaware of that my flashlight/laser fell out of my pocket and rolled down the dune. As I was walking with my buddy, I realized that my awesome flashlight was absent.

            “Hey Chris, I think I lost my flashlight back at the dunes. Could you go with me to find it?” I asked, hopeful that Chris would say yes.

            “It's gone,” Chris said.

            “I bet I know where it is,” I said.

            “It's probably gone,” Chris repeated.

            “Can you please come with me? I'll grab a flashlight at camp and I'll look for it.” I said.

            “Okay,” Chris agreed.

            After I grabbed my 6-cell flashlight out of my tent, we went out to the dunes to reclaim my lost flashlight. I was relieved when I found it at the base of the steep dune I ran down.

            “Thank you for going with me, Chris,” I said as we walked back to camp.

Post #13-My Experience at College

My experience at Brigham Young University has been a good one. I am taking the classes Writing 150, Physics 127, Geology 111, Religion A 121, and Economics 110. The homework load is fairly manageable after cutting out the less necessary ungraded assigned readings. I've been getting As in my Book of Morrmon class, my Geology class, and my Astronomy class. I even aced a midterm for Geology!
My experience at my dorm is probably the hallmark of my good experience at Brigham Young University. I am on the third floor of Heritage Halls Building 30, and my windows overlook Y Mountain and eastward. The view is great from here. My grandparents have been sending me "care packages" that contain candy, snack food, and other goods. I appreciate all of the support that I've received over the last two and a half months from my family members.
The other reason why my dorm experience has been superb is because of my music. I love to go back to my room and blast out Pink Floyd, Rush, and Linkin Park. It usually increases my good mood. I have also bought several Pink Floyd albums since I have come here, because I live away from my parents and I don't really have legal access to their music anymore. Some of my favorite songs to listen to are  Pink Floyd "Echoes", "Free Four", "Eclipse", "Time", "Have a Cigar", "Hey You", "Learning to Fly", "The  Dogs of War", "Terminal Frost", "Sorrow", Linkin Park "Until it's Gone", and Rush "The Main Monkey Business".

Post #12-Flerovium-289m=Ununtrium-288

Do any if you remember when element 114 was first synthesized, the assigned isotope 289 decayed with a 9.71 MeV alpha particle with a lifetime of 30.4 seconds, then its daughter decayed with an 8.67 MeV alpha particle with a lifetime of 15.4 minutes and so on? This decay chain seemed to be confirmed by https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/302186.pdf where the parent alpha decay was missed in the 248Cm+48Ca reaction, but nuclei with very similar decay properties were observed after this. The terminal spontaneous fission energies of both chains was 172 MeV and 174.43 MeV, with lifetimes of 16.5 minutes and 24.4 minutes, respectively. These are the same decay chain, but what is the exact identity of these nuclides? Many assign these decay chains to isomers of flerovium-289 and its decay daughters because subsequent experiments have observed a 2.6-second half-life for flerovium(element 114)-289, which is much shorter than the calculated half-life for the "flerovium-289m" of 1.1 minutes. However, I am skeptical that the decay chain of 2.6-second 289Fl has a parallel decay chain that does not interact with the main decay chain at all. I believe that the longer-lived decay chain belongs to ununtrium-288 and its daughters because alpha decay half-life trends of lighter isotopes of ununtrium, roentgenium, and meitnerium correlate very well with the observed half-lives. Also, my assignment of "hassium-277m" is bohrium-276, which falls in the fission corridor between neutron numbers 168 and 170 with 169 neutrons. The half-life of neighboring hassium-277 (ground state decay product of 2.6-second flerovium-289) is around 11 milliseconds, and an odd-proton hindrance factor and a lower proton number could produce the calculated half-life of 13.4 minutes for "hassium-277m" or bohrium-276. This decay chain from ununtrium-288 to bohrium-276 was observed from the single-proton and triple-neutron evaporation channel of both 244Pu+48Ca and 248Cm+48Ca.

The one argument that could disprove all of this is the expected yield from the single-proton, triple-neutron evaporation channels of 244Pu+48Ca and 248Cm+48Ca, which could be predicted to be very low compared to the standard neutron emission channels always observed. However, hybrid proton and neutron emission channels have been observed in more asymmetric hot fusion reactions, such as 248Cm(18O,p3n)262Lr and 249Cf(12C,p2n)258Lr, so such an evaporation channel is not impossible.

The possibilities of producing ununtrium-288 and its decay daughters would greatly contribute to the study of the Island of Stability. Ununtrium-288, being an odd-odd nucleus with a sufficiently long alpha half-life, could have a high branching ratio for positron emission, leading to copernicium-288, a long-lived fissioning nuclide. Roentgenium-284, the daughter of ununtrium-288, would also have a large positron emission branch to decay to a short-lived fissioning nuclide darmstadtium-284. If the 244Pu+48Ca and 248Cm+48Ca reactions are performed the same way that the decay chain was discovered previously, new neutron rich superheavy nuclides may be discovered.