Discussion Thread

[espreite]

We have a couple more articles this week! One called YOU ARE ALL GOING TO BE DELETED: The Olivia Munn Paradox and another about media and politics as a source of comedy in TDS. Discuss away!

Comments

[erinptah]

From the comments:

"Not only is antimatter real, but it's accessible to everybody. The humble banana is rich in potassium, including the positron-emitting isotope K-40. Your average banana produces antimatter once every 75 minutes. And it doesn't stop just because you eat it."

Is that true? Oh, I hope that's true. Because that would be awesome.

Facepalming a bit at all the "what do you mean Stewart [and/or Colbert] is not an atheist? He makes fun of religion!" As if the only options in the world are "humorless dogmatist" or "secular snarker."

[seagullsong]

I...I think it's true! Google says it's true! Of course, it's buried in stuff like this:

"A "medium" banana (whatever that means) has about half a gram of potassium, or 7.7×1021 atoms. Of these, 9.0×1017 (about sixy micrograms) are 40K. If you picked just one of these nuclei, you'd have to wait a billion years (on average) to see it decay; in our banana we have lots of atoms we can watch all at once, so there will be about 23 decays per second. Of these decays, 89% are β- decays to calcium, and 11% are electron capture decays to argon. Only one decay in 105 actually emits an antielectron. So an ordinary banana contains an antielectron for a brief instant about once every 75 minutes."

Help, my brain! It hurts.

(And I knooow. I was really startled that so many people thought he was an atheist. And then I remembered that most people don't have an obsessive need to read about Jon Stewart's life. Losers.)