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posted by martyb on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-still-counting! dept.

One Millionth Comment!

On 2020-05-28 the SoylentNews community attained an amazing milestone: the posting of its one millionth comment!

First off, please accept my sincere thanks and gratitude to the community for all your contributions to the site to get us to this point. Never did I imagine in those first few days when comment IDs were 3 or 4 digits long that such a milestone was even feasible! I mean the site was crashing several times a day. Not an auspicious start, that's for sure! But we all pulled together, weathered some challenges, and got things pulled together.. and we're still here!

So, who was the lucky poster of comment 1,000,000? And who was the runner-up at comment 999,999 (which has a nice palindromic ring to it, wouldn't you agree?

The honor of the very first 7-digit comment fittingly goes to story-submitter extraordinaire takyon. Yes, not content to post comment ID 1000000 because that could be just a one-shot lucky break. No, he has posted (as of this writing) 18,731 comments. Oh, and as for submitting stories, he is unfortunately omitted from the "Most Active Authors" list on the SoylentNews Hall of Fame because he is also an editor. So, please join me in thanking takyon for submitting 5,852 stories! Oh! And as an editor, he has also pushed out 1,350 stories! Whenever I see one of his subs in the queue, I know it only needs a quick review before pushing it out to the story queue. He makes my job as an editor much easier and makes SoylentNews look good! Thanks takyon!

So who was our runner-up with comment number 999,999? Well, he wasn't just spinning his tires when he posted this comment. None other than our also-prolific Runaway1956! He is no slouch when it comes to posting comments, either, as he has posted 18,483 of them so far. He has taken an active part in comment moderation, too with 2,968 moderations of which 78% were upmods. As if that were not enough, he is also an active contributor to our Folding@Home team, sitting currently at 3rd place and making a hard run for 2nd place! (F@H investigates — via computer modelling — how proteins fold.) The F@H group's efforts have almost exclusively been redirected to understanding the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 disease.

For those who may be unaware, SoylentNews is purely a volunteer organization. Nobody has ever been paid even one cent for their work. Further, we have never accepted any advertising on SoylentNews; the site is entirely self supporting through the subscriptions of the community. We run a tight ship and expenses run approximately $20 per day for everything.

Speaking of volunteers, it brings me great pleasure to call out another major milestone, fnord666 has now edited over 5,000 stories on SoylentNews! (See Most Active Authors.) Thanks so very much, fnord666, for all your hard work and sacrifices to make that happen!

Thanks everybody! Here's to many more years!


Original Submission

Related Stories

Study Reveals Substantial Quantities of Tyre Particles Contaminating Rivers and Ocean 34 comments

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A major UK government-funded research study suggests particles released from vehicle tyres could be a significant and previously largely unrecorded source of microplastics in the marine environment.

The study is one of the first worldwide to identify tyre particles as a major and additional source of microplastics. Scientists have previously discovered microplastics, originating from microbeads in cosmetics and the degradation of larger items such as carrier bags and plastic bottles, in marine environments globally—from the deep seas to the Arctic.

Following the government's ban on rinse off microbeads, which is one of the toughest in the world, the Defra-funded study [Defra - Dept for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs] led by the University of Plymouth now reveals vital new information that will improve our scientific understanding of how tiny particles from tyres, synthetic fibres from clothing and maritime gear also enter the ocean.

[...] The study shows the tyre particles can be transported directly to the ocean through the atmosphere, or carried by rainwater into rivers and sewers, where they can pass through the water treatment process. Researchers estimate this could place around 100million m² of the UK's river network—and more than 50million m² of estuarine and coastal waters—at risk of contamination by tyre particles.

Its findings also highlight some of the optimal places for intervention, for example, that fitting filters to washing machines could be less effective than changing fabric designs to reduce fibre loss, with another study at the University having recently shown that normal wear and tear when wearing clothes is just as significant a source of microplastic pollution as release from laundering.

[...] "What this study also does is provide further evidence of the complex problems posed by microplastic pollution. We have looked at three pathways and shown that all of them are substantive pathways to the environment. As we work to understand their potential distribution and impacts it is important to also work together with industry and policy makers to identify potential solutions which may include changes in behaviour, changes in product design and waste management."


Original Submission

Scientists Finally Crack Nature's Most Common Chemical Bond 3 comments

Scientists finally crack nature's most common chemical bond: Carbon-hydrogen bonds in hydrocarbon molecules have resisted functionalization until now:

Now, after nearly 25 years of work by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, those hydrocarbon bonds -- two-thirds of all the chemical bonds in petroleum and plastics -- have fully yielded, opening the door to the synthesis of a large range of novel organic molecules, including drugs based on natural compounds.

"Carbon-hydrogen bonds are usually part of the framework, the inert part of a molecule," said John Hartwig, the Henry Rapoport Chair in Organic Chemistry at UC Berkeley. "It has been a challenge and a holy grail of synthesis to be able to do reactions at these positions because, until now, there has been no reagent or catalyst that will allow you to add anything at the strongest of these bonds."

Hartwig and other researchers had previously shown how to add new chemical groups at C-H bonds that are easier to break, but they could only add them to the strongest positions of simple hydrocarbon chains.

In the May 15 issue of the journal Science, Hartwig and his UC Berkeley colleagues described how to use a newly designed catalyst to add functional chemical groups to the hardest of the carbon-hydrogen bonds to crack: the bonds, typically at the head or tail of a molecule, where a carbon has three attached hydrogen atoms, what's called a methyl group (CH3).

"The primary C-H bonds, the ones on a methyl group at the end of a chain, are the least electron-rich and the strongest," he said. "They tend to be the least reactive of the C-H bonds."

UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Raphael Oeschger discovered a new version of a catalyst based on the metal iridium that opens up one of the three C-H bonds at a terminal methyl group and inserts a boron compound, which can be easily replaced with more complex chemical groups. The new catalyst was more than 50 times more efficient than previous catalysts and just as easy to work with.

"We now have the ability to do these types of reactions, which should enable people to rapidly make molecules that they would not have made before," Hartwig said. "I wouldn't say these are molecules that could not have been made before, but people wouldn't make them because it would take too long, too much time and research effort, to make them."

The payoff could be huge. Each year, nearly a billion pounds of hydrocarbons are used by industry to make solvents, refrigerants, fire retardants and other chemicals and are the typical starting point for synthesizing drugs.

Journal Reference:

Raphael Oeschger, Bo Su, Isaac Yu, Christian Ehinger, Erik Romero, Sam He, John Hartwig. Diverse functionalization of strong alkyl C–H bonds by undirected borylation. Science, 2020; 368 (6492): 736 DOI: 10.1126/science.aba6146


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:46AM

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:46AM (#1000984)

    Keep on trollin', and fuck beta! :)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:53AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:53AM (#1000985)

    Isn't this kind of thing one of the Signs of the Apocalypse?

    Not that we're exactly lacking in Signs at the moment, of course...

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:21AM (#1000988)

      Another sign, both of these "significant number" posts were by known users...and not by the most frequent poster, AC.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:05PM (#1001069)

      Around here we've had the place burn to the ground, flooded, hailed on, and now plagued.
      How many signs do you need?

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Kell on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:01PM (2 children)

    by Kell (292) on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:01PM (#1000993)

    Frist Post!

    --
    Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
    • (Score: 5, Funny) by martyb on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:09PM (1 child)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:09PM (#1000995) Journal

      Am I too late?
      Frist Post!

      Not too bad, only off by a million or so.

      Better luck next time!

       
       
      ;^)
       

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Kell on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:49PM

        by Kell (292) on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:49PM (#1001006)

        Next time for sure! Fuck beta! :D

        --
        Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
  • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:26PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:26PM (#1000998)

    ... and their beta is far better.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:39PM (1 child)

      by shrewdsheep (5215) on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:39PM (#1001001)

      There is the difference between the warm and uplifting draft of insight and knowledge and the hot blaze of, well, hot air.

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by shrewdsheep on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:41PM

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:41PM (#1001003)

        ... also my comment ID is much better than yours

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @01:18PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @01:18PM (#1001011)

      But here you can post as a true Anonymous Coward, and at the green site you no longer can.

      That makes this place far, far better IMHO.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @01:18AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @01:18AM (#1001240)

        You can post anonymously on Slashdot but you have to log in first. You check the anonymous box before you submit.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @05:05AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @05:05AM (#1001288)

          Logging in means you're not anonymous.

          Yes, any site can track your IP address, but most of them won't bother unless you're making some kind of illegal posts. There's always VPNs for the more privacy-minded, as well.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Vocal Minority on Saturday May 30 2020, @01:21PM

    by The Vocal Minority (2765) on Saturday May 30 2020, @01:21PM (#1001012) Journal

    Well done SN and good work all.

  • (Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday May 30 2020, @02:22PM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Saturday May 30 2020, @02:22PM (#1001019)

    great to see it still going strong!

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @03:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @03:12PM (#1001027)
    Maybe wait for comment no.1,048,576 (220)
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 30 2020, @04:42PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 30 2020, @04:42PM (#1001061) Journal

    I was just walking in the rain, minding my own business. Suddenly, the guy behind me was struck by lightning! I didn't even hang around to see if he was alright. I hightailed it to shelter!!

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:44PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:44PM (#1001164) Journal

      You should have gone back and knelt on the guys neck for a while!

      *Ducks*

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:18PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:18PM (#1001118)

    The mighty AC the Great. Be envious, you may.

    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:13PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:13PM (#1001144) Journal

      Quoth an Anonymous Coward:

      The mighty AC the Great. Be envious, you may.

      You forgot to mention how you are so very humble!

      ;)

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:54PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:54PM (#1001334) Journal

    5,582 stories submitted is phenomenal, takyon. Thanks for all your hard work!

    Thanks to all the editors and coders who keep the site running. May Soylent continue for another million comments!

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday June 01 2020, @10:01AM

    by Wootery (2341) on Monday June 01 2020, @10:01AM (#1001662)

    Congratulations, SoylentNews. It really is made of people.

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