Thursday Things: 4th Birthday Edition
17 August 2023. Vol 5 No 33. By Dan McGirt. #210
Welcome to Thursday Things! If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the header or at the end of the post to let me know.
Happy Birthday to Thursday Things! Photo by Michal B on Unsplash
Four Years of Thursday Things
This week marks four years of Thursday Things! The first edition went out on August 15, 2019 and I have published a new edition every Thursday since then.
Thursday Things: First Issue
Austrian National Library. Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash Welcome to Thursday Things! This is the first issue. Thank you for subscribing! All of my early subscribers know me (or think they do…) but for the sake of those who might be reading this on the website later — or, perhaps, have it forwarded to them by a Loyal Reader (ahem!) — your
Thank you to all my Happy Subscribers who have been along for the ride from the very start — and all who have joined along the way!
LK-99 goes bust
In our August 3 edition we covered the frenzy happening that week over LK-99 — is it a miraculous room temperature superconductor that is about to change everything? Or a big never mind?
Now we have our answer — LK-99 is not all that.
LK-99 isn’t a superconductor — how science sleuths solved the mystery
Researchers seem to have solved the puzzle of LK-99. Scientific detective work has unearthed evidence that the material is not a superconductor, and clarified its actual properties.
The conclusion dashes hopes that LK-99 — a compound of copper, lead, phosphorus and oxygen — marked the discovery of the first superconductor that works at room temperature and ambient pressure. Instead, studies have shown that impurities in the material — in particular, copper sulfide — were responsible for the sharp drops in electrical resistivity and partial levitation over a magnet, which looked similar to properties exhibited by superconductors.
Or at least that’s what They1 want us to think…
Silly fun with silica
LK-99 may not be all that useful, but you know what is? Those silica gel packets that you find included in new luggage, bottle of vitamins, and other things you buy.
What do we do with those things? Do we eat them?
No!
Do we throw them in the trash?
No!
We reuse them for all sorts of household purposes, as detailed in this helpful listicle.
Don’t Throw Away Those Silica Gel Packets! Here Are 14 Smart Ways to Reuse Them
Those tiny little packs of dessicant that come in your new pack of shoes or your vitamins have many uses around your home. Anywhere that moisture is a problem, silica gel packets can help alleviate the issue. Keep them stored in an airtight container away from pets and children (they are a choking hazard) and whip them out in the following scenarios.
I won’t share all 14 tips — go read the listicle — but here are a few to get you started:
Keep dry food and pet food fresh and crispy with a silica gel pack taped to the lid of your storage container.
Put a few silica gel packs in the bottom of your clothes hamper to absorb moisture from clothes or damp towels.
Help dry out a non-water-resistant cell phone by putting it in a sealed bag with several silica gel packs.
Placing a few silica gel packs between your dashboard and windshield in the car will help keep fogging to a minimum.
Click the link for 10 more awesome silica gel packet uses!
No Excuses Workout
Are you ever tempted to skip workouts? Of course you are!
Our reasons vary — if there is one thing the human brain is good at, it’s rationalization. It’s raining. It’s too cold. I forgot my gym back. I don’t have time today.
Well, that last excuse may soon be gone forever. Presenting the shortest workout ever!
Shortest Workout Ever: 3 Seconds of Exercise 3 Times a Week Grows Muscle
A recent study demonstrates an effective alternative technique that achieves results after just three seconds of working out three times a week.
That's just 36 seconds of weight work over the course of a month, according to a team from Edith Cowan University in Australia in collaboration with institutions in Japan.
The study is small, but it supports previous findings that suggest eccentric, muscle-lengthening exercises can strengthen bands of fibrous tissue more efficiently than concentric, muscle-shortening actions.
The actual science article2 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology is behind a paywall, so I couldn’t see exactly what the studied exercise was, but I gather from the description in the Science Alert article that it consisted of the downward part of doing a bicep curl:
One group performed three-second workouts of bicep extensions twice a week. The other group performed the same exercises three times a week.
Of course, they studied one exercise for one muscle — hardly a full body workout.
But the results showed significant increase maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) strength with just three repetitions per week repeated over four weeks. Which at least open the possibility that comparable bare minimum exercises could be identified that would produce similar results for other muscles.
Let’s say each of those exercises also takes only a single 3-second rep repeated three to five times a week. If the whole set is maybe twelve movement, you’ve still only got 36 seconds invested per session. Obviously there is set up time for each exercise. Let’s just round up to 1 minute.
I already do the One Minute Workout for cardio, so if I can cover strength training the same way, I’ll have much more time for naps! Thanks, Science!
Thank you for reading!
Please click the hearts, leave a comment, and use the share feature to send this issue to a friend who might enjoy it. See you next Thursday!
And by They I mean Them.
Happy birthday - I really do love this newsletter. Thanks for all the effort in pulling it together. ❤️