A curiosity post...what do you think about this one?

 Here's a link to check out, and see what you think. This link is for parents of younger children.

What is the Earth's inner core made of?

 New studies of simulations of what the Earth's most inner core is made of suggest a strange form of matter - superionic matter - could exist. Superionic matter is a type of matter that has behaviors of both solid and liquid states. The inner core is at such ridiculous pressures and temperatures, no one has been able to confidently deduce what's there. 

Studies of earthquake waves passing through the core have some strange characteristics that have not been explained, and simulations with superionic material seem to be a better match to the recorded data. It seems that iron in the material would stay fixed in a lattice, like a solid, but then other types of atoms such as oxygen and hydrogen would flow through the lattice, more like a liquid. I would imagine this all could have some relevance to better understanding the earth's magnetic field production, depending on the nature of the flow and how ionic it may be, so we'll see in coming years what research shows. 

Fermilab Online Open House, February 9-13

 If you want to check out the schedule for some online, virtual sessions for the Fermilab Open House, check out this site and you can register for them! 

UIUC Engineering Open House, in April

 The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has one of the elite engineering colleges in the world, with 39 Top-10 ranked degree programs for undergraduate and graduate levels. I don't think any other school can say this. Anyhow, they put on a pretty good show each year with their Engineering Open House. This year it is on April 8-9, 2022, and will go back to in-person. 

If you want to check out the engineering programs, that would be the weekend to see so much and talk to people from literally every department within the engineering college. It's about a 2.5 hour drive to UIUC, so check it out if you have a chance!! The photo below is of the Bardeen Quad on Engineering Campus (a small portion of the engineering campus). John Bardeen is the professor I've mentioned who is the only person to win 2 Nobels in Physics, for the transistor and theory of superconductivity.