
The Inside of a Neutron Star - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/the-inside-of-a-neutron-star-looks-spookily-familiar
======
antognini
Back in college I was in a high-energy astrophysics class. The professor noted
that understanding neutron stars was the most difficult problem in physics. In
order to understand neutron stars, you need to use every single branch of
modern physics: general relativity, solid-state physics, nuclear physics, and
fluid dynamics, among other things are all important.

~~~
eru
It touches a lot of things. But we are not very good at even understanding
basic things on everyday scales of size and energy, like trying to predict the
angle of repose of a heap of granular matter.

------
rm_-rf_slash
This article reminds me of the intro in the Cosmos reboot, where all kinds of
natural phenomena merge into each other, like the pattern on a flower turning
into the iris of someone's eye.

Given that so many physical combinations have the potential to exist, it's
almost surprising to think of how few common forms of matter and life (that we
know of) take.

For years I have imagined - to no avail - how a form of intelligent life could
reach industrialization without resembling humans: bipedal animals with
opposable thumbs and multiple digits, heads on top, genitals between the legs.
It's probably why most of the Star Trek aliens can only be differentiated by
skin color and forehead shape.

So if the inside of a neutron star looks like pasta, then that's what makes
sense to nature.

~~~
mikeash
That might just be human pattern matching at work, rather than actual
similarities.

Regarding intelligent life looking similar, I sometimes have the opposite
thought. What if the reason we haven't seen any aliens isn't that they don't
exist, but rather that they are _so_ different we can't even recognize them as
intelligence or life? If intelligent creatures existed that were built out of
magnetic field lines in the Sun, or variations in density in the interstellar
medium, we might never recognize them as life, and they might never recognize
us.

~~~
npace12
This comment reminded me of the book Dragon's Egg
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg)

~~~
542458
At risk of spoilers, The Ouroboros Wave also qualifies:
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7326882-the-ouroboros-
wav...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7326882-the-ouroboros-wave)

~~~
qrendel
Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem, also seems to qualify. (The novel, not the movies.)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_\(novel\))

~~~
rdtsc
Yes. Solaris is the first thing I thought of.

Well I liked Tarkovsky's rendition. Here is an example of how Tarkosvky
envisoned the ocean:

[https://youtu.be/USCiKknufaM?t=647](https://youtu.be/USCiKknufaM?t=647)

------
quantumhobbit
You get the same gnocchi, spaghetti, lasagna phases occurring throughout
nature. I've seen it most often in block copolymers,
[https://goo.gl/images/OXgy4H](https://goo.gl/images/OXgy4H). The cool part is
you get the different morphologies as you vary the relative concentrations of
the copolymer types. I imagine something similar is happening in the neutron
stars; different proton neutron ratios give you spaghetti or lasagna.

------
deciplex
"If the Flying Spaghetti Monster did not exist, it would be necessary to
invent him."

