About Us
We are a collaboration of curious individuals who enjoy conducting research and development with the intention of information dissemination. We seek to understand the world around us. From the smallest atom to the largest galaxy, we need to know how it works. And then we want to see if we can improve it. If it's not broken, we will take it apart to figure out why.
Our backgrounds are in physics and law. Two completely disparate subject areas, but bound by the common desire to understand the rules that govern everything. We have published papers, patented an invention, and at least one of us has been online since 1992.
Location
All Isotope60 content is developed in Minnesota, U.S.A. Our primary location is in Minneapolis, the wonderful city next to the Mississippi river. Contributors to Isotope60 are located throughout Minnesota.
Our Name
Are you curious where the name Isotope60 comes from? Cobalt-60 is a synthetic radioactive isotope of Cobalt, and has a half-life of 5.2714 years. This element is produced through nuclear reactors through neutron activation of Cobalt. Some may also be produced by power plant operation.
We selected the domain name Isotope60.co to represent the unusual nature of our work, the fact that it takes effort and skill to produce, and because we found the top level domain .co and thought it was interesting. The extension .co is a direct reflection of Cobalt (often abbreviated as Co), and Isotope-60 is the radioactive version of Cobalt. Clever, isn't it?
We also selected the blue color for our site's theme based on Cobalt blue, which is a pigment made by sintering cobalt oxide with aluminium oxide at 1200 °C. It turns out that the color blue is difficult to make in general. Throughout history, a stable blue pigment often required rare minerals and expensive chemistry. There is no true blue pigment in plants, which would have made it much easier to fabricate. We like rare things, which is why we chose a radioactive isotope and the color blue to represent us.
Ethics of Cobalt Mining
Cobalt (the non-radioactive kind), is a silver-blue metal, and often mined as a component for lithium-ion batteries. Much of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This often powers everything from our smartphones to electric vehicles.
When cobalt is extracted from the ground, there is habitat destruction, deforestation, and altered landscapes. A significant quantity of water is also used for dust suppression, ore processing, and cooling. Waste is also generated, which affects nearby soil and water sources. The leaching of heavy metals may also happen. On top of all of that, the air quality is also affected through smelting and refining processes, releasing gases into our atmosphere.
For all these reasons, we here at Isotope60 encourage you to think about the environment, and try to minimize human impact as much as possible.
Content on This Site
First and foremost, all of the work on this site was created by human beings, not AI. Artificial Intelligence robs us of the ability to think for ourselves.
The site was created with Typemill, which lets us create and edit pages from any device. This makes it convenient when we are in the lab working on a project and we must share it with everyone. We can take photos with our phones, and upload them immediately.
This entire site and our Gopher server are also powered by renewable energy. It is hosted on Greenhost, which prioritizes sustainability, privacy, and internet freedom, which match our core values. If you would like to verify our green status, you can review our audit findings on the Green Web Foundation's site.
