Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderLow-background lead is also sought after in shipwrecks [0]. With lead it isn't contamination from nuclear tests that's the issue, but natural radioactivity that needs hundreds of years to decay. [0] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/10/search-d...
The same kind of thing pays for archeology with ancient Roman lead: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2010/apr/23/ancient...
I came across this because I read an article about people looting old shipwrecks for the steel. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/24/as-me...
in case anyone doesn't know it, the latest hotness is to use low-background steel as an analogy for pre-ai-generated internet content. they will 'mine' this ancient content in the future bc it's relatively unpolluted by arguably worse content generated by gpt and its successors. i'm not sure i 100% agree with that take, but that's what many people are saying.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 606
- Total comments
- 151
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-12-15 | Low-background steel | gurtwo | 2 | 0 |
| 2015-12-29 | Low-background steel | monort | 2 | 0 |
| 2016-01-07 | Low-background steel | jdblair | 1 | 0 |
| 2016-04-26 | Low-background steel | a3_nm | 5 | 0 |
| 2016-06-19 | Low-background steelFirst breakout | valgaze | 159 | 28 |
| 2019-03-10 | Low-Background Steel | idiliv | 1 | 0 |
| 2019-06-21 | Low-Background Steel | apo | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-03-03 | Low-Background Steel | DoreenMichele | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-06-18 | Low-Background Steel | oli5679 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-06-20 | Low Background Steel | forty | 1 | 0 |
| 2020-07-19 | Low-Background SteelHall induction · Best thread | confeit | 359 | 107 |
| 2021-10-24 | Low-Background SteelLatest 20+ point return | bloat | 27 | 3 |
| 2023-02-28 | Low-Background Steel | labarilem | 3 | 2 |
| 2023-03-23 | Low-Background Steel | byhemechi | 2 | 0 |
| 2023-04-18 | Low-Background Steel | eclipsetheworld | 5 | 2 |
| 2023-05-30 | An accidental side effect of nuclear explosion: Low-Background Steel | samuel246 | 6 | 0 |
| 2023-06-06 | Low-Background Steel | cactusplant7374 | 1 | 2 |
| 2023-06-26 | Low-Background Steel | barneygale | 7 | 4 |
| 2023-10-26 | Low-Background Steel | alexmolas | 3 | 0 |
| 2023-12-11 | Low-Background Steel | gen220 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023-12-18 | Low-Background Steel | KolmogorovComp | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-01-11 | Low-Background Steel | thunderbong | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-02-19 | Low-Background Steel | thunderbong | 3 | 3 |
| 2024-05-06 | Low-Background Steel | philshem | 4 | 0 |
| 2024-07-19 | Low Background Steel | gdebel | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-09-24 | Low-Background_steel | nycdatasci | 1 | 0 |
| 2024-10-07 | Low-Background Steel | notamy | 5 | 0 |
| 2025-01-09 | Low-Background Steel | wslh | 2 | 0 |