TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Stanley]

From what I have learned since, I suspect that given the right tuition I could have done rather well at Maths but that never happened. I used to enjoy stuff like Spherical Trigonometry, something I haven't heard of for years. A better description would perhaps be Three Dimensional Trigonometry. As I say it never happened and I went to a more immediate love, doing things with my hands on a practical level. In other words farming!

[PanBiker]

I did 5 years of Calc's and Principles and still don't know what it is or the reason for doing it when studying electronics! I did manage a pass though.

Much later at Lancaster Uni I had to get my head around 32 and 64 bit binary mathematics for network sub-netting. My Head of IT teacher friend Steve who did the CISCO course (80% required for a pass) along with me, started life as a Maths teacher and I got to calling him Mr Binar, it was like water off a ducks back to him.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS for an image of the oldest light we have ever seen (over 13 billion years old.) captured by the James Webb telescope.

[Tizer]

Perhaps the last sentence below shows this will be primarily a military development?...
`Zephyr breaks own record for longest unmanned flight' LINK
`Airbus has broken the record for the longest flight of an unmanned aircraft, flight-tracking data suggests. The solar-powered Airbus Zephyr S has spent 26 continuous days airborne, beating the record it set in 2018. The unmanned craft flies high in the atmosphere, to avoid commercial air traffic and adverse weather. The aircraft has on-board batteries to keep it airborne overnight, meaning it does not need to stop to re-supply fuel. Flight data shows the aircraft flew from the test range in Arizona to Belize in Central America, and then back again. Airbus told the BBC it could not comment on the flight.'...

[Stanley]

Almost certainly yes Peter I would say. A reconnaissance vehicle that can stay airborne for almost unlimited periods? What's not to like?

[Tizer]

New technology boosts an old telescope...
`Weave: New device will investigate Milky Way's origins' LINK
`The William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma, Spain will be able to survey 1,000 stars per hour until it has catalogued a total of five million. A super-fast mapping device linked up to WHT will analyse the make-up of each star and the speed at which it travels. It will show how our Milky Way galaxy was built up over billions of years.'...

[Stanley]

I heard that report, the raw computing power needed to do that is mind boggling.... Petabytes of data?

[Tizer]

In August 2020, more than 12,000 dry-lightning strikes started over 650 wildfires across California, burning more than 1.5 million acres of land, with hundreds of thousands of people evacuated. They are more difficult to deal with because there are multiple ignition points and often start in remote places far from where people might start fires...
`Causes of deadly dry-lightning wildfires revealed' LINK

[Stanley]

I've seen wild fires in the canyons behind LA and they are fierce raging beasts!

[Stanley]

See THIS report that Scientists at the University of Cambridge have successfully altered the blood type of donor kidneys in a discovery that could increase the supply of the organs for transplant. Other researchers in the field have said this could be a game changer.

[PanBiker]

Especially for ethnic minority groups who are reluctant to donate, this also applies to blood donations. There is a permanent appeal for Black and Asian blood donors as many carry the antibodies that can be used for successful sickle cell treatment.

[Tizer]

This will be good if it works on enough of the PFAS types and is cheap...
`PFAS: Possible breakthrough to destroy harmful 'forever chemicals'' LINK

[Stanley]

But does that mean the Teflon will drop off the pans? There's something basically at fault with one lot of scientists putting these chemicals in our homes and another lot taking them out. Is the fault in the decision to allow their use in the first place?

[Tizer]

They're looking for ways to destroy or remove the PFAs that have entered, or are entering, the environment.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS latest image of Jupiter obtained by the James Webb space telescope. Quite stunning!

[Tizer]

`Rare ‘triple dip’ La Niña declared' LINK
`The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has announced that the weather phenomenon La Niña has formed for the third consecutive year in the Pacific. This is only the third time since records began that there have been three consecutive La Niña events. "It is exceptional to have three consecutive years with a La Nina event," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.'...

[Stanley]

We are seeing more and more 'exceptional' events and what would have been headlines twenty years ago is hardly worth a comment now. This is the way our world will end, not with a bang but a whimper......

[Tizer]

This article mentions using perovskites to develop better solar energy devices...
`Japan's push into 'deep tech' innovation' LINK
I posted about these interesting minerals many years ago on OG, then again in May 2020 LINK Although the BBC article is about Japanese research it's a pity they didn't take the opportunity to review the many UK research projects on perovskites. Also the fact that it was an Irish crystallographer, Helen Dick Megaw (1907-2002), who pioneered measurements of the cell dimensions of ice and established the perovskite crystal structure Ulster Biography

Examples of UK research on perovskites are many, for example....
The potential of Perovskite Solar Cells UCL
Research helps solar technology become more affordable Manchester Uni
University of Surrey awarded close to £3 million funding for perovskite solar cell research Surrey Uni
Perovskite and Organic photovoltaics Sheffield Uni

[Stanley]

How come you noted the existence of this technology and the BBC didn't Peter?
Perhaps they should read OG when they log on every morning.....

[Tizer]

It was written by a BBC Japan journalist who should have looked to see if similar things were going on in other countries, especially the UK.

[Stanley]

Once a science editor, always a science editor! Nice one......

[Tizer]

There's going to be a lot of excited astronomers and astrophysicists out there!
`'Shiny, sparkly object' in James Webb space image' LINK

[Stanley]

That makes the new observatory a very successful job creation/preservation project. Reputations will be made on speculation like this.

[Tizer]

This post concerns both science and politics. A recent FT article and a comment on Radio 4 set me searching. I knew Ukraine was a source of rare earth elements but I hadn't realised how rich are its resources of those and many other essential elements necessary for our modern world. Add this to Ukrainian agriculture being the `bread basket' of Europe (and other areas) and we begin to see that Putin's `special operation' isn't just about politics. Have a look at this...

`Ukraine’s critical minerals and Europe’s energy transition: A motivation for Russian aggression?' (July 21, 2022) MEI
(MEI = Middle East Institute, Washington DC.)

...and this...
`Op-ed | The Rare Earth Ripple Effect of Russia’s War on Ukraine' (August 24, 2022) Space News

There's much more to the Ukraine war than we've been led to believe.

[Whyperion]

You could argue (oil in Ajerbajan aside) that Ukraine was the key driver in the Soviet Union industry and technology post WW2.