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The Azolla Event: when is a fern not a fern?

...

Betelgeuse, Gamow, and a Big Red Horse

There has been a lot of talk recently of Betelgeuse possibly going supernova this century or not...

Climate Change, the Walrus and the Carpenter

I have recently watched two videos on climate change by Sabine Hossenfelder. The first one...

A Very Large Hadron Collider?

Frontpage image: Illustration of spherical explosion (kilonova) of two neutron stars (AT2017gfo/GW170817)...

Robert H Olley

Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

I would describe myself as a Polymer Morphologist. I am not an astronaut,

New Year with a Bang?

Dec 31 2010 | comment(s)

Will your new year start with a BANG?

Well, it might, if you bring it in with this molecule. This is trinitramide, a compound newly synthesized at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. It has the formula N(NO₂)₃, and as such is the newest nitrogen oxide to be discovered.

Science by 8-year-olds

Dec 23 2010 | comment(s)

I thought I was going into Christmas recess, but then I saw this:

Graduate students the world over have got to be feeling like slackers right now: A group of 8- to 10-year-old British schoolchildren have published a scientific paper in the peer-reviewed (Royal Society) journal Biology Letters.

Also spricht, not Zarathustra, but Live Science in

8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Study on Bees

Whose Christmas Story?

Dec 22 2010 | comment(s)

According to a well-known British figure:

... the true meaning of the Christmas story will not be revealed until Easter – or possibly much later.

Now who said that? Answer at the end of this blog.

I am now preparing to give my brain a little bit of a rest while we ride out Yuletide. Therefore, I wish all readers:

These fellows were keeping warm in January of this year. For more meerkats, see also Erdmännchen (Suricata suricatta) im Kölner Zoo - 01

Could someone explain?

Dec 20 2010 | comment(s)

This has recently appeared on Telegraph Blogs, from one of the few sensible authors.

Could someone explain why global warming has to be a disaster?

Could readers please help with a reasonably concise explanation, which I could post within a day or two?

Many thanks in advance.

There's an awful lot of coffee in ...

Dec 10 2010 | comment(s)

... India, actually.

Today, Wikipedia flagged up a new article, Coffee production in India, with a interesting piece of history. Quoting in full from the article:

Cleaning your own pollutants may harm you

Dec 08 2010 | comment(s)

Many metals have special oxygen transfer properties which improve the utility of hydrogen peroxide. By far, the most common of these is iron which, when used in the prescribed manner, results in the generation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals (. OH). The reactivity of this system was first observed in 1894 by its inventor H.J.H. Fenton, but its utility was not recognized until the 1930s once the mechanisms were identified.

So say US Peroxide, a company marketing ‘Technologies for a Clean Environment’.