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Not So Elementary (the Cosmos, That Is)

Recently there are appeared a paper showing how Physics - Iron–Helium Compounds Form Under...

Carbon — to capture or not to capture

This came up on 2nd November 2024 (give or take a day), a broadcaster objecting to a carbon capture...

Betelgeuse, Gamow, and a Big Red Horse

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

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Robert H OlleyRSS Feed of this column.

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,

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Today is the first day of the Chinese Year of the Rooster, 2017.
 
I am addressing this in particular to North American friends, since yesterday evening on TV we saw Michael Portillo on one of his great railway journeys, travelling through the state of Kansas.  In one of his enounters, a young Native American man, in full costume, performed a “prairie chicken” dance from the Blackfeet of Montana.
 

Not long ago, I read an article Apocalypse now? Nuclear proliferation is the least of our worries, to which the sub-editor helpfully added the heading soon, a massive solar flare will bring the world to a halt claims the author of a new book.

In Scotland, traditional New Year greeting is

Lang may yer lum reek


meaning “long may your chimney smoke”.  So may you never be short of fuel for your fire.

So, if I understand this article rightly, this might be a bit difficult for Alaskans in 2017.

EPA To Alaskans In Sub-Zero Temps: Stop Burning Wood To Keep Warm

Unlike Alex Durig, who has given us 5 Predictions for 2017, I will not attempt to make any.  Rather I will try to enjoy what remains of the 12 days of Christmas (the last one being the 5th of January, and I do not have the energy to pop over to Russia to enjoy another Christmas Day on the 6th.)

Do you find that your camera is not registering violet correctly?  Flowers that are more violet in appearance are coming out blue, while some purple flowers come out all right.  In the picture below, the daisy and the pansy to the right appear more or less correct while the pansies at centre and left may appear more or less “true blue” depending on which camera.  This is discussed in the YouTube

Are we heading for a Grim New World?  It looks like it, from two short articles that I have recently read.  One, from today, is

Why I am publishing all my texts, emails and messages to the internet in real time.  The author, Mark Farid, writes: