No other country on Earth has more bushfires than Australia. Bush fires spread quickly destroying everything in their path and they are extremely difficult for fire brigades to control. At the CSIRO in Yarralumla, researchers are using their Pyrotron – a combustion wind tunnel – to provide them with a unique insight into how fire behaves in the Australian bush.
Continue reading Fanning the Flames with the Pyrotron – Act of God?
A friend of mine once casually asked me over a drink: “What is entropy?” Eeek! Interesting concept. But… How do you define entropy in a non-mathematical way? How can you sum up entropy in 30 seconds? In one mental image. In a single concept… In one word. A form of energy? A measure of disorder in the Universe? Randomness? All of the above? Tricky question. And then, I dropped my glass…
Continue reading Thermodynamics and Entropy – Our Irreversible Universe
Ever since French physicist Louis de Broglie first described the wave-particle duality in 1926, scientists have struggled to come to terms with this strange particularity of our natural World when observed at the quantum level. Waves can be particles, and particles can be waves. But are entities waves AND particles all at the same time?
Continue reading A Classical Quantum Conundrum – When To Be or Not To Be… a Wave?
Since October 24, 2014, Alan Eustace holds the World Records for vertical speed reached during freefall with a peak velocity of 1,321 kilometres per hour (822 mph) and total freefall distance of 123,414 feet – lasting four minutes and 27 seconds.
Continue reading Four Minutes and 27 Seconds of Freefall Fun – Two Years after Baumgarten, a New Record!
“The West Africans are scared” said Ban Ki-moon at a meeting of the United Nations in Washington U.S., discussing the growing threat of Ebola. And you could feel the sense of urgency as World leaders discussed the Ebola crisis. Not enough money has been put forward to tackle the disease. We are late in our response. And the clock is ticking…
Continue reading Ebola NOW! The Exponential Growth of a Deadly Outbreak
Forget about the threat of Ebola for a moment and consider something much closer to home… Meet MRSA – a “superbug”, the bacterium of the decade, the Nemesis of hospitals and operating theatres. A single cell organism that can colonise the living tissues and have a devastating or even fatal impact on the human body. Now. Meet CRISPR – also bacteria. A friend that can potentially help you fight and repel an otherwise deadly bacterial invasion…
Continue reading CRISPR, the New Antibiotics Generation – Resistance is Futile!
The Leviathan is a large natural gas field located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Together with the nearby Tamar gas field, the Leviathan has been seen as an opportunity for Israel to become a major energy power in the Middle East. This is the Leviathan – a giant gas field with the titanic potential to change Israel’s foreign relations towards a closer collaboration with Turkey and Egypt. Good news in an uncertain energy security climate…
Continue reading Leviathan: The Energy Giant that Sleeps under the Mediterranean
Eggs Benedict! The perfect breakfast item. Probably. If both you and I love this indulgent breakfast staple, it’s down to that wonderful creamy and tangy garnish that is really the glue that holds the eggs benedict together. The perfect Hollandaise sauce…
Continue reading The Perfect Hollandaise Sauce – More Science in the Kitchen…
It seems quiet at first, and even dull. Not much happening… Dreich, as one might say! Sad. Grim. Bleak. Not much to do… Not much to see here… Just sheep… But wait!! Look closer! Is that Dolly in this field? Now, that’s interesting! Oh, Aye, we’re in Scotland! It changes EVERYTHING…
Continue reading Scotland’s Quiet Revolutions – One Nation with Sovereign Achievements… and a Pure Dead Brilliant Future!
The human nervous system contains roughly 100 billion nerve cells. Worth pausing for an instant… and read it again. That’s right, 100 billions! To give an idea of the scale, the Milky Way, our own galaxy, contains roughly 100 billion stars. And although human beings are way smaller than galaxies, we begin to appreciate how each one of us is as complex, as mysterious, and as magnificent in its own right, as any large astronomical entity in the physical Universe.
Continue reading We Glimpse at the Body Electric – An Introduction to the Physics of the Human Nervous System