EXOPLANETARY SCIENCE
This new rapidly-growing field of scientific research is devoted not just to finding exoplanets but to discovering and analysing detailed information about them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24348024
This report presents fascinating observations on an exoplanet Kepler-7b, which circles a star some 1,000 light years from Earth using Nasa's Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes. Brice-Olivier Demory of MIT interprets the measurements as a reflective signature of clouds on the exoplanet. Variations of the intensity of light from the parent star reflected from the exoplanet clouds yield information about the planetary cloud cover.
If this approach is extended to other (and closer to Earth) exoplanets among the hundreds of these planets already discovered beyond our solar system the research may reveal significant discoveries.
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
THE LEGACY OF FUKUSHIMA
This new critical analysis by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes exposes the devastating legacy of Fukushima, sounding a dire warning about the future of nuclear power.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24332012
His visit to a small town 5 miles from Fukushima is a poignant reminder of the human cost of the disaster. All the inhabitants have gone, still refugees two and a half years after the tsunami which wrecked the nuclear reactors at Fukushima. There is a huge task removing radioactive contaminated topsoil and trees within a 20 mile radius of ground zero. Where do you put it all? For how many hundreds of years?
Professor Kurokawa comments: 'Many senior bureaucrats from Japan's Nuclear Industry Safety Agency would take lucrative jobs in the nuclear industry after leaving government'.
Could it happen again? Wingfield-Hayes concludes that if the complacency prior to the disaster could happen in Japan, it can almost certainly happen elsewhere. The myth that it is safe has gone.
This new critical analysis by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes exposes the devastating legacy of Fukushima, sounding a dire warning about the future of nuclear power.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24332012
His visit to a small town 5 miles from Fukushima is a poignant reminder of the human cost of the disaster. All the inhabitants have gone, still refugees two and a half years after the tsunami which wrecked the nuclear reactors at Fukushima. There is a huge task removing radioactive contaminated topsoil and trees within a 20 mile radius of ground zero. Where do you put it all? For how many hundreds of years?
Professor Kurokawa comments: 'Many senior bureaucrats from Japan's Nuclear Industry Safety Agency would take lucrative jobs in the nuclear industry after leaving government'.
Could it happen again? Wingfield-Hayes concludes that if the complacency prior to the disaster could happen in Japan, it can almost certainly happen elsewhere. The myth that it is safe has gone.
Monday, 30 September 2013
CONFIRMATION OF WATER IN MARS SURFACE
A new paper by Laurie Leshin of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York describes findings by the Mars Curiosity Rover instruments of water in the Martian surface.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24287207
Curiosity has travelled 400 metres from the touchdown site in Gale crater. Instruments have now recorded ~ 2% water vapour present in the dusty red covering over the Martian surface.
A new paper by Laurie Leshin of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York describes findings by the Mars Curiosity Rover instruments of water in the Martian surface.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24287207
Curiosity has travelled 400 metres from the touchdown site in Gale crater. Instruments have now recorded ~ 2% water vapour present in the dusty red covering over the Martian surface.
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
ALL CHANGE FOR THE NHS .....
GP-led groups have now taken over control of local NHS budgets, and a new board, NHS England, oversees the running of the service.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21964568
The 152 Primary Care Trusts have been scrapped.
A major concern is how significant will be an increasing role of the private sector in the NHS.
GP-led groups have now taken over control of local NHS budgets, and a new board, NHS England, oversees the running of the service.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21964568
The 152 Primary Care Trusts have been scrapped.
A major concern is how significant will be an increasing role of the private sector in the NHS.
Monday, 1 April 2013
WELFARE SYSTEM REFORMS
Today sees cuts in housing benefit for some social housing tenants with a spare bedroom, and changes to council tax.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21991953
Low income families will now be paying council tax, while millionaires are gifted tax cuts of £100,000 per year.
Today sees cuts in housing benefit for some social housing tenants with a spare bedroom, and changes to council tax.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21991953
Low income families will now be paying council tax, while millionaires are gifted tax cuts of £100,000 per year.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
NEW RESULTS FROM PLANCK
The European Space Agency's Planck telescope has produced further important results, in addition to the new cosmic background radiation map published last week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21940434
This new data is a mapping of the distribution of all matter in the universe.
It relates to the cosmic background radiation findings revealed last week by analysing tiny distortions in the early radiation caused as it passed matter on its journey here. Basically, it is an extension of the well-known gravitational lensing technique to cover the whole sky. The results are in agreement with those from the near universe using other techniques.
Only 15.5% of all matter in the universe is 'normal' atomic matter; the remaining 84.5% is the so-called 'dark matter'. In terms of the total matter / energy in the universe, 4.9% is 'normal' matter, 26.8% is dark matter, and 68.3% is dark energy.
The European Space Agency's Planck telescope has produced further important results, in addition to the new cosmic background radiation map published last week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21940434
This new data is a mapping of the distribution of all matter in the universe.
It relates to the cosmic background radiation findings revealed last week by analysing tiny distortions in the early radiation caused as it passed matter on its journey here. Basically, it is an extension of the well-known gravitational lensing technique to cover the whole sky. The results are in agreement with those from the near universe using other techniques.
Only 15.5% of all matter in the universe is 'normal' atomic matter; the remaining 84.5% is the so-called 'dark matter'. In terms of the total matter / energy in the universe, 4.9% is 'normal' matter, 26.8% is dark matter, and 68.3% is dark energy.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
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