Category Archives: Science

Science

Bikes provide an answer

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  • The average person will lose 13 lbs in their first year riding to work.
  • 20 bikes can be parked in the same space as 1 car.
  • An MIT study in Lyon, France, found that bikes are 50% faster than cars during rush hour.
  • Adding 30 minutes of daily cycling saves each of us $544 in medical costs annually.
  • 1.100 deaths would be prevented annually.
  • Better fitness and fewer car accidents.
  • Increased air quality.

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Best Chernobyl Documentary: The Battle of Chernobyl (2006)

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The battle of Chernobyl dramatically chronicles the series of harrowing efforts to stop the nuclear chain reaction and prevent a second explosion, to “liquidate” the radioactivity, and to seal off the ruined reactor under a mammoth “sarcophagus.”

These nerve-racking events are recounted through newly available films, videos and photos taken in and around the plant, computer animation, and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, many of whom were exposed to radiation, including government and military leaders, scientists, workers, journalists, doctors, and Pripyat refugees.

The consequences of this catastrophe continue today, with thousands of disabled survivors suffering from the “Chernobyl syndrome” of radiation-related illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor.

As this remarkable film makes clear, the battle of Chernobyl is far from over.

 

 

 

 

 

Solar Flare, 16-17.02.2011

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I just assembled and published this time-lapse image of the Solar Flare set to reach Earth on the 17-18.02.2011 as seen by SOHO; each Solar Flare is marked as orange dots (“FL”), Coronal Waves (bright fronts propagating from the location of the eruption) are marked as red dots (“COR”), and Spray Surges (a type of eruption associated with Solar Flares which involve faster ejections of material rather eruptive prominences, and reach velocities of 500 to 1200 kilometers per second) as blue dots (“SP”).

A Solar Flare is a large explosion in the Sun‘s atmosphere that can release as much as 6 × 1025 joules of energy (about a sixth of the total energy output of the Sun each second).

When the ejection is directed towards the Earth, as now, and reaches it as an interplanetary CME (ICME), the shock wave of the traveling mass of Solar Energetic Particles causes a geomagnetic storm that may disrupt the Earth’s magnetosphere, compressing it on the day side and extending the night-side magnetic tail. When the magnetosphere reconnects on the night side, it releases power on the order of terawatt scale, which is directed back toward the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

This process can cause particularly strong auroras in large regions around Earth’s magnetic poles. These are also known as the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) in the northern hemisphere, and the Southern Lights (aurora australis) in the southern hemisphere. Coronal mass ejections, along with solar flares of other origin, can disrupt radio transmissions and cause damage to satellites and electrical transmission line facilities, resulting in potentially massive and long-lasting power outages.

Humans in space or at high altitudes, for example, in airplanes, risk exposure to intense radiation. Short-term damage might include skin irritation. Long-term consequences might include an increased risk of developing skin cancer.