paulsutton

In terms of Origins of Elements I found this posted on Twitter I think the other day which may be helpful Lighter elements were formed in stars, heavier elements seemed to have been formed when stars explode, or undergo changes during their life time / end of life.

Yes discarded masks are causing problems world wide I think given there are probably billions used over the pandemic and some not disposed of properly. More people are working from home, which also means they are heating homes during the winter, so that may have an impact, this could be mitigated by the current fuel costs, going up, which may force people to find other places to work remotely rather than at home, or just return to the office. Also running computers / printers at home, seems that cost of INk is having problems too, I would assume most offices uses laser printers, which are more efficient, and can print more per toner unit too. I guess there are a lot of factors. Seems that since the lockdowns have eased or ended people are going back to their old ways.

I got this impression too, some insects are attracted by certain smells from our bodies, different people have different levels of a particular chemical may attract tics differently. I would guess the correct term could be aromatic compounds, which IIRC ammonia is. Could explain why some people are more prone.

Same here, I had a book called The Universe and Planet earth which gave me my first real intro to the topic of protons, neutron, electrons and the particles that make these up (well the first two of course). Book is still a really excellent guide to the topic as it has info on earth sciences,black holes, physics, chemistry etc. Yes we read Of Mice and men Inspector calls long, short and the tall and a few others which I can't remember.

Looks like the NASA Dart mission test was a success. A couple of questions from this https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart/dart-news If an asteroid was heading towards the Earth and we used a similar method to the above to change the trajectory is there a danger that this could cause any asteroid to hit the moon ? (Similar method, as if this can happen anytime, even 100 years from now we will have moved on technically but still need to do this. ) In which case, would we need to consider any impacts on Moon bases Is there a danger that any impact on the moon could cause debris from the Moon to hi the Earth, or any satellites in orbit ? Is there a danger of moon impact, shifting the orbit of the moon or would any such asteroid need to be a certain size / speed for this to happen Thanks for any help, Paul

This was my main motivation, I did an IOU certificate in contemporary science, completed in 2012 so undertaking a few Open Learn courses just added to this, fore example the How the universe works module for the certificate had the Higgs boson as still a theory, so completing a course post confirmation updated that knowledge, that may seem a small thing but the Higgs boson has been important going forward for physics. I agree here, it seems a lot of students are complaining about University level course not knowing that they are meant to do a lot of extra study between lectures.

So from this we can perhaps conclude there are both friendly and unfriendly mutations. We have seen mutations at work with the variants of the Covid 19 virus. So the virus adapts, also with things like anti biotic resistant bacteria. In terms of friendly, yes evolution, unfriendly Cancers etc.

I think quite a few of the courses have material that is contained within the longer Paid for OU courses, or perhaps courses that have been retied but where the content is still relevant. Worth checking out, but check out the course learning outcomes.

Thanks, this makes sense so I would guess that Carbon 13 is also perhaps made with cosmic radiation too, Paul So one example could be perhaps that Bananas contain radioactive isotopes of Potassium.

Back in the days of Windows 3.1, I had some software called periodic table of the elements, this had a nice feature that would display a picture of an elements decay tree. I am looking for something similar, however I am not sure if there is anything, but not sure if decay tree is the correct term I should be using. If i can determine better search terms, I may have more success, any suggestions please?. While I am running Debian Linux here, if there are suggestions for Windows and or mac, than those will be helpful to other users. I have gperiodic for Debian but that doesn't seem to have this information. https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/gperiodic/gperiodic.1.en.html Thanks Paul

I am trying to find out if compounds of Radioactive atoms such as Uranium are still radioactive. From a search I found https://web.evs.anl.gov/uranium/guide/overview/index.cfm Which has lots of information, including information on the various Compounds of Uranium, but I can't see anything relating to radioactivity. Just curious, I would suspect they may be in some cases. Paul

Ah Ok thanks

I am probably misunderstanding, something here. How can a forum / website be Galactose intolerant ?

I don't even know what SFN is, sorry.

Surely at University level the information presented should be clear, and it should be clear where and how the data was collected. How else can you then make an interpretation without knowing all the facts.

How is this a reason to ban books in 2022. I can understand this happening in Germany during the 1930s I would have hoped we had moved on since then, perhaps not.

I agree, we need to focus on people who can demonstrate the right attitude such as I want to make a difference in my job rather than I am here for the pay packet at the end of the month. I am trying to study for a level 2 teaching assistant qualification, but schools are hardly very good at taking people on and helping them develop their skills or looking at what skills they have and being able to make the most of that person. From working in a classroom you need to be good with children, you also need common sense, initiative and the ability to problem solve, not things that can be just taught, you develop these skills as you go or at least seem to.

Good point, i did comment on twitter that I hope fracking is a short term thing until we get alternatives up and running. But yes we should put solar panels on a lot of buildings from the start, and attach to older buildings too, the new solar tech that has been developed not only seems to make panels more efficient but also more recyclable at end of life. . Our government are here for short term action, if we need engineers etc then we need to push engineering from year 7 (first year of secondary at age 11) so that we can develop the interest and also the skills for the future, instead we keep kids at school till 18. For many school isn't working, so why not let them leave at 14, and work in engineering (in this case) as apprentices. By the time they are 18, they will have skills, experience and qualifications that make them useful immediately, compared to their peers who stay at school. There are plenty of routes back in to academia later on n life too,

So what about existing fields that have been closed down?, is the time taken to get them back up any shorter ? I know some have apparently concreted over. >5 years is a long time, I guess the government wants to be 'seen' doing something, only from this, it seems like a sticking plaster over a gunshot wound.

The UK prime minister, Liz Truss has announced an end to the ban on Fracking in the UK. I would be very interested in being able to separate fact from fiction on this topic. I understand the basic principle which is to pump water in to underground reserves of natural gas in order to force these to the surface. The explosives are needed to open up the rocks that hold the reserves of gas. I goes without saying the usual social media channels will be full of all sorts of 'opinions' as to this causing earthquakes (which as far as I understand will be very low in magnitude anyway) and a host of other theories to help their objection argument. Hence any links to actual papers or research and factual information would be helpful, as I am hopefully going to be in schools as a Teaching assistant then being able to present some real facts would be great. But this will be useful anyway. Thanks Paul

In the UK, part of digital literacy is being able to find information online, however it expands to finding legitimate / accurate and credible information based on evidence. It is part of a push to ensure people can do this, given the amount of information that is available. I think this is a move up from simply being able to looking things up, So understanding terms such as peer review is going to be essential to help people with this, it also helps them form arguments. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxs2xsg/revision/1 An example I came across is trying to find a a recent how to for how to carry out a task on the Linux operating system, in many cases the first links that come up are also the links that have been read or followed the most, as they have been around longer, so you end up with a how_to for say Ubuntu 12.04 which is less than helpful. Paul Or what their friends tell them, as they see people as very knowledgable, even if they are not. So what they say on a topic goes. I think this article perhaps illustrates what we are up against and why it is important to learn how to find credible information TikTok Search Results Riddled With Misinformation: Report https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-us-tiktok-misinformation_n_6321c9b0e4b027aa40614814 Paul

You raise a good point here, Sense about science have some resources on peer review https://senseaboutscience.org/activities/peer-review/ How important is it, that the general population who are not from a science background understand these processes so that they can trust science. Surely there is little point in peer review if people don't understand / know what this is. If any science is also funded through taxation, then surely those conducting any research etc are accountable to tax payers. In turn should expect the highest standards to be upheld. So what can run along side peer review to help ensure the processes are robust and trustworthy? Paul

I spotted this on Twitter and decided to share as it is science related 19th to 23rd September is peer review week https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2022/09/15/ask-the-chefs-is-research-integrity-possible-without-peer-review/ I am not associated with this, just sharing the information. The question "Is Research Integrity Possible without Peer Review?" could make an interesting discussion at some point. Paul

Ah thanks, that makes perfect sense. Paul

How do you release 2.43 neutrons ? This suggests 2 whole neutrons, plus 1/2 a neutron. Or is that just a silly question.