beecee

Yep, I saw that, but we also have volcanic dust and debris to consider, obviously at the mercy of wind direction, plus reports of likely new fissures opening up. Again, no news appears to be good news, so maybe they are totally unaffected. found this https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/la-palma/news/141936/La-Palma-volcano-update-Stunning-time-lapse-video-of-eruption-seen-from-astrophysical-observatory.html An impressive time-lapse video has been posted by the astrophysical observatory Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias of the first day of the La Cumbre Vieja volcano's eruption. Lava jets surpassed up to a few 100 m height. So looks like they are relatively safe.

The recent and ongoing eruption of a Volcano on the Island of La-Palma in the Canary Islands is causing a huge amount of damage and destruction. While so far thankfully no lives have yet been lost, I,m unable to find much news in relation to the famous telescopes on that Island. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-toxic-gas-rivers-molten-lava.html extract: "The rivers of lava, up to six meters (nearly 20 feet) high, rolled down hillsides, burning and crushing everything in their path, as they gradually closed in on the island's more densely populated coast. One was bearing down on Todoque, where more than 1,000 people live, and where emergency services were preparing evacuations. So far, the eruption has destroyed around 190 houses and forced the evacuation of 6,000 people" .:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Perhaps no news is good news. What I have found....... map of lava flow path at https://inews.co.uk/news/world/la-palma-volcano-map-where-eruption-canary-islands-areas-evacuated-explained-1208334 map showing telescope's location.....https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RXQR_en-GBAU952AU952&tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:1&tbm=lcl&sxsrf=AOaemvK9_BWnAvMWGBdMVMyLtHew8H7ySA:1632257339287&q=canary+islands+telescopes&rflfq=1&num=10&ved=2ahUKEwiPgo-3-JDzAhVKwTgGHcsgCR8QtgN6BAgEEAc#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[29.763010408115065,-12.575974862169556],[26.173746067251713,-20.74976074237757],null,[27.983309681558566,-16.662867802273563],7] The Gran Telescopio Canarias is a 10.4 m reflecting telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, in the Canaries, Spain. It is the world's largest single-aperture optical telescope. Construction of the telescope took seven years and cost €130 million. and................. The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes or ING consists of three optical telescopes: the William Herschel Telescope, the Isaac Newton Telescope, and the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope, operated by a collaboration between the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Dutch NWO and the Spanish IAC. Wikipedia https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gran-Telescopio-Canarias ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Obviously these 'scopes are important for the scientific world, but for the life of me, I am unable to find any direct reference to them, with relation to the current crisis, not in any way diminishing the extraordinary damages to people's properties and land. They do appear rather close according to the first link...... Anyone have any more info?

Yep, another bright spark said similar earlier on......😉 Those thoughts coupled with the following could sum it up.... At present we have an out of control mob that have literally taken over the streets of Melbourne. A small part of that mob are a few "genuine" tradies that are questioning the mandatory vaccination for covid edict. But surrounded by that small group are a larger mob of leaches, well known professional protestors and anti vaxxers that have seen an opportunity to push their extreme agenda. One so called tradie was confronted by a news reporter and asked what they were marching/rioting for....he started ranting and raving about what he read on the Internet, then continued with some nonsense about Trumpism. In a word, sickening.

Yeah, agreed good point, although you maybe too young to remember one of the original TV Star Trek episodes....a silicon based life Another was the Enterprise was always shown orbiting sideways...

Yeah, a good thought worth thinking about...

I'm an old bastard also, just turned 77 in fact, and the generally high standard of docos I watch don't uneccesarily indulge in that. Let me mention a couple that I think you may like, I did anyway...."Love and Bananas: an Elephant story" quite a moving doco that had me close to tears. "Blackfish" Another about Orcas, and the third is "Chasing Ice" Incredible beauty and photography illustrating pretty convincingly the warming of the planet and the finally "Journey To the edge of the Universe"...the first three, while not space orientated, are all excellent viewing, 10/10. Never was quite into the Dr Who series, don't ask me why, but did like the X-Files, although the producers of that show have a lot to answer for, with the rise in conspiracy nonsense with the gullible ones, and UFO's and anal probing Aliens...good entertainment though! Stargate another that didn't really sit too well with me, again don't ask me why...I do have all the Star Trek original series, and the New generation with Captain Picard, but thought the entertainment value dropped off somewhat after the Janeway Voyager series.

As I said previously in agreement, docos are certainly a level above sci/fi for obvious reasons. I just don't undertand why or how you let such little things like background music and "awestruck" narration get to you. By far my favourite narrator is Sir David Attenborough, and of course the late, great Carl Sagan, imo the greatest scientific educator of our time. Of course sci/fi movies will have some errors in science, and certainly some are worse then others, but isn't that why they are called sci/fi? My favourite sc/fi movies were "2001: A Space Odyssey" head and shoulders above anything else, for its predicitve powers, and reasonable scientific accuracy. Others like "Mission to Mars", The Day The Earth Stood Still" 1953 version, Forbidden Planet and Gravity, were others. Excluding Gravity, the other three were more in line with the likelyhood of extra terrestrial life. Babylon 5 and the Star wars series, and Lost in Space, while in part enjoyable, I see as more fantasy then in any predicitve possibility. And of course, as we have argued before, the inevitable boots on Mars, is of course just that...inevitable. Time being the only debatable aspect. I mentioned Carl Sagan earlier and as most of us will know, his series "Cosmos" has been redone and narrated by Neil Degrasse Tyson. Both series should be compulsive viewing for all children. The Martian, yes another I failed to mention that was excellent, and of course the excellent portrayal of facts in Apollo XIII. Havn't seen Galaxy Quest.

It's not beecee's dream at all. It is simply a news item regarding research into green hydrogen power sources, as complimentary with other sources. The goal of course being a reduction in global warming. The environment? All of us?

No argument with that but Hydrogen does support efforts to limit global warming. Hence the need for governemnt backing in research into green Hydrogen, among the other aspects of clean power. Obviously producing Hydrogen via electrolysis is as "green" as we can get, and in conjunction with electricity from wind or solar, but to arrive at that target, further research and infrastructure is needed into industry size electrolysis mechanisms

The overall point from where I am sitting, is that as many alternative sources of clean power needs to be researched. As research continues and methodologies are refined, they will become safer. On face value I would have thought that the biggest disadvantage of hydrogen power was in the storage capabilities. But even that can be reduced... https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/australian-breakthrough-brings-hydrogen-vehicles-closer extract: "Liquid hydrogen must be contained at incredibly high pressure or maintained at very low temperatures by complex cryogenic systems. But the CSIRO has developed a process that allows the gas to be converted into more stable liquid ammonia for transportation and then reconverted back to hydrogen once it has reached its destination or point of use. The CSIRO is keeping exact details of the membrane process a closely guarded secret, but says it is simple enough to complete using a modular unit that could travel with the liquid ammonia, or by equipment built into refuelling stations". :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The crux of the matter is that our government, all governments should be backing continued research into green hydrogen power, along with solar and wind where possible. I don't believe we have a choice.

Wooosh! At first that literaly went over my head! 😁

Damn!!! I forgot the funny face!! here 😉🙂

Leave my tinny alone!!!

Supplementary article..... https://phys.org/news/2021-09-ingredient-cheaper-hydrogen-fuel-production.html SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 Mining waste could be used as an ingredient for cheaper hydrogen fuel production: Researchers have discovered a way to use mining waste as part of a potential cheaper catalyst for hydrogen fuel production. Water splitting reactions that produce hydrogen are triggered using rare platinum ($1450/ounce), iridium ($1370/ounce) and ruthenium ($367/ounce), or cheaper but less active metals—cobalt ($70,000/ton), nickel ($26,000/ton) and iron ($641/ton). Professor Ziqi Sun from the QUT School of Chemistry and Physics and QUT Centre for Materials Science and Dr. Hong Peng from the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland led research to create a new catalyst using only a small amount of these reactive metals. They combined them with feldspars, aluminosilicate rock minerals found in mining waste that Professor Sun said some companies pay about $30/ton to dispose of. In the experiment, featured on the August cover of Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research, the researchers triggered a water splitting reaction using heated-activated feldspars nanocoated with only 1–2 percent of the cheaper reactive metals. "Water splitting involves two chemical reactions—one with the hydrogen atom and one with the oxygen atom—to cause them to separate," Professor Sun said. "This new nanocoated material triggered the oxygen evolution reaction, which controls the overall efficiency of the whole water splitting process," he said. more at link................. the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aesr.202170018 In Situ Growth of Transition Metal Nanoparticles on Aluminosilicate Minerals for Oxygen Evolution: Abstract: Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Earth-abundant and environmentally friendly aluminosilicate minerals are considered promising alternatives to develop cost-effective energy conversion and storage devices. In article number 2100057, Hong Peng, Ziqi Sun, and co-workers, propose an in-situ growth of transition metal nanoparticles on commonly available feldspar minerals that can be used for promoting electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction activity. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: article extract: "Australia's abundance of aluminosilicate and the simplicity of this modification process should make industrial scale production of this new catalyst easy to achieve," Professor Sun said. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: That could indeed be a game changer, and one that could throw ScoMo in at least in some sort of reasonable light.

While I am a lover of good sci/fi movies, I am of the opinion that more true to life doco's, such as "First MAN", Cosmos, and NASA getting a good/better PR department to sell its products in a better fashion would be instrumental in garnishing more interest in NASA and science in general. A start at primary school would be beneficial. I havn,t watched "For All Mankind" as yet. While "First Man" isn't a doco, it is a reasonably factual movie.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-chinese-astronauts-earth-day-mission.html The launch of Beijing's first crewed mission in nearly five years coincided with the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party. Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after completing the country's longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing's drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the trio deployed its parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:34 pm local time (0534 GMT). "It feels very good to be back!," Tang Hongbo told state broadcaster CCTV after the 90-day mission, a record for China. "I want to say dad, mom, I'm back! In good health and good spirits!" he said after emerging from the capsule within 30 minutes of landing. The crew of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft were in good health, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement. "The first manned mission to the (Chinese) space station is a complete success," it said. The taikonauts—as Chinese astronauts are known—will undergo a 14-day quarantine before they can go home "because their immune systems may have weakened after the long mission," Huang Weifen, chief designer of China's manned space project told CCTV more at link................

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-game-changer-hydrogen-production.html Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.106463: Curtin University research has identified a new, cheaper and more efficient electrocatalyst to make green hydrogen from water that could one day open new avenues for large-scale clean energy production. Typically, scientists have been using precious metal catalysts, such as platinum, to accelerate the reaction to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. Now Curtin research has found that adding nickel and cobalt to cheaper, previously ineffective catalysts enhances their performance, which lowers the energy required to split the water and increases the yield of hydrogen. Lead researcher Dr. Guohua Jia, from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said this discovery could have far-reaching implications for sustainable green fuel generation in the future. "Our research essentially saw us take two-dimensional iron-sulfur nanocrystals, which don't usually work as catalysts for the electricity-driven reaction that gets hydrogen from water, and add small amounts of nickel and cobalt ions. When we did this it completely transformed the poor-performing iron-sulfur into a viable and efficient catalyst," Dr. Jia said. more at link................................... the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211285521007187?via%3Dihub Ni2+/Co2+ doped Au-Fe7S8 nanoplatelets with exceptionally high oxygen evolution reaction activity: Abstract: To overcome the limited potency of energy devices such as alkaline water electrolyzers, the construction of active materials with dramatically enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance is of great importance. Herein we developed an ion diffusion-induced doping strategy that is capable of producing Ni2+/Co2+ doped two-dimensional (2D) Au-Fe7S8 nanoplatelets (NPLs) with exceptionally high OER activity outperforming the benchmark RuO2 catalyst. The co-existence of Co and Ni in Au-Fe7S8 NPLs led to the lowest OER overpotential of 243 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and fast kinetics with a Tafel slope of 43 mV dec-1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrated that Ni2+/Co2+ doping improves the binding of OOH species on the {001} surfaces of Au-Fe7S8 NPLs and lowers the Gibbs free energy of the OER process, which are beneficial to outstanding OER activity of the nanoplatelets.

Thankfully as we all would agree, they have returned safely..... https://phys.org/news/2021-09-trailblazing-tourist-orbit-splashdown.html extract: "Isaacman, 38, an entrepreneur and accomplished pilot, aimed to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Donating $100 million himself, he held a lottery for one of the four seats. Late Saturday, Musk tweeted he was donating $50 million, putting them over the top". Joining him on the flight were Arceneaux, 29, a St. Jude physician assistant who was treated at the Memphis, Tennessee hospital nearly two decades ago for bone cancer, and contest winners Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator, scientist and artist from Tempe, Arizona. Aside from trouble with a toilet fan and a bad temperature sensor in an engine, the flight went exceedingly well, officials said. Some of the four passengers experienced motion sickness when they reached orbit—just as some astronauts do. The 60-year scorecard now stands at 591 people who have reached space or its edges—and is expected to skyrocket as space tourism heats up.

They shout the loudest though! Some truth in that also. Also worth mentioning that old addage "F^%$ you Jack, I'm allright" and the anti vaxxer mob that shout out and scream that their personal rights have been, or are been violated. What they refuse to accept is, to quote our well known Vulcan friend, "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few"

Yeah good question I sometimes ask myself. Perhaps it's the WWW and Internet? Your question can be summed up I believe with simply, why do people believe in conspiracies? On this 20th day of the year of our lord 2021, people still think we never went to the Moon...and that the Earth is flat. Check it out, I'm not exaggerating. Perhaps it gives them a sense of power, that they "supposedly" know the truth, and us poor sheep just follow the status quo. And of course its not just the USA, we in Australia are also inflicted with these types of ratbags. Most [probably including me] just turn a blind eye and think OK, let them be, they aint doing anyone any harm. I then sort of think, well isn't that what the German people were thinking before Hitler seriously started his stuff. I don't know, thankfully I have lived most of my life and am now in the twilight part, although then my concern is for my boy, and his children, and his children's children. Perhaps science through in its effort in getting us to the Moon again, and then onto Mars, may brighten things up. I hope so!

Because I'm a big fat softie pussy cat at heart and need some comfort in case I stress out! Sandra or Anne wouldn't go astray Just to hold my hand of course!!

Let me answer this way first....If I was a canditate for such an adventure, I would jump at it as is...with no professional onboard, but relatively confident going on their record, that it would be safe as can be made. But I would prefer to have a Neil with me if I had that choice. If that's straddling the line, then you are probably correct. Obviously according to the powers that be, a professional is not really needed. Can I use somewhat of an analogy to further explain where I am coming from....I understand and accept that we have no real extraordinary evidence of any life off this Earth. But I believe also that due to the near inifine extent and content of the universe, life should exist somewhere/sometime. Or another further back The Vat made another reasonable analogy In essence it is just me and my preferences. Hence the question in the OP as to whether it is wise or appropriate. [which in part, has been answered]

The above is a photo of Ball's Pyramid, a rocky outcrop near Lord Howe Island off the coast of NSW. Lord Howe Island can be seen in the background. https://gripped.com/profiles/heard-balls-pyramid-pretty-epic/ The seven-million-year-old 562-metre formation is the remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that stands about 20 kilometres southeast of Australia’s Lord Howe Island. It is the tallest volcanic stack in the world. The Climb It was first attempted in 1964 by the Australian team, but they ran out of supplies and turned back. On Valentines Day 1965, Bryden Allen, John Davis, Jack Pettigrew and David Witham became the first to stand on top. Then in 1979, Smith climbed it with John Worrall and Hugh Ward and planted a New South Wales flag and declared it Australian territory.

I already answerd that.....

On your highlighted section by me...I most certainly am celebrating this success. Did you read my OP? I have also defended the inevitable progress of space tourism along with space exploration and research. I defend it to the hilt and nothing short of a planetary catastrophic event will halt it. The only doubt I have ever had re space endeavours, was when it was first opened to private concerns, like Space-X. On that score I was wrong and couldn't be happier that I was wrong. None of that though changes my personal "fear" of wanting a professional up front! [if I had a choice that is] Dunno zapatos...perhaps if I or another accompanying lay person had something as simple as a panic attack?...leaking cabin pressure...micro meteorites, I don't really know. While I would have happily swapped positions with anyone on board this flight, even without a professional, if I would have had a personal choice, then I would have been more comfortable with a Neil Armstrong. That's all I'm saying...put it down to the big scaredy cat deep within me!! Bingo, I have never argued against that.