NHS Prevention Programme Reduces Type 2 Diabetes By A Fifth
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Participants are given free Fitbits or smart watches to help them lose weight
These two paragraphs outline the program.
An NHS scheme that sends obese patients to slimming classes and gives them free Fitbits has cut diabetes rates by one fifth.
The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, also known as Healthier You, offers health advice alongside free cookery and exercise sessions online or in person. Participants are given NHS-funded Fitbits or smart watches to monitor their activity to help them lose weight.
Note.
- Manchester University have analysed the project.
- Those on the scheme lost five pounds on average.
- The Healthier You programme is available in all parts of England.
It sounds like the programme has been a success.
I’d like to hear of peoples’ stories about this programme.
Appliance Of Science To Boost Stevenage
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These two paragraphs introduce the article.
Planning permission has been granted for a former TK Maxx outlet and two other stores in the middle of Stevenage to be knocked down and replaced with laboratories.
The £500 million development, funded by UBS Asset Management and designed by Reef Group, is the latest example of how Britain’s town centres can be adapted and brought up to date.
Note.
- We have a laboratory shortage in the UK, which is especially serious in Oxford and Cambridge.
- Canary Wharf is also turning offices into laboratory space.
- There was even an article in The Times yesterday about converting offices to laboratories in Harley Street.
It’s probably a sign of success!
If Stevenage is to become a worldwide centre for life sciences and medical research, it probably needs the town’s excellent rail links to London and Cambridge to be further improved.
- LNER runs two fast trains per hour (tph) to and from London King’s Cross.
- Other fast services call during the day.
- Local services include two tph to Cambridge, London and Peterborough.
Services need to be improved, especially to and from Cambridge.
ERTMS Is Being Installed Through Stevenage
Installation of full digital signalling on the East Coast Main Line could have various effects.
- LNER and other fast services could be faster to places like Doncaster, Leeds and York.
- Fast Cambridge, Ely and King’s Lynn services would have to be run by 125 mph trains to keep out of the way of the expresses.
- 125 mph services to Cambridge would reduce journey times by a few minutes and might allow the Cambridge Cruisers to sneak in a stop at Stevenage, whilst maintaining the current times.
- Will the Thameslink Class 700 trains have to stick to the slow lines?
- As the Hertford Loop Line will also be digitally signalled, it might be possible to divert some trains via Hertford North.
There will be a lot of hard thinking going on to find out the best way to run services on the Southern section of the East Coast Main Line.
High Speed Norfolk
I like the concept of running high speed trains to Ely, Norwich and Kings Lynn.
- It would open up a lot of West Norfolk for laboratory space and commuter towns for Cambridge.
- The Breckland line between Ely and Norwich would be improved for higher speeds. It could even become a 125 mph line.
- High Speed Norfolk trains would have a frequency of two tph and call at Stevenage, Cambridge South, Cambridge, Cambridge North and Ely before alternatively going on to Norwich and King’s Lynn.
- Cambridge and Norwich services would alternate with the Norwich and Stansted Airport service.
Norwich could be the overspill city that Cambridge needs.
Rheenergise & University Partners Secure £1M Grant From UK Government
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Reenergise.
This is the sub-heading.
The Department for Energy Security & Net Zero funded research project will identify and test minerals and discarded wastes for use in RheEnergise’s grid scale hydro energy storage system.
And these are the first three paragraphs.
In partnership with the University of Greenwich and the University of Exeter, RheEnergise, the UK company that is developing a new and advanced form of pumped hydro-energy storage, has secured a grant of £1 million funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) as part of the UK Government’s Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. The government grant will fund work to identify and test waste materials that could be used in the high-density fluid (HDF) that is integral to RheEnergise’s grid-scale High-Density Hydro® energy storage system. The HDF is an environmentally benign alternative to water.
RheEnergise’s long duration storage system is low-cost and energy efficient. The fluid used in the system is 2½ times denser than water (similar in viscosity to cream) and is therefore able to provide 2½ times the power and 2½ times the energy when compared to conventional low-density hydro-power systems that rely on water and operate in the Scottish Highlands, Wales and across Europe. It means that RheEnergise can deploy its long duration energy storage system beneath the surface of hills rather than mountains, so opening up massive commercial opportunities in the UK, Europe and further afield.
The research project, funded by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero’s Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, wants to identify suitable minerals and waste streams which can be recycled into the high-density fluid which can be locally sourced and are lower-cost, rather than having to rely on minerals imported from overseas.
I feel the concept of High-Density Hydro is excellent and will work.
If this research leads to lower costs, that can only help the development and deployment of High-Density Hydro.
So Many Floating Wind Designs, So Few Test Sites – Norwegian METCentre Sold Out
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
There are currently more than 80 floating wind technology concepts and designs worldwide, and testing even a certain number of these could prove to be an endeavour since there are not many test sites dedicated to floating wind technology in Europe.
It strikes me that we need more test centres.
As UK waters will in the next couple of decades be home to a lot more GW of wind farms, perhaps we should develop a test centre.
I wonder, if South Wales would be the place for a test centre.
- There is a lot of sea, which isn’t cluttered with oil and gas rigs, and wind farms.
- There are a lot of wind farms planned in the area.
- There are at least two good technology universities.
- There are some deep water ports.
- Electricity connections and power generation are good.
- There is good train connections to the rest of England and Wales.
- A train testing centre is being built at Nant Helen. Some tests needed to be done could be the same.
Some innovative designs for wind turbines are also being developed in South Wales.
Brown Seaweed Could Remove 550 Million Tons Of Carbon
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Carbon Herald.
This may seem like a story that has arrived a few months early.
But the report does come from the respect Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology.
The research is detailed on this page on their web site, which is entitled Slime For The Climate, Delivered By Brown Algae.
It is introduced by this sub-heading.
In form of fucoidan, brown algae could remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.
Which is followed by this paragraph.
Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen now show. They reveal that the algal mucus called fucoidan is particularly responsible for this carbon removal and estimate that brown algae could thus remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year – almost the amount of Germany’s entire annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Note that fucoidan has a Wikipedia entry.
The page says this about brown algae.
Brown algae are true wonder plants when it comes to absorbing carbon dioxide from the air.
It does seem to me that the Germans are on to something.
National Ignition Facility Achieves Fusion Ignition
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) — a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power. On Dec. 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. This first-of-its-kind feat will provide unprecedented capability to support NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program and will provide invaluable insights into the prospects of clean fusion energy, which would be a game-changer for efforts to achieve President Biden’s goal of a net-zero carbon economy.
BBC Radio Five is giving the story a high profile.
The breakthrough is also featured in this article on The Telegraph, which is entitled Nuclear Fusion: Scientists Announce Major Breakthrough That ‘Could Bring Limitless Clean Energy’.
I am 75 and ever since my teens there have been regular stories about limitless fusion energy.
But the history of nuclear fusion seems to be a continuing tale of one step forward and four steps back.
I can remember ZETA at Harwell, being announced with a similar fanfare in 1957.
Scientists Set To Make A Bang In Nuclear Fusion ‘Breakthrough’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the caption under the very research looking picture at the top of the page.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are expected to publish results of a controlled nuclear fusion experiment.
I shall report more, when the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory publishes their official press release.
UK Space Agency And NNL Work On World’s First Space Battery Powered By British Fuel
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from the UK Government.
This is the sub-title.
The UK Space Agency and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) are to collaborate on the world’s first space battery powered by Americium-241.
And these three paragraphs outline the project.
This work, commissioned and funded by the UK Space Agency from NNL, will be delivered in a new £19 million laboratory in Cumbria equipped with next-generation equipment and technology. It will deliver a sovereign supply of fuel for space batteries in the context of a global shortage, enabling the UK and its partners to pursue new space science and exploration missions.
Creating new highly-skilled jobs in the North West of England, it will drive innovation in radiochemistry and separations science and open a new market for the UK space sector.
Atomic space batteries, also known as Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs), release heat as the radioactivity within them decays. The heat can be used directly to prevent spacecraft from freezing and it can be converted into electricity to power onboard systems. The batteries go on working for decades, without need for maintenance over the many years in which a spacecraft could be travelling.
These two paragraphs explain, why there is a need for a new type of atomic space batteries.
Considered ‘mission critical technologies’ by space agencies in the UK and around the world, all the Apollo missions had an atomic battery in tow, as has every rover that has gone to Mars. Until now, these have been powered by Plutonium-238, a radioisotope produced only in the US, where supply is limited, and Russia, so an alternative is urgently needed.
NNL, the UK’s national laboratory for nuclear fission, has been working on this endeavor since 2009, when its researchers first discovered that Americium-241, an alternative to Plutonium-238, is produced during the radioactive decay of used fuel from nuclear reactors and that it emits power for over 400 years.
With the supply plentiful – the new laboratory is being opened at NNL’s flagship Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site, home to the largest resource of Americium-241 available for extraction in the world – the new collaboration will turn a proven scientific concept into a fully-realised technology. It will be operational within the next four years and is expected to be first used on the European Space Agency’s Argonaut mission to the Moon and for future missions into deep space.
It would appear that Americium-241 has several advantages over Plutonium-238.
- Plutonium-238 has supply problems
- Who in their right mind, would buy a product like this from Russia or China?
- The batteries have a life of 400 years.
- There is plenty of suitable nuclear waste at Sellafield, from which Americium-241 can be extracted.
It looks like the first batteries could also be available in four years.
Aunt Margery
My late wife; C’s Aunt Margery was a lady, who needed a pacemaker. I seem to remember that after several of her pacemakers had run out of power and were replaced, and eventually she was fitted with a nuclear-powered pacemaker in the 1970s or 1980s.
This page on the Stanford University web site is entitled The History Of Nuclear Powered Pacemakers. It was written by Matthew DeGraw.
Many of these pacemakers in the 1960s and 1970s, were powered by Plutonium-238.
The last paragraph is entitled The Rise Of Lithium Battery Pacemakers And Fall Of Nuclear Pacemakers, where this is said.
Despite the often longer life-expectancies, nuclear pacemakers quickly became a part of the past when lithium batteries were developed. Not only did the technology improve, allowing for lighter, smaller, and programmable pacemakers, but doctors began to realize that this excessive longevity of nuclear pacemakers was excessive. Lithium pacemakers often last 10-15 years allowing for doctors to check in on their patients and replace either the batteries or the pacemakers themselves with new and improved technology as it is develops in those 10-15 year spans. While there are still several remaining patients with nuclear-powered pacemakers functioning in their bodies, it is likely that in the next few decades as these patients pass away, so will the once promising nuclear pacemakers.
Would the use of Americium-241 to power a nuclear pacemaker transform the economics of these devices?
I wonder, if there’s a cardiologist out there, who by chance reads this blog, who could answer my question!
Project To Develop 20+ MW Floating Offshore Wind Technology Kicks Off
This is the introductory paragraph.
The Anonymous Widower 