The European Extremely Large Telescope
It may sound it like it was named by Blackadder, but the European Extremely Large Telescope has just been backed by the Government.
I’m all for this level of support for science, provided it’s done correctly.
Many might think that it is a pity the telescope is to be built in Chile, but then the weather and atmosphere there is so much better. The biggest telescope in the UK; the Isaac Newton Telescope was actually moved from Sussex to the Canary Islands for this reason.
I suppose the name isn’t as good as that for the proposed Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, which wasn’t built, as it was probably too difficult.
Call For The Dulux
We may have had a couple of near misses with asteroids lately, but I like the call from Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnett of Oxford University to use a giant tin of Dulux to make the asteroid white and thus make sunlight deflect it from the collision course.
Who needs Bruce Willis?
Everyday Units
They are talking on the BBC about an asteroid passing the earth tonight as being the size of an Olympic swimming pool. There’s more here.
Why are objects always Olympic swimming pools, London buses or football pitches?
Incidentally, an astronomer has said that this asteroid is possibly about the size of the one that landed in Tunguska in 1908. Although of course no-one can be sure.
Celebrities And Science
Sense About Science, has published a article called 2012 Celebrities and Science.
There are the usual wacky ideas, but it is good to see that s0me celebrities have asked Sense About Science to help them get their facts right.
George Backs Graphene
This report says that the Chancellor has found £21.5 million for research into graphene.
Some of the applications of graphene are listed here on Wikipedia. This is the first paragraph.
Several potential applications for graphene are under development, and many more have been proposed. These include lightweight, thin, flexible, yet durable display screens, electric circuits, and solar cells, as well as various medical, chemical, and industrial processes enhanced or enabled by the use of new graphene materials.
Of all the possible applications they list, graphene’s properties as a filtration membrane, may lead to some of the first widespread applications. This link points to an article about research at MIT, which shows that graphene may offer new ways of water desalination.
Graphene may seem to be a wonder material and the money for research is very much to be welcomed.
In the 1960s, there were two areas of research, for which great hopes were held out.
The first was carbon fibre, which when tried as fan blades for the RB 211 helped to bankrupt Rolls-Royce. But now, it is a ubiquitous substance, that appears in many applications, from golf club shafts to almost complete aircraft, like the Boeing Dreamliner.
A scientific curiosity at the time was the laser. Every university had one and would proudly show you their expensive example, generally doing nothing, except emitting an eerie green light. But now lasers are everywhere and most homes have at least one in a CD or DVD player.
Who will accurately predict what the uses of graphene will be in fifty years?
My only questions are.
1. Are we putting enough money and resources behind the researchers?
2. What other ideas are there out there with the potential to change the world for the better, that need proper backing?
Combining Science And Art
I like sundials and this was a magnificent one.
It was a pity there wasn’t any explanation in English.
Clever Tricks Improve Breast Scans
I like this story from the BBC’s web site.
One of the keys to fighting cancer is good diagnosis and the article shows how being clever with scientific, engineering and mathematical tricks, X-rays can be improved.
We’ll see a lot more of this type of innovation in the next few years and it’ll help in all sorts of fields and not just medicine.
A Beam Of Hope In The MIddle East
Science is an area of life, where generally political and other prejudices are left behind. Get the facts right and the answers are generally good, but try to say follow extreme left or right wing views and they just don’t fit scientific facts.
So this article on the BBC’s web site about Sesame, a large synchrotron being built in Jordan, is a real beam of hope. Even the Israelis and the Iranians are working together on the project.
The Anonymous Widower 