The lonely science post thread

[two sheds]

I have left a box of matches on the radiator

that's dangerous

 

[SpookyFrank]

We have an informal toilet roll system in our house for when a roll is close to running out. The next roll is left in readiness on top of the adjacent radiator. Our elder daughter has given us a row. Having done a fire safety course at work, she says all that’s needed for a conflagration is heat, oxygen and fuel. She believes the requirements are fulfilled by this habit.

Back me up: I have left a box of matches on the radiator to troll her. This is scientifically fine.

If putting your socks on the radiator to dry them out is a fire hazard then I'm a thousand times dead already.

Yes, you need fuel heat and oxygen for a fire. But hot air, not being very dense at all, is going to struggle to get enough energy to any one point on your fuel source to initiate a self-sustaining exothermic reaction. The metal bits of a radiator are designed to dissipate heat, so they're not much help starting fires either.

Far more dangerous is having a bag of flour anywhere near a toaster, as between them they can easily create a fuel-air explosion. This would technically be a thermobaric weapon; which besides ruining the veneer on your kitchen cupboards could well get you dragged off to The Hague on war crimes charges.

 

[two sheds]

socks on the radiator would be more of a biological hazard/weapon

or so I hear

 

[dessiato]

Paging dessiato

There's no problems there. Radiators are unlikely to cause the matches to light, there's not enough heat to light the paper either.

Of course it is possible, but it's not probable.

 

[danny la rouge]

There's no problems there. Radiators are unlikely to cause the matches to light, there's not enough heat to light the paper either.

Of course it is possible, but it's not probable.

Well, now I am worried!

 

[WouldBe]

Well, now I am worried!

As long as you keep the radiator temp below about 230°C you should be fine.

 

[HAL9000]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[CNT36]

Why, then, is fertile soil being allowed to wash and blow away? The answer, not surprisingly, rests in the shackles of global capitalism. Farming’s profit margins are razor-thin, forcing producers to plant the highest-yielding variety of the highest-profit crop from field edge to field edge every season. Terracing, rotating crops and forgoing tilling enrich soil in the long run, but nibble into profits this year. And farmers can’t pay their mortgages or lease equipment with the aroma of deep black topsoil.

Nature book review about soil erosion. I know some people are vaguely interested. It shows the threat erosion represents and potential solutions but is not as hyperbolic as Monbiot and Co.

 

[8ball]

This quite closely matches Superman's top speed in the first Christopher Reeve film.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

What's not to like - lightning and laser beams.

Scientists steer lightning bolts with lasers for the first time

Demo during heavy storms at top of a Swiss mountain involved firing powerful laser pulses at thunderclouds

www.theguardian.com

 

[HAL9000]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

2,200 miles? Easily within the margin of error.

Asteroid 2023 BU about to pass Earth in one of closest ever encounters

No danger, says Nasa, from delivery truck-sized asteroid that was discovered on Saturday and will pass lower than communication satellites

www.theguardian.com

 

[8ball]

2,200 miles? Easily within the margin of error.

Asteroid 2023 BU about to pass Earth in one of closest ever encounters

No danger, says Nasa, from delivery truck-sized asteroid that was discovered on Saturday and will pass lower than communication satellites

www.theguardian.com

Too small to be a major worry anyway.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[2hats]

Imminent Earth encounter - a 1 metre sized object (Sar2667) incoming with atmospheric entry estimated due in a couple of hours over northern France - around 0250-0303UT (perhaps over the French coast in the Le Havre area). Could put on quite a show. Might be worth looking to the mid-low elevation southern sky from southern UK areas (current overcast cloud may well clear in the SE by then). Termination event possibly in the region of (approaching) Spica (α Vir) as seen from the London area.

ESA Operations (@esaoperations)

A 1-meter meteoroid (small #asteroid) has been detected and is expected to *safely* strike Earth's atmosphere over northern France between 3:50-4:03 CET. In the area? Look out for a #ShootingStar!☄️ #Fireball #Sar2667

notabird.site

​

IMO Meteor Org. (@IMOmeteors)

🛑 ☄️ IMMINENT ASTEROID ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY☄️🛑 In a few hours, on February 13, ~02h 59min UT, a small freshly discovered 1-m diameter asteroid, Sar2667 is to enter the Earth atmosphere above the Channel. A bright fireball should be visible from North Fr., Belg., NLs and GB.

notabird.site

 

[2hats]

Bright fireball visible from Brighton. Flash even noticeable behind cloud.

BNO News Live (@BNODesk)

Meteor seen from the south coast of England, near Brighton

notabird.site

Eagle Kepr (@Eaglekepr)

View from East Anglia of #Sar2667 asteroid breaking up somewhere over the English Channel... well, not much of a view. The clouds certainly lit up for a split second! Super low res to get past Twitter errors 🙄

notabird.site

From France:

Alertesinfos (@AIertesinfos)

Asteroide qui s'est craché il y a quelques minutes #Sar2667 #asteroid #asteroide #ovni #UFO #ufotwitter #OVNIS

notabird.site

MegaLuigi 💬 (@MegaLuigi)

#Sar2667 depuis Rouen c’est énorme ! Super lumineux !

notabird.site

 

[2hats]

Radio-optical observations of the demise of micro-asteroid Sar2667 (retrospectively officially named 2023CX1) suggested an extended strewn field and thus the possibility of landfall. A team started searching in the Dieppe area yesterday and by late afternoon recovered a 100g fragment.

​

Vigie-Ciel (@VigieCiel)

🤩☄️ FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel retrouve un fragment de l’astéroïde 2023CX1 en Seine Maritime !!! La découverte a été faite par Loïs Leblanc, étudiante de 18 ans, faisant partie de l’équipe de recherche sur le terrain #2023CX1 #SAR2667

notabird.site

 

[petee]

wow

"A meteor around the size of a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and weighing around the total weight of four baby elephants struck the Earth near McAllen, Texas last Wednesday"

https://m.jpost.com/science/article-732223

 

[petee]

it's the size of 5 maltas

Massive Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf - View From Space

 

[petee]

when i were a lad and sciencey (before i became humanistical) i knew of this guy who seemed to me to be a kind of god.

List of things named after Glenn T. Seaborg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[gosub]

"Impossible" Photonic Breakthrough: Scientists Manipulate Light at Sub-Wavelength Scale - The Debrief

In a breakthrough in the field of photonics, researchers have successfully manipulated light at the sub-wavelength scale.

thedebrief.org

 

[HAL9000]

 

[gosub]

Proliferating coacervate droplets as the missing link between chemistry and biology in the origins of life - Nature Communications

Coacervate droplets (CDs) are a model for protocells formed by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), but protocell models able to proliferate remain undeveloped. Here, the authors report a proliferating peptide-based CD using synthesised amino acid thioesters as monomers, which could...

www.nature.com

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Mushrooms aren't vegan

How a Carnivorous Mushroom Poisons Its Prey

Scientists have known for decades that oyster mushrooms feasted on roundworms—and they’ve finally figured out how their toxins work

www.scientificamerican.com

 

[gosub]

Astronomers found a massive cloud of water floating in deep space

Astronomers discovered a cloud of water in space that could provide answers to the origin of water on Earth and in our solar system.

bgr.com

 

[gosub]

'Counterportation': Quantum breakthrough paves way for world-first experimental wormhole

One of the first practical applications of the much-hyped but little-used quantum computing technology is now within reach, thanks to a unique approach that sidesteps the major problem of scaling up such prototypes.

phys.org

 

[HAL9000]

Scientists develop a ‘cosmic concrete’ that is twice as strong as regular concrete

University of Manchester scientists have created a new material, dubbed ‘StarCrete’ which is made from extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch, and a pinch of salt and could be used to build homes on Mars.Building infrastructure in space is currently prohibitively expensive and difficult to...

www.manchester.ac.uk

This work improves on previous work from the same team where they used astronauts’ blood and urine as a binding agent.

 

[HAL9000]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Nice little animation showing heat flow through the mantle and resultant plate tectonics.