| Green Column: Cap-and-Trade Is Beginning to Raise Some Concerns Opponents of offsetting have likened the system to the kind of financial engineering on Wall Street that helped precipitate the recent banking crisis. feeds.nytimes.com |
EPA told gas drilling does, does not taint water By MARY ESCH 2010-09-13T22:25:44ZBINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Rep. Maurice Hinchey told a federal hearing Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate hydraulic fracturing, the natural gas extraction process that he said has contaminated water near drilling sites around the country.... hosted.ap.org |
Health and Safety in Particle Physics II | Jon Butterworth After Lily's post on poor risk assessment in particle physics, I thought I should bring to your attention the risk of putting your hand in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - as discussed by Ed Copeland and his colleagues at Nottingham UniversityI love this video from the University of Nottingham where physicists try to answer tricky but valid physics questions in real time. Seeing them think, and say they "don't know" sometimes, gives a better feel for research (and teaching) than a bevy of meticulously prepared seminars.The first question is "What would happen if I put my hand in the beam at the Large Hadron Collider". There were a variety of answers, but as far as I can tell my colleague Ed Copeland has most of the facts right.My guess is it would blow a hole and give you radiation sickness. (Answered, like Ed and his colleagues, without preparation). Some other comments: One of the physicists mentions the vacuum, which might be unpleasant. But it is also colder than space in there, which might be more of a problem.Also, although I don't want anyone to do the actual "hand in beam" experiment (it would delay data taking), it would be fairly simple to build a software model of a hand and body and do it virtually. This is how the detectors and beams are designed in the first place - see my article here. Could be a good masters project for someone.Ed has invited me to give a seminar in Nottingham in November. Looks like I'd better be prepared for some tricky questions.And many thanks to my co-blogger for drawing my attention to this video.Jon Butterworthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Science is Vital It's not a threat, it's not whining. We're scientists and we are reporting the factsThe last time I went on a demo was more than twenty years ago. It was either poll tax or student grants (remember those?). Probably there should have been others. Oh well.This was for science. Being an evidence-based community, there is a degree of scepticism amongst scientists about the practical benefits of demonstrating. In his speech, Dr. Evan Harris was eloquent about the difference between an intellectual argument and a political one. He may not be able to sing, but he does know some politics, and I buy it. We have to tell the public and the politicians that the UK has something precious (as in valuable and vulnerable) in its scientific capability, and in fact in its research and education more generally. And it is not enough just to tell politicians behind closed doors. The public need to know and the politicians need to know that the public know. Don't keep quiet. After all, we live in a democracy. And it beats living in caves.Other countries are investing in research to get out of recession. If we don't, people will leave either Britain or science or both. Britain is a great place, and I love science, so I don't want to do either of these things. But as Ben Goldacre said at the demo, this is not a whine, it's not a threat. We are just reporting facts. It's sort of our job.PS You can hear the speeches here.Jon Butterworthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
South-east climate changing: CSIRO Scientists at the CSIRO in Canberra are warning recent rainfall in the nation's south-east is not indicative of likely rainfall in the future. abc.net.au |