The International Nuclear Event Scale lists around six nuclear disasters at the top end of its Level 1 to Level 7 categorising system. At the top of this scale, Level 7, of course, sits the now infamous Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disasters occurring in present-day Ukraine and Japan, respectively. Some recognise others… Continue reading Britain’s Chernobyl: What Was The Windscale Fire?
Thomas Midgley Jr. Climate change can sometimes be filled with doom and gloom, but whilst progress may be slow it is still happening. There is a change in the air towards the environmental friendliness of battery-powered cars and renewable electricity to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels. This takes time and a lot… Continue reading From Leaded Petrol to CFCs: Who Was Thomas Midgley Jr?
In science, you often hear the phrase 'correlation does not equal causation'. It is a ubiquitous line in science that often requires a lot of explaining. One of the best ways to demonstrate correlation vs causation is a website by Tyler Vigen called Spurious Correlations. For example (see below), as the US government spends on… Continue reading The British Doctor’s Study: The Link Between Smoking and Lung Cancer
Life on Earth is always an interesting topic. It often does centre around Biology and how evolution forms a prehistoric prokaryote mutating and evolving into the wide array of life that we see on Earth, but Physics plays its part. Specifically, with density. The phenomenon of the density of water is responsible for life on… Continue reading Why the Density of Ice and Water is so Important to Life on Earth?
As a science teacher, one of the most common phrases I always say is "UNITS". Every science teacher has that one line that they always use that usually goes something like: "50 what? 50 bananas? 50 apples? 50 joules? Yes, 50 joules!" In an aim to reduce how much I have to say this line,… Continue reading The $150 Million Lesson in Getting Units Right: How did the Mars Climate Orbiter Crash?
inquestion. 