The Royal Institution: The Radioactivity of Space (Frances Staples)

DESCRIPTION

Frances Staples is a PhD student at UCL studying the dynamics of the Van Allen radiation belts - rings of relativistic particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field. During her Master's in physics at Lancaster University she specialised in space science, researching convection in the Earth’s ionosphere. Her research interests focus on improving our understanding of the complex interactions between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere. Better knowledge of this system will aid space weather forecasting models, allowing action to be taken to mitigate damage to technology and infrastructure.

This talk and Q&A was filmed in the Ri on 20 July 2019.

DURATION

Presentation Q&A

31 minutes 9 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSAQZ4aTSVQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziU3skiQFbc

Who of the four people who thanked my post ─ which is one less than who've visited this thread ─ has actually bothered to watch this lecture? :hmm:

Why is it important and why for me to watch this ?.

Full disclosure: only a little so far. I was on a plane Friday and out all day yesterday.

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Originally posted by Aianawa

Why is it important and why for me to watch this ?.

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Well, there you go ─ thanks for proving my point. And so now you know why I've stopped posting scientific lectures and science articles on this forum a while ago. If nobody's interested in anything other than worn-off US-internal politics anymore, then why should I still bother trying to share something really interesting and putting in the time to properly format my posts?

Feel you may be externalising a wee bit Aragorn, I have enjoyed some of your science threads n others not.

Granite countertops, eh? Didn't know that. I did know that the Granite all around me puts my house at a greater radon risk. I have to have our well water neutralized.

Bananas? That's just bananas.:dan::banana:

The astronauts could close their eyes and see the sparks of radiation hitting their eyes. Wow.

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Originally posted by Dreamtimer

The astronauts could close their eyes and see the sparks of radiation hitting their eyes. Wow.

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And now you also know why the cameras on the space shuttle were picking up what appeared to be rapid flashes of colored light zipping by. It's cosmic radiation, not ET.

Furthermore, she also explains what the Van Allen Belts are, and why the astronauts could pass through them without getting killed by the radiation. Another "alternative community" myth dispelled ─ i.e. that the astronauts who went to the moon got help from ET in order to get through the Van Allen belts alive.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Aianawa

Feel you may be externalising a wee bit Aragorn, I have enjoyed some of your science threads n others not.

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You're missing my point, Vern. I said it exactly as I meant it. Virtually nobody's interested in this kind of stuff anymore. Everyone's either in a hypnotic alpha state and watching the forum like they're watching a worn-out soap opera on TV ─ never even mind moving their mouse pointer over to the Thanks button ─ or they're only interested in the US political stuff, but there's no in-between anymore, and no outside-of. Long gone are the days of intelligent discussion and the days of wanting to make a difference.

The alternative community ─ at least here at The One Truth ─ has slipped into a coma.

Nope, I watched Martin's vid then Jon levi's, X22 then Polly plus an older Sarah Westall before I even poked my nose into your thread = sunday I have extra time, will watch and likely learn from your share asap as my interest is upon the future from my perspective, imo the belts contain the collective mind somewhat or mental bank of humanity so yes will definitely look into it as I have been working with the belts for some years now. Thankyou.

The most amazing thing is that the astronauts were so lucky. If they had experienced a CME they would have been in bad shape.

I'll be honest, I simply don't watch videos that are more than a few minutes long. I don't have the time or patience, plus I'm rarely in a situation where I can comfortably watch a long video. I may be old fashioned, but I much prefer reading. Give me an article, book or essay over a video any time. I also realise that people are touchy if their posted videos aren't thanked, so I try to hit that damned thanks button anyways, but I'd much prefer it if we did away with the thank you button, it's pretty superfluous in my view.

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Originally posted by Chris

I'll be honest, I simply don't watch videos that are more than a few minutes long. I don't have the time or patience, plus I'm rarely in a situation where I can comfortably watch a long video. I may be old fashioned, but I much prefer reading. Give me an article, book or essay over a video any time. I also realise that people are touchy if their posted videos aren't thanked, so I try to hit that damned thanks button anyways, but I'd much prefer it if we did away with the thank you button, it's pretty superfluous in my view.

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The written articles I post are generally met with equal indifference, Chris. I'm actually getting more response to them over at Project Avalon.

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Originally posted by Aragorn

The written articles I post are generally met with equal indifference, Chris. I'm actually getting more response to them over at Project Avalon.

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Well, you are pretty much the only person on this forum with somewhat of a scientific background. I'd say I have a passing familiarity with scientific topics, having read a few popular science books in my day and I'm actually terrible at maths, so my understanding of physics for instance will always be stuck on the theoretical level.

Only a handful of people regularly post on this forum and if they're not interested in scientific topics, you can't actually force them to take an interest. Of course PA has a much broader and larger member base, so you're bound to find a larger audience. This is slightly off-topic, but for this reason I think that some cross-pollination and even cross-promotion between the two forums would be a good idea.

The other issue, which I think has become a Western disease to some extent, is that in advanced, prosperous societies, with extensive social safety nets, people and women in particular tend to choose the humanities as their preferred areas of study and stay away from STEM subjects. For instance, a Pakistani or Chinese girl is far more likely to go into engineering or science, than a Norwegian one, so in rich countries, the STEM gender gap is actually far larger than in less developed ones. This is also true for men as more go into the humanities, but it is particularly visible with women. When people are given a choice and don't have to worry about starving on the streets, they tend to follow their "heart" which almost always means choosing a humanities major. This is also the main reason the West is rapidly losing its technological and scientific edge over Asia.