Hopp til innhold

2

Publisert 2 kommentarer til In Cannes

My grandpa has an apartment in Cannes, at the French Riviera, and when my mother asked me if I wanted to join her there for a couple of days during Easter I wasn't at all in doubt whether to say yes.

We arrived on Sunday, and are staying until Thursday.

We had an amazing fish at "belle plage" at the beach when we arrived!

The weather was kind of cold, but it was beautiful to be inside, eating and drinking, and looking out at the Mediterranean Sea ❤️

Yesterday and today have been sunny, around 18 degrees, and really nice! (Nothing is like a glass of rosé in the sun 😉 )

This place that we visited today was awesome: they had this menu, where everything costed 6 euros, and everything was for sharing. We chose the most delicious cheese and duck terrine (terrine de canard) - perfect!

This Easter is kind of "crazy" compared to what I'm used to: normally I work at least half of the time, but this time I'm going directly from two days with Anders at Farris bad, to Cannes, and then to the mountains back in Norway... That's two and a half weeks away from work (ok, not completely - I spent some time working yesterday, but mostly I'm relaxing). I call it "charging my batteries before I'm goin into crazy work for my PhD" 🙂

4

Publisert 4 kommentarer til Frykt og avsky i Fukushima
På tirsdag var jeg og snakket jeg for NFFJ (norske forskningsjournalister), på deres årsmøte. Det  var veldig hyggelig å bli invitert, og å snakke om mitt forhold til forskningsformidling; hvorfor jeg velger å bruke så mye tid på det, til tross for at jeg vet at det på mange måter er "å skyte meg selv i foten" dersom jeg ønsker å fortsette med forskning i akademia (mitt døgn har heller ikke mer enn 24 timer, og hvis jeg bruker en stor andel av den tilgjengelige tiden på noe som ikke er forskning blir det naturlig nok mindre tid til forskning, og dermed mindre forskning på CVen min, som er den som vil avgjøre skjebnen i akademia 😛 ), og hvordan jeg gjør det (rosablogg om kjernefysikk og forksning og sånn er liksom ikke helt standard). I denne sammenhengen fortalte jeg selvsagt "historien" bak bloggen. I den historien spiller Fukushima-ulykken en stor rolle, siden det var da jeg for første gang virkelig ble kastet inn i det å være en fagperson som kunne noe om et tema som plutselig ble veldig aktuelt.
For 3 år siden skrev jeg en kronikk i Aftenposten om det jeg mener var et strålehysteri angående Fukushima, og siden det var 5 år siden ulykken forrige fredag har jeg lyst til å dele teksten min her - den gjelder fremdeles, og jeg er stolt av den.

Jeg skulle virkelig ønske jeg fikk tid til å gjøre mer av denne typen formidling, men nå om dagen brukes tiden på phd, blogg, og foredrag (og noen ganger radio) - håper veldig at jeg skal få skrevet mer i feks Aftenposten når jeg bare blir ferdig med denne avhandlingen min!
Ok, here goes:

Da jordskjelv og tsunami drepte titusener i Japan, skiftet mediene raskt fokus fra naturens ødeleggelser til problemene ved Fukushimakraftverket. Men ingen døde av stråling.
Da jeg nylig leste en avisartikkel om katastrofen i Fukushima var det som å være tilbake i de første dagene etter 11. mars 2011. Denne uken er det to år siden naturkatastrofen inntraff, og ennå er jeg ikke kommet helt over medienes behandling av denne saken.
Japan ble rammet av et jordskjelv hundre ganger kraftigere enn Haiti-jordskjelvet, etterfulgt av "tusenårsbølgen". Kombinasjonen av jordskjelvet og tsunamien var katastrofal; tusenvis av mennesker døde, og det tok ikke lang tid før jeg via ulike mediekanaler også plukket opp at det var problemer ved Fukushima-kraftverket. Til å begynne med tenkte jeg lite over det – mediene blåser slike ting ut av proporsjoner hele tiden, uansett. Snart skjønner jeg allikevel at denne gangen er det alvorlig, men er det så stort som mediene skal ha det til?!

Bombardert av svada

"ATOM" er skrevet i krigstyper på forsiden av avisene – komplett tabloid med radioaktivitetstegnet inne i O-en. Det skrives nesten ikke om alle menneskene som er døde eller savnet etter jordskjelvet og tsunamien. Bryr ikke folk seg om alle menneskene som lider etter naturkatastrofen? Eller vet de ikke bedre? Tror de at problemene ved Fukushima-kraftverket er det verste som kan skje, ikke bare for den japanske befolkningen, men for hele verden?Jeg forsøker å følge med i det jeg anser som "pålitelige" kilder, som det internasjonale atomenergibyrået, men det er vanskelig, for jeg blir bombardert av svada fra så å si alle medier, fra alle kanter.

Radiofobi – frykten for det ukjente

Hva er det som er så spesielt skummelt med radioaktivitet og stråling? Jeg skjønner det jo, egentlig, når jeg vil. Ioniserende stråling som tas opp i kroppen er skadelig – i store mengder. Strålingen er usynlig, kan ikke føles, kan ikke luktes og kan ikke smakes. Man har sett skrekkbilder og er blitt fortalt at dette er KJEMPEFARLIG. Utover dette er kunnskapsnivået stort sett lavt, og strålingens faktiske virkemåte er ukjent for de fleste. Det må rett og slett være frykten for det ukjente.
Stråling er naturlig, og vi er utsatt for stråling hele tiden. Vi er faktisk radioaktive selv – helt naturlig. Skal man være hysterisk og vanskelig så kan man begynne å regne på hvilken ekstra stråledose man får ved å oppholde seg i en menneskemengde, kontra å være for seg selv. Det kan til og med settes tall på hvilken ekstra stråledose du får ved å dele seng med et annet menneske.

Mer stråling i Norge

Min «favoritthistorie» når det kommer til radiofobi og misforståelser, er den om journalistene som rømte fra Tokyo og hjem til Norge da det ble påvist høyere strålenivåer enn normalt der, på grunn av Fukushima-ulykken. Saken er bare den at strålenivået i Japan og Tokyo vanligvis er veldig lavt, under verdenssnittet, mens det i Norge er høyere enn verdenssnittet. Dermed dro journalistene tilbake til et miljø der de ble utsatt for høyere stråledoser enn om de var blitt værende i Tokyo.
Det som også nesten er tragikomisk er at journalistene fikk en ekstra stråledose ved å fly hjem fra Japan. Faktisk tilsvarer den stråledosen man får ved å fly Oslo-Tokyo tur/retur ca. fire ganger den årlige tilleggsdosen gjennomsnittsnordmannen får etter Tsjernobyl-ulykken; begge deler er dog fortsatt små doser, og ufarlige.

ALARA-prinsippet

Det er ikke bare strålingens effekter som er ukjent for folk flest; også grenseverdier og hva disse betyr er ukjent. Innen strålevern – ok, ikke så sexy, men viktig – gjelder det såkalte ALARA-prinsippet. ALARA er kort forAs Low As Reasonably Achieveable – “så lavt som rimelig mulig”, og ikke “så høyt som det er trygt”. Dette er en stor og viktig forskjell, som ikke blir kommunisert, antageligvis fordi dette er ukjent for så å si alle utenom fagfolk.
Jeg som er kjernefysiker og jobber med radioaktive stoffer har lov til å bli utsatt for 20 ganger mer stråling pr. år (20 millisievert), enn det en «privatperson» har lov til (1 millisievert). Om nødvendig kan jeg motta en dose som er 50 ganger høyere enn det en privatperson ifølge lovverket har anledning til, i løpet av ett år.
Dette er absolutt ikke fordi jeg er superwoman, som tåler 50 ganger større påkjenninger enn en hvilken som helst annen person, eller at jeg ikke bryr meg om min egen helse og ofrer alt for vitenskapen. (Altså, jeg elsker stort sett jobben min, men jeg er ikke interessert i å korte ned min forventede levealder av den grunn).
Årsaken til at jeg og mine kolleger har andre dosegrenser enn resten av befolkningen er nettopp ALARA: For befolkningen generelt er det enkelt og greit å si at de nesten ikke skal motta noen ekstra stråledose, mens for oss som er yrkesutsatte så er dette veldig upraktisk. Dosegrensene er altså satt så lavt som rimelig mulig – uten at det er noen grunn til å vente at for eksempel dobbel dose vil være skadelig.

Uetiske skremselspropaganda

Min ville gjetning er at dersom en privatperson hadde fått en stråledose på 50 millisievert så ville avisforsidene hatt overskrifter omtrent som dette: «KVINNE MOTTOK 50 GANGER HØYERE STRÅLEDOSE ENN ALARMGRENSEN!», og de ville sikkert solgt godt den dagen. I virkeligheten betyr det «bare» at hun har fått den samme stråledosen som jeg kunne ha fått på et år, uten at det hadde vært noe voldsomt spesielt med dét.
Mediene er definitivt med på å fyre opp under folks frykt; enten det er frykten for å få hjerteinfarkt, miste potensen eller bli feit. Eller for stråling.
Jeg skjønner at ATOM selger; og selvsagt er det ikke bra at et kjernekraftverk blir satt ut av spill på denne måten. En så alvorlig ulykke som den ved Fukushima-kraftverket skal på ingen måte bagatelliseres, men vi er nødt til å holde tungen rett i munnen. Det må være fakta og rasjonalitet som skal gjelde, ikke følelser og radiofobi.
Det blir fullstendig galt når mediene nærmest ignorerer at titusenvis av mennesker er døde eller savnet, bare for å skrive dommedagsprofetier som skal skape oppmerksomhet og selge mediet til lesere og annonsører.
PS: Siste setning var egentlig "...å skrive dommedagsprofetier i klikkhoringas tjeneste", og min opprinnelige tittel var "Frykt og avsky i Fukushima" 😉

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Never give up
So it turned out I was looking at the wrong output from my Talys nuclear reactions simulations , of what happens when a uranium-233 nucleus is being bombarded with neutrons with all kinds of energies. (Talys is a program for simulating lots of types of nuclear reactions; it's free, online, and everyone can check it out here, if they want to 🙂 ). When you run a simulation (or 60, like I have) you get a folder with lots of different files, and silly me was looking at the wrong file... "Of course": the file I needed to plot wasn't the "totalxs.tot", but the "rp092234.tot". If I'd read the manual more closely this would have been clear, but it's more than 500 pages. Still on my to do list to read it, though.

This a typical research story (at least in my world) - and, oh, how I hate it!

Yes, it does feel sort of good when you realise why things aren't working, but it's not like I've solved a great problem, I just happened to be an idiot, looking at the wrong output file (and, of course, it's nice to not be an idiot, but the solving this is'n taking me big leaps forward - I'm just not an idiot right now).
I guess I just have to repeat to myself: Never give up.

no matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up, and never give up!

3

Publisert 3 kommentarer til SPRING!

I.

LOVE.

SPRING!

I had to take two (long) coffee breaks on the stairs of the physics building today - just to feel the sun <3
Luckily I'm giving a talk in an hour, so I actually HAD to do something today (prepare for the talk, of course). Otherwise, I'm not sure if I'd been able to do anything at all today 😛
I've been thinking about that, whether spring and sunny weather is best for productivity, or cold, dark weather: If it's sunny and beautiful, like today, I just want to be outside (and I spent more time out in the sun than I probably should have today), but if it's cold and dark and wet, I don't want to leave bed. Tough choice, productivity wise, but I think the nice spring weather we're experiencing today makes me so happy that even though I spend less time in the office, I'm more effective when I'm actually working, so that spring is best for productivity. 
What do you think?

6

Publisert 6 kommentarer til 10 FACTS about Fukushima
Happy Monday peeps, hope you all had a great weekend <3
I have to start this day with a blogpost I started on Friday, but unfortunately didn't have time to finish...:/ Friday was March 11 - marking the five year anniversary of the Fukushima accident. 
This accident is actually more or less the reason why I started blogging, and to really care about outreach of science. I saw how scared people were, even here in Norway, and my "medicine" to that are facts and knowledge. (This is also the way I tried to "comfort" my mother when she had radiation treatment; telling her everything I knew about radiation and doses and biological effects and so on... Don't know if it really helped for her, but it "helped" for me, since it was the only thing I could do.)

So I wanted to give you ten facts about Fukushima on Friday, but instead you'll get it now:
  1. On the 11th of March, 2011, Japan was struck by a "triple catastrophe": massive earthquake (9 on the Richter scale) that lead to an enormous tsunami, that both lead to the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP)
  2. The Fukushima NPP reacted exactly as it was supposed to during an earthquake: the control-rods went into the reactor and shut it all down (stopped all the fission reactions in the fuel) - it was actually what you could call a "flawless automatic shutdown"
  3. When a reactor is shut down, with all the control- and scram-rods inside it, it can't start again - so there is no (and it wasn't) danger for a chain reaction out of control (which is what happened in Chernobyl - an accident extremely different from this accident), but you still have all the fuel, which is radioactive, inside the reactor and this needs to be cooled. Even though the chain reaction has stopped, and heat caused by radioactivity isn't a big factor compared the hat that actually comes from fission (around 10% of the total), it's still more than enough that it will be extremely hot if it isn't continuously cooled properly.
  4. To cool something you need a medium that can carry away the heat, like water, and you need that medium/water to flow. After the earthquake and the shutdown of the reactor, this wasn't a problem, since there were diesel generators that came online and operated the coolant pumps - so that water was flowing and cooling and doing it's job.
  5. So part one of the triple catastrophe was the earthquake (and it killed a lot of people), but then the tsunami came (and it killed a lot of people), as part number two, and it immediately caused part three of the accident; wiping out the diesel generators. After this there were only some backup batteries, but they didn't last for long, and then there were no more cooling pumps, and in my opinion this is when the real problem at Fukushima started. 
  6. No pumps = no flow of cooling medium/water = no cooling anymore = fuel rods heat. In nuclear engineering language this is called a  loss-of-flow accident (short: LOFA), a little bit similar to the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.
  7. Since the fuel rods are radioactive they produce heat, and since there are no cooling, they become extremely hot; and if the water then comes in contact with the zirconium cladding of the fuel (which it did), free hydrogen is produced from the water (there is a lot of hydrogen in water). 
  8. Hydrogen is an explosive gas, and when it came out of the reactor tank it exploded. Such an explosion is definitely not a good sign, but I believe it looks even worse for some than it actually was... This was NOT a nuclear explosion. What blew up was NOT the reactor tank, but the building around it. 
  9. Since it became so hot inside the reactor, the fuel melted (which is what we call a melt-down), and then radioactive materials were released from the inside of the fuel to the water (normally, there are no radioactive materials in the cooling water that flows around the fuel rods).
  10. No one died of radiation from Fukushima.

I realise it's impossible to only give 10 facts about this accident, and I will continue very soon (Friday perhaps....? 😉 ). 
Now it's time to prepare for a talk I'm giving tomorrow, for a small bunch of science journalists, then I have to look at my actual PhD thesis - which is on the plan this week...

2

Publisert 2 kommentarer til Norges beste formidler – hvem får dagens studenter til å glemme å sjekke mobilen?

Hva er god undervisning? Hvor er de beste foreleserne nå for tiden? Hvordan bedømmer man egentlig kvalitet i undervisningen? Er den klassiske forelesningens tid virkelig over? Hve lærer studentene å tenke?

Jeg er utrolig stolt over å ha blitt spurt om å være med når Morgenbladet skal kåre Norges beste foreleser! Sammen med Helene Uri, Erling Sandmo, Therese Eia Lerøen og Victor Norman, skal jeg være med å finne vinneren. 
Vi har i denne sammenhengen alle forsøkt å svare veldig kort på to spørsmål: 1) Hva er god undervisning?, og 2) Hvorfror er god undervisning viktig? Slik svarer jeg: 

1. Et viktig nøkkelord er «trygg». Den som underviser, må være trygg på det faglige innholdet og trygg på seg selv i rollen som underviser. Hvis underviseren i tillegg er engasjert og åpen, vil studenten føle seg trygg og motivert – to viktige faktorer for læring.
2. God undervisning kan kurere en students dårlige selvtillit, slik at vedkommende kan få realisert potensialet sitt. Motsatt, med dårlig undervisning, tror jeg man kan være uheldig å miste nettopp dem som kanskje har et stort potensial, men som trenger en ekstra «push» for å få det ut. Disse studentene kan godt ende opp med å bli de beste, men med dårlig undervisning kan de kanskje like gjerne falle av.

Alle kan nominere den de mener er akademias beste underviser. På nettsiden kan du også lese andres nominasjoner (allerede noen timer etter at dette ble publisert hos Morgenbladet har det kommet mange nominasjoner - GØY!), stemme frem kandidater og dele nominasjonene videre. Frist for å nominere er 15. april, og juryens liste med ti navn presenteres i august.
Les om kåringen (og juryen) HER, eller gå direkte til nominasjonssidene HER 🙂

(Kan forresten ikke fordra det bildet de valgte av meg. Bildet er hentet fra reportasjen om Kvinnene som forsvant, og der ble det jo tatt så mange andre fine bilder - kunne de ikke heller valgt et annet, feks dette som de brukte på forsiden da de kjørte denne saken? 😛 #skikkeligluksusproblem)

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Working your ass off dinner – "Mexican" style
Remember my last post about #workingyourassoff-dinner? My super-easy super-fast Thai-reipe? If not, you can check it out HERE.
Well, life here is quite busy, as always these days (yesterday started at quarter past four in the morning, since I was going to Stavanger to give two talks, and then back to Oslo to go to a celebration of the international women's day - I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow when i finally got to bed last night), so there is no less need for quick and tasty recipes - but the same Thai all the time is a little bit boring... So a couple of days ago I made another #workingyourassoff-dinner, but this time more Mexican inspired.

Before I share the recipe with you, let me just refresh the rules for a real #workingyourassoff-recipe:


The recipe for working your ass off simple chili con carne:

You need:

  • green beens (frozen ones - I love these, and use them in all my #wokringyourassoff-dishes)
  • leek (prechopped, from the freezer)
  • mushroom - I use champingnon (prechopped, from the freezer)
  • meat - this time I happened to have fresh, minced meat, but it's of course possible to use frozen
  • Tabasco sauce - the one with chipotle is just perfection <3 (I also have a lot of different chili sauces, like normal Tabasco, habanero Tabasco, plus some others; and I use a little bit of everything to get the perfect taste, but I can really recommend the chipotle!)
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • chopped, canned tomatoes
  • cinnamon
  • butter
  • salt and pepper
  • (if you happen to have some old wine, it's perfect to put it in the pot)
You can also add peppers (all colours), tomatoes that are not canned, eggplant, squash (the peppers and the eggplants taste awesome if you chop them, put them in a ovenproof dish, pour some olive oil on top, and grill them in the oven - then put them in the pot. This of course takes more time, so then it's not longer a real #workingyourassoff dinner anymore ;)). I'm personally not that fond of canned beans, but if you like it, it's of course perfect to add. They're cheap, and since they're canned, you can store them forever before you find out that you want to make a chili con carne.
these ziploc bags from IKEA are perfect <3

the perfect Tabasco for a Mexican inspired pot of chili <3<3<3
a glass of wine is always a good idea (maybe unless you're driving, or you're pregnant, or you're 16 😉 )

 Do:

Put some flavourless oil, like rapeseed oil, in a pot. When it's real hot, add the meat and a table spoon of butter (mmm, butter <3). Stir.
When the meat is fried, add the leeks and the mushrooms. Make sure it doesn't get burned by stirring 😉

Then add the canned tomatoes. Th
is time I used two cans, since I wanted everything to be more "soupy" and less dry. Add a little cinnamon - maybe just half a teaspoon. Add the Tabasco, and/or other chili sauces. I like it spicy, so I use quite a lot - the secret is just to taste, add more, taste, add more, or not, until it's perfect for your taste 🙂 Let everything boil for a while.
Add extra virgin olive oil (I use a lot - olive oil <3) and green beans. It's all ready when the green beens are warm. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Serve it with rice or bread, or just eat it as it it - which is what I do; with salt, pepper, and some sour cream on top.
This is of course not my "very best perfect fantastic gourmet"-recipe for Mexican food, but the very easiest and fastest way (I can think of) to do it. 
It's quick, it's simple, and it's quite tasty - what you need when you're busy working your ass off <3 

I'm not sure why he looked like this - but, hey, he's a guy - you can't understand why they do everything they do 😛 (He was actually very happy about the food <3 )

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Going to Stavanger, snapping for @fysikkunioslo

Good morning good people ❤️

I'm currently at Gardermoen, waiting at the gate for my flight to Stavanger, which is today's travel goal. I'm going there to give two talks: one for a bunch of talented high school students that are attending the SciTech challenge, and one for students (and others?) at the university of Stavanger. Excited!
Also, I'm sharing my day at the snapchat account of the physics department, so make sure to follow fysikkunioslo 🙂
Wish you all a great day!

2

Publisert 2 kommentarer til Three favourite apps – that will help me on my path towards my degree (and all the other stuff too). TIPS!
2016 has so far been quite successful when it comes to working focused on my PhD project: My second article is starting to look like the real thing, and it's not that long until I can send it to my co-authors (I hope - everything takes more time than I think it should), and after that to the journal where we'll try publishing it. I've also finally managed to "go back" to working on some stuff that will hopefully be part of an article with my extremely talented colleague, Cecilie. Together with my office mate, Fabio, I'll also probably have what we need for a third/forth article.
The key word is focusing, and that's what I want to talk about now:
I'm unfortunately extremely "good" at procrastination! In addition I a have an "illness" where I sort of tell myself that if I haven't started some task after a certain time of the day (let's say it's already two 'o clock, and I have to leave early, at four, to get Alexandra in kindergarden) then I might as well just not do anything - extremely stupid of me! However, often it's just not enough to tell yourself to get a grip - I'v tried that several times, but it's just so easy to fall into the old, bad habits again :/ Luckily, there are apps to help you with this, and here I want to present my three favourite apps, that are helping me on my path towards my degree (and world domination, of course 😛 ):

1. Pomodoro

The Pomodoro technique is a time management method, where you use a timer to break down your work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes, separated by short breaks. The "steps" in the method are as follows:
  1. choose some task to be accomplished
  2. set the Pomodoro timer to 25 mintes
  3. work on the task until the Pomodoro rings
  4. take a short break
  5. every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

Of course, you don't really need this app - you can just start your own timer - but I prefer the app, since you keep track of what you've done (and what needs to be done), and it almost becomes competition with your self (for me, this is extremely motivating), and you learn more about how much (or little) time certain kind of tasks actually take, which is extremely valuable.

Personally I have 25 minutes where I work, and then a 4 minute break. Works like a charm!

More about the pomodoro technique HERE.

2. SelfControl

This is a very simple, but extremely efficient, app for your computer, that I just started using. Maybe my most important app, and it's already changed my life <3 SelfControl helps me not to procrastinate by blocking disturbing websites, mail, or whatever on the internet. You just set a period of time to block for, add sites to your blacklist, and start it - after you've started it you're unable to access any of the sites on your blacklist (no, it doesn't help if you restart your computer, or delete the app 😉 ).
So now I start every day with a quick trip to the websites that are on my blacklist, so that I sort of get it out of my system - then I start the app, and then I can work for hours without disturbing myself with stupid stuff on the internet.
More about SelfControl HERE.


NB: When I first started it, I thought you could block different sites for a different amount of time. That turned out to be incorrect. If you block for 4 hours, you block everything on your blacklist for 4 hours. If you want to override this app you have to re-install your operating system. In other word: it's quite efficient - just the way I want it to be 🙂

Health

Maybe this sounds a little silly, but I truly believe that the Health app on my Apple watch will help not to completely become a physical wreck as I try to finish this PhD work. (I may become a mental wreck, but that's another story.) The feature I probably like the most just now as there are many hours sitting in front of the computer, is that it makes me stand for at least one minute every hour (unless I ignore it, of course) - "standing hours":
The thing is that "fitness" isn't just about going to the gym, but also about being active throughout the day. So the Apple watch measures all the ways you move, and keeps track of when you stand up and encourages you to keep moving <3 Because it all counts, and it all adds up.
Just now I don't have time to go to the gym, but at least this app on my watch makes me compete with myself, and I try hard every day to fulfil my goals, in exercise (you should be active for at least 30 minutes every day), standing, and moving around. I'm not saying this is better than actually working out, but when you actually don't have time to go to the gym, this is awesome 😀

Hope you like my tips, have a great week everyone!