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Publisert 2 kommentarer til Nuclear force, nuclear power…

One thing that is kind of funny is that in Norwegian the word for "nuclear force" and "nuclear power" is the same - "kjernekraft".
It's the same word that describes the force that holds the atomic nucleus together and the way of producing power by splitting atoms. So in Norwegian you just can't be against kjernekraft, because it makes no sense: If you're against kjernekraft you're against atomic nuclei, and basically more or less everything, since there is nothing bigger than elementary particles - there wouldn't even be bigger particles like protons or neutrons, since they are made up from quarks that need kjernekraft to exist...
(PS: Of course I'm not really that pedantic - I do understand what people mean when they say they're against kjernekraft. But as I've said earlier, I actually don't understand how it is possible to worry about climate change, and not be pro nuclear, so I guess in a way I'll still say it makes little sense to be against kjernekraft 😉 )

no flowers, no sun, no sunset without kjernekraft...

#thinkaboutthat
#tenklittpådet

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Abels tårn on Wednesday
New week. New possibilities!

I must admit I've suddenly gone into a "OMG, it's less than 11 months left until I'm finishing my thesis - OMG. OMG! OMG!!!" sort of state, and I guess every Monday blogpost could just be so this week I'm going to try to work on my article/thesis/analysis, but I'm still not there where I'm not doing anything else than my article/thesis/analysis, so there is a little bit more to say: In addition to working (my goal: A LOT) on my article and the rest of my analysis there are some other cool things going on the next days:
First and foremost I'm going to be on Abels Tårn on P2 on Wednesday (not the normal air time for Abels Tårn), where I might talk about fusion, and I might talk about Molten Salt Reactors - who knows? 😉
On Thursday I will give a talk about outreach "beyond the scientific conferences" for doctors and others on Radiologisk Høstmøte. It's not open to everyone, but I'm proud to be asked to talk at places like this, about my experiences with outreach and blogging and all that, so I just wanted to tell you anyway. (I think it should be ok to be proud, right?).

And don't forget "question of the month"! I will probably make this blogpost on Wednesday (no promises, though), and it's not too late to ask questions. The questions I get that I don't answer this time are just saved in a folder, and will be answered later <3

Ok, enough chit-chat - now it's time for some serious working on plots and tables of uranium-234, for my next article!
Talk to you later 🙂

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PS: I must admit that even though I think it's already starting to be too cold outside, there have been some very beautiful days lately, and fall isn't just all that bad. Like last week when we went to my mothers to pick the apples - Alexandra and Andrea and Arian are just so cute together <3

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til Force on a Friday

Hi there, Friday!

Last week there were no FACTS on FRIDAY, but this week we're back on track again 😀 Today I think it's time to talk about the force - the nuclear force: 10 facts about the nuclear force, here you go!
  1. the nuclear force is the force that holds, or binds, a nucleus (of an atom) together, even though all the protons in it are being pushed apart by another force - the protons are like extremely strong magnets with the same pole; they repel each other
  2. without the nuclear force, there wouldn't be any nuclei; without nuclei there wouldn't be atoms, and without atoms there wouldn't be molecules; without the nuclear force there would be no life - no nothing, really, and you couldn't exist...!
  3. it is the strongest of the four fundamental forces, and it's really strong (the three others are electromagnetic force, gravity, and weak force); for example it is 137 times stronger than the elctromagnetic force, and compared to gravity, it is a 1000 million million million million million million (1000000000000000000000000000000000000000) times stronger!
  4. the nuclear force has a very short range - meaning that it only works when a particle "touches" a nucleus; or, in other words: if you get 0.000000000000001 meters from the center of a nucleus, you can't feel it anymore. This distance is called femtometer
  5. when you fission a heavy nucleus, you release some of the force that holds this nucleus together, and since it is so strong, you get soooo much energy from fission
  6. "strong force" is another word for the nuclear force (in Norwegian: "sterk kjernekraft")
  7. when you fuse two light nuclei (make a new nucleus by putting two nuclei together), you also release some of the nuclear force - and therefore you can get energy from fusion, like the sun does it 🙂
  8. it was after Chadwick discovered that there were neutrons (with no electric charge) inside the nucleus, in 1932, that the physicists discovered the nuclear force - neutrons don't feel the elctromagnetic force, like protons (or electrons, that have electric charge) do, and therefore it had to be something else that was holding the nucleus together...
  9. the nuclear force doesn't really care if a particle has a charge or not; the force between two protons, two neutrons, or a proton and a neutron are nearly the same <3
  10. we still don't understand everything about the nuclear force, even though has been worked on for eight decades...

Don't forget about "Question of the month" next week; I already have some very nice questions, but please, ask more!

Ok, I think that's it for now - I have to go back to my figures and my tables, and then there is the weekly nuclear physics group meeting... Bon weekend, and may the force be with you <3

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Publisert 2 kommentarer til Back in business
Happy Thursday, and may I ask: how did it become Thursday already, and where did the first part of this day go?
Whatever the answer is, I'm back from a FANTASTIC week at Fuerteventura (a blogpost about the vacation will come), and now I'm "back in business", at my office. 
Actually, we got home to Norway on Monday, then I had a mission in Trondheim on Tuesday - I was part of a fake PhD dissertation, as one of the opponents, yesterday was a day filled with starting to get back on track workwise, family obligations, and do you see anything new on me? Yes, it was also time to get glasses. So far, I think I like it - suddenly I can see stuff that was kind of blurry two days ago (and I do look kind of smart, don't I? 😛 ).
So today is my first, full day, at Blindern; the sun is shining, and even though it's starting to get cold here in Oslo, it feels good 🙂 Main goal of this day: get all figures and tables that I can possibly make into the draft of the article I'm working on (aka: the article that I haven't really worked on for some time...:/) - from this I will also know "where to go" tomorrow. I also need to be serious about the actual PhD thesis now, so writing on that will be quite high on my TO DO list in the next couple of weeks.
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BTW: There's something I've been thinking about. I often get questions in the commentary section either here on the blog, or on Facebook, on email, on Twitter etc, and many of these questions are too extensive for just a two sentences type of reply. Therefore I've been thinking about starting a "question of the month" thing - a dedicated blogpost for those extensive questions. I think if I'm going to do this, it should be on a fixed date every month, and I'm not sure exactly when that should be...but for now I think I'll start next week, and I'll just take it from there. What do you think, and do you have any questions? (I've been collecting questions from you for a long time, so I certainly have a lot to work on already 😉 )

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Publisert 2 kommentarer til Ten facts about nuclear weapons and the "Megatons to Megawatts" program

Friday again!

This week that means Bergen, and as (almost) always that means FACTS. This week I want to give you ten facts about nuclear weapons and the "Megatons to Megawatts" project - a little "taster" of what my talk tomorrow will be about (I don't know if there will be a live stream yet, but at least the entire confernce will be filmed, and go on-line later - I will of course share the link when it's ready 😉 )

 

  1. nuclear weapons have been used against humans two times; Hiroshima August 6th and Nagasaki August 9th, 1945 - hopefully NEVER again
  2. both "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" were fission bombs (getting their energy from fission); "Little Boy" was made of highly enriched uranium (uranium-235), and "Fat Man" was made of plutonium(-239)
  3. after WWII a nuclear arms race begun between the US and the Sovjet Union, and at one time there were more than 60 000 nuclear weapons in the world
  4. a nuclear weapon is ugly, but by mixing the fissile material in it with uranium or thorium, it can be changed into beautiful nuclear fuel (100% normal nuclear fuel for normal reactors) <3
  5. the "Megatons to Megawatts" program was an agreement between US and Sovjet/Russia that lasted from 1993 to 2013, where Sovjet made fuel out of their weapons (unfortunately not all of them) and US bought it
  6. during those 20 years (1993-2013), 500 tonnes of highly enriched uranium, from 20 000 Russian nuclear weapons have been converted into nuclear fuel and "burned" in reactors (more than 2 weapons destroyed every day!)
  7. the electricity generated from these weapons is the same amount as all the electricity in the US in two years(!)
  8. weapons uranium (highly enriched uranium) could be mixed with natural uranium to make fuel (as has been done in the program) - or, even better, with thorium
  9. if you mix weapons uranium with thorium, you can also recycle the spent fuel; this means that not only do you get rid of horrible weapons, you also get rid of a lot of nuclear waste (WIN WIN 😀 )
  10. today there are around 16 000 nuclear weapons in the world - much better than 65 000 (or whatever the peak number was), but still that's definitely 16 000 too many...:/
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(I bite my lip when I concentrate - haha)

 

 Now I'm soon off to NHH, where the conference tomorrow will be held, for sound check, and just "feel" the stage. And when I come back to the hotel again, Anders will be here! I'm so incredibly happy he could join me here in Bergen this weekend!!! We're here until Sunday afternoon, so hopefully we'll have time to actually experience something while we're here - any recommendations from my readers?
Anyway: happy weekend to everyone <3

Publisert Legg igjen en kommentar til TBT – Japan

Tonight I just have to do a little "throwback Thursday": I've been going through a lot of my pictures as I've been preparing for Saturday's TEDx (sorry for talking so much about it, but it's pretty much all I've been doing today, and all I can think of 😉 ), and suddenly the folder was there - "Sushi&Nuclear" - and I had to take a peek.
In one way it feels like I was never there, and it was all just a dream... 
Of course it wasn't: It was such a great trip, and it would have been fantastic to go back again! 
<3

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Tomorrow I'm off to Bergen, and so far I have almost no clue as to what my outfit will be. I think my slides are almost a little too little pink (I just finished them, and emailed them off to Bergen), so I'm considering to wear pink to sort of balance it out. 
The only thing I'm pretty sure about is that these new, pretty little things from Nelly will be on my feet on Saturday...;) I am considering beige chinos and a pink top (and the shoes, of course) - what do you think?