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Newsletter 026 - February 2018

Contents

Future Talks ................................................................................................................................. 2

Brunel Debates - This year's theme "What Lies Beneath" ............................................................ 2

The strange condition afflicting astronauts during extended zero-gravity missions ..................... 3

Recent conclusions about the transmission of the Black Death. .................................................. 3

Hope for threatened 'little tiger cat' ............................................................................................ 4

Carbon Nano Tubes will supplement Copper ............................................................................... 5

New Caledonian crows show how technology evolves ................................................................ 8

Climate Change and Wind Power ................................................................................................. 9

Harrow and Hillingdon Geological Society ................................................................................. 10

Pinner and District RSPB ............................................................................................................ 10

Institute of Physics Lectures ....................................................................................................... 10

Interesting Websites .................................................................................................................. 11

Recommended Reading ............................................................................................................. 11

Interesting Quotes ..................................................................................................................... 12

Back to Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 12

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Future Talks

Date Title Speaker

07/02/2018 Gemstones Carol Mitchel

21/02/2018 Oxygen Sheppy Shepherd

07/03/2018 Our Future Michael Pascoe

21/03/2018

04/04/2018

18/04/2018

02/05/2018 Antibiotics Jane Tozer

TBA Henry Cavendish Judy Peddie

TBA Ernest Rutherford Judith Sinclair

TBA Magnets John Howard

Brunel Debates - This year's theme "What Lies Beneath"

07/02/2018 Plastic, Pollution and the Planet – Stemming the rising tide

14/02/2018 Me, Myself and AI – Artificial Intelligence and human identity

21/02/2018 Trust in the Establishment – A crisis in confidence?

28/02/2018 Designing (for) Happiness – Space, solitude and the senses

These debates are on Wednesdays at 18:00.

They are free but please book a ticket HERE

Just a short list of possible future talks to think about, and maybe volunteer:-

Artificial intelligence, James Clark Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, Albert Einstein and General Relativity, Dorothy Hodgkin, Alan Turing, Archimedes, Helen Sharman the first British Astronaut, Tim Peake Astronaut, Telescopes, Stem Cell Transplants, The Building of Crossrail.

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The strange condition afflicting astronauts during extended zero-gravity missions

Astronauts on lengthy space missions risk suffering from “space fever”, according to a new study. Low gravity in space, and the weightlessness this induces, is linked to an increase in body temperature of about 1C. Such changes in body temperature do not appear suddenly, but gradually develop over around two and a half months.

The Independent

George Przybyla

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Recent conclusions about the transmission of the Black Death.

To students of history and indeed bacteriology, it was always believed that the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis (previously known as Pasteurella pestis) was transmitted by the bites of fleas living on rats. It is estimated that the Black Death killed up to 200 million people in the pandemic which devastated Europe between 1346 and 1353.

However, scientists at the University of Oslo and the University of Ferrara in Italy now believe that human “ectoparasites” such as body lice and fleas are more likely to be the vectors. They analysed mortality data from nine plague outbreaks which occurred in Europe between the 14th and 19th century and tracked how these developed. The authors concluded that in seven of the nine epidemics although rats and their fleas were always said to be responsible, the evidence indicates that the rapid spread is probably due to human fleas and lice. In this article in the Daily Telegraph of 17-1-18, the authors make no suggestions as to a possible reservoir of infection although another group of scientists thought gerbils were a potential source. Is it

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possible that as thought originally, rat fleas harbour the organisms, but on biting a human cause an index case which is then transmitted by vectors of human origin?

In 2015 another team discovered that Yersinia pestis had been around for twice as long as thought previously. It found that the bacterium had been infecting people in Eurasia 3000 years earlier and was responsible for the first pandemic, the Plague of Justinian in AD 541. Unfortunately, there is no description of the archaeology or other techniques employed to arrive at their conclusions.

The Black Death terrified medieval populations with its pus and blood-filled buboes, high fever and rapid mortality. With access to antibiotics, today, if diagnosed the risk of death is low. However, there was an outbreak of plague in Madagascar last year which infected >2000 people and killed 195.

BBC News

Pat Furr

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Hope for threatened 'little tiger cat'

It's the smallest cat in the Americas, occupying the smallest area of land.

Listed as vulnerable to extinction, the güiña wildcat of Chile has lost much of its natural home as forests are chopped down or converted to farmland and, like many carnivores, it's at risk from human persecution over fears it might kill livestock.

However, new research shows the animal is able to survive near human settlements on agricultural land. Its biggest threat is being squeezed out when land is broken up into smaller areas, say conservationists.

The guiña is known variously as the little tiger cat, little spotted cat or Chilean cat. About half the size of the domestic cat, it is one of the most threatened cat species in South America.

The wildcat lives only in central and southern Chile and in a narrow strip of Argentina. According to the IUCN, there are only about 10,000 individuals left in the wild. Its natural habitat is rainforest, but it has also been seen in pine or eucalyptus plantations or close to agricultural areas.

Research led by the University of Kent, UK, found that habitat fragmentation, and the subdivision of large farms into smaller ones, are the biggest threats facing the animal.

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"This is because there is a higher risk of human interaction and persecution in areas where there are more farms; a greater pressure on natural resources through increased timber extraction and livestock grazing; and even competition for food from domestic animals kept as pets," said Dr Nicolás Gálvez, who is now a lecturer at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

More than two-thirds of Chile's temperate rainforests have been lost over 25 years. However, through a series of questionnaires, camera-trap data and remote-sensed images the researchers found that the güiña is remarkably adaptable to forest loss. They say large, intensive agricultural areas are actually suitable for the güiña and should not be dismissed as poor quality habitat.

BBC News

Sheppy Shepherd

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Carbon Nano Tubes will supplement Copper

The honour of first describing 'carbon only' based 'nano' structures goes to Soviet scientists in 1952, publish in their Journal of Physics. This sparked a plethora of researchers, using either carbon-arcs or thermal decomposition of simple organic compounds; to make lots of soot and carbon encrusted substrates, creating ever larger 'nano-structure' examples. This was also the period of learning the technology to carbonising various synthetic yarns, to produce 'Carbon fibres'.

The watershed came with the small scale creation and naming of 'Fullerenes' in 1985, by a group of researchers in the USA; which included our own Harold Kroto of University of Sussex; who was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts. The 'ene' (as all you chemists know), infers a co-valent bond to 3 other carbon atoms. Starting with C60 'Soccer-ball', many other stable allotropes have been isolated C70, C76, C82 and so on.

C60 'Fullerene' 'Graphene' Sheet

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A short Carbon Nano-Tube model CNT

It was a revelation when it was found that 'Fullerenes' were slightly soluble in Toluene and Carbon Disulphide, which meant they could be readily separated from the mass of soot and purified by crystallisation. In 1997 the exceptional electrical conductivity / strength properties of long single-wall Nanotubes was shown by Swiss / German engineers. Whilst IBM engineers demonstrated the first Field-Effect transistor, using nano-tube emission. (ref: The vast majority of micro-electronic 'chips' are 'field-effect' technology, because it lends itself to the multi-later flat deposition / de fusion manufacturer methods of 'integrated circuits'. The original 'Bi-polar' defused junction transistor method of fabrication is still significant, mainly for power type 'ICs').

'Graphene' the flat and flexible single carbon atom thick sheet form of carbon followed in 2007, through the efforts of Andre Geim and others at Man' U.

Rapidly emerging technologies based around Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs), are near to providing a lightweight alternative to copper wire; plus conductive shielding for automotive, aerospace / defense applications. Carbon wire is presently 1/10th the weight of copper for equivalent

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current carrying capacity! The rising price / demand for copper makes it a crucial (strategic) metal element' which is the driver for 'Carbon wire' development. Single-walled CNTs with a length-to-diameter ratio of 132,000,000-to-1 are routinely made. This aspect ratio—only a few nanometres in diameter but several millimetres in length— i.e. dimensions similar to a DNA strand; gives CNTs some remarkable properties. They can be spun like the staple fibres, cotton and wool etc, into threads / cord bundles because they adhere. At the nanoscale, individual CNTs have tensile strength and fatigue resistance greater than steel, plus electrical and thermal conductivity greater than copper and diamond (the other form of carbon) respectively. The sports and leisure equipment industry already uses CNTs bulk mixed with polymers, to create lightweight high-strength composites, for rackets / clubs / skis / F1 car parts.......

CNT fibres are integrated into non woven sheets (20 to 30 microns thick) used as current collectors in battery electrodes, or electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, for cell phones etc. When applied to the outer skin of aircraft, (increasingly made of plastic composite in place of conductive aluminium); they are used as lightning strike protection conductors and de-icing heater mats. Thicker sheets, or stacks of thin sheets, are used as armour for people and vehicles, or just as part of a conductive textile for comfort

Three years ago I wrote a piece about the Royal Institution annual exhibition, which had as one of the exhibits from Cambridge U'; a machine making a cloud of CNTs which were being drawn into a thread... before your eyes...magic. I called it 'knitting smoke' at that time. This was the first UK public example of Carbon Wire manufacture, supported by working examples of small transformers and electric motors wound with carbon wire. It was striking, because I am so used to the red of copper in such devices, not black carbon. Also the CNTs generating equipment was using a plasma discharge as the energy source, not some scorching electric furnace or arc. The researchers were supported by National Grid plc, with the objective of producing amongst another things, lighter / stronger overhead power cables. It was a recent newspaper snippets that prompted this article, because pilot scale manufacturer is starting and the Cambridge team have also developed a method described as directly 'soldering' carbon wires. Now any materials engineer 'worth his salt', knows you can not 'wet' carbon; you have to electro-plate it first with copper / silver. Or use a 'crimp compression joint', which is the preferred method for electrical wiring in Power distribution and Aircraft industries anyway. But the electronics industry is based on billions of solder joints everyday, so this is the importance of the 'soldering' announcement....however it works, they're not saying!

John Howard

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New Caledonian crows show how technology evolves

Tool-making crows have allowed us to see the first foundations of a technological breakthrough. New Caledonian crows spontaneously make hooks out of plant material, using them to "fish" for grubs and spiders.

Experiments have now revealed that these hooked tools are 10 times faster at retrieving a snack than the alternative tool - a simple twig. Measuring the hooks' effectiveness tells scientists something about what drove this tool-use to evolve. Beyond that, the scientists say the insight has provided them a first glimpse of the "evolution of a new technology" in the animal kingdom.

These crows are the only animals known to make hooks.

The birds will hold on to and reuse a hook once they have made it

The earliest human-made fishing hooks - from about 23,000 ago - were one of the most significant technological milestones.

Lead researcher on the crows study, Prof Christian Rutz, told BBC News: "Our invention of fish hooks was incredibly recent - only 1,000 generations ago, which is an eye-blink in evolutionary terms.

"When you think that we went in that 1,000 generations from crafting fish hooks to building space shuttles - that's absolutely mind-boggling."

Understanding what drove the crows' tool-manufacturing provides Prof Rutz and his colleagues with a unique and valuable "non-human model" to investigate the origins of this fundamental step in human progress.

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"When I see these crows making hooked tools, I have a glimpse of the very foundations of a technology that is evolving," Prof Rutz said.

Juan Lapuente, an ecologist from Wurzburg University in Germany, who studies primate tool-use, said the tool-making and tool-using behaviour in crows was "amazing".

He added: "We tend to assume that the closer an animal is to us, the more intelligent it should be and thus we understand more easily that primates and especially the chimpanzees make and use tools.

"But we have to be more humble and accept that many 'small-brained' animals are intelligent enough to make and use tools and sometimes are even more proficient at this task than our cousins."

Prof Rutz said that while he could only speculate about the future development of crow-made tools, he did not think making these hooks was "the end of the story" for the birds.

"I think this species will come up with even better tools," he said.

BBC News

Sheppy Shepherd

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Climate Change and Wind Power Climate Change could hamper wind-power production in the northern hemisphere over the next 100 years but countries below the equator could benefit. This prediction came from the work of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute in the US which studied wind and temperature predictions over the next century.

If CO2 emissions continue at high levels the researchers predict that the input available for windfarms will drop in the northern hemisphere because of reducing temperatures at the north pole.

There is an article on a (new?) company called TokamaK Energy which is planning to produce very small spherical Tokamaks which use high temperature super-conducting magnets. Their ST40 reactor which has a radius of 0.4m, is planned to supply energy into the grid commercially by 2030. ITER of course has been in development for many years and uses ‘super-cold’ to get super- conductivity, but is it any-where near production yet? A few of us visited JET at Harwell a few years ago and were told it is doing development trials for ITER improvements. Do you have any news on Fusion Energy projects?

PE January 2018

Pete Underwood

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Lectures Harrow and Hillingdon Geological Society Cavendish Pavilion, Field End Road, Eastcote, HA4 9PG Map Doors open 19:30 Free to members of HHGS. A £3 donation is asked of visitors.

14/02/2018 Australia-SE Asia collision, the Wallace Line and Wallacea

Prof. Robert Hall (Royal Holloway)

17/02/2018 New Year Social 19:00 Ickenham Village Hall

14/03/2018 Volcanoes: past, present and future Prof. David Pyle (Oxford)

11/04/2018 The Thera of Everything - Santorini Joan Waters

09/05/2018 AGM - followed by DVD about a Polish salt mine

13/06/2018 The Earth’s surface in the Anthropocene Prof. Heather Viles

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Pinner and District RSPB St John the Baptist Church Parish Hall, Church Lane, Pinner HA5 3AA Map Start at 8 pm unless otherwise stated. Members £2.50, Visitors £3.50

08/02/2018 An Easy Way to Identify Gulls David Darrel Lambert

08/03/2018 A Photographic Journey with Birds Thomas Hanahoe

12/04/2018 Birds of Northern Spain Val & Mike Walker

10/05/2018 AGM + Where I've Been Members Photographs

13/09/2018 Birds of the Russian Far East Chris Collins

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Institute of Physics Lectures All our lectures are free to all and last about one hour. There are usually 10 to 15 minutes afterwards for the audience to ask questions

Lectures held at 6.30 p.m. in the Franklin Room, Institute of Physics, 80 Portland Place, London W1B 1NT. Map Refreshments are served from 6.00 p.m. on the day of the lecture. Please register online to attend lectures. E-mail londonsoutheast@physics.org or call 020 7470 4938 for further information.

Link to IOP website

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Interesting Websites For the less scientifically minded of us How Stuff Works

For the Cosmologists NASA

For those who want to help with scientific research Zooniverse

For the astronomers amongst you Chromoscope

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Recommended Reading 'And so shall ye reap', by Colin Tudgh.

It is about feeding a growing population - recommended by Michael Pascoe

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Interesting Quotes

Actually, everything that can be known has a Number; for it is impossible to grasp anything with the mind or to recognize it without this.

Philolaus, c. 470 – c. 385 BC

Scientist and Philosopher

Picture of the month

Sagrada Familia

Though the construction work is still on, Sagrada Familia has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited place in Barcelona. Designed by the celebrated architect Antoni Gaudi, the church is said to be the one that has no parallel in the history of art. The construction began

in 1882, but the church is still far from complete. It is expected to complete only in 2026.

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