Protons Course: Links

Songs: So many people ask about the songs that I have made a page just to explain the situation.

Week 1: Electricity

The Scale and Size of the Universe

• www.nineplanets.org (information on the Sun and the planets)
• The Powers of 10 video is available as a DVD from www.powersof10.com and is also available from amazon.com (but not amazon.co.uk). The video is also available on You Tube. There are alternatives to ‘Powers of 10’ video, but none that I feel surpass it accuracy or scope. You might also like
  • an alternative video narrated by Morgan Freeman or
  • this one which compares the sizes of different celestial objects or
  • this flash animation (Thank you Alison)

Electrical Machines

• www.howstuffworks.com (Loads of explanations, some quite good! Look up Van der Graaf Machines here)
• www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/wimshurst.html (Wimshurst Machine Fan Site)
• www.hcrs.at/INFLUENZ.HTM (Wimshurst machine site in German, but with nice pictures and videos)
• The Fun Fly Stick (Basically a miniature Van de Graaf generator)

The Elements

• the elements animation Delightful animation of the Tom Lehrer song
• www.terrific-scientific.co.uk Lovely pictures of molecules
• www.webelements.com information about atoms and elements and the periodic table

Week 2: Light

General

• Physics Central (American institute of Physics ‘propaganda’ site: good links
• Light & X-rays from sellotape? (A simple to understand but astonishing phenomenon!).
• Diffraction grating glasses (see photo above)

Shockwave & Java Applets

• Wavelength & Colour Powerpoint Slides (and many other educational slides by Don Evans)
• Interference simulation (My favourite)
• Interference simulation 2 (Funky ‘laser cannon’ illustration: good looking, but not very ‘physicsy’)

Week 4: Global Warming

General

• Excellent guide from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ((5.6 Mb pdf format) Superb guide going one step beyond the generalities 78 pages in lovely colour!
• Our own Meteorological Office with a good deal of background information)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN Body whose pronouncements on this subject are deemed authoritative)
• East Anglia University (Climate Change Unit from where you can download actual data and plot your own graphs!)
• A history of climate change science (Excellent resource which can be downloaded and burned to a CD)
• 40 page pdf document from the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
• Copenhagen Conference Official Conference Web Site

Climate Models

• EdGCM (Educational Global Circulation Model: Written by NASA scientists and pretty impressive. Runs on Mac or PCs)
• Climate Prediction (Lots of information plus the chance to run a climate model on your PC as a screensaver)
• The Hadley Centre (Met Office Centre for Climate Modelling: World leader in its field)
• BBC News Story (Story about a new climate model)

Ice and Glaciers

• World Glacier Monitoring Service (Lots of very technical data about glaciers)
• The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (Lots of data about the extent of sea ice and other arctic conditions)
• BBC News Story (Recent story about the loss of Arctic ice)
• Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (With measurements of the Greenland Ice Sheet thickness)
• Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (Study relating to stability of the North Atlantic Drift (aka Gulf Stream))

Background

• Wikipedia (Wikipedia is an on-line collective encyclopedia: results are usually interesting, but treat data with caution because entries are not refereed: search on global warming)
• Planetary data (Data about the planets)
• NASA’s Earth Observatory (Look and learn: Visually stunning and well documented site)
• ESA’s Earth Observatory (ESA can do whatever NASA can)
• BBC community action (Get involved)
• Lots of good background (The BBC’s Climate change pages)
• Informative ‘Green’ site (A ‘green’ site)
• Worldwatch site (A site with a worldwide ecological remit)
• Japanese Summer Clothing Iniative (The kind of small thing which makes a difference if we all do it)
• Lots of information (A slightly eclectic collection of basic data about a number of issues)
• George Monbiot and David Bellamy Dialogue (Search for ‘Bellamy’ when you reach the site: a curious exchange!)
• Interesting article about surface temperature measurement (The ‘Greening Earth Society’ takes an interesting perspective on this debate which is distinctly American)
• CO2 Science (Problem? What Problem?)
• BBC News Story (About the important role of water vapour (humidity) in climate)

Week 5: Mobile Phone Safety

Reports and official websites

• The Mobile Telecomminications Health Research Programme – UK centre for study of issues
• The Stewart Report Independent Experts Group on Mobile Phones Report – UK Review of mobile phone safety by independent scientists
• Australian Radiation Protection Agency – Thorough summary of the situation
• UK Health Protection Agency (Old NRPB) – Summary and data from the UK

Other links and news stories

• Wikipedia – Wikipedia is an on-line collective encyclopedia: results are usually interesting, but treat data with caution because entries are not refereed: search on mobile phone health
• How stuff works explanation of cell phones –  American biased, but not bad
• BBC hot topic
• BBC News story about Mobile Phone Masts (March 2006) – A ‘scientist’ says there is no reason to be concerned
• BBC News story about Brain Tumors (January 2006) – Reports no increased incidence of common brain tumours in mobile phone users
• BBC News story about Ear cancer (October 2004) – Reports increased incidence of ear cancer in users of older mobile phones
• Microwave Experiments
• Lots of questions and rational answers

The Independent

The Independent seems to have a fixation on the health issues surrounding with mobile phone use. This means it publishes some sensible stories of the subject, and some of the most laughable nonsense that has ever graced the pages of a newspaper.

• Read my blog on the Independent’s coverage

Week 6: Does the UK need nuclear power?

General Links

• Health Protection Agency (Formerly the National Radiological Protection Board)
• MIT Report (Thorough academic report [181 Pages] on economics and practicality of nuclear power and its contribution to tackling climate change)
• American Institute of Physics History Site (from which I extracted the quotations used in the Week 6 session)
• Wikipedia (Wikipedia is an on-line collective encyclopedia: results are usually interesting, but treat data with caution because entries are not refereed – search on “nuclear power”)
• BBC News story October 2005 (Outlines options and provides nice links)
• DTI Energy Group (Lots of data and links)
• Sustainable Development Commission (Loads of reports: a great starting place for further research in all aspects of sustainable development)
• Sustainable Development Commission nuclear publications (March 2006: A balanced review of our energy outlook which concludes that we should say ‘No’ to nuclear power)
• Sense about Science (Scientists, engineers and medical professionals have come together to counter public misinformation about radiation and health effects)

Nuclear Links

• Lots of nuclear information (Technical data about nuclei and isotopes)
• Greenpeace’s view on nuclear waste (They think it’s an insoluble problem)
• Nirex (They think it’s an soluble problem)
• NPL radioactivity information
• DTI Energy Group (Nuclear Section) (lots of data and links)

Fossil Fuel and Alternatives

• Oil reserve data (A big table detailing reserves from countries around the world)
• Oil Crisis Analysis (A site devoted to assessing the impacts of reduced oil availability)
• Wind Energy Storage Analysis (Very Interesting)
• Wind Power Feasibility Study by the Environmental Change Institute
• Wind Power Campaign by Embrace Wind
• CO2 information (and lots of it, including raw data)
• BBC News Story on looming ‘Energy Gap’ (November 2005: Interesting story with good links)

Chernobyl

• BBC news story about likely death toll (September 2005)
• Comprehensive Site with Chernobyl Information (Funded by UN and Development Agencies)