studiot

OK but I know you are quite capable of typing 'nurdles' into google.

Why bother ? Physics is what physicists do and possesses the characteristic that What physicists do today is different from what physicists did yesterday and what physicists will do tomorrow.

Thanks. +1 I remember "We'll spank the baby and feed the cat" and now you mention it, 'we also walk dogs'

To be brutally honest this whole proposition reminds me of a mid 20th century science fiction story about a company called General Services Inc. They were engaged to provide anti gravity (gravity shielding) vehicles for visiting dignitaries from other planets with greatly different gravity than Earth's. They too came up with a magical-mystical secret formula to solve the problem in time for the visit. I am not sure of the author I think it may have been Robert Heinlein.

Thanks you for the background, very useful apart from the missing answer to, what are you studying in parallel. Your stated personal history almost mirrors that of Hofstadter, if you substitute Bach for Shakespeare. He had the same doubts and wider interests but is older than you and 'went all the way'. The book I referred to is definitely for you. It's absolutely fascinating how he connects Art and Science and Metascience (he has a PhD in Physics).

You don't say anything about any previous academic or other background, which would be help to make useful comments. Also you don't say where your 'reading list' came from. Is it a course prerequisite ? Finally what are you studying philosophy 'in parallel' with and which is the main subject and which the minor ? I note a bias towards older philosophy with litle modern input is this a history of philosophy course ? A couple of suggestions. 1.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy This is online and kept up to date. You can view for free, and download pdfs for the princely membership fee of $10 annually. https://plato.stanford.edu/ 2) An interesting balancing modern viewpoint, including many of your references, will be foundin; Professor Douglas Hofstadter Godel, Escher, Bach - an Eternal Golden Braid. This won a Pullitzer. Go well in you studies and I look forward to some interesting discussion in furure.

Th op said ammunition not a bomb. But for all we know, our new member may be sriting a scfi or james bond novel about some device to stop the hero being shot. Perhaps we should wait to find out what is really in his mind |?

Hello, you are more welcome than those spammers who try to clog up the pages with their rubbish. I also read you personal introduction, and the the short answer to your question is no it doesn't work like that. I seriously suggest you find some introduction to basic science to avoid wasting a lot of your time with fruitless dreams (don't stop having dreams though). What part of Science are you most interested in ?

An article on tonight's news about a lad who left his university course to start his own business doing exactly what sensei (+1) mentioned in another thread. Apparantly Nurdles are small plastic pellets that are used as a feedstock, but too many escape into the environment, causing havoc. This lad has made a machine that vacuums up stray nurdles cleans and processes them as new feedstock. The new article showed successful trials in the most nurdle polluted foreshores in Britain. A boost for environmentalists/conservationists, https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en-GB&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=nurdle&iflsig=AOEireoAAAAAZCstnc6diqpUKPS2JRLwU0REk3y8r0tF&gbv=2&oq=nurdle&gs_l=heirloom-hp.3..0i512l2j0i512i433i131i10j0i512l5j0i512i10j0i512.1768.4648.0.6328.6.6.0.0.0.0.254.916.1j4j1.6.0....0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-hp..0.6.912.0HX6awL7JxI

Sounds a well rounded package until you unpick it and realise that some aspects are given far more weight than others. Why no separation into short, medium and long term strategies ? Why should be bust our guts trying to completely stop co2 emissions, yet say that removing the need for at least some of those emissions in the first place is to difficult or too unacceptable ? In past times humanity lived with all manner of filth and sources of pestilence, resulting in a high death rate. I have just watched a David Atenborough vid showing how the naturally very high death rate of rabbits is necessary to prevent overpoulation followed by sudden starvation and dramatic poulation reduction. Steadily improving technology has helped reduce the need for large human families (against the wishes of the catholic church and some men who still wish to enslave women). We don't reject the modern sanitary and medical technology that enables this and other improvements in our living standards, so why reject sensible attemps at population control over the long term ?

Exactly. Nobody knows. That was an important point for Roman to discover. The further back we go the less certain we become, and are still finding lots of suprises from (much) more recent history. We are no entering the difficult territory of what it means to be alive. We really don't even know that.

I don't know if this was a reference to my comments but I note that Switzerland was nearly the last country in Europe to give the vote to women (1971). But for @Peterkin's benfit my comments were really limited to this forum. How many women have posted an opinion in this thread ? On the choice of emission figures for Sweden and Switzerland v Canada and Australia, I view the counting methods with grave suspicion. How many 2000 mile train or road train journeys can you make in the former pair ? Both Canada and Australia are large producers and exporters of raw materials and foodstuffs. Who attracts the emissions of the tansport to other continents ? Both Sweden and Switzerland (couldn't you have chosen countries with short names ?) have extensive local hydro schemes, but little or no oil or coal reserves of their own. The movement of How would you power mass movement of goods to the rest of the world on the Australian or Canadian scale ? Norway would make a better example but it is above the World average at 6.7. However the story of Norwegian use of their massive oil reserves starkly contrasts with the UK at 14.7. They have made a so much better fist of it.

At what point did the chemical precursors of life combine to from something 'alive' and did that something respire ? This was something I meant for Roman to find out for himself, but have a look at this: The very recent discovery of anerobic bacteria in deep sea hydrothermal vents suggests possible alternative mechanisms for the beginning of life. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16346061/

Well look further and deeper.

Who benefits most from this failure to address population issues, Men or Women ?

Watching last week's repair shop included a fascinating repair to a dented bugle. The repairer slid a cylindrical hardwood plug into the tube, followed by a metal weight about 15-20mm diameter by 15-20mm length. Then he shook the instrument up and down causing the weight to bounce up and down on the wooden plug, driving it through the flattened section of the air tube. This process took several hours, clearing the dents in the process. A fine example of the power of a steady small tap tap tap. As to the Repair Shop itself, I've noticed that in more recent episodes there are longer and better explanations of the whys and wherefores of what they are doing. Has anyone else noticed this ?

Now that we are passed the dreaded 1st, Does anyone remember any good pranks ? I remember when I was in a student flat in college a prank played upon one other student. In the middle of the appropriate night we all got up except Jack , got dressed and busied about making breakfast noises. "Hurry up Jack, or you will be late for lectures." "Didn't you hear the new?, there is a total eclipse this morning, that's why it is dark" One by one we left for our appointed lectures and hid around the corner. Sure enough afte a couple of minutes Jack emerged and set off for the college campus about 1.5 miles away. He didn't twig till he got there alone.

Yes that's exactly what made me suspicious (of them not you) because that I the waywe used to introduce an AF joke when I was at school. Yes exactly. The end of humanity a la Skynet or the end of chatbots or ....? +1

Nothing to do with me, but yesterday was April Fool's Day and I did not know whether to believe the article or not. Note the article linked to was also dated 1 April. I am also suprised or curious why so few members are interested in this topic and also why nobody has asked the obvious question since the title is ambiguous.

Depends what you mean. Biological agents are now recognised as being responsible for geological changes in the Earth's history. But please remember that Roman posted this in homework help so we cannot do his project for him. @RomanRodinskiy You should research The great oxygenation event cyanobacteria stromatolites Here is a history of the atmousphere from Wikipedia It divides history into 5 stages and I asked if you are interested in stage 5 where the sort of organised multicellular life we know occured. Note the great oxygenation event occured ab little over 2 billionyears ago. This might provide a good framework for your project.

I guess you are asking about evidence for the origin of life ? This is difficult and complicated because when life started on Earth neither the ocean nor the atmousphere consisted of anything like the current composition. The original lifeforms changed both of these, introducing oxygen into the atmousphere (it didn't start of with any). This period started about 3.5 billion years ago and took 2.5 to 3 billion years and there were few lifeforms and things changed very slowly. Once the compositions had settled down to near current conditions geological evidence points to an 'explosion of lifeforms' (Sedgewick) about 0.5 billion years ago., in the Cambrian period. I think perhaps the life you are thinking of started at this time and led to the sequence of evolutionary development that results in the evidence for oxygen based life. Here is a summary of the biochemical evidence that supports the idea of seawaterborne development from The Nature of Biochemistry - Ernest Baldwin - Cambridge University Press. It is very persuasive to note that so many disparate land and marine creatures analyse down match to the chemical distribution of ions in seawater.

CHATGPT banned in Italy perhaps others to follow.

If you are not going to 'restore' - dry - the pink gel, what is the point of keeping them ? Once saturated they no longer protect your valuables.

As I said, I haven't tried a microwave but the net say it can be done but some sites are too gung ho for my taste. Here is a measured warning plus useful instructions. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/bwbvri/protip_microwave_your_silicadesiccant_to_dry_it/ This guy spread out the gel as I suggested before. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/dry-silica-gel-microwave-25024.html So I suppose it depends upon quantity. The second guy used bigger amounts. I remember changing the dessicant by the barrel load inside steel box girder bridges. One worry I have with a microwave is that it takes time to properly dry out. As soon as you remove the gel from the microwave it starts reabsorbing moisture from the atmousphere. A conventional oven will still be dry inside as the gel is allowed to cool.

I have no knowledge of using a microwave to dry out spent silica gel. We always used to heat it in a tray in a moderate dry (not gas) oven at 75 - 150 degreesC for a few hours. Do not let it get too hot or it will loose its hygroscopic (water absorbing) properties. Is anyone sure microwaving actually works ? Personally I would be worried about local overheating and degradation of the gel.