Category Archives: Energy

Building the Energy Future with Thorium in the Gobi Desert, China

A Thorium fuelled nuclear power installation in the Gobi desert of China - artist's impression. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AIWuwei City, Gansu, China.  On the edge of the Gobi desert, the production of safe, inexpensive nuclear energy is soon to be underway.  The technology will not use uranium, and it will not require water for its cooling process. Continue reading Building the Energy Future with Thorium in the Gobi Desert, China

Eliminating the Impossible – The Complex Electro-Chemistry Behind the Hessdalen Lights

Hessdalen Lights II: A composite picture (in negative colours) showing the Hessdalen light phenomenon and people gathered at a lookout point to observe at night. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

A Norwegian valley.  Strange lights observed by many witnesses.  It has been called “Norway’s Roswell”.  But what makes the remote valley of Hessdalen so different from other locations?

Continue reading Eliminating the Impossible – The Complex Electro-Chemistry Behind the Hessdalen Lights

Identifying the Unidentified – The Hessdalen Light Phenomenon, Norway

Hessdalen Lights: A composite picture showing the Hessdalen light phenomenon and people gathered at a lookout point to observe at night. Artwork: NaturPhilosophieThe Hessdalen Valley of Norway.  Just 15 kilometres across.  Low population density.  But why is there a blue box perched high up on the hillside, with cameras covering the valley?  What’s going on in this secluded valley?!  Continue reading Identifying the Unidentified – The Hessdalen Light Phenomenon, Norway

The Brief Flight of the Russian Woodpecker Over The Horizon – And More About Phased Array Radars…

North east of Ukraine, close to the Russian border, is the site of the Duga radar, also known during the 70s and 80s as the Woodpecker – one of the most extraordinary engineering structures ever built.

Continue reading The Brief Flight of the Russian Woodpecker Over The Horizon – And More About Phased Array Radars…

Volcanic Unrest and How To Survive It

Over the next century, large magnitude volcano eruptions are many times more likely to happen than all risk of large asteroid or comet impacts combined.  The World is not prepared.

Continue reading Volcanic Unrest and How To Survive It

Engineering A Star – Nuclear Fusion, Tokamaks and Stellarators

A Stellar Reactor

Greifswald, Northeastern Germany, 2016.  Physicists at the Max Planck Institute have been racing to find a way of producing sustainable, clean energy with a stable nuclear fusion reactor. The challenge? Re-creating the Sun’s powerhouse on a much, much smaller scale. Continue reading Engineering A Star – Nuclear Fusion, Tokamaks and Stellarators

Our Burning Planet – Beyond Net Zero, Will We Adapt Or Die?

As World leaders meet for COP26 in Glasgow, the Earth has already reached 1.2 °C warming above pre-1880s industrial levels. Continue reading Our Burning Planet – Beyond Net Zero, Will We Adapt Or Die?

10,000 Years Later…

A clock is ticking inside a mountain in Western Texas.  It is a monumental clock.  Hundreds of feet tall, its mechanism is designed to tick for 10,000 years.  It’s a real clock.  The first of several millennial clocks being built around the World, to endure for centuries.  Tick…  

Continue reading 10,000 Years Later…

Rock of Ages – Why Banded Iron Formations Are Far From Boring…

Two-and-a-half tonne banded iron formation at Hintze Hall, Natural History Museum, London. Artwork: NaturPhilosophieThis 2.5-tonne lump of rock is a banded iron formation.  It marks a turning point in the history of life on our beautiful planet.  A crucial chemical transition.  When oxygen started becoming abundant.  And life took its next step towards complexity… Continue reading Rock of Ages – Why Banded Iron Formations Are Far From Boring…

Saving Hope… – Cetacean Strandings and Satellites

A composite drawing image of Hope the Blue Whale's skeleton swimming between two waters.  Artwork: NaturPhilosophieIt’s unclear why so many great whales beach en masse around the World.  And it’s really difficult to estimate their number, especially when the cetacean strandings occur along remote shores.  But there is hope.  Scientists are now developing techniques to monitor marine populations from space. Continue reading Saving Hope… – Cetacean Strandings and Satellites

Nine – The Elusive Planet in Our Solar System

A hypothetical Ninth planet has been lurking on the outskirts of our Solar System.  But Planet Nine may not be a planet at all…  Continue reading Nine – The Elusive Planet in Our Solar System

Trudeau’s Canada: From Climate Champion to Environmental Pariah?

Canada.  A land of unspoiled wilderness and natural beauty, led by the poster boy of progressive politics Justin Trudeau who has cast himself as an environmental champion.  Canada as the World sees it… Continue reading Trudeau’s Canada: From Climate Champion to Environmental Pariah?

Sash, Chillers and Power Hungry Accelerators – The Embarrassing Truth about Modern Science Laboratories

A drawing illustrating the Carbon Lab Print: Fume hoods that are left open can use the same amount of energy over a given period as 3.5 homes. Image: NaturPhilosophieCome in.  Step into the pristine environment of a modern science laboratory.  With all its cutting-edge equipment neatly arranged and organised work spaces clearly delineated, you might just be forgiven for thinking it is a model of sustainability but…  Look a bit closer!  You might be surprised…

Continue reading Sash, Chillers and Power Hungry Accelerators – The Embarrassing Truth about Modern Science Laboratories

A Bouquet of Pesticides – The Dark Side of Flowers

Pesticides have a dramatic impact on the health of ecosystems, posing real risks to pollinating insects, such as bees.  But did you know that your favourite bouquet may be posing a risk to your own well-being? Continue reading A Bouquet of Pesticides – The Dark Side of Flowers

The Universe Expands Far Faster Than Anticipated…

The Universe is accelerating

For a while now, astrophysicists have known that our Universe is expanding, and accelerating.  And much like the surface of a rubber balloon getting inflated, space is getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger… Continue reading The Universe Expands Far Faster Than Anticipated…

Large Asteroid Impacts Earth…

An oil painting showing a large asteroid shooting through the skies above a body of water in the sunset. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie… And Hardly Anyone Notices!

Five years after the Chelyabinsk asteroid impact, a three-in-a-century event happens again over the Bering Sea.  And almost no-one notices.  I say “no-one”… but the Earth is a planet under constant scrutiny. Continue reading Large Asteroid Impacts Earth…

Where the Chernobyl Wolf Roams…

A pseudo-photograph focusing on a grey wolf howling, with the abandoned Pripyat amusement park, near Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the background. Collage: NaturPhilosophie (2018)

Pushing the Boundaries

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster left behind a highly toxic landscape.  Thirty-two years hence, the area around the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat largely reverted to forest.  Despite the contamination, wildlife gradually took over.  Hints of recovery emerged as animal species began to thrive, free from the disruptive influence of human activity.  And for the first time, researchers recorded evidence of a young wolf boldly venturing away from the danger zone. 

Continue reading Where the Chernobyl Wolf Roams…

A Day Trip to the Ayrshire Coast of Scotland

A photography and drawing montage depicting the dark silhouette of the Scottish Isle of Arran, as seen from a sandy beach in Ayrshire in Spring 2018, with the smiling Cocktail Party Physicist avatar at the foreground left. Image: NaturPhilosophieThe Cocktail Party Physicist at the Seaside

The Scottish coast is renowned for the wealth of its rocky features.  And if you can’t abide Geology, you can while away the hours with the local marine biology.  It’s dead quiet and if you’re lucky on a clear day, you might even see Arran magically emerge from the mist across the waters of the Clyde estuary. 

Continue reading A Day Trip to the Ayrshire Coast of Scotland

Radioactivity and the Background of Dancing Particles

A picture showing dancing black silhouettes, each one bearing a Greek letter, over an abstract background symbolising a radiation event. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie Natural Radiation

Our environment is permeated by radiation, present around us at all time.  We are constantly exposed to radioactivity from natural sources for the most part naturally occurring radioactive nuclei in rocks and cosmic rays – the ‘background’.  Without ado, this is my lowdown on radioactivity.

Continue reading Radioactivity and the Background of Dancing Particles

Closer to Midnight… – The Countdown to Doomsday Earth

Artwork for Trinity Event's Doomsday Clock at One Minute Past Twelve. Digital Image: NaturPhilosophieWhat Time Is It?

No need to be an atomic scientist, when you’re considering the state of the World today, to understand the picture is an alarming one.  Allegorically-speaking, the Earth is now only two minutes away from impending catastrophe.  Continue reading Closer to Midnight… – The Countdown to Doomsday Earth

Shedding Light on Art – A Particle Accelerator in Paris

A digitally zoomed picture of an antique Byzantine ceramic bowl under archaeological forensic scrutiny by AGLAE, the particle accelerator at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Artwork: NaturPhilosophieArt in a New Light

The World’s only particle accelerator dedicated to analysing artworks is back online at the Louvre Museum in Paris.  Continue reading Shedding Light on Art – A Particle Accelerator in Paris

Future Floods and Melting Ice Sheets – Predicting with GRACE

A picture showing the artist's vision of the buildings of Parliament and Big Ben clock tower being overtaken by the waves, or more precisely by a muddy version of Hokusai's Big Wave. Image: NaturPhilosophieForecasting Sea-Level Rise

On the whole, Earth scientists agree that melting of land ice greatly contributes to sea-level rise.  And one thing’s for sure.  Future global warming will exacerbate the risks posed to human civilisation.  But…  What if you could forecast major floods?  You can.  Continue reading Future Floods and Melting Ice Sheets – Predicting with GRACE

Fingerprint Forensics Delve Deeper Into Spectrometry Analysis

A drawing showing a fingerprint, and all that it can reveal: Male or Female, Drug Use, Alcohol, Food Types, Hair Gel, Condoms...

Another Brick in the Whorl of Forensic Science

Fingerprint spectrometry analysis – a technology which can detect the brand of hair gel or condom used by a suspect – could soon be admissible as evidence in UK courts.  Continue reading Fingerprint Forensics Delve Deeper Into Spectrometry Analysis

Charming New Particle Xi-cc++ Discovered at CERN

Abstract artist impression of the particle newly discovered at CERN in psychedelic colours. Artwork: NaturPhilosophieThe Xi-cc++ Particle

CERN’s LHCb collaboration has announced the discovery of a new “charming” particle, thought to be instrumental to the strong force – the Xi-cc++.  Another particle.  So…? Continue reading Charming New Particle Xi-cc++ Discovered at CERN

The Spark of Being – A Not-So-Brief History of Life and Electricity

An original interpretation in inverted negative colours blue and white of the famous 1901 historical black and white photograph showing ground-breaking inventor and electricity visionary Nikola Tesla sitting in his laboratory at Colorado Springs amid a flurry of artificially-produced lightning discharges. Image: NaturPhilosophieOmnipresent Electricity

Within every object on Earth lies concealed a positive or a negative electric charge.  From the very structure of the atom to the essential functioning of our brains, the natural power of electricity is all around us, and it is one of the most potent symbols of our Modern World. Making the story of electricity, the story of life itself…  Continue reading The Spark of Being – A Not-So-Brief History of Life and Electricity