Reducing harms after Nuclear, Radiological and Chemical Incidents

Nuclear, radiological and chemical incidents have the potential to cause major harm. The risk of nuclear and radiological events causing health effects can usually be significantly reduced by relatively simple measures, which are based on the properties of the chemicals released, especially at a distance from the incident. Chemicals that can cause harm, such as […]

Why 1.5°C Matters

On the eve of COP28 in Dubai, is the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C still alive? What does this mean and is it even possible? Given warming has reached 1.25°C, increasing at around ¼°C per decade, what happens if we miss our target? While every tenth of a degree matters, passing 1.5°C does […]

The Maths of Sudoku and Latin Squares

Millions of us regularly solve Sudoku puzzles. In this lecture, the mathematics behind them was discussed, and the links to other kinds of number grids, like magic squares and so-called Latin squares, which have been studied for centuries. Latin squares have many applications in areas as diverse as experiment design, algebra and coding theory. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/transcript/2023-11-21_1300_Hart-T%20%28PDF%29.pdf […]

Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohr Model

https://youtu.be/R99t0sytY1s

Island Universes: Discovering Galaxies Beyond the Milky Way

The discovery that we live in an ordinary galaxy, one of several hundred billion in the observable Universe, instigated a profound change in thinking about our place in the Universe. This first lecture covered the Great Debate of the early twentieth century as new telescopes and new ways of observing the cosmos put our Milky […]

Oppenheimer, The Film

During 2015 I was lucky to see a National Theatre play about J Robert Oppenheimer and I wrote about it here https://wordpress.com/post/helenthehare.org.uk/13072 I am a retired physics teacher and I try to keep up with everything physics so I made a point of seeing Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film about J Robert Oppenheimer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_(film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/ https://youtu.be/bK6ldnjE3Y0 […]

Cosmic Conclusions – The End of the Universe

Wed, 31 May 2023 The Universe is expanding, increasingly so. Will this persist or will it collapse back on itself? If it does expand forever, what happens to the galaxies? What is the long-term trajectory for the ultimate in collapsed matter, black holes? Part of: Cosmic Conclusions https://podcast.gresham.ac.uk/1904814/13023258 Astronomy Physics Science Professor Katherine Blundell OBE […]

What Is the Role of Nuclear Power in a Net Zero System?

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 The UK’s nuclear power reactors have provided a significant proportion of the UK’s low carbon electricity over their lifetimes. Most will retire in this decade. Advances in technology mean that modern systems can compete with other forms of low carbon energy. The lecture discussed the progress made in development of Small […]

The Carbon Cycle Behind Net Zero

What happens to carbon dioxide after we emit it? Half is absorbed within a year or two by plants and the oceans, the rest, in effect, stays in the atmosphere. So, does that mean we have to halve emissions to stop concentrations rising? Unfortunately, no. Despite the vast reserves of carbon dissolved in the oceans, […]

The Mathematical Life of Sir Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren, who died 300 years ago this year, is famed as the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral. But he was also Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and one of the founders of a society “for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimental Learning” which became the Royal Society. This lecture explored some of Wren’s mathematical work on […]