Horizon last night

I really enjoyed it too. Mrs. 555 also enjoyed the eye candy!

Have most of it on the digibox, looking forward to it. Only remembered it was on 15 minutes in, hope it is repeated, probably with signing over it at 3am.

Who is the forum member?

He is Professor Brian Cox.

What a great program in so many ways.

The guys at the end all seemed to think fusion power would reach the grid by around 2030 or 2050. But maybe this depends on us spending more on fusion research than we do on ringtones ie unlike now!

My son also thought it was great and he's a teenager....

quote:

Originally posted by JamieL:
Have most of it on the digibox, looking forward to it. Only remembered it was on 15 minutes in, hope it is repeated, probably with signing over it at 3am.

Who is the forum member?

Check out BBC iPlayer for a re-run of the programme.


Great programme Brian makes these subjects almost understandable, and he seems to be enjoying it,(almost too much).

Any one care to do the sun maths ie : it has been losing 4 million tons of stuff for 5 billion years. So just how much weight(mass) has it lost?

I thought it was a great programme with Horizon nearly getting back to doing what it use to do so well before it was dumbed down.

Taking the emotion out of the energy debate was a point well made as was the realistic assessment of alternative energy supplies. I am sure if the world put its mind to it we could have fusion generation by 2035 - just in time to fire up the oven for me - or even better - shove me in the plasma, forget ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust please for me!

Of course whilst watching I made the obligatory, "He's a member of the Naim forum!" exclamation to the missus.

Strangely she seemed completely non-plussed!

Anyway, a very interesting and informative programme. Dr Brian has a very easy style such that he almost comes across as a layman and, of course, we all know he isn't that!

And I mean that as a compliment.

Mark

Having watched what I recorded, I agree it was very good.

I recognised Dr. Brian Cox from another excellent programme he presented about Large Hadron Collider for BBC4 last year. His genuine enthusiasm is very infectious, and his easy manner make him a very good presenter for complex scientific issues.

If I don't catch the signed repeat, I will watch on computer, which is my work place.

Horizon has been one of my very favourite programmes for as long as I can remember. The last couple of series have had some really good programmes.

I recently found an old VHS of my favourite series of Horizon programmes, the 'Encounter' series as the Voyager probes passed the planets of the solar system every three years or so. I only have the Uranus episode from 1986, and have not had chance to re-watch it yet.

Last line of earlier post should read:-

"Any one care to do the sun maths ie : it has been losing 4 million tons of stuff per second, for 5 billion years. So just how much weight(mass) has it lost?"

Howard,

The closest answer I can find is this from Wikipedia:

"The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence evolution, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. Each second, more than 4 million metric tons of matter are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation; at this rate, the Sun will have so far converted around 100 Earth-masses of matter into energy. The Sun will spend a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main sequence star."

Tony

I'd better get the kitchen finished then.

Is there enough time left for Naim to finish the new speaker?

And I'm supposed to feel guilty about driving my car for fun when those scientists use more energy in a few billionths of a second than I'll use in my lifetime!
Nice Mustang, too... was that intended irony?

Tony

Firstly the use of the word 'billion' needs to clarified as its not clear if we are talking the financial Billion (i.e 1000 million, or a Giga.) or a Mathematical Billion ( i.e. 1million raised to the power 2, the Bi-million) which is 1 million million or a Tera.

Still a good prgram and I am looking forward to Naim's first Fusion based power supply, which will deliver 1 Trillion Amps for 2 nano seconds giving us even more dynamics and attack. Now if I can just get the speaker cones to move that quick.

Was the good Prof. taking time off to do this because his machine is still broke I wonder?

Thanks for pointing this out. I don’t have a television and Horizon is one of the very few programmes that I really miss. I watched it last night on the computer using BBC iPlayer. Isn’t modern technology wonderful! It was an excellent programme.

Bearing in mind that fusion is a potentially limitless source of power that causes no pollution, no global warming and runs on seawater, the question arises as to why we aren’t putting more money into it. I was particularly struck with the fact that the UK spends more on ringtones than it does on fusion research.

As somebody on the programme said, this really is a ‘get out of jail free card’ ie the answer to all our energy needs for ever.

I have been following progress on this for years and it has always seemed to be ’20 or 30 years away’. At last this really does seem to be a possibility.

Why aren’t we diverting all funding away from wars (and ringtones) into fusion research now??

Yes I know it won’t happen.

Chris

quote:

Bearing in mind that fusion is a potentially limitless source of power that causes no pollution, no global warming and runs on seawater, the question arises as to why we aren’t putting more money into it

Ah...way back (in the 60's I think)I recall talk about a British project called 'ZETA' which was working on the idea that Seawater could be converted to energy using fusion...faded away due to what at the time were viewed as insurmountable obstacles.

We have had a a few fusion 'cons' since then. Pretty recently there was a claim to have acheived 'Cold Fusion' in a testtube.

What was encouraging was that the methods being investigated in this programme had a clearly proper theoretical basis.

The moment that really rammed it home was when they calculated how many new Nuclear Fission power stations would need to be built per DAY to address our ever growing energy needs!!!

regards
Geoff

Things can only get better.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff P:
[QUOTE]The moment that really rammed it home was when they calculated how many new Nuclear Fission power stations would need to be built per DAY to address our ever growing energy needs!!!

I was quite shocked by that as well.

Fission - 2.5 x new nuclear power stations per week until the year 2035
Wind - 1 x 3 Megawatt wind turbine every 3 minutes
Solar - 250 Sq Metre per second
Plus Geo, Tidal etc..

This is to replace our predicted energy needs with non-fossil fuel by 2035. And it doesn't take into account any population growth. Seems to me like we need fusion power or we're in trouble.

Wasn't that calculation about how much more would be required to allow everyone on the planet access to the energy that is currently (tee-hee) enjoyed in the west?

Something like that. Though I think the amount they calculated each person would need was the equivalent of less than half that the average American consumes currently.

quote:

Originally posted by JamieWednesday:
Things can only get better.

No one got it then..? Sometimes I feel like Marvin. Crack a joke and does anyone care? No. They don't. Life, don't talk to me about life. Here I am parking cars...etc.

I saw it and smiled, so now you have made me post, so as to make yoru Marvin-side happier!

ATB from George

yeah, we have to all be working on the next generation of energy. I have a '09 Focus now, I"m surprised they weren't driving a more fuel efficient car. I see mustangs, chargers and Camaros and keep thinking WHY? Gas is going back up, stupid to get a V8.

The dealer told me that the new Focus in LA will put out cleaner air than what goes in. I"ve had it for a thousand miles and average milage is about 30 MPG. Sure is fun to drive like my 2003 Focus tho doesn't have the earlier clean Euro look I liked so much. But I get to visit it every week as I sold it to my best friend who had Alfas before this.

quote:

I"ve had it for a thousand miles and average milage is about 30 MPG.

Mrs D's C220 CDi averages something like 60 mpg and on a long run (say >100 miles) gets over 70 mpg.

If it lasts as long as the 230TE (now almost 20 years old - 34 mpg) and the S420E (now 21 years)it will be one heck of an economical car.

But not, in global terms, sustainable.

But then, neither is modern farming.

Both the car and the tractor need diesel......and nuclear fission won't solve this problem on its own!.

Cheers

Don

Surely large scale, affordable Hydrogen fuel cell powered cars are very near? I know someone sells them in California (Honda I think).

At the moment they're not affordable, and the hydrogen can't be produced in the volumes required. Yet.

Tony