Outbreaks of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza are leaving a path of destruction across Europe and North America, on a scale that has not been previously seen. Domestic bird culls once kept the virus in check, but sustained circulation in wild birds has become the norm since the early 2000s. Over the past year, transmission in wild birds has ramped up dramatically. “Something is quite different about this virus”, says wildlife-disease researcher Rebecca Poulson, but no one knows exactly what that is. It’s possible that mutations have enabled the virus to infect more bird species than previous strains; mammals such as seals, bobcats and skunks are also being infected. Researchers fear that the outbreaks could rage on.
Alan Smith
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Posts by Alan Smith
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This thing is so big, it must have cost a lot of money and taken years of effort to make. That being the case, I suppose these people are sincere. They really thought it would work. If they hoodwinked someone, I suppose they would take the money and run. They wouldn't go to all that effort.
The owners of a major soya-bean business built it in their own premises with their own cash AFAIK. But they do collect huge subsidies for other things..
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Is there meant to be a photo attached to this post Alan Smith ?
Yes- no idea where that went. Here's another, not so good but you get the general idea.
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Ogden Nash
Liked a splash.
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Thanks to Diadon Acs The edited version of the George Egely viseo is now up on YT- and here. Also has whizzy credits and improved audio.
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I don't know how your foam was made - but some stuff I worked with once was made by mixing bubbly material into molten nickel - which was then dissolved-out after solidification. Goodness knows how it left the surfaces on a microscopic scale - but as we were just using it in an air/oil separator, it didn't matter for our purposes.
If yours can be cut with a knife, and can be folded, it must be quite different (ours had to be machined, as it was quite brittle)This stuff looks like it is made from felted wire. But I'll take a picture ro check.
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The co-dep might help to keep the hydrogen locked-in, I guess
Nickel is fickle- when it comes to hydrogen absorption- some will suck it up and some just won't. I am not sure why, but as we know, Pd is the same. I guess it's down to impurities and surface oxidation states.
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I was wondering Alan Smith , if the side facing to the wall of the reactor gets less exposure. I'm probably the less qualified to comment about that, but it strikes me as one possibility.
I think that 'sunny-side shady side' preferential exposure happens with any electrolysis- some commercial systems use quite elaborate geometry or moving electrodes to over come that problem.
It would be simpler to reverse it and expose both sides. Going to set up something interesting to morrow, to see if I can kick some life into this with co-dep. All will be revealed then, working or not. I am not used to this stuff not behaving btw, bit of a blow.
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The Nickel foam strips are washed (to remove electrolyte) and dried at 60C for an hour then assembled into a cell. Glad I told Jed there were no gurantees - this one only produces around 50mV. It looks the part, but that's all. I am not sure why, but I am going to re-electrolyse the Ni Foam- perhaps with a little co-dep.
Drying the foam..
The assembled cell - looks good but poor performance.
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Maxwell picked up the unfinished work of Oliver Heavyside - which from memory used Quaternion Mathematics. It has been said that Heavyside was closer to the truth than Maxwell. But I am not expert enough to know
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Don't get too excited Jed. All guarantees get thrown out with yesterdays sandwiches
This is the cell format. Plastic jar with modified lid, nickel foam working electrode that goes right around the jar walls, cut to be a snug fit. Aluminium tube counter-electrode. This was just a test assembly - not a working model yet
This is the view inside.
This is the view from beneath -electrode gap around 7 mm all round. Larger than I like but it can be reduced.
This is a nickel foam working electrode. Easy to cut btw, with scissors or a knife.
This is two connected nickel foam strips being electrolysed - 48 hours in 0.01M Potassium carbonate at 2.5V and around 0.4W. Lots of hydrogen evolved at the cathode. Copper tube anode central in the tank. 2 down, 2 to go.
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The Proton and Occam's Razor
September 2022
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33959.62883/1
Giorgio Vassallo, Andras Kovacs.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363770513_The_Proton_and_Occam%27s_Razor
Otto Stern's 1933 measurement of the unexpectedly large proton magnetic moment indicated to most physicists that the proton is not a point particle. At that time, many physicists modeled elementary particles as point particles, and therefore Stern's discovery initiated the speculation that the proton might be a composite particle. In this work, we show that despite being an elementary particle, the proton is an extended particle. Our work is motivated by the experimental data, which we review in section 1. By applying Occam's Razor principle, we identify a simple proton structure that explains the origin of its principal parameters. Our model uses only relativistic and electromagnetic concepts, highlighting the primary role of the electromagnetic potentials and of the magnetic flux quantum Φ = h /e. Unlike prior proton models, our methodology does not violate Maxwell's equation, Noether's theorem, or the Pauli exclusion principle. Considering that the proton has an anapole (toroidal) magnetic moment, we propose that the proton is a spherical shaped charge that moves at the speed of light along a path that encloses a toroidal volume. A magnetic flux quantum Φ = h /e stabilizes the proton's charge trajectory. The two curvatures of the toroidal and poloidal current loops are determined by the magnetic forces associated with Φ. We compare our calculations against experimental data.
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Shame there are no English subtitles - it looks to be very well made in the old Hollywood style. Thanks for the link.
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My next LEC has some components brewing now. 48 hours electrolysis in 0.1M K2CO3 - Nickel Foam working electrode and Aluminium tube counter-electrodes. Pictures soon.
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Red-hot controversy over risky COVID research
Researchers who inserted a gene from the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 into another strain of the virus have triggered a fierce controversy over what constitutes perilous COVID-19 research. The team at Boston University, Massachusetts, was trying to understand why Omicron causes mild disease. But the experiments have sparked a debate: whether researchers who are modifying pathogens need to keep regulators and funding agencies informed about their work, and when they should do so. The controversy highlights “the lack of clarity that people have on exactly what sorts of experiments have benefits that outweigh risks, and who decides how it’s all reviewed”, says evolutionary virologist Jesse Bloom.
Reference: bioRxiv preprint 1 & bioRxiv preprint 2 (both not peer reviewed) -
https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0408/0408114.pdf
This is an early study.
Charge confinement by Casimir forces H. E. Puthoff and M. A. Piestrup
AbstractLaboratory observation of high-density filamentation or clustering of electronic
charge suggests that under certain conditions strong coulomb repulsion can be overcome
by cohesive forces as yet imprecisely defined. Following an earlier suggestion by
Casimir, we investigate here the possibility that Casimir forces can lead to charge
clustering of the type observed, and conclude that such forces may play a role in the
generation of robust high-charge-density effects.There is also this, by Winston S. Bostick, the original discoverer.
Plasmoid | Plasma-Universe.com
And more 'scientific;
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The idea of self organizing phenomena is perhaps foraneous to many, but plasmas tend to exhibit that apparent behavior.
Even the LEC does that. Equal numbers of positive and negative ions are produced - but they sort themselves out to produce a voltage actoss the plates.
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Re peanuts. A few years back I was contacted by someone in East Africa, they had several thousand tonnes of peanut shells, whole mountains of them that they were looking to find a use for.
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Frogfall - you might find this book an interesting read. All about ball lightning 'made at home'.
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Hubler's ICCF-24 paper is also on Researchgate.