Government Policies First of all, a couple of new questions. What about geothermal, wave energy, hydrogen etc and the regular one, is coal cheaper than wind? Geothermal has not proved effective in SA, despite many attempts and hundreds of millions … Read More
All things science in language anyone can follow
If you like this, you'll love my new book, Sublime Murder
SA Elections – Energy (other) Part 3
Additional Energy So we have renewables with storage backed up by gas, but can we do better? Connect to Interstate We currently have two electricity interconnectors to Victoria (Heywood and Murraylands) and these were a major part of the breakdown … Read More
SA Elections – Energy (Renewables) Part 2
So we only produce small amount of oil and have to import it, we have no good quality, easily accessible coal but we have plenty of gas. Why don’t we just use gas for everything? We could generate electricity, … Read More
SA Elections – Energy (Fossil Fuels) Part 1
With the elections coming up in South Australia, energy issues are a big ticket item with politics obfuscating informed knowledge. I will attempt a non-political review of the options for SA and their pros and cons. Many of the basics … Read More
Virtual Power Plant
South Australia’s planned Virtual Power Plant appears to be largely misunderstood, as these things always are. It is basically a system that creates an energy supply from solar and batteries which is tied together by software. This allows the … Read More
Sublime Murder – Chapter 1
Sublime Murder has now been published as a digital novel on Kobo and Kindle https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/sublime-murder https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B076CFNDJC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1507686398&sr=1-1&keywords=sublime+murder Chapter 1 The Mount “I was told that you are a seismologist. So then, how did you get into forensics?” Ferg thought about … Read More
Nuclear(Con)fusion – 024
Just over a hundred years ago, Albert Einstein came up with the notion that mass and energy are equivalent in his theory of Special Relativity. About twenty years later the idea that the sun was a nuclear reactor and provided … Read More
Are logs natural? – Maths 009
If you start with 1 dollar and compound it with 100% continuous annual growth for 3 years, how much would you have? Complex Space and Euler’s Identity We ended up in a pretty strange place last time. It’s a bit … Read More
Dimensions and Domains – 008
Which has the largest land area out of DR Congo, Greenland and Saudi Arabia? They are in order of size with Congo the largest, but all three are similar. Why don’t our maps seem to show that – read on. Can we … Read More
Odds are Not Even – Maths 007
Get even by knowing the odds – or the odds will be against you. If I toss a well weighted coin in random conditions (ie no cheating) the probability of it falling heads or tails are half each way or … Read More
Water – Chemistry 101
Water – Chemistry 101 Dihydrogen oxide kills hundreds, if not thousands across the globe annually. It is also the most potent Green House Gas (GHG) we have. It is water of course and it sometimes gets a bad rap. In … Read More
Series – Maths 006
Fibonacci Series Series turn up everywhere in the natural world, with one of the most famous being the Fibonacci series 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34….. You probably already know that each number is the sum of the previous 2 numbers. This can be written … Read More
Is there a limit? 005
Archimedes’ Pi Can we sit and meditate and think up all the maths there is? Potentially yes and some mathematicians have done a very good job. Mandalas are geometric patterns that are often used for meditation. These are geometric patterns … Read More
Elegance and Visual Stimulation = Equations and Graphs – Maths 004
Knit one, pearl one is the start of a knitters algorithm. My mother loved to knit. She could invent complex patterns in her head and knit them out to any size or shape you required. They were truly works of … Read More
Computer Games and Algorithms Maths – 003
(nothing to do with Al Gore’s Rhythm) Following instructions Maths is all about following instructions to the tee and that set of rules (or instructions or actions or recipe) is called an algorithm. Action computer games or apps are all … Read More
How the Universe Got its Mojo part 2 – Maths -002
Beauty of Maths Happy Pi day and Einstein’s birthday to boot. As I tried to make the point last time, maths, like music should be enjoyed for its beauty. It provides a description of the universe and an insight into … Read More
How the Universe Got its Mojo – Maths – 001
Numbers – one dimension Numbers and the things we can do to them (operations) make up maths. Their simplicity and amazing complexity can be used to think up a universe. Or put another way, the beauty and intricacy of the … Read More
Energy Storage – 023
Energy Storage Energy storage and power generation are two separate issues that appear to be getting muddled by politicians and journalists. For example hydro power is essentially energy from the sun and therefore renewable. The solar energy lifts water into … Read More
Biofuel Crops – 022
Byogy Renewables announced recently that they are looking at setting up a $10 million test site to convert ethanol to gasoline. In Australia this could be from sugar cane or biomass from the grain industry and the site is likely … Read More
Biofuels – 021
I have just returned from a great month travelling in Far North Queensland, an area that is both very environmentally conscious and conservative. Bob Katter, a local MP is strongly pursuing an increase in ethanol production to improve the lot … Read More