15 Million Degrees: A Journey to the Centre of the Sun - finished

A few weeks back I finished "15 Million Degrees: A Journey to the Centre of the Sun" by Lucie Green.  It tells you all you need to know about our nearest star, where it came from, what did does, how it does it and what will happen to it in future.  It does get bogged down in detail about nuclear fusion in the middle but I say this is a thoroughly informative book and I'd give it 4/5.

15 Million Degrees: A Journey to the Centre of the Sun by Lucie Green

I have just started reading "15 Million Degrees: A Journey to the Centre of the Sun" by physicist, writer and broadcaster Lucie Green. So far I have found it very readable and technical bits are very well explained. It has a very good primer on what light is and how it works on us.

The Martian

I watched the DVD of 'The Martian' today and as both an astronomy and science buff I was quite impressed with the attention to detail on the science part. However the plot was rather lacking but the acting skills of Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain made up for it. In summary it is about NASA astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) being marooned on Mars after the rest of his crew mates had presumed him dead and had to make an emergency departure from the red planet.  Reminiscent of other solo survival stories such as Robinson Crusoe and Castaway, he had to survive physically and mentally.  Yes he does grow his own spuds using Mars dust and human excrement for fertilizer.  However things go awry when he somehow blows up his Mars "house" which doubles as accommodation and potato greenhouse.  The rest of the story just drifts on from that. One scientific anomaly is Watney walking normally in a non-weighted spacesuit on a planet with 38% of Earth's gravity.  I think some scientific liberties were taken there.  All in all a reasonable film for the science buffs but don't expect a great storyline.

Finished Bang! The complete history of the universe

In the past few days I have finished reading 'Bang! The complete history of the universe' by Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott.

This book is a very good introduction to the history of the universe from the moment of the big bang, past the present and onto the future of the solar system and indeed of the universe.  It introduces the sub-atomic particle particle physics side in a very easy to read and informative manner.

I thoroughly recommend this for anyone who wants to grasp the basics of the big bang and how the universe will progress in billions of years time.

Bang! The complete history of the universe

During my week off, I went back to reading about astronomy again and bought myself the kindle version of Bang! The complete history of the universe by Patrick Moore, Chris Linnott and Brian May.  It introduces alot of particle physics, especially in the first chapter which deals with the nano seconds after the big bang, where everything was hot and the only particles were sub sub atomic ones.  At that stage not only atoms didn't exist but neither did protons, neutrons and electrons that made up the atoms.  So far I have read 20% of the book and I will post some more later.

The Sky at Night: How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets

After finishing 'the sky at night' questions and answers book, I have moved onto "The Sky at Night: How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets", written by Paul Abel and Chris North (who co-wrote the questions and answers book with Sir Patrick).  I hope to be intellectually enlightened at the end of it.

Finally finished The sky at night

Previously I mentioned "the sky at night: questions from across the universe" book by the late Patrick Moore and Chris North, that I was reading.  And today I have finished reading it. It was very informative, sometimes witty and very personalized. It covered various subjects, including our solar system, space travel, comets, asteroids, constellation, how to watch the stars and more recent things such as exo-planets and the Mars Rover.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel more enlightened thanks to it.  Did you know that Moore has met the first man to fly(Orville Wright), first man in space (Yuri Gargarin) and one of the first men on the moon (Neil Armstrong).

Unreported effects of global warming

As mentioned in a previous post, activities on the Sun affect the Earth's climate, not only that but the Earth's orbit around the sun is actually more like an ellipse rather than a perfect circle.  This is because other planets (notably Jupiter and Saturn), comets and asteroids pull on the Earth with their own gravity.  This means that there are periods where the Earth gets closer or further away from the sun.  This too has an effect on climate.  We hear a lot of negative effects about climate change such as rising sea levels, loss of polar ice caps etc.  However, there are more positive effects as shown here.

Rising sea levels means more liquid water to evaporate and fall back down again as rain.  Also more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more food for plants. This means higher crop yields.  I remember watching a natural history DVD which said that plants can lose 90% of its water through the sames pores in the leaves which it breathes the carbon dioxide.  More carbon dioxide means less pores need to be open and then less water will be lost. All this unfortunately is lost in the climate change debate.

Patrick Moore: the sky at night

I am still reading Gribbin's quantum computing book, but today I have bought the Kindle version of
The sky at night: questions from across the universe,written by the late Sir Patrick Moore.  Like the previous book, it is another question and answer book, which answers questions posed by BBC Sky at night viewers from over the years.  I have only just started reading it and one thing he mentioned was that it is perfectly reasonable to look at the stars using binoculars, instead of a telescope. He does explain alot of the scientific concepts quite well without delving to much into physics and chemistry jargon.