Every morning, when I have my fruit-filled nut-rich luxury muesli (with dollops of greek yoghurt and plenty of honey), I shake the box rhythmically from side-to-side before pouring it into the bowl. As a result, I get the biggest, tastiest, juiciest bits, and avoid the dust. I’ve been using this technique ever since, as a child, I saw a television programme – maybe it was the great Johnny Ball – explaining granular convection, otherwise known as the Brazil nut effect. When you vibrate a granular material, the big bits rise to the top.
Ever since I learned about it I’ve made use of it in everyday life, increasingly without thinking about it; but it’s not something I would necessarily have picked … read on »
Posts Tagged ‘effect’…
Climate Change: Mitigation or Adaptation?
Newly published in Nature is a study by researchers about adapting to climate change. The gist, according to EurekAlert, is that we’re making a mistake in concentrating on the mitigation of global warming, and that this has been at the expense of adaptation. (Now, I may have dramatized it somewhat with those words – such research findings are much more dry and circumspect by comparison – but forgive me, because I think it is, at the very least, a fair conclusion to draw from the findings as described. But don’t take my word for it.)
I hope we begin to see more of this sensible approach to the world’s problems. It is just one among many and should be tackled in … read on »
The IPCC Summary
On Friday, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis – Summary for Policymakers (PDF) was published. The media are going crazy, but I read it and found no predictions of forthcoming catastrophe. A rise in temperature of between 1.8C and 4C and a rise in sea levels of between 0.18 and 0.59 metres, by the year 2100. And most of the media are still not interested in the idea that adapting to such changes and industrializing the whole world are the wisest things to do. One of the Working Groups of the IPCC is looking into this kind of adaptation, but it doesn’t get the publicity that the mitigation-orientated Working Group III does. It’s natural that they run with the … read on »
©2010 Alistair Robinson