Tag Archives: physics

Stardust

Dear Michael, All the big stars, i.e. those with a mass exceeding the sun’s mass by a factor of 1.3, gain most of their energy by a hydrogen-fusion reaction that involves a catalytic cycle, known as the Bethe-Weizsäcker or CNO-cycle. During this reaction cycle,  protons (i.e. hydrogen nuclei) are added four times into a cycling reaction that converts carbon through… (more…)

The Moon — one year later, but more than one year elder

Ghazal my dear, What is age, and what is aging, if everyone uses a different measure for this. This came to my mind when I did another picture of the moon tonight. Tonight it was once again the night of the Persides meteor shower. But since nothing could top the spectacular meteor that we saw together with you at the… (more…)

ELIZA – The Intelligent Answering Machine

Dear Michael, sometimes I wonder if we don”t trust too much in the electronic communication, when one person writes some words to another person thousands of km away, and these words are converted into a sequence of bits and rush through computer chips and are converted into electric pulses or light waves, send back and forth to satellites until they… (more…)

Why the Fukushima nuclear disaster is good for nature

It is always worth to follow Monthy Pythons advise and ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE, even in case of an accident that univocally is considered a major disaster for the civilized world and in Japan the biggest catastrophy since their defeat in WW2. At least here in Germany, the most prominent critics of nuclear energy are the… (more…)

What means “Ey Vay” ?

At university I had a very good friend from Jordan. He was palestine, much younger than the rest of us physics students and extremely gifted. But he did not only had an extraordinary mathematical talent, he was also very familial with classical european music and literature. On the other hand, he had a very firm opinion about Israel, whom he… (more…)

Relax with the kinetic sculpture

Hi Ghazal my Dear, Reading you last e-mails I got the impression that you are most excited if I send you links to some “moving pictures” (the origin of the word MOVIE, as you perhaps know). The german translation is KINO, which comes from french CINEMATOGRAPH, meaning “moving or kinetic image” and what gave rise to the english CINEMA. Why… (more…)

A Joint Meteor Party

Hi Ghazal my Dear, You recently raised the issue of spotting simultaneously the same meteor from your place in Stockholm and from here in Munich. It appears it is not as simple as you thought, since you cannot compare it with the moon, sun or stars that, if they are high enough always look the same from here and from… (more…)

Discovery of a habitable planet (also for horses ?)

Ghazal, my Dear, What a funny coincidence that today, just a couple of days after you speculated about finding a house for us on the moon astronomers from Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C announced the discovery of the first extra-terrestrial habitable planet in the universe. For sure, the moon is much closer to the earth, to your family… (more…)

Quantum Entanglement, Dogs and the Problem of Longitude

Hi Ghazal, my Dear, Hope you didn” got lost on your Random Walk (swedish “Slump Promenade”) through the Olympia shopping mall. The swedish “Slump” (for Randomness) is really a very, very strange word, isn”t it. And in research, randomness is always what we like to minimize because it tends to obscure our observations, which we would like so much to… (more…)