Recently I have watched a number of interesting series videos on the topic of nuclear physics, and its applications in peace and war.

China Is Building a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor – Here’s Why It Matters - YouTube

This is one of Anton Petrov’s videos which I follow to get news of what going on in science, especially astronomy. I have learnt quite a bit from this one, where in regard to history it comes across that The Oak Ridge Laboratory was working on thorium reactors, but because of the Cold War the funding was directed to fast breeder uranium reactors to produce plutonium for bombs.

Recently I watched this video:

The MONSTER That Devours Russia - YouTube

Here are some interesting YouTube videos, from which I have learned quite a bit:

Mushballs on Jupiter.

Terrestrial meteorology is an intricate subject, so how about a planet which could be said to be largely made up of weather?  Here is an interesting video from an astrophysicist, in which I see details that are perhaps clearer to a (physical) chemist!

Ammonia and water mix in Jupiter’s atmosphere to give some pretty epic lightning and giant hail that have been dubbed “mushballs”.

In 1996 (or thereabouts) the new Meteorology building was opened at the University of Reading. The inaugural lecture was given by Ed Lorenz, widely regarded as the father of modern Chaos Theory. In this biography from the National Academy of Sciences, Edward Norton Lorenz, one reads

At one point, in 1961, Ed had wanted to examine one of the solutions in greater detail, so he stopped the computer and typed in the 12 numbers from a row that the computer had printed earlier in the integration. He started the machine again and stepped out for a cup of coffee.

Here are a few of the things I have been watching , while living a somewhat less active life due to current conditions.

In the south of England, this summer has been quite hot, and fig trees (mostly of the Brown Turkey variety) have been giving large crop. In our area there is a large fig tree hanging over the garden wall, and passers-by have been helping themselves to the fruit. I also try to grow figs, but without getting many. I looked at several videos from the USA, but none of them seemed to correspond to the way figs behave in the British Isles.

Travelling by YouTube during the Lockdown

During the lockdown, and not even able to take a bus to the centre of town, I have perforce been getting about more by YouTube.  Here are three of my “discoveries” which I hope will be interesting and pleasing to readers.

Buzz Aldrin

I am always eager to hear about space programmes, and here from the Science Musuem channel is yet another video showing what a nail-biting event was the first Apollo Moon landing.