Most of us never think about radiation effects except when we need to have a dental or chest x-ray to rule out disease. Also, the sun's radiation affects us daily but we don't pay it much attention until we are faced with a nasty burn. (Not a smart course of action.)
But what about the early days of science and medicine when x-rays were newly discovered? I came across this General Electric 1940s film on German physicist, Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of x-rays. This educational "infomercial" is interesting AND scary when you think of how little they knew.
Compare that to today's use of medical physics in CT, MRI, and other imaging methods. Progress has been made and medical science has come a long way. Something to think about. Go science!
After living in Houston for many years, I thought moving to Arkansas would mean an end to worrying about hurricanes and violent weather. Wrong. Arkansas experiences tornadoes along with other tornado alley states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa. See map.
Last night in Little Rock, the tornado sirens went off and on for over an hour. I ate dinner on a tray in the guest bathroom (no windows). Ugh! I did carry cushions from the sofa in there to make it a bit more cozy. Thankfully, the steep hill behind our street is a natural barrier to a lot of crazy bad weather.
Folks just 8 miles to the north in Mayflower and Maumelle, AR got the brunt of the tornado's fury. (The strength of a tornado is based on the Fujita Scale.)
Watch this news video on the devastation. To add insult to injury, the same area got hit in April 2011 nearly to the day. Some people are looking at rebuilding homes that were just rebuilt. Awful!
So there are lots of folks "in harm's way" that need to pay attention when tornado sirens blare. An article in The Atlantic explains how tornadoes are predicted, rated (by wind strength), and tracked. It also explains that a person has roughly 13 minutes average lead time upon notification to find shelter.
All I can say is pay attention, take shelter when the sirens sound and treat violent weather with respect.
Tonight the Science cafe topic is Hard Drive vs. The Cloud. Our panelists will be discussing how computers save personal, public and encrypted data. Since I have limited knowledge in this area, I'm looking forward to learning more. And what about beyond The Cloud? Are we now or will we ever be able to save or manipulate data in even more amazing ways? It's possible. What about Quantum Computing? Huh? What is a quantum computer anyway? Well, instead of using silicon-based transistors, a quantum computer takes advantage of quantum-mechanical actions, such as superposition and entanglement, to manipulate data. Digital computers need data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), which are in one of two states (0 or 1). Quantum computation, however, uses qubits (quantum bits), which can be in superpositions of states or the ability to be in more than one state simultaneously. Wow! It's the computing equivalent of "having your cake and eating it too." You don't have to choose since both instances occur at the same time. Mind blowing possibilities? Yes. Do I want to learn more about the way computers are advancing? Yes! Check out a recent Harvard team's work on testing a quantum logic gate. Go Science!
