Nuclear Power with Dr. Kim Milton!

Dr. Kim Milton of the Department of Physics will talk about nuclear power at the upcoming Science Cafe on May 5. Here is Dr. Milton's synopsis of his presentation, titled "Does Nuclear Power Have a Role to Play in the US Energy
Budget?":

It has been plausibly argued both from a consideration of energy needs
and from the need to combat global warming that nuclear power will need
to play an increasing role in our energy sources. However, the recent
events in Japan have brought issues of nuclear safety to renewed
attention. In addition, proliferation is a major concern, and it is
necessary to increase funding, staff, and enforcement of the IAEA.
Disposal of nuclear waste, for indefinitely long periods, and
reprocessing of nuclear wastes, are issues that have yet to be solved.
These issues are extremely difficult and worrisome, and it is possible
for reasonable, responsible people to hold strong views on the issue in
contradiction to each other.

I was inspired to contact Dr. Milton at a suggestion from Jana Smith, and the fact that the issue is reemerging after the events at Fukushima Daichi in Japan following their recent earthquakes and tsunamis. This one will have lots of discussion, since people tend to pretty polarized on this issue. I'm sure that we will all learn a lot, and I hope to find out what makes the generation of power this way different than traditional fossil fuels, in terms of costs, waste production, and so forth. Don't miss it!

Don Wyckoff's Presentation about Oklahoma's Past Climate

We gathered last Thursday to hear Dr. Don Wyckoff, the Curator of Archaeology at Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, talk about reconstructing past climates using all sorts of different types of "proxies", which are different types of preserved materials that indirectly tell scientists what environmental conditions in a particular region must have been like. As an example, Dr. Wyckoff talked about different types of pollen that are preserved for thousands of years, and existence of a pollen for a particular tree might indicate that there was a range of temperatures and precipitation in that location when the pollen was created. He showed several pollen records that describe the natural variability of the climate over the most recent 10000 to 35000 years. He also discussed the finding of "buried soils", which are different types of soil lying in layers below the uppermost layer. These also serve as indicators of the climate at a particular time, with darker carbon rich soils indicating periods of significant plant growth and favorable conditions.

Based on his findings, Dr. Wyckoff expressed a concern for people living in Oklahoma in the future, since the past points to long periods of drought, with short periods in between of relatively moist conditions. He placed a strong emphasis on the need for wiser use of water and resources, since the state's past implies a future where these will be in limited supply.

First Post!

This is the first post of the official blog for Science Cafe Norman. I plan to use this space to announce speakers and introduce topics, but also to post general science topics that I think are interesting to the general public. Hopefully, this will inspire more involvement from the community, and more speakers to volunteer.

Here is some general information about Science Cafe. We meet on the first Thursday of the month at 7pm, typically at the Norman Public Library. All are welcome, and there is no cost to attend. The atmosphere is casual, with speakers being open to general questions throughout their presentations. In the past we have had talks on climate change, the Large Hadron Collider, glaciers at the equator at sea level hundreds of millions of years ago, wind energy, biofuels, tornados, severe winter weather, extraction of natural gas from shale, environmental health risks and ozone, using gamma rays to detect leaks in underground gas tanks, and many others.

Please feel free to suggest a topic, speaker, or anything else, either in the comments, or by email to me at sean.m.crowell@gmail.com. Sign up on the right sidebar to receive emails when I post something new, or join our Google Group to get emails about meetings and such. Finally, we have a Facebook group (search ‘Science Cafe Norman’) that has our gatherings posted as events!