Melanie Burstall
Hi, I'm 48 married with three grown up kids. Want to expand my horizons and see where it takes me.
Location Manchester England
Activity
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Laughton's version of Henry VIII only serves as a titillation. It shows Henry VIII as a man who cared only for himself and his earthly pleasures of food and pleasures of the body. Laughton states that it was historically accurate yet did not even touch on the reformation of the church or the fact that England went through a Renaissance under the Tudors. I see...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
The break from the Catholic church, the English colony at Roanoke and the defeat of the Spanish Armada
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I know a fair bit about Henry VIII but I want to know more about him and his life, his thoughts, politics etc
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
What springs to mind for me with the Tudors is the Battle of Agincourt, the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York, the sweating sickness, Henry VIII his wives and the reformation of the Church, the break away from Rome.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I think no as if you were to class small ring particles as moons then the Solar System would be a traffic jam of moons. You could go on to class the Kuiper Belt as an area of Moons waiting to be released, so where do we draw the line?
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
To find life on Europa would help prove that life can exist not just on moons in our own solar system, but also in other Solar Systems withing other galaxies. This could also lead to potential intelligent life not unlike ourselves.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I chose Barnard's Star that lies approximately 6 light years from Earth and is about 6 light years away in the northernmost part of the Constellation Ophiuchus. It was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard and he found in 1916 that this Star has the largest known proper motion of all known stars which is 10.3 arcseconds per year.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
This evening I should be able to see Aries, Pisces, Cetus, Sculptor and later on Orion
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
So looking forward to learning more about the Orion system
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I'm certainly intrigued as to Deimos's trajectory when it finally leaves Mars's orbit. Would it become trapped and become another moon or hurtle away as an asteroid.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Hi, I'm Melanie from Manchester England, my knowledge of climate change is limited but I'm concerned about how the planet is changing. It saddens me when I hear how the ice caps are breaking up and destroying habitats of polar bears and penguins. I miss the summers we used to have when I was growing up and and the cold winters as well. All we seem to get now...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Its great to meet you both. Can't wait to learn and get stuck in.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I recently found out that my chronic migraines affect my digestive system as well as my nervous system which impacts on my fibromyalgia. These chronic migraines can also affect the heart and lead to angina presenting itself in a patient. I know from experience that my chronic migraines have affected my fibromyalgia, ibs, and osteo-arthritis not to mention my...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
As a patient I would prefer it if would be possible for the pharmacist to release repeat prescriptions rather than wait for a Doctor to write out a prescription. This would save time with a G.P and make things easier for patient/pharmacist unless a change or check up was needed.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Hi, everybody I'm doing this course to learn more about the body's reactions to medications. Especially to pain meds as I'm on quite a few. I don't mind people asking me what I'm on and for what for so please feel free if it will help on this course.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Sorry to have been away for so long my migraines have been especially bad these past two weeks. I have a question, if Mars can't hold an atmosphere why does Mars have clouds?
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Melanie Burstall replied to Melanie Burstall
It was an old article on Ancient Code that I read I think about 6 months ago about it.
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Melanie Burstall replied to JOHN KNIGHT
Love it, I forgot that one
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Melanie Burstall replied to JOHN KNIGHT
It actually wasn't an iceberg that sank the Titanic it was a series of fires between bulk heads in the engine room that caused the majority of the problems.
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Melanie Burstall replied to ihrar Tabish
There are melt waters at the bottom of lava tubes that lead into caves plus there are the polar ice caps that could be used as a water source.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
We don't own planet Earth or any country or landmass. We are privileged to be on this planet living and breathing. Nature has allowed us to be on this planet even though we are destroying it. If we do colonise the Moon, Mars or any other Planets we have to learn from the mistakes we have made on this planet. We have to remember that wherever we live it is...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
NASA doesn't know if Mars's core is completely cold or if its still liquid. If its still liquid would it be possible to restart the core so Mars could possibly get its atmosphere back?
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Melanie Burstall replied to Sue C
I've hit a brick wall, I've never done a concept map in my life. I have so many ideas running around my head but have no idea how to put them down on paper.
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Melanie Burstall replied to Dawn Lusher
I think going to Mars and having a colony there isn't just about going there because its there and we can. Our planet is suffering climate change, whether it can be reversed or not is down to the heads of state. We are the ones that can control that, but the one thing we can't control is an extinction event from space. So if we could establish colonies on Mars...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I'd just like to say congratulations to China for teleporting a photon to a satellite in lower Earth's orbit using quantum entanglement, also that they're planning to grow potatoes on the moon.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
With Space X solving the problem and having reusable heavy-load rockets, would it not be beneficial for both Space X and NASA to have a joint mission to Mars. Thereby solving NASA's problem of not having reusable heavy-load rockets that they can use and re-fuel for payloads to Mars.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Its times like this I wish I was a mathematician and rocket scientist. No good with equation.
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Melanie Burstall replied to Andrea McAlister
Snap
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Melanie Burstall replied to Ruth Fryman
I've signed up for Moons and Orion later on in the year
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Melanie Burstall replied to Ruth Fryman
Did you do past extinctions?
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
What I find fascinating is the theory that life on earth started from microbes from Mars that were blasted out into space when Mars' atmosphere was vaporized.
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Melanie Burstall replied to Ruth Fryman
Hi Ruth I'm fairly housebound too due chronic ill health, I'm also from Manchester (England) and doing these courses to keep my brain ticking over. Thanks for the follow hopefully we can bounce a few ideas off each other.
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Melanie Burstall replied to John Chandler
The Martian is an excellent film it showed us what we would face to survive on Mars, extreme heat and cold,, no atmosphere, etc.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
With this concept map do we know where the colony is based. Is it on the surface or underground? Or is it up to us where we place this colony, and what sort of basics do we have. Sorry I'm one of these people who needs to know what bare essentials the colonists have to be able to initially survive and set up a colony and expand.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Hi, not sure if I've already introduced myself but here goes. I'm Melanie, 48 I've already completed one FL course on past extinctions, found it really interesting, but my passion is space and the planets. I'm really eager to learn more about Mars especially after watching the National Geographic presentation they did on how to survive on Mars with setting up...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I think there will always be new species to be found around vents even if a particular set of vents have been explored, a new species could always pop up. As to estimating due to the curve not flattening out any time soon I think its hard to say how many undisclosed species there are until the ones that have been found have been named and categorized and the...
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I sometimes think that these odd creatures somehow managed to survive from the prehistoric age.
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I agree totally
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
The similarities between humans and marine mammals is amazing as well as between the great apes. However humans forget that marine mammals are as intelligent as us but we seem to think its alright for us to pollute their world with oil, chemicals, plastics and noise which also includes sonar buoys.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
With the bonding process between mother and calf surely it would be the same as most mammals and it would be a natural maternal bond between mother and calf.
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There has been some research done that some scientists believe that when whales, dolphins etc beach themselves it may have something to do with mass solar flares. Unfortunately I can't remember the link it may have been on Ancient Code or Space.com or even on the NASA website itself.
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Melanie Burstall replied to Howard Davies
Yes of course it matters, from the knowledge I've gained from past extinctions this continuation will have a detrimental affect on the ecosystem around the Faroe Islands. Thus in turn will have a knock on effect on the fishing industry and trade.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Thank you for showing me how complex but fragile our oceans are. This week had been hard at times to fully understand, especially when it came to working out how much salt is the ocean. I was never that good with maths. I'm really looking forward to learning more about our oceans and their eco-systems and the marine life that lives around them.
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Algae is a great source of oxygen so surely if there was a way of having algae farms in the oceans this fertilization might not be a bad thing. If the fertilization is controlled it may be a benefit.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Are there any other isotopes in the deep ocean apart from helium-3. Is this why ocean water cannot be used in helping to avoid a nuclear meltdown at a nuclear power plant, apart from the salt content, would the helium-3 react the uranium?
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Its been amazing to learn about this but I have found it confusing in parts
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I loved those pictures. They say a picture can tell a thousand words and they certainly do, they show all the hard work these people have to do to scrape a living together. I must admit though if I ever get the chance to visit Poland where my Great Uncle John came from I will most certainly be visiting the Great Salt Cathedral, I'm not religious but the beauty...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Ok I did poorly in my C.S.E in maths but I did attempt this, I tried the compare with your home. So the area of the oceans is 3.58 x 10`8km`2 or about 360 million square kilometres, so I compared the area of Great Britain to the area of the oceans. Great Britain is the ninth largest island on Earth and has an area of 209,331 square kilometres or (80,823 square...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I never could get my head round maths but I'll give the maths a go. I've had a quick look and it amazes me the numbers that we are dealing with for the calculations of salt of seawater.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
So land salt can come from the evaporated ancient oceans, sorry if I'm being thick but is that how the great salt flats in Utah were made by one ancient ocean evaporating.
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Can I ask could you apply the angular movement application to cosmology when stars are dying and collecting the remnants of their energy before one last explosion.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I'm just wondering if some of the salt in the oceans are actually natural salts that have been released from marine life that are decomposing.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Would this have anything to do with the Gulf Jet Stream?
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Melanie Burstall replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Snap
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Pollutants in our oceans needs to stop as well. Algae is a great source for releasing oxygen into the atmosphere to balance out the CO2, algae actually releases more oxygen into the atmosphere than trees.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Looking at the image and putting the ocean ball into perspective it looks like a rain drop. With all the water we have on this planet it truly amazes me that the oceans are just 1/10 of the Earth's surface. Yet they contain an incredible fragile ecosystem with such wonderful and amazing marine life.
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Melanie Burstall replied to Melanie Burstall
Do you honestly think some if those governments will honour the agreement, given the state of some of their economies.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I had no idea that only 5% of the world's oceans had been mapped and that if it hadn't of been for the HMS Challenger we wouldn't have modern day oceanography as a science today. Learning about how fragile the ecosystem of the oceans are is fascinating as well. Can't wait to learn more facts.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Thank you for the glossaries they will certainly cone in handy
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Its an interesting article but it makes my blood boil. Yes we should map the oceans but not to help deep sea mining companies so they can gain profit. They will destroy what is a delicate ecosystem and release toxins in the water and atmosphere. The oceans should be a protected ecosystem where no mining can take place, protecting all marine life and plant life.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
How accurate were those first geological sea maps of the sea floor when there was no sonar. I'm really intrigued with the whole process of how these sea floor maps were drawn up.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I really don't know much about the oceans but the picture I have posted amazes me that such an amazing creature that size can live in the ocean undetected. Its truly amazing and that's what I love about the oceans that creatures as big as this whale can live in the ocean and we still do not know what else can live in our oceans.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I think people's mentality has to change. A lot of people of the mentality I'm only one person what can I do, but it only takes one person to do one small change and that can inspire another person to do another small change and so on, until lots of people have done lots of small changes that have turned into big changes.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
If we actually stop endangering animals and birds and started to save them, increasing their numbers then biodiversity and eco-systems would revive and stave of the 6th mass extinction.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I'm starting a course on exploring our oceans as we really don't know much of the life in the oceans. We spend billions on reaching the stars but not enough on exploring our oceans, we should first explore our beautiful planet.
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To be truthful I honestly think he is the poster boy for fossil burning industries, but he has actually tweeted that there is no such thing as global warming and that it is faked news. Which I personally find extremely scary.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
What I've gained from the past is that nature always finds a way to change the environment and diversify species. I think we should be preventing the polluting of our waterways and oceans as this will encourage more algae to grow and produce more oxygen to be released into the atmosphere. This in turn will encourage more eco-systems in the oceans and marine...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I think to avoid a 6th mass extinction it should from the generation of people in their 40's. If we make changes now, by planting more wild flowers to increase pollinators, decrease the use of plastics and decrease carbon dioxide emissions, this in turn could be passed on to the younger generations who will come up with other ideas for cleaner living.
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The problem with Donald Trump is that he honestly thinks that Global Warming is fake news and a conspiracy, that there is no such thing as global warming and its a con. For someone as powerful as he is, he is extremely naive with this. I honestly think that even if the White House was half submerged with glacial water he would still deny it.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Since growing up I've noticed there are less bumble bees, honey bees, wasps (which I don't mind too much, can't stand them lol) and butterflies. At this time of year in the summer I would be trying to name what butterfly would be in the garden. Hardly ever see a butterfly now. It really makes me sad. I'm actually trying to find the right mix of wild flower...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
There should be more done for green belts and meadows so that species of flowers that we have lost can come back and hopefully encourage bumblebee numbers to rise again.
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Nature does work in her own special way. If she doesn't think a species is working she'll do something to either move them along or remove them from the pattern of life.
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I must admit I never knew that the Permian age was the third and largest mass extinction event that almost wiped out life on earth. I honestly thought that the largest mass extinction event was the one that extinguished the dinosaurs and turned the planet into a giant snow ball. I'm so eager to learn more
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
With a 6th mass extinction spurring on a diversification of new life forms whose to say that humans would be left on the planet. Surely that's arrogance and ego on our part, we're the ones that are damaging this planet and affecting the CO2 content in the atmosphere which would lead to a crisis. We don't deserve to survive a mass extinction event and I know...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
This course has really got my brain working and dusted off the cobwebs. I'd forgotten how good it feels to learn especially this the orgins of life on this planet and how the eco-systems are so fragile that the balance has to be so perfect to avoid a mass extinction event.
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It seems to me that the forests had become eco-system engineers. By changing the atmosphere and the ph and salinity of the oceans had a direct impact on marine life, therefore leading to a mass extinction event
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If it wasn't for this extinction maybe life as we now know it wouldn't have happened.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
Could the current climate change that is affecting weather patterns and changing weather systems be leading into a possible sixth mass extinction for mankind. The weather systems are causing mass destruction and lives on a massive scale are being lost. Plus the re-introduction of diseases such as cholera and typhoid and the like could also lead to such an...
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Thank you both for the clarification of the paper. I actually found the paper interesting to the point that it showed that its not just external influences that can cause a mass extinction, but in fact ecological engineers that can cause mass extinction.
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Thank you I'll download a copy and read it.
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Looking to the past is a very good idea but I'm not too sure how looking into the past mass extinctions could help us stop a meteor strike. Even with the technology we have today our calculations would have to spot on with no margin for error. I agree there are definitely things out there beyond our control, super massive black holes, the andromeda system...
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I've noticed in the five mass extinctions it starts with the Ordovicion-Silurian mass extinction at 443 mya. When I did a little research for this course I found some research that Simon Darroch Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences @ Vanderbilt University has determined there was a mass extinction around 540 mya called the Edicara...
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Melanie Burstall replied to Sal Davies
There is always hope out there and in you.
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What's the name if the poem I would to read it sometime
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Melanie Burstall replied to KUNAL BOSE
It's a shame that whilst there are many of us that do not wish to repeat the past, there are unfortunately those who really do not care what happens to this planet of ours. They look to others for solutions to their follies.
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Melanie Burstall replied to KUNAL BOSE
It would be great if such a thing was possible to learn from past mistakes in order not to repeat them in the future. In order for that to happen Governments of the World would have to agree to and stick by reversing the effects of global warming or face the consequences of embargoes or other such penalties.
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Melanie Burstall made a comment
I've always been interested in the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and didn't realise there were more mass extinctions until recently. This has peaked my interest and I love history. Also global warming worries me a lot and I know that this can contribute to endangering life on this planet as we know it. Learning from our past can help us to understand more...