Steve Jackson
Hi, I'm Steve, I have a physiology degree and medical background. I taught science for 30 years in a Kent school and I have a life-long love of science and in particular, astronomy and climate.
Location London/ Kent
Activity
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I agree, renewables are the future and since money dosn't talk, it screams, the important thing is, it's so obviously the best investment for the big companies. It's sad that money is the driving force but hey, because renewables are the best bet to make money we will see an overdue exlosion of research and production of the good stuff.
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@MarkPickin Fusion has been used and demonstrated in the most dramatic fashion. Hydrogen bombs are much more destuctive and powerful that fission bombs like the Hiroshima bomb. The fusion we are discussing is controlled and measured and just releases energy for us to use. No mad dictator would be interested in these as H-bombs are alraedy here
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Steve Jackson made a comment
If a gas is given more energy it can/will become a plasm. In what form is this energy, heat, kinetic energy?
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I've just joined but how long have to complete the course?
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Hi, I taught science for 30 years including physics but to a fairly fundamental level. I took early retirement 10 years ago so things have moved on and I need to catch up. In addition my boys are all imployed in science related mode and I need to be careful not to be too left behind or left out of conversations.
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@CarlyKempster Yes, the team were so relaxed and they played gentle music throughout. I was so impressed. When they restarted the heart the patient's body lifted clear of the operating table a tiny bit and he had to be 20 stones. I did get in to study medicine but after passing the first 3 years I threw myself off the course because I'm accident prone,...
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I wanted to be a doctor so when I was in my 6th form my headmaster arranged for me to watch open heart surgery. It was anazing! The school phoned the hospital to tell me to come back for afternoon lessons but I refused. I eventually returned after the heart had been restarted. Previously I had not liked the headmaster but hey I changed ny mind!
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Steve Jackson replied to Amy Russell
The polarisation/ depolarisation of trhe ardiac muscle is pretty much how nerve messages are transmitted.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I'd just like to say how well that was described
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Steve Jackson made a comment
The deoxygenated blood has no significant pressure so it needs the right venticle's push to get it to the lungs. The right ventricle is significantly weaker than the left because: 1. it hasn't got to go far and 2. Very high pressure would damage the lungs.
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Steve Jackson replied to John Lateano
Yes they do or pretty nearly do. This is fine because the left and right side of he heart act like two individul pump systems which are joined together. Right side pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen and then returns the oxygenated blood to the left. The left side is responsible for pushing this oxygen rich blood around the body to all cells.
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@JenThornton They are cutting bus route 4 which is our lifeline! Why? they are underfunded by the central government.
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Steve Jackson replied to Deborah C
Deborah, I agree wholeheartedly
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Steve Jackson replied to Deborah C
I lived and worked as a teacher in the countryside of Kent for 30+ years. We had access to one bus a day 0r a 2.5 mile walk to the railway station. Now there are no buses at all. The problem is that buses are not run as a public service any more but as a money making business. I used to cycle to school on good days which was a 15 mile round journey, or...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Very late starting...hope I've not nissaed the bus
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Absolutely amazing!
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Steve Jackson replied to Caz Donovan
You say you are not a scientist. I am. I used to be a research scientist and became a science teacher and lectured on climate change amongst other things. If you have have blurred vision do you go to see an optician or ask a gardener for advice? If your house is on fire you call the fire brigade not an accountant. If you have a leak you call a plumber. When...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
When I did the 'Moons' course I recorded Goodbye Cassini from the TV. All other astronomy courses I consolidated my knowledge and understanding by recording series on the universe and space. This time I bought the DVD The 'of 'The Continents.' Prof Iain Stewart, It's amazing. I strongly advise doing so, in no way does it replace this excellent course it ads...
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Steve Jackson replied to Caz Donovan
Sorry Caz but Velikovsky a joke. My best friend and I bought it when we were at uni together. We bought it so we could have a good laugh! The rubbish he spouted is unbelievable. I think it was he who said that the sun stopped still in the sky because the earth stopped turning and then started again (maybe it was another crank) also explained the manna from...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
One misconception is that the wave is like a wave breaking on the seashore and so it passes in a bink of an eye, you could hold your breath until it passes. It's more like the sea becomes a lot deeper, the duration of each wave can be more very long.
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@Andrew, I've just said the same but you have explained it better.
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You're pretty much right. The tsunami travels at great speed in the open water (the water does not flow in the direction of the wave it's just the energy that does,,,, badly explained). Anyhow, the wave out at sea is no big shakes but when it reaches shallow waters the bottom of the wave, where it come in contact with the seabed is slowed but the rest is not....
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Woah, the vast volume of fresh water entering the sea must have had a profound effect on the oceanic water. Fresh water is less dense than salt water so... does it mix or does the fresh water go to the top and if so how long does it take to mix? I'm reluctant to mention the potential effect it may have on oceanic current because that may well trigger comments...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I was teaching about plate techtonics to GCSE at that time and so showed videos of the tsumami to make a point but I had to stop doing it as the human cost, dreadful loss of life and sufferiung was unbearable.
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Habibullah S, thanks tht's outstanding!
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@JohnConnell If you haven't done the Moons course on FL you really should. It's amazing and has just started
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Steve Jackson made a comment
If it had hit in mid--ocean it would have created a tsunami 5km high! Crikey Bill!
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Steve Jackson replied to Ann Holloway
My response.
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@paulweldon We can agree on political and comercial interferance with the truth but I doubt we are coming at this from the same side. The oil industry has spread disinformation , casting doubt on the facts which will cost them trillions. This is my last word on this. The last
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Plenty of FL courses covering that. If not now there will be one along soon. Like waitingh for a bus.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Isn't there a Yellowstne equivalent in Russia; the Kamchatka Peninsula?
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I have a question. Am I right in assuming that explosive eruptions occur at destructive boundaries (where two plates come together, and effusive boundaries occur wher plates are sliding apart (constructive)?
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Steve Jackson replied to Angela Dyer
Angela, I think the Great Glen in Scotlandis a fault as the northern bit is sliding over the rest of Britain The next bit is lifted from a web site.
The Great Glen fault is more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) long and cuts the Scottish Highlands into northern and southern halves. The strike-slip fault, where rocks slide past one another with no vertical...
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@LeeScott There's plenty of geological activity in our solar system, especially and remarkably some of the moons. Io is the most geologically active body in the solar system! It orbits close to the mighty Jupiter and tidal forces are so massive that the suface is molten.
Europa, (one of Jupiter's moons) has liquid water, an ocean, under the surface ice, and... -
@paulweldon OK here it is: The IPCC: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It doesn't conduct original research but uses meta-analysis, a synthesis of all the serious work from around the world.
The IPCC was created to provide policymakers with regular scientific... -
Don't get me wrong Paul, It's obvious you are an intelligent and educated man. I am most certainly not saying that large eruptions do not have a devastating effect on global temperatures. If I remember rightly it was massive volcanic activity in a Pangea something like 250mya that brought about the biggest extinction even known : the Permian extinction. (the...
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@paul, You say: 'a slight warming of the climate'. Here's the problems with that. Firstly a small increase in average temperature has a profound effect on the climate, causing floods, famine, war, migration; human deaths and misery on a dreadful scale.
Additionally a rise in temperature triggers positive feedback. If you get a positive feedback in an... -
I do not believe that relatively recent volcanic activity is the cause of the already changing climate. I don't think that volcanic activity is increasing significantly, reporting and recording the activity is what brings about this misconception. I have explained this below. I am concerned that 'climate change deniers' are using this misconception to cast...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
A lot is being made here of increased volcanic activity. The records show a significant rise in reported activity which seems true. However, the graph showing the activity rise mirrors the graph of population increase. The key word here is REPORTED. The further you go back in history the less likely it is that volcanic activity is observed and less likely to...
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@Philippa, yes quite true but it's annoying.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I saw a clip from a TV program years ago. It showed the presenter going down into a very deep mine, I think a goldmine. The interesting thing was that at a certain , very deep level the rock had iron in it. Not iron oxide but iron in it's elementary form. This doesn't exist in less deep rock because it would be oxidised. As you go deeper the rock you see is...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
One of the heartening things about FL courses is it gives knowledge and understanding and this consolidates stuff learned earlier. Not only that but the facts, principles and understanding learned elsewhere overlap and help build the bigger picture The Germans call this gestalt Whilst studying this course I realise how much more I get from this splendid course...
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I totally agree Helen
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Excellent points made Angela. Earlier (actually later but it's positioned above) I mentioned that the appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere of exoplanets is an indication of life. That said, could that mean that the emergence of life brought about conditions that favoured this life? That would be dandy.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
The startling fact for me is... 'Snowball Earth coincides with the first permanent rise of free oxygen in atmosphere.' That staggers me because free oxygen on exoplanets is evidence of life. Photosynthesis releases oxygen which indicates that life has begun.
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@JudiBoutle Yes, ruminants do produce an alarming amount of methane which is more than 25x as damaging as CO2 and in addition there is a vast amount of it locked away in frozen tundra and permafrost. So if the CO2 raises the planets temperature it releases more methane....and you get the picture. It's a positive feedback. This is bad not good, it's like...
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@Cyrilla, I have done the Moons course 3 times and was a mentor for it twice. So I heartily agree it's a splendid course
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When I was a young lad at school I was told that the tides bulged out at high tide because of the Moon's gravitational pull. I was painfully shy but plucked up courage to put my hand up and asked why it bulged out on the opposite side as well. He said: 'shut up Jackson'. Years later I studied A' level Physics and asked my excellent teacher the same question....
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Let me try to explain tidal forces. Consider the Earth and the moon. Each excerpts a gravitational pull on the other. The Earth is bigger so it pulls more strongly. The side nearest the moon gets a stronger pull than the side further away (the pull of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance ) so the Earth is stretched or elongated....
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Steve Jackson made a comment
If I may explain convection currents. Hot air, hot liquid is lighter than cooler stuff so it rises. The super-hot core heats the semi-liquid mantle which travels upwards (which of course is any direction from the centre). When it nears the surface it cools and flows back down again. This causes some plates to separate and adjacent ones to push together.......
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Cyrilla, not thousands of planet but trillions and trillions of them exist and and many many of them will be capable of supporting life. I would happily bet my life that there is life out there. It's even possible that life exists in our own solar system, not on the planets but on some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. It's complicated but moons such as...
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Captured moons often give themselves away by orbiting in the wrong direction. By wrong I mean if the planet is said to be travelling clockwise the captured moon goes anti-clockwise.
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Steve Jackson replied to Steve Jackson
Carolyn did you do the weather course (or similar)? I think we've talked before.)
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Judi, You have a good memory. I have the memory of....one of those things with holes in. Which courses did we meet in? As for help, you are very welcome.
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@JudiBoutle When we say weight we actually should say mass. Mass is how much matter there is in a body and is measured in Kg or grams. Weight is actually a force acting on and object due to gravity (measured in Newtons). If you were standing on the Moon your mass would be the same as on Earth but your weight would be less because the Moon's gravity is much...
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Steve Jackson replied to Steve Jackson
Thanks for that update.. I did the course twice before becoming a mentor and since then I volunteer to join the course every time it comes up if the numbers are low to help make it viable.
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The size of he star matters but really it is what kind of star that matters most or more importantly how hot it is. If a planet is orbiting a red dwarf (no jokes about Lister and Rimmer needed), the goldilocks zone could be really close to the star. Stars have life cycles and evolve as well, they evolve and change as they grow older.
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Steve Jackson replied to Steve Jackson
Carolyn, It, the moons course may be running now or very soon....or you might have just missed it. Also there is a Facebook group called 'moons' which is populated by people who have done the course and is run by top mentors and the prof himself. I dip in every now and then when I see something interesting. You say you still have access to it, have you...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Mars is within the habitable zone but has no life. It used to be a planet with water not unlike Earth but it lost it's atmosphere because it's magnetic field 'died' and the solar wind blasted it away. It may have had life before this. Maybe. Also the habitable zone depends not only on how big the star is but also how hot it is.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
The composition of the planets and the position in solar systems is complicated by other factors. The explanation as to why the rocky planets are close to the star (sun in this case) is of course correct but planets can wander, particularly in the earlier stages of solar systems' evolutions. When bodies enter the solar system their gravity can pull planets...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I've 'done a few courses on astronomy, universe moons.. been to lectures and read stuff about cosmology. It's amazing and complex. The condensed version I've just seen here has been done really well. I love FL courses because you can study courses which overlap and consolidate your previous knowledge. This is good stuff
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Excellent presentation.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Hi, I'm a retired Science teacher with a strange background. I studied medicine and passed 3 years before realising that I'm so forgetful, absent minded and accident-prone that the best way to save lives was not to be a doctor. Did medical research before finding a job I was good at...:teaching science. I also lectured in human physiology, qualified as a...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Ever since I turned 16 I became awkward and didn't do what I was told. So I'm going to comment on things other than what is asked! Sorry.
Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases. Fermentation releases CO2 and when the bioethanol is burnt it releases more. It seems just as bad as fossil fuels but it isn't. Bioethanol releases CO2 but this is... -
Silly me, yes it was a hydrogen explosion!
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@Jon, I've found the source, it's actually from OU's Futurelearn course: 'The Science of Nuclear Eneregy'. Here's a quote, it's actua;lly a news report on the TV, but as I don't think the OU would have failed to check the detail:
'NEWS REPORTER: Do we need a new kind of nuclear fuel? Some of the world’s top physicists are gathered in Geneva to discuss the... -
@JonLovett Thanks! I'll try to find my source, appropriately it was another Futurelearn course.
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I believe there have been some significant advances in nuclear technology where the procucts couldn't be used for nuclear weapons and the waste products have a shortish half-life.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Wetlands/marshlands. They are great for a number of reason, not least the y are a carbon sink and they protect the coastlands from rising sea levels and more extreme storms.
Also I'm a country bumpkin who is now liuving in Islington and consequently I've been researching London's rivers and the Thames barrier. All the triburaies of the Thames wre buried... -
Steve Jackson made a comment
Firstly, stop deforestation. Planting trees is great but very very roughly a mature tree has aroung 250,000 leaves whereas a newly planted sapling has around 25. So for every tree cut down you need to plant 10,000 trees to have an immediate evivalent effect. Planting trees is vitally important but we must do more that will have an imediate effect.
Over to you... -
All good points! I would just add a rider that it seems that the population may well start reducing.The phenomenom is being called reduceds fertility but his is a misnomer. People around the world are choosing to have smaller families, perhaps because the world is not seen as a suitable place for children to grow up in anymore.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
I don't know where this is appropriate but it can come here.
We have a problem with resources; we need rare earth metals and other elements which we need for green electricity generation. Neodymium (Nd) for instance, is. needed for wind power. A single off shore wind turbine needs over a tonne of the stuff. This element is found mainly in China and to a... -
Thanks Derek,how kind. But just coincidence , however seemingly unlikely.
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I didn't read your comment about Ella G before I put my comment above.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Wow! I've studied the science of climate change using previous Futurelearn courses and previously I have taught this science as a secondary school teacher and lectured about the same at adult educatuon classes, albeit ast a somewhat simple level.
My main thought about this video is how gifted Dr. Ella Gilbert is. If she was to present a lecture on climate... -
Steve Jackson made a comment
The stripes show the extent of the problem rather well. However, there are 2 stripes which are confusing.. There is a marked drop in temperature on or around 1920 and again on or around 2010.
I would have expected a drop when the pandemic hit rather than 2010. -
Steve Jackson made a comment
Coincidence is common, in fact extreme coincidences happen all the time. Thinking about terrestial coincidences, they are an inevitable result of statistics. There's pretty much an infinate number of things happening every moment in time so there must be coincidences happening every moment. Some will appear remarkable but they are inevitable.
I have married... -
I was going to ask that Dave
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Steve Jackson made a comment
'Why dark energy’s effect wasn’t felt before Big Bang?'
Erm.. how on Earth (maybe not on Earth) can we possibly know what happened before the big bang? How can we 'know' this?
I'm puzzled. -
Steve Jackson made a comment
We don't know what dark matter is yet, all we know is that it exists and we know little about the stuff. I mentioned before that I wonder if very small black holes could be at least part of it.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Astronomers must think all their Christmases have come at once. Gravitational waves must be like a having an extra sense.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Looking at the trace on the detector screens it's clear that the trace gets stronger and the waves shorten towards the end . This must be because the black holes are orbitting each other faster and faster as they get closer as well as sending a stronger and stronger signal. I guess the speeding up is rather like ice skaters spinning faster as they move their...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Hmmm, complicated. I think the formulae needed explaining. for instance it would be good to know what the components of the formuae represent. I viewed this video on two separate occasions and it became easier to understand the second time. I have A' level physics but that was 50 years ago!
I can get enough unserstanding of this to satisfy me. I hope the... -
Steve Jackson replied to Rach B
I think the existence of matter is down to neutrinos. It seems neutrinos can undergo change and in the early stages some changed to matter and some changed to antimatter. Theory says that equal amounts of matter and antimatter must have been created but it seems more neutrinos changed into matter than antimatter. If this hadn't happened there would be no...
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Steve Jackson replied to paula m
This is more complex than it sounds. Many people would just accept the fact but you question it. That's what you should do. Sorry, I seem patronising, I was a science teacher for 30 years and too few kids questioned things. Forgive me.
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Steve Jackson replied to paula m
John unless I'm mistaken, and I'm good at being mistaken....it doesn't say they're all the same intensity but that we know how bright each one ought to be.
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I think it's something to do with the wierdness of neutrinos. I think without neutrinos there would be no matter. which does matter! No matter, no universe, no us.
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I don't think there violation of the energy conservation law because the longer red waves are just what we see. In a way it's an illusion.
If I can reference the post below, the fire engine tone seems to change but of course it does not, it's just what we hear. -
The doppler effect of light waves also works with sound waves. Despite light and sound waves being entirely different they both get stretched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imoxDcn2Sgo
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Steve Jackson replied to Robert Birke
@Robert, the graph shows velocity v distance. As the distance increases the velocity increases... it speeds up. It is accelerating. If a graph of distance v time was a straight line it would show constant velocity.
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Steve Jackson replied to paula m
Yes Brian, this also confused me but the missing link with me was the fact that they know how bright a supernova is. I didn't know that before.
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You're welcome.
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I think light can be slowed but gravitational waves are not.
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I'm a physiologist myself. Yes the numbers can confuse and I fear they may have stopped some people following this course. Quite an apparent jump. I taught science at school andI was a mentor for the wonderful Moons course under Prof. Rothery and that has improved my unsderstanding of this stuff. my advice is not to worry about the equations and get what you...
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Neutrinos are fascination scamps. Thye seem to be very big players indeed. I can't wait learn all about them. I have read quite a bit about them but they are so complicated and seemingly important..
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Steve Jackson made a comment
The MeerKAT. Trust me, I'll get there in the end.
When I was a young lad my friend and I belonged the 'Hull and East Riding Astronomical Socierty' and we attened lectures in Hull.
On one occasion they had a special guest speaker who broke the news of an amazing discovery; a young lady worrking with the Cambridge one mile telescope had observed a Pulsar... -
I don't understand Brian. The only significant point source of light in our solar sysyem is the sun.
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They use transit spectroscopy to look for oxygen in the atmospheres odf exoplanets, a fairly high percentage can only really be down to life.
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Steve Jackson made a comment
Steve Jackson
Steve Jackson
12 AUG
Light intensity is inversely proportionalto the square of the distance. Stars are phenominally far away and galaxies. are unimaginally distant. An example closer to home. Saturn is aprox. 10 times further away from the sun as Earth, so the light intensity reaching Saturn is 10 squared = 100 times dimmer than on Earth. -
Steve Jackson replied to Julie Cabanat
Light intensity is inversely proportionalto the square of the distance. Stars are phenominally far away and galaxies. are unimaginally distant. An example closer to home. Saturn is aprox. 10 times further away from the sun as Earth, so the light intensity reaching Saturn is 10 squared = 100 times dimmer than on Earth.
