Tuesday 26 February 2008

Under the Microscope!


Funny thing happened today. I'm not giving away too much detail, but in an overheard conversation, I overheard mention of the fact that no-one had ever seen an electron. It went further... electrons were just too small to see, but atoms could be seen. Then, tonight I'm having a quick scan through the first few pages of Digg, and I read the headline "Scientists view electrons for first time"! How spooky is that? It's not like it's every day you hear people talk about electrons unless that's part of your job, and it's not part of my job. Well, maybe slightly, but not to such an extent that I even need to say the word "electron"!

I did read another much more disturbing article on Digg last week about a report that the Pentagon had commissioned on climate change. Allegedly, the results suggested that the World, and it's over-burgeoning population might be on it's knees by 2020. It suggested that the UK would be as cold as Siberia, sea-levels would rise dramatically, resource shortages would escalate, and that countries would use nuclear weapons to defend their precious resources, in what was termed "a resource war"! That paints a pretty gloomy picture. Of course they could be wrong, and they better be wrong, because I'm not a fan of the cold and I live in the Northern extremities of the UK.

It gets to the point though, where all these scare stories just wash over you. We've heard it all... pork gives you cancer, vegetables are filled with pesticides, and radiation from Chernobyl, as are the animals grazing on the irradiated pastures. Wine is good for you, no it's bad, wait, some wine might be good. Tap water is filled with fluoride and stuff that makes it shiny, but gives you Alzheimers. On the other hand, bottled water contains chemicals from the bottle's plastic which will give you cancer. Let's face it, there's nothing safe to eat or drink, so you may as well eat, drink and be merry!