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Thorium Power Notes

We are due to revisit the thoriumquestion again. The bottom line has always been that if one were to havenuclear power, and weapons are not a consideration, then thorium is moreproductive and safer for several reasons, not least that it needs a separatesystem to provide neutrons.

 Today we are actually at the end of thenuclear age if the emerging Focardi – Rossi reactor proves (see my posts) to bethe heat engine it is billed to be.  Yetcontinuance of thorium work is well indicated as a system in place capable ofconsuming the large supply of nuclear materials presently in existence.  All of it is best consumed slowly in athorium nuclear reactor to produce usable heat. That includes both plutonium and uranium and all spent fuel rods.

Radiated materials are anothermatter as they are best stuck in a salt mine somewhere and generally forgottenabout.

It is a reasonable engineeringsolution and likely supports additional production of medical isotopes.  It may even pay for itself even though itwill have to operate for centuries to dispose of all the fuel produced to date.

Thorium: A safer alternative for nuclear power generation?

By FrankLeonard

20:26 May 26, 2011

http://www.gizmag.com/thorium-nuclear-power/18204/

Thorium could provide a cleaner and more abundant alternative touranium (Photo: Three Mile Island NuclearPower Plant/ Lyndi & Jason via Flickr)

The world's growing need for energy, the limits of our supply of fossilfuels and concern about the effects of carbon emissions on the environment haveall prompted interest in the increased use of nuclear power. Yet the very word"nuclear" carries with it an association of fear. People areconcerned about the waste produced by reactors, the possibility of catastrophicaccidents as highlighted by recent events in Japan and the linkbetween nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Yet what if there existed ameans of nuclear power generation with which these risks were drasticallyreduced?

The answer could be thorium - an element occurring as a silvery metalthat's more abundant, cleaner and can produce more bang-per-buck in energyterms than uranium.

So how does thorium differ from uranium and plutonium, and why isn't itbeing used?

First, a quick run-down on how nuclear energy works.

What is nuclear power?

The word "nuclear" refers to the nucleus, or dense center ofthe atom. In a nuclear power reactor, these nuclei are split into smaller partsthrough a process known as fission. A sub-atomic particle known as a neutronstrikes the nucleus of an atom of suitable fuel (particular isotopes of theheavy elements uranium and plutonium) breaking it into its component parts.Each fission results in the release of energy in the form of electromagneticradiation and kinetic energy in the fragments of the split nucleus. This effectis twofold; the release of energy will produce heat, and the release ofneutrons, which can in turn fission other atoms.

In material that has typically been employed as nuclear fuel, thisreaction occurs in a "chain reaction" and is self-sustaining. Whenthis is occurring, the reactor can be said to be"'critical". In afission weapon, a mass of plutonium or uranium in excess of critical isassembled very quickly, with a flood of neutrons from a device known as an"initiator". The release of energy is extremely rapid and results ina massive explosion.

In a nuclear power reactor, the reaction is far slower and morecontrolled - the heat produced can be harnessed to boil water to spin turbinesfor the generation of electricity and this has been in practice for decades.The use of nuclear reactors for power generation began on 27 June 1954 at theObninsk power plant in the former Soviet Unionand has continued in numerous countries to this day.

There are of course, some significant problems with nuclear power.Fission reactions will always result in the production of radioactive wasteproducts which require secure storage and pose a health risk to humans and theenvironment. There is the possibility that the operators may lose control ofthe fission chain reaction resulting in an accidental release of this material(often referred to as a "meltdown"). There's also the concern thatreactors may also be used for the production of material suitable fornuclear weapons.

Modern nuclear reactors

The two main types of reactors used for commercial power generation arethe pressurized water reactor (PBR) and the boiling water reactor (BWR), whichboth typically make use of uranium in the form of uranium oxide fuel rods. Thecriticality of the reactor is managed by control rods, which when insertedabsorb neutrons that would otherwise cause the chain reaction to continue. Thereactor can be shut down, or "scrammed", by the rapid insertion ofthese control rods. However, this is a manual process and there is apossibility of an error occurring.

Criticality, fertility and the potential of thorium

The element thorium, named after the Norse god of thunder, may providea safer alternative as a fuel. The key difference between thorium and othernuclear fuels is that it cannot sustain a chain reaction on its own.Fissile fuels like uranium and plutonium are able to sustain a chain-reaction,yet fission can also be achieved in material like thorium that is not fissilebut fertile - i.e. it can produce fissile material, if neutrons are providedfrom an outside source.

Thorium is estimated to be three to four times more plentiful thanuranium in the Earth's crust and has the advantage of being found in nature inthe one isotope, which makes it suitable as a nuclear fuel as it need not beenriched to separate the right isotope. For convenience, thorium fuel can beused in the form of a liquid molten salt mixture.

Accelerator Driven System

Fission occurs in thorium when atoms absorb a neutron to become aheavier isotope and quickly decay into an isotope of the element protactiniumand then an isotope of uranium, which is fissioned when struck by an additionalneutron. The number of neutrons produced is not sufficient for a self-sustainedchain reaction.

A particle accelerator could be used to provide the necessaryneutrons for fission to occur in thorium and a nuclear reactor making use ofsuch an outside neutron source would be known as an 'accelerator driven system'(ADS).

The notion of the ADS is credited to Carlo Rubbia of the EuropeanOrganisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) joint winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize for Physics. TheADS would likely be far smaller than other reactors and if the accelerator wereto be turned off, the nuclear reaction would cease, although it should be notedthat even in a reactor which is not critical, the heat from the decay ofmaterials can be significant and cooling is required.

In a thorium reactor, quantities of other fuels could be included,without the fuel being capable of sustaining a chain reaction, and thus thereactor could be used to provide energy from disposing of material such asplutonium from disassembled nuclear weapons. It's also possible to ensure thatthe reactors are designed in such a way that it is not possible to extractfissile material, which can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Though all nuclear reactors will produce waste products, a reactorfulled by thorium will produce far less long-lived waste products than onefueled by uranium or plutonium, with waste decaying to the same level ofradioactivity as coal ashes after 500 years.

Thorium also produces more energy from the same amount of materialcompared to uranium.

"Two hundred tonnes of uranium can give you the same amount ofenergy you can get from one tonne of thorium," Rubbia told the BBCNews in a recent interview.

Towards a thorium reactor

Though several reactors have made use of thorium for experimentalpurposes, a thorium power reactor is not as yet a reality. Countries like Russia, Indiaand Chinaare looking at the use of thorium and such a reactor may one day soon be aviable energy source.

So why has it taken so long for thorium to hit the nuclear poweragenda? The key reason seems to be that because it can't be used to make anuclear bomb, it was largely ignored during the Manhattan project and in the development ofnuclear power stations that followed.

Fukushima Surrounded by Radioactive Dead Zone

The reality of Fukushima is simple.  Three reactors went through some form ofpartial meltdown and the containment vessels had at least one breach.  It really does not get any worse because theworst possible failure occurred when the cooling apparatus was destroyed by thetsunami.  It made a maximum event inevitable.

This means that a lot of radioactivematerial is now in the environment and we must wait for natural means to reducethe danger.  Turning over the soil fortwenty five miles in all directions may be a good start.

In the meantime we must listen todamage control from official bodies.  Donot go near the at risk zone without a radiation monitor to know how muchexposure you are getting.

It appears that the fate of Fukushima is to beencased in concrete.  I suspect that alot of the radioactive material was flushed into the ocean in order to dispersethem down to safe levels.  We may neverget the whole truth out of this.

Land around Fukushimanow radioactive dead zone; resembles target struck by atomic bomb

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

Editor of NaturalNews.com 

 (NaturalNews) It is nothingshort of astonishing that the nuclear catastrophe we've all been told was"no big deal" has now escalated into the worst nuclear disaster inthe history of human civilization. It's so bad now that soil samples taken from outside the12-mile exclusion zone (the zone considered safe enough by the Japanesegovernment for schoolchildren to attend school there) are higherthan the1.48 million becquerels a square meter limit that triggered evacuations outside Chernobyl in 1986.

In other words, the radiation levelof the soil 12 miles from Fukushima is nowhigher than the levels considered too dangerous to live in near Chernobyl. This is allcoming out in a new research report authored by Tomio Kawata, a fellow at theNuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan. That same report alsoreveals that radiation from Fukushimahas spread over 230 square miles.

What we're facing here, folks, is a Fukushima dead zone where lifewill never return to its pre-Fukushima norms.

Radiation levels similar to nuclear bomb test site

Bloomberg is now reporting, "Tetsuya Terasawa said the radiationlevels are in line with those found after a nuclear bomb test, which dispersesplutonium. He declined to comment further." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...)

One soil sampletaking 25 kilometers away from Fukushimashowed Cesium-137 exceeding 5 million becquerels per square meter. Thislevel, of course, makes it uninhabitable by humans, yet both the Japanese and U.S.governments continue to downplay the whole event, assuring their sheeple that there'snothing to worry about. By their logic, since all the people are sheepleanyway, as long as the area is safe enough for sheep,it's also safe enough for the human population.

Both Japan and the U.S. have madehuge efforts to raise the limits of allowed radiation exposure infoods and beverages. This was, of course, a deceitful tactic to try toreclassify radiation contamination as somehow magically being "safe"by redefining it.

The outright lying and tactics of deception that have been used to try todownplay the severity of the radioactive falloutfrom Fukushimaare nothing less than despicable. In a time when radiation threatens the safetyand food supply ofhundreds of millions of people, we are getting nothing but a Fukushima whitewash.

Fukushima is now far worse than Chernobyl ever was and yet we're allbeing told it's no problem and that the government has itall under control. I ask: How is 5 million becquerels per square meter not aproblem? It's amazing that we even got this information, consideringhow frequently TEPCO claims its sensors and meters aren't working (basicallyany time they get a reading that's "too high").

The Japanese government can't wait to corral the sheeple back onto theradioactive soil, by the way. "Basically, the way in which the currentzones have been drawn up aren't a concern in terms of the impact onhealth," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. "Using Mr.Kawata's report as a guide, we want to do what we can to improve the soil, sopeople can return as soon as possible." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...)rmation about worldevents.

Barely two weeks ago, TEPCO finally admitted Fukushima suffered multiple coremeltdowns in the hours following the tsunami strike

(http://www.naturalnews.com/032378_n...) (http://www.naturalnews.com/032437_F...). This was the firsttime TEPCO openly admitted to something the alternative media had beenreporting for months.

What has become perfectly clear in the reporting on Fukushima is that:

• Governments lie to the people

• Mainstream media lies to the people

• Only the alternative media was correct in reporting theseverity of the core meltdowns

and the release of radioactive material into the environment.

That's why more and more people are turning away from traditional sources of(mis)information and instead relying on the alternative media to get accurateinfo

Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032568_Fukushima_dead_zone.html#ixzz1O0IUO3UF

Why Muslim Cultures Lag

I had identified cultural anomalies,particularly in the treatment of women, that were anti modern and were primemovers in Islam’s abject failure to modernize. I had been optimistic that the sheer weight of modernization wouldsteadily encroach on this and slowly force the necessary accommodations.  Yet this litany just about demands a completetop to bottom reeducation that will go in the face of Islamic opposition evenbeyond the changes imposed by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey.  And there we see resurgent Islamicismenthusiastic to reintroduce the historical patterns.

Today all nations outside theIslamic world are hell-bent on modernization and the most intransigent ismaking an accommodation.  At worst we aremerely waiting for some thug to die.

The truth is that modernism ishugely disruptive to all forms of cultural dispensations because it upliftseveryone however badly distributed and challenges old forms of slavery basedcultures at their heart.

I do not know what the Arabspring can bring.  With the built incultural bias, we are likely to get a more subtle form of what we have had todate.

The problem is we certainly needa force fed Arab Enlightenment.  Thinkabout it.  We want evolution but may needto apply force. Very shortly the Oil prop is going to disappear totally and theimpoverishment of the Islamic world will be apparent to all. Up to now, oodlesof money has allowed them to fake it.  Ontop of that the West must soon come to grips with the serious problems Islamimposes inside their own countries.  Thatmay in fact evolve properly yet the ongoing tension is never good and canlinger for decades.

What is going to happen is thatthe rest of the world will achieve a global modern economy that has no room forany thing like traditional Islamic practices. This is going to take no more than thirty to fifty more years.  This also means that the rest of the worldwill have shed any form of militarism in terms of resolving internal conflict.  That will not be true for an unevolvedIslamic polity.

The way more serious problemfacing Islam is that a Christian revival is a natural counter to the Islamic dream.  It can be reconstituted as Krishna in India and as a non state based movement in China.  It is already in full revivalist modethroughout Africa.  Just because we can not see it yet does notmean it is not happening.

A Christian driven confrontationthat empowers women and supports modernism will be irresistible to the Islamicworld and can be applied across the African Front in particular were multiplepolities exist.

What is clear, the failure of theIslamic world to embrace modernism dooms the Islamic enterprise.  The remaining question is it going to be slowand painful to millions of slaves or is it going to be as swift as possible.

Why Muslim Cultures Lag Behind

Posted by The Anti-Jihadist on Jun 3rd, 2011

In the past fifty years, many countries have caught up with the richand developed Western World. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, withvirtually no natural resources, have created advanced, urbanized and prosperoussocieties, complete with world-class technology that often exceed that which isfound in the West. India, Brazil and China, although not yet fully developed,now all possess large and affluent middle classes that did not exist just a fewdecades ago. There is no reason to believe why their economic and socialprogress of all of these countries will not continue for the foreseeablefuture.

The Muslim world, on the other hand, has struggled during this era ofunprecedented global wealth creation. These countries have profited almostsolely, by happy geological accident, from oil and gas extraction. Beyond theseactivities, economic activity in Muslim countries remains scant, low tech andstrictly oriented towards local consumption. Despite trillions of dollars inoil revenue over the past sixty years, Muslim progress in many other areas,such as scientific research, social issues and education, lags badly behind therest of the world.

How could this be the case? The answer, which the major media dares nottouch, lies in the very culture of Muslim countries themselves. Consider thefollowing cultural traits which are all typically found in majority Muslimcountries:

Belief in magic.          State-owned Malaysian newspapers andtelevision stations routinely run breathless stories about witch doctors(‘bomoh’), evil spirits and other forms of the supernatural. Visitors to Malaysia get agood laugh out of such quaint cultural practices, until they realize with ashock that Malaysian belief in such superstition is absolutely sincere. Butit’s not just here in Malaysiawhere this happens. In Saudi Arabia, witchcraft is considered very realand a capital offence. In Iran,laws are on the books that make ‘sorcery’ a crime. And in Iraq, many ofthe locals are absolutely convinced that American soldiers wear sunglasses thatcan see through clothing and have bases protected by force fields. A culturethat is eager to embrace the supernatural takes a giant step away fromrationality and deceives itself fundamentally. Self-deception is always, sooneror later, the path to failure.

Belief in conspiracies.            Muslims take it as an Articleof Faith that various groups of so-called infidels or other outsiders areengaged in various conspiracies to keep Muslims down, make Islam look bad, orare otherwise up to No Good. The lack of evidence means little to a societywhere ‘skepticism’ is already an unusual and foreign concept. For instance,even well-educated Muslims will tell you, with total earnestness, that the 9-11terror attacks were actually perpetrated by Zionists, or the CIA, or the U.S.Government, or some other nefarious group. Never mind the vast amount ofevidence to the contrary. When presented with rebuttals from non-Muslims,Muslims will usually just shrug it off and carry on with their nonsensicalconspiracy theories.

Lack of innovation. ` Here in Malaysia, it is telling that theword in the Malay language for innovation (“inovasi”) did not exist until itcame from English, quite recently, as a loan word. Innovation, meaning tocreate something without precedent, is a risky and therefore dangerous businessin the Islamic world. The reason for this is because Islam already has a wordfor innovation, “bid’ah”. In Islam, this word is essentially the same inmeaning as ‘heresy’, which is yet another capital crime under Islamic law.Hence creativity and individuality are utterly stifled in a totalitarianfashion, even in Muslim countries where Islamic law has not yet been fullyimplemented. Improvisation is also discouraged for similar reasons. This is amajor reason why Islamic countries are usually characterized by a near-totallack of scientific research and reluctance to embrace technology in general.

Lack of devotion to non-family/non tribal/non-clan organizations.           Inmost Muslim societies, loyalty often runs no farther than one’s tribe or sect.People from the far-off central government, or those from the next valley overfor that matter, are foreigners to be met with suspicion or hostility. Afghanistan isa perfect example of this sort of chaos. Even if these differences areeventually papered over, so to speak, by the force and coercion of adictatorship, the lack of cohesion and distrust remain. Muslim leaders usuallycome into and stay in power by exploiting this very characteristic, by playingone tribe or group off another. Patriotism amongst the general public isanother foreign concept, taken for granted in the West. Muslims may remainloyal to Islam in general, but more importantly, to the tribe in particular.

Lack of empowerment of women.      The future, no matter what form it maytake, is almost certainly going to involve more technology, not less. How wellequipped is a society for this future if half of its members are only (at best)grudgingly given their rights? In many Islamic countries, women are oftenilliterate and have no rights in essential critical life decisions, such asthose involving child-rearing, marriage or education. And why should they?Various Quranic verses, age-old Islamic traditions, and core Islamic teachingsrender women as nothing more than chattel and the property of their malerelatives—never the equal of men. And no one can ‘reform’ these teachings to somethingmore enlightened—see the penalty for “bid’ah” above.

Lack of personal responsibility.         Muslim leaders oftenlie to or deceive their own people, to subordinates, or to allies in order toadvance their own personal agendas. Remember that most Muslim countries are apatchwork of tribes who barely tolerate one another in the best of times. Loyaltyto one’s country as a whole is next to non-existent. So, the main objectiveof these leaders, whether at the top, middle or bottom, is to steal as much asthey can, while they can, in order to enrich themselves and their families,clans or tribes—’national interest’ be damned. If you’re one of the rareincorruptible types, or are otherwise too stupid to steal when presented withthe opportunity, then more the fool you are. Other tribes or groups areuseful as scapegoats when the need arises or when blame must be deflected.

Lack of skilled labour.           Rich, developed and successfulcountries like Germany, Japanand others do not just spring into existence. It takes the efforts of millions,skilled specialists toiling endlessly in dangerous and/or monotonous drudgeryfor decades, to build and also maintain the ever-growing complex web of systemsthat modern nations depend on to function. But Muslim countries, even theones with trillions from oil revenue, have consistently failed to create largeenough castes of technical specialists that modern nations must have. Asthere are never enough people willing or able to work within their own borders,Muslim nations are forced to outsource their labour needs. In Saudi Arabia and most Arab states, for instance,cleaners and maids come from Indiaor the Philippines, whileengineers and others in the technical trades come from America, Europeand increasingly east Asia. This trend is accelerating, paradoxically enough,at a time when the governments of the burgeoning Arab world are having anincreasing problem just feeding their exploding populations.

Lack of meritocracy.  The West has thrived not only because they havelearned to hold people responsible for their actions, but also they havelearned to give out rewards based on individual achievement. Hencehigher–performing individuals tend to be eventually in charge and reap the mostrewards (in prestige, rank, money, etc.). Westerners do not always manage tolive up to these ideals, but the concepts themselves are not questioned. Inthe Islamic world, however, what counts is personal loyalty, personalconnections, and tribal/sect membership. Incompetent leaders are preferable tocompetent ones, so long as they are properly loyal. Such a state of affairsmakes for incredible inefficiency on a normal day and catastrophic consequenceswhen any sort of crisis arises. Muslims are fond of saying “it’s God’swill” at difficult times, which for Muslims seems like most of the time.Actually, it’s not so much “God’s will” but more like the inevitableconsequences of their dysfunctional culture.

If you’ve read up to this point, no doubt that you could add a few morethings to this list. But remember, political correctness dictates that allcultures are somehow “equal,” and Muslims are convinced their cultures aresomehow superior, never mind the reams of evidence to the contrary. Sowhile I want to be optimistic, the smart money is not riding on the would-bereformers of the under-performing societies of the Muslim world. At least notyet.

The Anti-Jihadist is the pseudonym of a counter-jihad writer,activist and critic of Islam who resides in a majority Muslim country. His work can also be found at Jihad Watch, Infidel Bloggers Alliance and PedestrianInfidel.

Antimatter Atoms Trapped for 16 Minutes

After all these years, they havefinally developed a protocol that collects and stores anti matter in the formof anti hydrogen and did so in enough quantity to envision the possibility ofdoing direct experiments.

Obviously we can go beyond thisand plausibly see our way to producing working quantities of this stuff,although serious production will need to be conducted in space.  One really can not get serious otherwise abouta product that will really ruin your day every time there is an accident.

In the meantime, this allows realwork to begin in the labs.

Antimatter atoms trapped for 16 minutes

By Emily Chung, CBCNews 

Posted: Jun 6, 2011 11:40 AM ET 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/06/06/science-antimatter-atoms-fujiwara-antihydrogen.html

Some of the researchers involved in the discovery are from Canada,including, from left to right, Michael Hayden and Mohammad Ashkezari from SimonFraser University; Tim Friesen from the University of Calgary; Makoto Fujiwarafrom TRIUMF; and Andrea Gutierrez and Walter Hardy from the University ofBritish Columbia. They are shown with their experimental setup at the CERNLaboratory near Geneva.(ALPHA)

Antimatter atoms have been held captive and kept in existence for awhopping 16 minutes by a Canadian-led team — far longer than the researchersthought possible.

"It was quite a surprise," said Makoto Fujiwara, lead authorof a study published Sunday in Nature Physics. It reported trapping antiatomsof antihydrogen — the antimatter counterpart of a hydrogen atom — for 1,000seconds.

Antimatter is made up of "antiparticles" that have the samemass as corresponding particles of matter, but an opposite charge. For example,the antimatter counterpart of a negatively charged electron is a positivelycharged positron.

Antimatter is very difficult to keep in existence because the moment ittouches matter, which makes up most of our universe, both the matter andantimatter are annihilated, producing pure energy.

The scientists' recent achievement has extended the experimentallifetime of antihydrogen atoms 5,000-fold since the ALPHA experiment — aninternational collaboration Fujiwara is part of — first figured out how to trapthem at all.

The team, based at the laboratory of CERN, the European organizationfor nuclear research, near Geneva,published its method in Nature last November. At the time, it reported that ithad held onto the antiatoms for less than one-fifth of a second.

Holding antiatoms captive for several minutes opens up a new range ofpossible experiments to probe the nature of antimatter, said Fujiwara, aresearch scientist at Vancouver-based TRIUMF and an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary.

'Game changer'

Scientists will more easily be able to do experiments to compareantihydrogen to hydrogen and could even potentially test how antimatter atomsare affected by gravity, he added. "I call it a game changer."

An antihydrogen atom is released from the trap after 1,000 seconds, inan artist's conception. The squiggly line represents the atom's path in thetrap while it is trapped, and the curved tracks emerging represent the energyproduced when the released anti-atom hits the inner wall of the trap.CERN/ALPHA

Antihydrogen is made by mixing antiparticles called antiprotons (theantimatter counterparts of protons) and positrons (the antimatter counterpartsof electrons). In recent months, Fujiwara said, the ALPHA team has figured outhow to create very cold antiparticles and mix them more gently to produce andtrap antiatoms more efficiently, successfully trapping an average of oneantiatom per trial.

They also decided to test how long they could keep the antiatomstrapped. Fujiwara thought holding on to them for several seconds might bepossible and was stunned that they could survive for many minutes.

That will make it much easier to do experiments to compare antihydrogento hydrogen, he added.

For example, researchers can point lasers and microwaves at theantiatoms and figure out how the colours of light they shine back compare tothose shone back by hydrogen atoms under the same circumstances, Fujiwara said.

Aiming the lasers and microwaves precisely at the antiatoms using theright settings is very difficult right after the antiatoms are formed becausethey are in what's called an excited state — the positrons are orbiting thenucleus of the antiatom, but they're very far away, and they're constantlychanging their orbit.

Over time, they reach a stable orbit close to the nucleus known as the"ground state." That allows the lasers and microwaves to be aimedwith high precision. Theoretical calculations show that after several minutes,the antiatoms should all be in the ground state.

Studying the effect of gravity on antimatter is particularlychallenging because gravity acts so weakly compared to other forces onparticles with such a tiny mass, so a lot of time is needed.

"The possibility of studying gravitational effects really becomefeasible now," Fujiwara said. "That’s something I’m personallyinterested in pursuing."

About one-third of the 40 physicists who make up the ALPHAcollaboration are Canadian. The rest are from Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Japan,Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.

Canadian funding for the project comes from NSERC (National Science andEngineering Research Council, TRIUMF, AIF (Alberta Ingenuity Fund), the Killam Trust,and FQRNT (Le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et lestechnologies).

The trouble with antimatter

Antimatter is produced in equal quantities with matter when energy isconverted into mass — this happens in particle colliders and is believed tohave happened during the Big Bang at the beginning of the universe. That's whyphysicists are puzzled about why there is no longer a significant amount ofantimatter in the universe.

But it's very difficult to study antimatter in order to answer suchquestions because antimatter and matter are both annihilated the moment theyencounter each other, producing pure energy.

The problem is our world is made almost entirely of matter, includingthe walls of any container that might be used to hold antimatter.

Charged antiparticles can be kept away from the walls of a matter-basedcontainer using electric fields, but neutral antiatoms are much harder to trap,and are typically annihilated as soon as they are created.

Last November, the ALPHA team reported that it managed to trapantiatoms by taking advantage of a very tiny, weak magnet inside each atom.They created the antiatoms by mixing positrons and antiprotons very carefullyinside a "magnetic trap" — a magnetic field generated by a powerfulsuperconducting magnet. If the newly formed antiatoms were extremely cold andmoving very slowly, the extremely weak magnetic force was enough to keep themfrom hitting the walls of the container.

After the experiment, they let the atoms out of the trap

Reversal of Solar Exposure Risk

The admonition against exposureto sunlight has been ignored by me since it appeared some thirty or forty yearsago.  Having grown up on a working farm,I knew that it was natural to accept a moderate level of sunlight.  This meant a pretty good tan while most ofthe body was at least protected from direct sunlight by hats and lightclothing.  This also was the generalexperience for almost everyone since time immemorial.

The admonition truly only appliedproperly against excessive exposure.  Astark naked seaman who spent all the daylight hours at sea was a glowingexample of excessive. 

Once we look at the urbandweller, a hugely different situation arose. There it was easily possible to be seriously deficient even in themiddle of summer.

Scientists reverse stance on sun andcancer: Now they admit sunlight can prevent skin cancer

Friday, May 27, 2011 by: Tara Green

(NaturalNews) Since the 1980s, physicians and cancer groups have regularlywarned the public against the potential health dangers of direct sunlight onskin. As a result, many people have stayed out of the sunlight completely,covered their limbs even in warm weather or slathered themselves with UVprotection products, all in the interest of lowering their risk of melanomas.

However, more recent findings indicate that this kind of nearly vampiricavoidance of the sun may not benefit your cancer odds after all.

A 2009 study by a group of Leeds University researchersfound that higher levels of Vitamin D were linkedto improved skincancersurvival odds. Other studies have found that Vitamin D has aconnection to a strong immune response in the body. In fact, Vitamin D mayhasten the death of tumor cells.

Unfortunately, most people havelow levels of Vitamin D, leaving them at higher risk for a host ofdiseases including breast cancer,prostate cancer, bowel cancer, cervical cancer, rickets and osteoporosis. (Formore in-depth information on this, see this report:http://www.naturalnews.com/rr-sunli...)

"It's common for the general public to have low levels of vitamin D inmany countries," said Professor Julia Newton Bishop of the Leeds Instituteof Molecular Medicine and author of the Leeds study. "Melanoma patients tend to avoidthe sun as sunburnis known to increase the risk of melanoma. We use sunshineto make vitamin D in the skin,so melanoma patients' levels of vitamin D may be especially low."

Bishop also noted that people can get more Vitamin D through dietary sources such as fattyfish. She points out that balance is key, as extremely high levels of Vitamin Dcan have a negative effect on health.

The mainstream media continues to run stories every summer warning peopleagainst the sun even two years after the Leedsstudy. While hours of sunbathing may be risky behavior for your long-termhealth, receiving a moderate amount of sunlight while outgardening or walking is actually as good for you as eating a low-fat diet andengaging in regular exercise. In fact, laying off the sunscreen may helpyou not only absorb sunshine intoyour skin to help fight tumors, but also helps you avoid the chemicals in mostcommercial sun blockingproducts.Some studies have indicated that these chemicals can actually generate harmfulfree radicals in the body.

So this summer, relax, and enjoy the sunshine.

Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032533_sun_exposure_skin_cancer.html#ixzz1NcPwDfkf

Yes! A dose of sun CAN protect you against skin cancer

By PROFESSORANGUS DALGLEISH

Last updated at 8:01 AM on 24th May 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1390243/Sun-CAN-protect-skin-cancer.html

As a fair-haired Scot with freckles and pale skin I’m a classic case tobe more at risk from melanoma. Getting quite badly sunburned on my nose yearsago in Spainhas pushed my risk up further.

To say I’ve been wary about the sun is an understatement - I specialisein treating patients with advanced melanoma, a deadly form of skincancer. 

I was also in Australia 30 years ago at the start of the Slip-Slop-Slapcampaign to warn people to keep out of the sun, and for seven years I neverwent swimming without being covered in sun lotion and wearing a T-shirt.

Soak up the sun: Your skin needs vitamin D

But now I believe that rather than reducing the risk of skin cancer,following these sun-avoidance guidelines could actually raise it. That’sbecause we need sun on our skin to make vitamin D - ironically these campaignsmay have made  millions chronically short of it and put them at risk. trather than reducing the risk of skin cancer, following these sun-avoidanceguidelines could actually raise it. 

That’s because we need sun on our skin to make vitamin D - ironicallythese campaigns may have made  millions chronically short of it and putthem at risk. The sun’s effects might even protect against melanoma (asreported in the Mail earlier this month).

I first became interested in vitamin D and its cancer fightingpotential about 15 years ago, when working in a team testing it as a treatmentfor breast cancer. It proved very effective, but the project was abandoned fortechnical reasons. 

I thought this was a mistake because it had become clear that vitamin Dcan target tumours in many different ways, including speeding up the death oftumour cells.

Later, while researching cancer vaccines, I found good vitamin Dlevels in patients triggered a stronger immune response - important because itmakes the vaccine more potent. 

Then, a couple of years ago, researchers at Leeds Universitymade the surprising discovery that a very low level of vitamin D was a majorrisk factor for melanoma. 

Get out in the sun: Earlier reports on the benefit of the sun

This flew in the face of the idea that it was too much sun that pushedup your melanoma risk. Lots of sun actually mean lots of vitamin D - andpotentially a lower risk of melanoma.

I immediately began to test my patients’ vitamin D levels and wasamazed - I’d expected maybe 30 per cent would be deficient; it was closer to 90per cent. That changed everything for me. 

I now test all my new melanoma patients for vitamin D - if their levelsare low, I give them a supplement. The big question is: does this improve theirsurvival rates? 

We don’t know yet - we’ve only been doing it for about six months - butI think this is a sensible response to the evidence so far. As for the rest ofus, we should probably spend more time in the sun. Young girls have developedrickets because their well-meaning parents slathered them in sunscreen frombirth whenever they went out. 

I’m pleased that these days the official advice has changed and a fewminutes in the sun each day without sunscreen is now recommended.  

But this is a long way from acknowledging how vital it is to have ahealthy level of vitamin D.

Research shows that a large percentage of people in the UK aredeficient in vitamin D partly because we can’t make any from the sun for aboutsix months of the year. 

As well as checking the vitamin D levels of my patients I also check myown occasionally and take a supplement of 1000 international units about threetimes a week. 

Meanwhile, I’d like to see all other cancer units automaticallychecking their patients’ blood levels. It’s cheap and quick and I guaranteethey would be amazed at just how low many were.

So how much sun exposure is enough? And if we give supplements, howmuch do people need?

Finding the right answers could bring big benefits for very littlecost. In the meantime, my own approach has changed dramatically since thoseearly days. If I’m playing tennis or skiing I’ll only use sun cream on my faceor arms in very hot or mid-day sun.

Going slightly pink is OK (although at the first tingling sign thatI’ve been too exposed, I’ll put on some block, and I always protect my nosewhere it was burnt).
But my message is: don’t be afraid of the sun - enjoy it!

Read more: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1390243/Sun-CAN-protect-skin-cancer.html#ixzz1NcQGTu18

Vitamin D new cancer hope

Published Wednesday 23rd September 09

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/136/vitamin_d_new_cancer_hope

New research shows higher levels of vitamin D may help improve survivalfor both bowel and skin cancer patients.

The results of two studies published in the British Journal of Cancerand Journal of Clinical Oncology found people with higher levels of vitamin D -at the time they were diagnosed - were more likely to survive.

In the first study researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston followed 1017bowel cancer patients for around nine years. 

Using information about UV-B and sunlight exposure, skin type, body-massindex, and vitamin D intake from food and supplements they estimated the amountof vitamin D in patients' blood at the time of diagnosis.

The results showed that those with higher vitamin D scores after beingdiagnosed with cancer were 50 per cent less likely to die from the disease -compared to those with lower vitamin D scores.

Professor Kimmie Ng, study author, said: "Our study shows thatlevels of vitamin D after colorectal cancer diagnosis may be important forsurvival. We are now planning further research in patients with bowel cancer tosee if vitamin D has the same effect, and to investigate how vitamin D workswith molecular and genetic pathways in the cell to fight cancer."

The second study - funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institutesof Health - found that malignant melanoma patients** with the lowest levels ofvitamin D in their blood at the time they were diagnosed were 30 per cent morelikely to relapse from the disease than those with the highest levels.

The researchers from Leeds also found thatpatients who have higher levels of vitamin D at diagnosis have thinner tumoursat diagnosis.

Professor Julia Newton Bishop, study author at the Leeds Institute ofMolecular Medicine at the University of Leeds, said:"It's common for the general public to have low levels of vitamin D inmany countries. Melanoma patients tend to avoid the sun as sunburn is known toincrease the risk of melanoma. We use sunshine to make vitamin D in the skin,so melanoma patients' levels of vitamin D may be especially low.

"Our results suggest that melanoma patients may need to getvitamin D by eating fatty fish or by taking supplements to ensure they havenormal levels. But we are continuing to carry out research to find out theoptimum level of vitamin D. There's some evidence from other health studiesthat high levels of vitamin D are also harmful - so we should aim for a normallevel rather than a very high one."

Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said:"Both these studies support the theory that higher levels of vitamin D canimprove the chance of surviving cancer. The key is to get the right balancebetween the amount of time spent in the sun and the levels of vitamin D neededfor good health.

"But protection from burning in the sun is still vital. CancerResearch UK's SunSmart campaign advises that people with lots of moles, redhair fair skin and a family history of the disease should take extra care inthe sun as they are more at risk of the most dangerous form of skin cancerAnyone who is worried about changes in their moles should go to their GP."

Notes to Editors:

Prospective study of predictors of vitamin D and survival in patientswith colorectal cancer by Kimmie Ng. British Journal of Cancer Published Tuesday8 September, 2009 Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 levels are associated with Breslowthickness at presentation, and survival from melanoma by Julia Newton-Bishop.Journal of Clinical Oncology Published Monday 21 September 21.00hrs (BST), 2009

Greenland and Ice Age Agriculture

The sharp climate swing thatwiped out the Vikings is a reminder also just how volatile climate is in iceage conditions.  It was impossible tosustain agriculture and that was agriculture well adapted to take advantage ofa brief growing season and included cattle husbandry.

This is a measure of just howimpossible it was to sustain agriculture away from coastal regions during theIce Age proper when decadal temperature swings played themselves out over afive degree range, unlike the two degree range of the Holocene.

It is very clear that throughoutthe huge landmasses of the northern hemisphere that a hugely variable Ice Age climatepersisted.  This meant that while a spellof good conditions were possible, the bad conditions would be catastrophic toany idea of agriculture.

Thus the full exploitation of theEarth’s landmass was not possible.  Whatremained was Africa and much of the greater South American land mass and Sahuland the Indonesian coastal plain as well as an expanded India.  The problem was that agriculture waseffectively limited to tropical coastal plains and the like which to this dayhave not been properly mastered.  We hadthe working equivalent of perhaps three Indian subcontinents to exploitproperly and a possible developed population base of up to three billion if myconjecture of such a previous development holds up.

Eliminating the Ice Age created awell ordered climate and the potential for a population of between thirty toone hundred billion people.  I haveposted on this in the past.

The Ice Age was ended 13900 yearsago and the present Holocene is now fully settled in pending furtherimprovements by us.

Greenland cold snap linked to Viking disappearance

Reuters – Mon, 30 May, 2011

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/greenland-cold-snap-linked-viking-disappearance-203657244.html

An iceberg floats in the sea ice near the town of Uummannaq in westernGreenland

OSLO (Reuters) - A cold snap in Greenlandin the 12th century may help explain why Viking settlers vanished from theisland, scientists said on Monday.

The report, reconstructing temperatures by examining lake sedimentcores in west Greenland dating back 5,600 years, also indicated that earlier,pre-historic settlers also had to contend with vicious swings in climate on icyGreenland.

"Climate played (a) big role in Vikings' disappearance fromGreenland," Brown University in the United States said in a statementof a finding that average temperatures plunged 4 degrees Celsius (7F) in 80years from about 1100.

Such a shift is roughly the equivalent of the current averagetemperatures in Edinburgh, Scotland, tumbling to match those in Reykjavik, Iceland.It would be a huge setback to crop and livestock production.

"There is a definite cooling trend in the region right before theNorse disappear," said William D'Andrea of Brown University, the leadauthor of the study in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers have scant written or archaeological records to figure outwhy Viking settlers abandoned colonies on the western side of the island in themid-1300s and the eastern side in the early 1400s.

Conflicts with indigenous Inuit, a search for better hunting grounds,economic stresses and natural swings in climate, perhaps caused by shifts inthe sun's output or volcanic eruptions, could all be factors.

LITTLE ICE AGE

Scientists have previously suspected that a cooling toward a"Little Ice Age" from the 1400s gradually shortened growing seasonsand added to sea ice that hampered sailing links with Iceland or theNordic nations.

The study, by scientists in the United States and Britain, added the previouslyunknown 12th century temperature plunge as a possible trigger for the colonies'demise. Vikings arrived in Greenland in the 980s, during a warm period like thepresent.

"You have an interval when the summers are long and balmy and youbuild up the size of your farm, and then suddenly year after year, you go intothis cooling trend, and the summers are getting shorter and colder and youcan't make as much hay," D'Andrea said.

The study also traced even earlier swings in the climate to the riseand fall of pre-historic peoples on Greenlandstarting with the Saqqaq culture, which thrived from about 4,500 years ago to2,800 years ago.

Scientists fear that the 21st century warming is caused by climatechange, stoked by a build-up of greenhouse gases from human activities. Anacceleration of warming could cause a meltdown of the Greenlandice sheet, raising world sea levels.