Technology, Science and the Environment.

[davieG]

Strange Things ·

Follow

 

In 1940, Britain freely handed America the theoretical blueprints for the atomic bomb. Six years later, the US legally locked the British out of the results.

This technological exchange began with a small, black metal deed box. In the late summer of 1940, a group of British scientists known as the Tizard Mission traveled to the United States carrying some of the most valuable military technology on earth.

Britain had a major problem. They possessed world-leading technological breakthroughs but lacked the manufacturing capacity to mass-produce them while under daily German bombing. Their solution was to hand their most closely guarded secrets to the neutral Americans, completely free of charge, in exchange for industrial backing. The British handed over plans for jet engines, gyroscopic gunsights, advanced submarine detection, and the Frisch-Peierls memorandum, which proved an atomic bomb was feasible. They also brought the cavity magnetron, a device that made portable, high-definition radar possible.

The American response to this unprecedented generosity was initially enthusiastic collaboration. But as the United States entered the war and its industrial machine spooled up, the dynamic shifted. America became the dominant partner and grew increasingly protective of the very projects the British had jumpstarted.

The starkest example was the atomic bomb. Britain’s early "Tube Alloys" program provided the theoretical foundation for the weapon. When the project merged into the American-led Manhattan Project, British scientists expected a full partnership. Instead, the director of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves, instituted strict compartmentalization. He systematically restricted British access to the research, cutting them out of key engineering and production discussions despite Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the 1943 Quebec Agreement promising full collaboration.

The technological hoarding reached its peak immediately after the war. In 1946, the US Congress passed the McMahon Act, which strictly prohibited the sharing of any nuclear technology or information with any foreign power—expressly including the United Kingdom.

This total cutoff forced the British government to launch its own independent, parallel nuclear weapons program, culminating in their first successful atomic test in 1952.

[davieG]

Mechanical Engineers Rocks. ·

Follow

 

 

The Great Green Wall is one of the most ambitious environmental restoration projects ever attempted. More than 20 African countries have joined forces to create a massive belt of trees and restored landscapes designed to slow the expansion of the Sahara Desert across the Sahel region of Africa. The project aims to stretch nearly 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles) from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Djibouti on the Red Sea.

Originally proposed in 2007 by the African Union, the initiative seeks to combat desertification, restore degraded land, and improve food security for millions of people living in vulnerable regions. The Sahel region experiences severe drought, soil degradation, and declining agricultural productivity, making it one of the areas most affected by climate change.

The project does not involve simply planting a continuous line of trees. Instead, it focuses on restoring ecosystems through sustainable agriculture, water management, soil restoration, and community-led land rehabilitation. Farmers and local communities play a central role by planting trees, improving soil fertility, and adopting sustainable farming practices.

So far, millions of hectares of land have already been restored. Countries such as Ethiopia, Senegal, and Niger have reported significant progress in reforestation and land recovery. The initiative is expected to eventually restore around 100 million hectares of degraded land, capture 250 million tons of carbon, and create millions of green jobs across the region.

If fully completed, the Great Green Wall could become one of the largest ecological restoration efforts in human history, offering a powerful example of international cooperation to address climate change and environmental degradation.

[ian__marshall]

58 minutes ago, SpacedX said:

Thank you so much. It's simply a love of the subject. You won't find me posting in the investments, stocks and shares thread, or whatever it is, because I don't have a business brain or a financially inclined cell in my body whilst others on this forum are clearly very informed. This is what shocks and irritates me so much about the Climate Change thread though - those feeling the need to post populist opinion about subjects they demonstrably have zero knowledge of whatsoever. Which in the age of social media, is reckless and frankly dangerous. 

 

I guess with space, it's attributed to a childhood fascination starting with the Apollo Programme that gripped the world. I recall my Mother telling me during Apollo 15 that if I looked closely enough at the moon I would be able to see the astronauts hopping about on the surface. My three year old impressionable, credulous brain saw no reason to doubt this and I used to haul myself up in my cot and peer through the curtains during those summer nights in a desperate bid to see if it was true. She steadfastly denies this now, I suppose it was an attempt to fire up my imagination at an early age. From then on, everything was space and space exploration. My heroes weren't just footballers, or rock stars, posters on the wall were as likely to be John Young as they were Keith Weller. I also started reading voraciously about astronomy feeding and nourishing my inner nerd - which was always present, even when I rebelled against everything, got flung out of sixth-form and became a committed hedonist for ten lost years, prior to returning to education.

 

@leicsmac has suggested some superb online resources, particularly Kurzgesagt which maintains a dry sense of humour that appeals to me. However, although websites such as the excellent space.com are brilliant for current and up to date news and research, my main go to is my books - and I have amassed hundreds on the subject. I was inculcated into the scientific method by my Father and Carl Sagan as a kid. My Dad oddly was nonetheless a very religious man, a physicist that still managed to reconcile science and the metaphysical/God in his head without any inherent contradictions as he saw it. Resisting his continual but pointless attempts at proselytisation, as an agnostic, I have grained tremendous comfort contemplating the universe and the natural world that surrounds us. Although my overwhelming conviction is that it is completely indifferent to us a species, (we are not special - although it's interesting to think that we may be the only truly sentient beings in the entire cosmos, that doesn't mean it revolves around us...or does it?), a humanist can still feel a profound sense of wonder about the universe. In fact, removing religious/supernatural woo/metaphysical elements from the equation often amplifies that awe, grounding it in the incredible reality of our existence. 

 

That is precisely what I felt as a child - an insuppressible fascination about the universe and space exploration that has not only endured but got stronger. I now have a job in research capability and I see this expertise paradox in many of the accomplished academics I have the pleasure to work with. As you learn more, your growing awareness of a topic's vastness and complexity makes you realise just how much you don't know, creating an ever-expanding horizon of questions. Over three hundred years ago the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal likened our knowledge to a sphere which as it grows larger inevitably increasing the area of which it comes into contact with the unknown. This is perhaps best and most succinctly summed up in Henry Miller’s The Wisdom of the Heart: “In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance”. When listening to academics, scientists and experts in their field talking about the latest advances in their domain, I have always found it more intriguing and generally more enlightening when they get onto the subject of things they don’t know. Perhaps that's why I find theoretical physicists and their literature so engrossing. 

 

Over Christmas/New Year I received a very grave medical prognosis, which long story cut short was due to a false reading on a PET scan which they are particularly prone to, because they find everything, be that benign or malign. It was binary, I either had distant metastasis to the bone (stage 4 cancer), or I didn't - the consultant and radiographer agreed it was 50/50, I spent 35 days not knowing until the results of further scans came through. Not only did I compose a paper of positivity, - a list of nine medically evidenced and rational reasons why metastasis was unlikely, but I also went on long walks with my dog, not wishing to involve family members and friends, during which time I gained tremendous solace from her unconditional companionship and the natural world around me, but also my preoccupation with the mysteries and unknows of the universe that we live in. In addition to this, simply mulling over facts and figures, such as the Voyager Probes, or even the pre- launch sequence of the Saturn V, ten seconds before lift off (fascinating subject that...I'll maybe do a post on it), stopped me from overthinking negativities (which if unchecked I am prone to doing), and far from denial, focussed my mind upon subjects that I love, keeping it active and that was tremendously stimulating avoiding spiralling into doom and depression. In similarly trying times, some may receive reassurance from religious belief, but for me, although I do also contemplate the nature of consciousness and our place in the cosmos, without resorting to a deity, the universe itself is a wonderful place because its beauty requires no supernatural explanation. Rather than diminishing its value, the lack of a preordained design makes existence a rare, accidental masterpiece. Science becomes the "poetry of reality," revealing a cosmos that is intricate, ancient, and deeply profound. This not only gave me great strength during a very challenging period of my life, but has pervaded it since childhood. The universe is both violent and vast but in me, that cultivates calm from my personal perspective that humanity not as a fragile target of chaos, but as a crucial product of it. Throughout my life I have found that embracing "cosmic insignificance" can instantly diminish my personal anxieties, shifting focus toward everyday joys and a profound, interconnected nature.

Fascinating, thank you for sharing. 

[leicsmac]

Not sure how true this is... but if it is, have the people involved in this read or seen any sci-fi work at all?

 

Dr Elisabet Sobeck would be doing her nut.

[Trav Le Bleu]

On 28/06/2026 at 15:10, leicsmac said:

Not sure how true this is... but if it is, have the people involved in this read or seen any sci-fi work at all?

 

Dr Elisabet Sobeck would be doing her nut.

Surely fake.

 

What's the name of the development company?

 

Oh ... Faro Industries.

[CornwallFox]

On 27/06/2026 at 14:27, davieG said:

Mechanical Engineers Rocks. ·

Follow

 

 

The Great Green Wall is one of the most ambitious environmental restoration projects ever attempted. More than 20 African countries have joined forces to create a massive belt of trees and restored landscapes designed to slow the expansion of the Sahara Desert across the Sahel region of Africa. The project aims to stretch nearly 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles) from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Djibouti on the Red Sea.

Originally proposed in 2007 by the African Union, the initiative seeks to combat desertification, restore degraded land, and improve food security for millions of people living in vulnerable regions. The Sahel region experiences severe drought, soil degradation, and declining agricultural productivity, making it one of the areas most affected by climate change.

The project does not involve simply planting a continuous line of trees. Instead, it focuses on restoring ecosystems through sustainable agriculture, water management, soil restoration, and community-led land rehabilitation. Farmers and local communities play a central role by planting trees, improving soil fertility, and adopting sustainable farming practices.

So far, millions of hectares of land have already been restored. Countries such as Ethiopia, Senegal, and Niger have reported significant progress in reforestation and land recovery. The initiative is expected to eventually restore around 100 million hectares of degraded land, capture 250 million tons of carbon, and create millions of green jobs across the region.

If fully completed, the Great Green Wall could become one of the largest ecological restoration efforts in human history, offering a powerful example of international cooperation to address climate change and environmental degradation.

I think this is a copy of something china has come in a desert within it's borders

[Blarmy]

When trees and sand start fighting you know all is lost. 

[DJW1]

On 27/06/2026 at 15:14, davieG said:

Strange Things ·

Follow

 

In 1940, Britain freely handed America the theoretical blueprints for the atomic bomb. Six years later, the US legally locked the British out of the results.

This technological exchange began with a small, black metal deed box. In the late summer of 1940, a group of British scientists known as the Tizard Mission traveled to the United States carrying some of the most valuable military technology on earth.

Britain had a major problem. They possessed world-leading technological breakthroughs but lacked the manufacturing capacity to mass-produce them while under daily German bombing. Their solution was to hand their most closely guarded secrets to the neutral Americans, completely free of charge, in exchange for industrial backing. The British handed over plans for jet engines, gyroscopic gunsights, advanced submarine detection, and the Frisch-Peierls memorandum, which proved an atomic bomb was feasible. They also brought the cavity magnetron, a device that made portable, high-definition radar possible.

The American response to this unprecedented generosity was initially enthusiastic collaboration. But as the United States entered the war and its industrial machine spooled up, the dynamic shifted. America became the dominant partner and grew increasingly protective of the very projects the British had jumpstarted.

The starkest example was the atomic bomb. Britain’s early "Tube Alloys" program provided the theoretical foundation for the weapon. When the project merged into the American-led Manhattan Project, British scientists expected a full partnership. Instead, the director of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves, instituted strict compartmentalization. He systematically restricted British access to the research, cutting them out of key engineering and production discussions despite Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the 1943 Quebec Agreement promising full collaboration.

The technological hoarding reached its peak immediately after the war. In 1946, the US Congress passed the McMahon Act, which strictly prohibited the sharing of any nuclear technology or information with any foreign power—expressly including the United Kingdom.

This total cutoff forced the British government to launch its own independent, parallel nuclear weapons program, culminating in their first successful atomic test in 1952.

The death of Roosevelt and the electoral defeat of Churchill in 1945 probably contributed.

[dsr-burnley]

On 14/06/2026 at 20:43, leicsmac said:

On the topic of how the natural works comes at you fast, a fun fact:

 

Mosquito-borne disease has killed around half of the humans ever to inhabit this earth, from the beginning of recorded history to today. 

Unlikey, I would have thought. I would have thought that about half the people ever to inhabit the earth didn't live long enough to get killed by mosquitos. Link?

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

Unlikey, I would have thought. I would have thought that about half the people ever to inhabit the earth didn't live long enough to get killed by mosquitos. Link?

Certainly. 

 

https://macleans.ca/culture/books/mosquito-killed-billions-changed-dna/

 

Consider, as Canadian historian Timothy Winegard does in The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, the bottom-line statistic. The general consensus of demographers is that about 108 billion human beings have ever lived, and that mosquito-borne diseases have killed close to half—52 billion people, the majority of them young children.

[leicsmac]

Tbf I can understand the scepticism, it's one of those stats that sounds unbelievable when first stated. 

[Zear0]

12 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Tbf I can understand the scepticism, it's one of those stats that sounds unbelievable when first stated. 

Pedantry alert but I'd say it's more an estimate than a statistic as it's based on some fairly wild extrapolation.  

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, Zear0 said:

Pedantry alert but I'd say it's more an estimate than a statistic as it's based on some fairly wild extrapolation.  

It's certainly not a matter of 100% empiricism, that's to be sure, but I don't have much reason to suspect it's wildly off.

 

Mosquitoes are, however, statistically proven to be the only animal on the planet deadlier to humans than other humans, at the present time. 

 

We underestimate the natural world and what it can do to us at our peril, being the main point here. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Tbf I can understand the scepticism, it's one of those stats that sounds unbelievable when first stated. 

 

3 hours ago, Zear0 said:

Pedantry alert but I'd say it's more an estimate than a statistic as it's based on some fairly wild extrapolation.  

Not that unbelievable if you take it back a couple hundred years to countries where malaria is endemic and there were few records. It's not unreasonable to say that previously malaria killed more than it does today, much like typhoid et al.