Ο Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων. Αναπαράστασης και fωτογραφία Tony Freeth, University College London. Ο Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων είναι παράδειγμα μέγιστης συμβολής στην επιστήμη και τεχνολογία των Ελλήνων τον δεύτερο αιώνα πριν από την εποχή μας. Οι Έλληνες της Αλεξανδρεινής εποχής είχαν δημιουργήσει ανώτερη επιστήμη και πολιτισμό που έγιναν βάσεις της επιστήμης και του πολιτισμού του δικού μας σήμερα.    Είχα την ευκαιρία να μιλήσω για την Ελληνική επιστήμη και αυτόν τον Υπολογιστή Ουρανού και Γής με τον Αλέξανδρο Χάχαλη σε μια εκπομπή (New Greek TV Νέας Υόρκης): ο σύνδεσμος εκπομπής: New Greek TV interview     

Fire in Arcadia, California, more than 23 miles away from Claremont, California, from where Evaggelos Vallianatos took this picture. Climate warnings   With the exception of fossil fuel beneficiaries, most of the leaders of the world are taking climate change, if not seriously, at least under advisement. They observe the effects of higher temperatures, increasing destructive forest fires, rising sea water levels, thunderstorms, and more difficulties in raising food and catching fish.   The  UN Panel on Climate Change  informed the world leaders in 2018 that things are going from bad to worse. Some weather and climate extremes mirror temperatures in the range of 1.5 0  Celsius above the pre-industrial age temperature (1850-1900).     In its  State of the Global Climate 2020  report, the World Meteorological Organization was more dismal in its conclusions, though the study itself is a model of science: building on the investigations of pre...

Out of sight out of mind   I remember talking to an environmentalist from Illinois sometime in the 1980s. The conference we met was about pollution. He said to me, what you heard about chemical waste dumping is only the tip of the iceberg of the amounts of wastes already buried.   In fact, no one will ever know the mountains of wastes that have been buried or dumped into rivers, lakes, seas and oceans in violation of the law or with the consent of local and national authorities.   The EPA is still struggling to lessen the dangers of illegal pollution and burial of toxic wastes in places throughout the country. The EPA baptizes these gangster operations “superfund” sites.   One such water  dumping of DDT wastes  came to light in late 2020 by David Valentine, a curious professor of the University of  California, Santa Barbara. He discovered something like 500,000 barrels of DDT littering the ocean floor: a criminal act of pollution that turned out t...

NASA's climate change model. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are fluctuating year round in the atmosphere. They are shown red in color. Courtesy Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA, March 25, 2021. Climate is a complex biological and chemical interaction between the Earth and the Sun. The Earth is the only star, which is alive in the universe. It keeps a safe distance from the fiery Sun, so that life is its distinguishing characteristic.   The  Sun bathes the Earth with life-giving light and energy. In addition, in the past billions of years, these solar blessings have been giving rise to temperature, winds, storms, oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, drinking water, forests, deserts, animals, plants and flowers.   We also use weather to understand the phenomena of rain, cold, hot and other changes in the atmosphere (sphere of steam).  NASA  defines weather and climate in terms of time:  “Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short pe...