Upset and annoyed

 

Today I was part of the "panel of scientists" on Abels Tårn - the radio show that airs on Friday mornings at NRK P2 (this particular show will not air until December; probably December 4th). This time was sort of a "special edition", where the audience were all high school students (and their teachers), and all the questions were from these students.

So far, so good: GREAT FUN! (For the first time, I was on the show together with Anders - that didn't make it any less fun <3 )

After the show, one teacher came up to me (at least I think tha's what she was), and told me she had two questions. 

Great, I thought...

But  they weren't questions, they were more like "questions":

The first one was if a Molten Salt Reactor will release less radioactivity during normal operation than today's reactors, and the second one I'm not sure if she ever asked; except she was asking me about all these Germans that had written stuff in German, and I said (several times - at first I was polite) that I don't speak German, so, no, I have not read these things (but I should, according to her). She was laughing in my face when I said that there are no radioactive releases during normal operation of reactors even today (and of course not in the future), and just told me I was wrong (and said that if I just read these German things I would know that I was wrong...). Still I didn't just leave (that would be rude), I tried to talk about radiation doses and limits - it wasn't very successful.

This teacher pretended to have questions, but was not interested in listening to what I said, and just went on and on and on about new German titles that I should (have) read. It was annoying and rude, and I'm still kind of upset, actually :/

 

all photos: Yngve Vogt

Maybe the worst part is that this teacher (if that's what she was) was stealing time from the students that had several questions for me, and that I would really have wanted to talk to - not to tell them so much about nuclear physics, but about science, and research, and all the amazing possibilities...

BTW: Thank you so much to the student who just wanted to tell me that she really enjoyed my TEDxOslo talk <3 The talk from LeRosey, last year, is HERE, and the one from Bergen, a couple of weeks ago will come very soon (stay tuned).

PS: It's TOTALLY OK to disagree with my view on nuclear power, but please don't pretend to ask me questions when you have no intensions of listening to what I say, and not respect me as a scientist. I try very hard not to pretend to be an "expert" on stuff taht I'm not working on, so don't pretend that I know nothing about my own f*****g field of science. Thank you <3 

PPS: Besides the behavior of this teacher, it was a great day, and I had a lot of fun being part of Abels Tårn today!

Boiling and melting (On the radio)

So, Friday two weeks ago I was answering questions on the radio, in "Abels Tårn"; together with Bente Wahl (meteorologist) and Anna Kathinka Dalland Evans (astro physicist) - it was so much fun, and so cool that we were all girls and sort of representing all of the FAM - "physics, astronomy, and meteorology" program. 

The questions I answered was about reactors (what a great shock ;)):

When one talk about boiling and melting of reactors - does that really mean boiling and melting as we normally use those words?

The short answer here is simply YES :)

Boiling means boiling - as we know it. The boiling water reactors have water as a coolant, and with the pressure and temperatures in such a reactor, this water is boiling - which it is supposed to. In other reactors, like a pressurised water reactor (PWR), however, the water should not boil, and they are constructed in such a way that this doesn´t happen. If the water in a PWR is boiling, something is seriously wrong.

Melting means melting. The fuel in a reactor is solid, and it is supposed to stay that way, even though it is really hot inside the reactor (where the fuel is). If there is a severe accident, and the coolant (in most cases water) disappears, the fuel will be even hotter, and it may melt (at almost 3000 degrees celsius...)

So, when there´s talk about boiling, it´s about the coolant/water, and when there´s talk about melting, it´s about the fuel ;)

me dressed for cooking and boiling and melting and stuff <3

------------------------------------------------------

Today I´m going back to answer more questions - and I can tell you it will be something about nuclear physics and radiation and radioactivity...and if there´s time there may even be something about cold fusion.

It starts at 10 in Realfagsbiblioteket at Blindern, and there´s free coffee and waffles for the guest <3

Abels Tårn - Vaffel og Vitenskap

Tenk at det er fredag, ALLEREDE! Og med så fantastisk, deilig vær; var bare nødt til å starte dagen i dag med en rask cortado ute i solen på Café Ro før jeg tok bussen til Majorstuen - hverdagslykke!

Her på Blindern har jeg nettopp kommet tilbake til kontoret fra dagens Abels Tårn, og jeg må bare tipse alle lesere som kanskje kan komme til å befinne seg i nærheten av Blindern (eller i alle fall de som er på Blindern) på en fredags formiddag om å komme innom Realfagsbiblioteket i Vilhelm Bjerknes hus, og få med seg innspillingen - og spise (gratis) vafler og kaffe ;)

Hver fredag samler NRK Ekko et panel UiO-forskere til direktesending av  "Abels tårn".

MN-fakultetet (matematisk- naturvitenskapelig fakultet/MatNat :) ) ønsker sammen med NRK å gjøre sendingen til noe mer enn et radioprogram. Derfor disker vi opp med kaffe og vafler og inviterer til 'Vaffel og vitenskap'.

Kom til kantinen i Realfagsbiblioteket og innled helgen med en halvtime direktesendt forskningsunderholdning. Kanskje har du et spørsmål du vil stille til panelet?

Altså:

• innspilling/sending av Abels Tårn i Realfagsbiblioteket (kantinen/foajeen) klokken 10 til 10:30
• gratis vafler
• gratis kaffe
• god stemning <3<3<3

programleder Torkil forbereder seg

stille før stormen

marshmallows i eksperiment i dagens sending

dagens panel gjør seg klare før sending; 1xProgramleder, 1xKjemiker, 2xFysiker