protons4b.bsky.social
Experimental physicist, professionally retired since April 2020, but still experimenting. I've been writing about science since 2008 at http://protonsforbreakfast.org
Very concerned about the Climate and sustainable living.
184 posts
829 followers
237 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
If you're in the UK you can see current temperatures in context here:
istheukhotrightnow.com
comment in response to
post
Thank you. Very informative as ever!
comment in response to
post
berkeleyearth.org/may-2025-tem...
I took the graphs from Berkeley Earth who have monthly news conference where they present the latest data and discuss its significance. It's all very low key, but the team's "reality focus" is reassuring.
comment in response to
post
DT is logarithmic for very large DT, but is highly linear for small DT.
In my opinion, this is a case where the mathematics - i.e. the use of a logarithm - masks the simplicity of the physics.
comment in response to
post
berkeleyearth.org/may-2025-tem...
"The trend lines show definite upward curvature, but it could just be the influence of the last couple of extra hot years"
It could be just fluctuations, but given all that's going on, I fear not.
comment in response to
post
Brilliant: Thank you.
comment in response to
post
I am relieved to see that the era of big budget science is not quite over - that is a very large glass of Glenlivet! But I guess the main effect is at the fuller end of the glass!
More seriously, that's a big difference given that whisky and water differ in density by only ~ 6%. Curious...
comment in response to
post
Thank you.
AT first I thought "Well this is a bit a pointless" for reasons of seasonality and time of day, but looking a bit deeper, the data behind each station is very informative.
comment in response to
post
Andrew: Thank you: I'm talking heat pumps next week at
Cheltenham Science Festival and those points and responses will make good conversational starting points.
Thank you. M
comment in response to
post
CCS can make sense when it's what you do with residual unavoidable emissions. But Climeworks are selling credits to companies so they can *avoid* reducing emissions.
comment in response to
post
If it were focussing on the chemical engineering challenges I'd be happy. But in my understanding, that is not the focus of the company.
comment in response to
post
Last year I asked "Is it a scam?"
protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2024/09/02/s...
comment in response to
post
Climeworks have *not* shown that the technology works.
If they cannot remove enough CO2 to cover heir own emissions, then they have no capacity to sell carbon storage to others.
This demonstrates that the technology does *not* work.
comment in response to
post
Climeworks is utterly opaque, hiding its performance as best it can.
In engineering terms, Climeworks is slow and un-innovative.
Climeworks has become a financial engineering project rather than an enterprise focussed on chemical engineering.
comment in response to
post
At some point we may be in need of CCS, so it makes sense to invest in it now so that it can scale for when we need it in the 2050's.
But what we need now is research. That is not what Climeworks is offering.
comment in response to
post
I can't read your article.
But in general, I agree that fact that Climeworks' technology isn't working very well doesn't necessarily mean it's a scam.
But as best I can make out, it is actually I scam.
comment in response to
post
Alan, Good Morning. I disagree.
Investment is not the issue- they have loads of money. What they lack is credibility.
They have had a decade with practically unlimited funding and it still doesn't work. But they have continued to sell carbon credits. In short, it's a scam.
comment in response to
post
Mike, I understand your scepticism. But while technological utopianism is misplaced, it's hard to imagine a way out of our any dilemmas without some degree of technological shift.
comment in response to
post
Dan: Where is the evidence that it is working?
comment in response to
post
Yes, it's very close to being a graduate tax. I would be happy with that. It is the individual accounting that I find pernicious.
comment in response to
post
protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2021/11/04/g...
And here's my review of his biography.
comment in response to
post
protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2021/02/21/g...
Here's a précis of the paper. Enjoy!
comment in response to
post
The payment for March has not appeared in appeared on my Octopus account, but presumably this arrive eventually.
I have not heard any explanations of the problem with Ripple.
comment in response to
post
I'm afraid I have no idea. I own £2,000 worth of shares, about 1/17,000th part of the project. Before I invested, I did contemplate the possibility that I could lose all the money.
I don't think that will happen as I am already a part-own and it is already operating.
comment in response to
post
Insulation is great, but EWI on my house cost £26,000.
Installing a heat pump is cheaper and overnight lower carbon dioxide emissions.
In many cases insisting on insulation is making the perfect the enemy of the adequate and achievable.
comment in response to
post
Do you mean Ripple Energy RIP? Do you have any information about what has happened there?
comment in response to
post
I spent £60,000 on my home: EWI, Triple-glazing, Solar & Battery, ASHP. But even to me this seems pretty extreme.
comment in response to
post
I went through the data for Teddington UK and recorded monthly generation from 2005 to 2020 and recorded the mean and the (max-min)/2.
I was just looking at one place. I would expect this to be locally correlated over (say) 100 km, but more weakly correlated over longer distances.
comment in response to
post
Michael: Thank you: typo now corrected. M
comment in response to
post
Congratulations!
comment in response to
post
I'll drop them a line. M
comment in response to
post
Jamie, Good Morning. Interesting, but I am not convinced by the methodology. They look at the Powerwall's assessment of it's own capacity - simply a number in a memory location.
In my analysis I look at the actual full-to-empty energy discharged.
protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/01/10/p...
comment in response to
post
tinyurl.com/3ev86bd3
Sorry about the link: does this one work?
And thanks for the information about Tomato energy. I'll check that out.
Thanks
M
comment in response to
post
Indeed: I missed out many technical details and just tried to consider the most general 'sketch' of he technology.
comment in response to
post
6 So if this company has this technology, then great. But it's not like other companies have not thought about this. It's just a very fundamental technology with air source that pumps operating around 0 °C. If someone really has a solution, just show it.