PHYS 150 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Current Events and Further Reading

Physics of the Headlines

One of the great things about this course is that the things you're learning show up in the news all the time. Throughout the course I'll intermittently link to articles that pertain to the material we're covering. Feel free to send suggestions!

2017

Dec. 29, 2017 (NYT): How we know it was climate change" No storm is directly "caused" by climate change, but climate change alters the probabilities for extreme weather events.
Dec. 19, 2017 (SciAm): What keeps an astronaut awake at night? Cosmic rays Particles from space produce flashes of light in astronauts' eyes.
Nov. 21, 2017 (Grist): Ice Apocalypse More about the current uncertainty (and concern) around the possibility of Antarctic ice shelf collapse
Nov. 21, 2017 (Wired): Could Tesla power its electric truck with solar panels? You know enough from class to do this calculation!
Nov. 19, 2017 (NYT): Six years after Fukushima, robots finally find reactors' melted uranium fuel A tale of reactors, robots, and radiation
Nov. 13, 2017 (NYT): Global CO2 emissions set to rise 2% in 2017 after three-year ‘plateau’ Update on recent history in global GHG emissions
Nov. 9, 2017 (NYT): Dinosaurs Might Not Be Extinct Had the Asteroid Struck Elsewhere The Yucatan was an especially damaging place for that impact
Nov. 6, 2017 (NYT): Here’s How Far the World Is From Meeting Its Climate Goals Visualizing where we are, where we're going, and what we would need to do to keep below 2C
Nov. 3, 2017 (NYT): U.S. Report Says Humans Cause Climate Change, Contradicting Top Trump Officials Release of the Climate Science Special Report, an up-to-date summary of climate change research with a focus on the United States
Nov. 2, 2017 (Nature): Discovery of a big void in Khufu's Pyramid by observation of cosmic ray muons Researchers use cosmic rays to look inside the Great Pyramid... and find a new chamber!
Oct. 27, 2017 (NASA): Prolific Earth gravity satellites end science mission The end of the GRACE satellites, which monitored the Earth's shape through gravity for 15 years
Oct. 25, 2017 (Vox): Electric buses are coming Why city buses might be a perfect application for electric vehicles
Oct. 9, 2017 (NYT): E.P.A. Announces Repeal of Major Obama-Era Carbon Emissions Rule What was the Clean Power Plan, and what would it mean to end it?
Sep. 22, 2017 (NYT): Prospect of Atmospheric Nuclear Test by North Korea Raises Specter of Danger If North Korea does carry out the first above-ground nuclear explosion in decades, what might the effects be?
Sep. 22, 2017 (NYT): Mexico City Was Built on an Ancient Lake Bed. That Makes Earthquakes Much Worse. Soft ground increases earthquake damage.
Sep. 21, 2017 (NYT): NASA’s Osiris-Rex Spacecraft Is Headed for a Flyby With Earth A probe visiting an asteroid makes a visit past Earth to pick up some speed: a "gravitational slingshot".
Sep. 17, 2017 (NYT): What Could We Lose if a NASA Climate Mission Goes Dark? The race to replace the aging GRACE satellites that observe our planet
Oct. 1, 2003 (NASA)Saturn-Bound Spacecraft Tests Einstein's Theory Before it even arrived at Saturn, Cassini conducted precision tests of our theory of gravity.
Sep. 8, 2017 (SciAm): What We Know about the Climate Change–Hurricane Connection Informal status report on an old question: what effect does climate change have on major weather events?
Sep. 5, 2017 (WaPo): NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will crash into Saturn — its final screaming success The upcoming end of a robot space probe that has studied Saturn for more than a decade
Sep. 3, 2017 (NYT): Can North Korea Actually Hit the United States with a Nuclear Weapon? Ballistic missiles
Sep. 3, 2017 (NYT): A Giant Nuclear Blast, but a Hydrogen Bomb? Too Soon to Say Types of nuclear explosions, and how experts try to tell them apart
Sep. 1, 2017 (Science): Two new ways to turn ‘garbage’ carbon dioxide into fuel Current research on turning greenhouse gas CO₂ into fuel
Sep. 1, 2017 (SciAm): Why can't we all charge our phones wirelessly? The physical and technological challenges of doing away with that charging cord
Aug. 23, 2017 (Radiolab): Where the Sun Don't Shine Audio story about the Voyager space probes, the edge of the solar system... and a love story (33 min)
Aug. 22, 2017 (NYT): What Exxon Mobil Didn’t Say About Climate Change History of climate change work and public relations at the world's largest fossil fuel company
Jul 29, 2017 (NYT): When life on Earth was nearly extinguished The possible role of carbon dioxide in the "Great Dying" that ended the Permian period 252 million years ago, which killed 90% of ocean life and 75% of land life.
Jul. 25, 2017 (Science News): How earthquake scientists eavesdrop on North Korea’s nuclear blasts Using seismic waves to monitor nuclear explosions around the world
Jul. 8, 2017 (NYT): Rooftop solar dims under pressure from utility lobbyists the role of "net metering" policy in the economic viability of rooftop solar energy.
Jun. 26, 2017 (NRDC): “Baseload” in the Rearview Mirror of Today’s Electric Grid An argument that the "baseload" concept for the electric grid that I discussed in class is out of date, now that coal and nuclear are no longer cheapest.
Jun. 26, 2017 (NYT): Carbon in atmosphere is rising, even as emissions stabilize What is the role and status of natural "sponges" that take up excess carbon dioxide?
Jun. 3, 2017 (NYT): The Biggest, Strangest 'Batteries' Technology development toward city-scale energy storage to enable wind and solar.
Jun. 1, 2017 (NYT): Trump Will Withdraw U.S. From Paris Climate Agreement U.S. exiting a climate agreement discussed in this course
Mar. 27, 2017 (NYT): A Dream of Clean Energy at a Very High Price Status report on ITER, the international fusion test plant
Mar. 27, 2017 (WaPo): One of the most troubling ideas about climate change just found new evidence in its favor New evidence that climate change may change the jet stream, and with it weather patterns
Mar. 16, 2017 (NPR): Digitization Unearths New Data From Cold War-Era Nuclear Test Films: Newly digitized and released videos of the 210 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by the U.S., 1945-1962
Mar. 12, 2017 (NYT): Struggling with Japan's Nuclear Waste, Six Years After Disaster What to do with the waste from Fukushima?
Mar. 11, 2017 (Science): Planets' escape velocities, illustrated (GIF) Just for fun...
Mar. 9, 2017 (Economist): Here, there, and everywhere: quantum technology is beginning to come into its own A look at developments in quantum devices for sensors, communications, computing, and more.
Feb. 25, 2017 (Economist): Renewable energy: a world turned upside down Wind and solar are disrupting our markets for distributing electricity.
Feb. 18, 2017 (NYT): The Murky Future of Nuclear Power in the United States update on the challenging economics of nuclear power, despite expectations of a revival.
Feb. 8, 2017 (NYT): A Conservative Case for Climate Action A "carbon dividend" plan from a group of Republican economists
Jan. 30, 2017 (LAT): Obituary of Harold Rosen, creater of first geosynchronous commuinication satellite
Jan. 18, 2017 (NYT): Earth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Year
Jan. 15, 2017 (NYT): It Can Power a Small Nation. But This Wind Farm in China Is Mostly Idle

2016

Dec. 23, 2016 (New Yorker): World War Three, By Mistake essay by Eric Schlosser on the possibilities of an accidental nuclear exchange, during the Cold War and now
Dec. 12, 2016 (Vox): Interactive map comparings costs of different power plant technologies around the country illustrates why natural gas and renewables are beating out coal.
Nov. 29, 2016 (BBC): The colossal African solar farm that could power Europe
Nov. 29, 2016 (NYT): Giant Arch, a Feat of Engineering, Now Covers Chernobyl Site in Ukraine
Oct. 31, 2016 (Bloomberg): No One Saw Tesla's Solar Roof Coming Home battery packs and solar roofs.
Oct. 28, 2016 (Vox): America isn't using nearly as much renewable energy as Americans think
Aug. 29, 2016 (NYT): Japan’s $320 Million Gamble at Fukushima: An Underground Ice Wall. Sealing in the meltdown site
Aug. 29, 2016 (Vox): Millions of used electric car batteries will help store energy for the grid. Maybe.. What to do with old electric car batteries?
Aug. 24, 2016 (Vox): The falling costs of US solar power, in 7 charts.Coming to your roof soon?
Aug. 22, 2016 (LAT): Nuclear accident in New Mexico ranks among the costliest in U.S. history. Be sure to read the part about the kitty litter...
July 29, 2016 (NYT): Does the Disappearance of Sea Ice Matter? A taste of the complexities of climate modeling.
June 20, 2016 (Popular Mechanics) When Kodak Accidentally Discovered A-Bomb Testing Funny behavior in a film factory in Rochester, NY showed evidence of the first nuclear tests, almost 2000 miles away!

2015

June 24, 2015 (Bloomberg): What's really warming the world? Great visualization of the relative effects on climate of various natural and human-induced factors.

Some Further Reading

If you liked the material in this course and want to learn more, here are some suggestions for further reading. If something specific piqued your interest, ask the professor for where to learn more!

Energy, Power, and Alternative Energy

Energy for Future Presidents, Richard Muller
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, Daniel Yergin

Atoms and Heat

The Disappearing Spoon: and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, Sam Kean

Gravity, Force, and Space

... The Heavens and the Earth: A political history of the Space Age, Walter McDougall

Chain Reactions, Nuclear Reactors, and Atomic Bombs

The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser

Climate Change

Up-to-date intro at climate.nasa.gov

Relativity

Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy, Kip Thorne
Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time, Peter Galison

The Universe

Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The story of the scientific quest for the secret of the Universe, Dennis Overbye
Heart of Darkness: Unraveling the mysteries of the invisible Universe, Jeremiah Ostriker and Simon Mitton