Tag: Thomas Stig Wikman

Robotics And Leonberger Dogs

Daily writing prompt
On what subject(s) are you an authority?
View all responses

So, on what subject(s) am I an authority? My understanding on what being an authority on a subject means is that it is being an expert with recognized credibility on that subject. However, the word “authority” has so many other meanings and it brings to mind the “appeal to authority fallacy”. The “appeal to authority fallacy” refers to appealing to influential people or organizations who may not necessarily be experts, and regardless of the evidence.

In science you don’t really have such authorities, you have experts who often disagree with each other. In the event almost all experts agree on a certain fact that has been thoroughly vetted you can trust that fact with nearly 100% certainty, and that is not appeal to authority but a probability argument. Therefore, I don’t really like the use of the word authority in this context. It is confusing. I would have preferred the question to be “In what subject(s) do you have recognized expertise?”

This is a screenshot of a pdf file. It says, “Reflex Control for Obstacle Avoidance and Self Preservation by Thomas Wikman. Submitted in partial Fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Ph.D. Thesis advisor Dr. Wyatt S. Newman. Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. Case Western Reserve University.”
This is the front page of my PhD thesis “Reflex Control for Obstacle Avoidance and Self Preservation”.

Robotics

Reflex Control for Obstacle Avoidance and Self Preservation

My PhD thesis was in Robotics, specifically Reflex Control for Obstacle Avoidance and Self Preservation. Therefore, you can say that I am an expert on Reflex Control for Obstacle Avoidance and Self Preservation, Reflex Control (in Robotics) as well as Robotics. My expertise has been recognized through my published research papers, the citing of those papers, my PhD thesis, and my peers including Rodney Brooks.

Rodney Brooks is a former director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, founder of several robotics research companies, and he is arguably the most famous roboticist in the world. In the 1990’s he was featured on the front page in national magazines such as Time Magazine several times. During my internship at the Robotics Lab at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1993, I spoke to Rodney Brooks about my research, and he congratulated me on my research, which he liked.

Briefly, reflex control in Robotics refers to functionally simple, quick, and reliable behaviors that override whatever more complex algorithms or humans (joystick / telerobotics) are commanding in case those algorithms or humans execute dangerous motion. Take for example, a robot moving quickly among multiple objects and the path planning algorithm generates a faulty command that would result in a collision when executed. The reflex control layer would detect the problem (assuming it knows about the objects) and halt the robot before it collided with the object. This would need to happen quickly, in milliseconds, and always in a failsafe way. After the collision has been avoided the system or the human can figure out what went wrong and figure out a new path.

To do this the Reflex controller needs to be embedded with the motion controller, and know the characteristics of the motors, the robot configuration, and mechanical characteristics, such as mass, friction model, inertia, etc., exactly. The result is that when you drive a robot around among multiple objects such as boxes hanging from the ceiling, coat racks, and sombreros, and other robots it will avoid colliding with these objects regardless of input from people or high-level path planning algorithms. It looked like the objects were protected by an invisible force field.

The Robotics Research Corporation Robot / RRC Robot, is a seven-jointed silver colored robot. It is mounted to the floor and surrounded by objects | Robotics And Leonberger Dogs
This is an old black and white photo of the Robotics Research Corporation Robot surrounded by objects including boxes hanging in the ceiling, a coat rack, and a control cabinet. I took the photo, and I created the software for the robot and placed the objects in its workspace.

Robot Kinematics

In addition, to “Reflex Control for Obstacle Avoidance and Self Preservation” or “Reflex Control for Robots”, which is very narrow field, I gained expertise in fields of robotics that are a bit wider. One such field is robot kinematics. That includes, for example, calculating the position, speed and acceleration of the tool tip (the end tip) of the robot from the position and motion of the joints of the robot. Or it could be calculating the possible joint angles from the position of the tool tip. The RRC robot was a seven-jointed robot so this could get complicated. I should say that when I worked for ABB Robotics (after my Ph.D) I created the kinematic models for 30+ of ABB Robotics robots. Therefore, I have expertise and recognized credibility in Robot Kinematics as well.

This is a stick figure drawing of the RRC robot for the purpose of defining the coordinate systems for each joint.
The drawing shows the seven joints, the seven possible rotations around those joints, the seven joint angles (the thetas), and the seven coordinate systems and their origos (the O’s) at each joint.

Robot kinematics can get complicated, at least for a seven-jointed robot like the RRC Robot. An example is the Jacobian, which is a matrix that relates joint velocities to end-effector / tool-tip velocities. The Jacobian is crucial for understanding and controlling robot motion, particularly for inverse kinematics and trajectory planning. Below is the Jacobian for the first four joints of the RRC robot. I spent an entire day deriving it. Depending on your eyesight it is difficult to read the scribbles, but it is a bunch of very long, mostly trigonometric equations. Don’t worry about understanding the matrix, it is just to show how complicated robot kinematics can get.

Hundreds of trigonometric expressions arranged in a 4 X 4 matrix.
First part of the 4-dimensional (first four joints) Jacobian for the RRC Robot.
Hundreds of trigonometric expressions arranged in a 4 X 4 matrix.
Second part of the 4-dimensional (first four joints) Jacobian for the RRC Robot.
Hundreds of trigonometric expressions arranged in a 4 X 4 matrix.
Third part of the 4-dimensional (first four joints) Jacobian for the RRC Robot.
Hundreds of trigonometric expressions arranged in a 4 X 4 matrix | Robotics And Leonberger Dogs
Fourth part of the 4-dimensional (first four joints) Jacobian for the RRC Robot.

Configuration Space in Robotics

Another subject I gained a lot of expertise in is configuration space or so-called C-space. It is related to robot kinematics. C-space is a mathematical representation of all possible configurations a robot can take. In C-space for a robot arm (like the RRC Robot) the coordinates are the joint angles instead of X, Y and Z.  For the seven-jointed RRC robot you have seven joint angles and C-space is thus seven dimensions. C-space is very useful if you succeed in representing obstacles in it. A point might become a curve, or multi-dimensional membrane in C-space, and a ball might become a multi-dimensional banana. I had a lot of fun creating algorithms for creating C-space with obstacles in it.

My Other Expertise

I also have a degree a master’s degree in engineering physics (Teknisk Fysik) from Uppsala University in Sweden. I should say that engineering physics in Uppsala was focused a lot on theoretical physics and modern physics as well as practical applications for physics. Case Western Reserve University later converted this degree to a master’s in electrical engineering. I loved physics and was a good student, but my special interest was the theory of relativity. Even though I had and still have a hard time with the General Theory of relativity and I studied the special theory of relativity way beyond what was required at school, and I read dozens of technical books on the subject. So, this is also sort of an area expertise for me.

Below are some links to topics related to the special theory of relativity on this website:

I spent at least 30 years working with software as a software engineer / robotics engineer and gained a lot of experience in software development. It was mostly embedded software but also graphical user interfaces, things you can see on a screen, and Networking Software Development. I worked a lot with Visual Studio, a powerful, expandable, and popular integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft.

I developed a lot of code using C++ and C#, .Net, WPF, but also other languages and libraries. I started with Visual Studio 97 (in 1997), then Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio .NET 2002, Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio 2015, Visual Studio 2017, but I never got around to Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022. So, you can say that I am an expert on Visual Studio with C++ and C# and .NET (I am less of an expert on the other languages typically used with Visual Studio).

Later in life I also came to learn a lot about climate change / climate disruption / global warming / the greenhouse effect whatever you call it. I used to be skeptical about climate change, and I thought it might be politicized by the scientific community, but after some interesting red flags I took a deep dive into the subject, and I learned that climate change is very real and caused by us. I was politicized not the scientific community. There is a scientific consensus on the subject for very good reasons. I continued by reading dozens of climate science papers and several dozens of technical and non-technical books on the topic. Therefore, at this point I know more about it than a lot of people. Maybe expert is a strong word, but almost expert.

Least but not last

Being a Leonberger Dog Expert

I know a lot about Leonbergers because my family was lucky enough to live with one for thirteen years. His name was Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle—but we called him “Bronco” for short. Bronco wasn’t our only dog, but our world wouldn’t have been the same without him. For instance, he once saved the life of our pug by fending off an attack from another dog. He probably saved our Labrador’s life, too, by sniffing out an impending insulin shock before it happened. Then there was the time he scared off a trespasser who’d been terrorizing my wife and other women in the neighborhood.

A big Leonberger is standing on a large red leather sofa and stretching out to give me a hug | Robotics And Leonberger Dogs
Bronco loved to dance and hug. Here he is giving me a hug (not yet fully grown).

Bronco is no longer with us, but even in his passing he was distinctive. Leonbergers tend to live less than nine years—but Bronco came very close to reaching his thirteenth birthday. In fact, he received an award for longevity called the “Grey Muzzle Award.”  We already knew he was a special dog, but we sent his DNA to two labs for research anyway. I wrote a book about our amazing Bronco and his many amusing adventures and included helpful information on Leonbergers for new owners and interested dog lovers. I also have a Leonberger website.

In the process of writing my book about Bronco and Leonbergers I came to learn a lot about Leonberger dogs, the Leonberger breed standard, their history, health issues, Leonberger organizations, health and care, etc. I became a bit of a Leonberger expert. If you are interested in the book, check it out here or here. You can also get it from Amazon in many other countries, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo and many other bookstores. For more information check here.

To see the Super Facts click here

The two main classes of beer are Ales and Lagers

Super fact 50 : There are hundreds of types of beer but in general they fall into two main categories, ales and lagers, and these two categories are not differentiated based on color. The ales are not necessarily dark and lagers light. There are light colored ales and dark, even black ales. There are light colored lagers and dark and almost black lagers (Schwarzbier). The difference between ales and lagers is the type of yeast used and the fermentation temperature. Ales are typically made with top-fermenting yeast at warmer temperatures. This result is a wider range of flavors and aromas, often with fruity or spicy notes. Lagers, on the other hand, are made with bottom-fermenting yeast at cooler temperatures making them crisper and more subtle. Ales have been around for 6,000 years. The lager is a more recent invention.

I consider this a super fact, first, because even though beer is a well-known drink that a lot of us drink almost every day, a lot of people don’t know what the two basic kinds of beer are. They don’t know what an ale is or what a lager is. Even beer fans and many people who drink beer every day are often clueless about this, the most basic fact about beer. A lot of people say that they like light/blond beer or they like dark beer. In my native country Sweden, which I admit is not a true beer country, I often hear people say that they prefer “ljus öl” (light/blond beer) rather than “mörk öl” (dark beer), or the other way around, which is like saying that you like blond / light colored food rather than dark colored food. It doesn’t make sense.

On the left, glass with black beer. It has a mocha-colored head. On the right is the bottle. The label says Das Schwarze.
This is a so called Schwarzbier that I drank some time ago. Das Schwarze a German Schwarzbier from Dinkelacker-Schwabenbräu, ABV 4.9%. Some roasted notes, sweet caramel, light flavor, a bit fizzy, somewhat thin but good enough. This is a Lager but notice a how dark it is, basically black. I did not put black dye in it. It is how they really look despite being Lagers.

I am in the process of learning Franch, and I’ve discovered that this confusion is even baked into the French language. Well as you might guess France is not a true beer country. If you use Google Translate and you type in “Lager” in the English edit box the answer you get in French is “Bière blonde”, even though French and Belgian beer that are labeled Blonde frequently are Ales not Lagers. I’ve read a lot of French language sites mentioning beer, and unless the author has some beer expertise, they make the same mistake as Google Translate. Blonde / light beer is not Lager, and dark beer is not necessarily Ale.

I had a discussion about this with one of my French teachers and despite me having talked a lot about beer in class and having previously shown him that I knew something about the topic, he had a very hard time accepting the truth. After a Google search he finally accepted the truth, but he was very surprised, perhaps even shocked.

The confusion is immense, it is worldwide, and the truth is surprising to some people. I should mention that Americans for the most part get this right. In general Americans know that Lager isn’t necessarily blonde and vice versa. They know that IPAs, which are not Lagers but Ales, typically are light colored. Perhaps because of the prominent craft beer industry in the US. I should also mention that there are also hybrid beer styles and beer styles that are hard to classify as lager or ale. More about that later.

A tall glass with black beer on the left. A can with the label Ba Ba Black Beer on the right. Behind the beer glass you can see Sushi | The two main classes of beer are Ales and Lagers
This is Ba Ba Black Lager, an American Schwarzbier. I had sushi with this Schwarzbier.

Secondly, lagers, especially pale bland mass-produced lagers have become so common that when people taste an ale, especially if it is a little bit different, like fruity, tart, have chocolate or coffee flavors, etc., they don’t even consider it a real beer. In their minds real beer is a bland tasting lager. Never mind that we have had Ales for 6,000 years, and that Ales dominated beer drinking up to relatively modern times. Nowadays 90% of beer consumption worldwide is lagers (87% in the US), but throughout most of human history nearly 100% of beer consumption worldwide was ales.

On the left is an IPA glass filled with a golden colored clear IPA with a snow-white head. In the middle is the Cold War can and on the right is a garden gnome holding a mug. There is a sign next to the gnome, which says “Welcome to my beer garden.”
This is an IPA called Cold War. IPAs are NOT Lagers. However, notice how light the color is. IPAs are popular in the US, which I think is one reason Americans are better educated on the difference between lagers and ales to countries that are not part of the European beer countries (Germany, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Czech Republic, etc.)

What is an Ale?

As mentioned, an Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. Ales are typically made with top-fermenting yeast at warmer temperatures. This result is a wider range of flavors and aromas, often with fruity or spicy notes. The word ale is an English word which in medieval England meant a drink brewed without hops (it is not what it means today). Some popular ales include IPA, Pale Ale, Stouts, Porter, Scotch Ale, and Barley Wine.  Below is a more complete list of Ales. The list is from the beer advocate. Despite the 120 styles listed the list is not complete. It should be noted that I’ve added a few that were missing.

  • India Pale Ales : American IPA, Belgian IPA, Black IPA, Brut IPA, Cold IPA, English IPA, Imperial IPA, Milkshake IPA, New England IPA.
  • Pale Ales : American Amber / Red Ale, American Blonde Ale, American Pale Ale, Belgian Blonde Ale, Belgian Pale Ale, Bière de Garde, English Bitter, English Pale Ale, English, Pale Mild Ale, Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB), Grisette, Irish Red Ale, Kölsch, Saison.
  • Wild/Sour Beers : Berliner Weisse, Brett Beer, Faro, Flanders Oud Bruin, Flanders Red Ale, Fruit Lambic, Fruited Kettle Sour, Gose, Gueuze, Lambic, Wild Ale.
  • Wheat beers : American Dark Wheat Beer, American Pale Wheat Beer, Dunkelweizen, Grodziskie, Hefeweizen, Kristallweizen, Witbier.
  • Stouts : American Imperial Stout, American Stout, English Stout, Foreign / Export Stout, Irish Dry Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Russian Imperial Stout, Sweet / Milk Stout.
  • Porters : American Porter, Baltic Porter, English Porter, Imperial Porter, Robust Porter, Smoked Porter.
  • Dark Ales : Dubbel, Roggenbier, Scottish Ale, Winter Warmer.
  • Brown Ales : Altbier, American Brown Ale, Belgian Dark Ale, English Brown Ale, English Dark Mild Ale.
  • Strong Ales : American Barleywine, American Strong Ale, Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Belgian Pale Strong Ale, English Barleywine, English Strong Ale, Imperial Red Ale, Old Ale, Quadrupel (Quad), Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy, Tripel, Wheatwine.
  • Specialty Beers: Ancient Herbed Ale, Sahti.
On the left a Westvleteren glass filled with dark brown Westvleteren. On the right the Trappist Westvleteren bottle | The two main classes of beer are Ales and Lagers
Trappist Westvleteren from Brouwerij Westvleteren (Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren) a Belgian Quadruple might be the most renowned beer in the world. I’ve had it many times and it is heavenly. However, it is very difficult  to get in the US. A Quadruple is a type of Ale.
On the left a glass filled with the dark brown to black porter Plutonium-239. On the right the can with the label Plutonium-239.
Plutonium-239 from the Manhattan Project Brewing Company in Dallas, Texas. It is a strong-tasting Porter with coconut flavors. (chocolate, coconut and coffee). There is no clear definition on the difference between porter and stout, other than porters are in general milder and not as strong as stouts. From that perspective Plutonium-239 is really a stout.

Wild Ales and Sour Beers often have fruity flavors. This can be achieved by adding fruits or berries to them but often fruit flavors emerge naturally from the fermentation process, which, at least if you use wild yeast, produce esters (fruit flavors). Wheat beers often have banana or pear notes and just as for Wild Ales these flavors emerge naturally from the fermentation process (esters again). Some of the IPAs also have distinct fruit flavors, especially the New England style IPAs, but in this case the fruit flavors come from the hops.

On the right is a glass filled with dark red beer with a thick pink head. On the left is the Atrial Rubicite bottle | The two main classes of beer are Ales and Lagers
Jester King in Texas brews a Wild Ale called Atrial Rubicite. It is a Wild Ale infused with raspberries. The fermentation process uses “wild yeast” to create a tart and fruity base but raspberries are added to enhance the fruit flavor resulting in a thick full raspberry flavor which most people describe as heavenly.

What is a Lager?

As mentioned, lagers are made with bottom-fermenting yeast at cooler temperatures making them crisper and more subtle. The word lager (German) means to storage or storeroom and used to refer to beers stored at cold temperatures. Sometime in the 15th century cold fermentation yeast emerged, and people started using it to do fermentation at cold temperatures. As time went by this form of fermentation became more popular. It was brought to the US in 1840 and between 1860 and 1870 it became the most popular fermentation process in Bohemia. As mentioned, today 90% of beer consumption worldwide is lagers.

Below is a more complete list of Lagers. The list is from the beer advocate.

  • Pale Lagers: American Adjunct Lager, American Lager, Czech / Bohemian Pilsner, Czech Pale Lager, European / Dortmunder Export Lager, European Pale Lager, European Strong Lager, Festbier / Wiesnbier, German Pilsner, Helles, Imperial Pilsner, India Pale Lager (IPL), Kellerbier / Zwickelbier, Light Lager, Malt Liquor.
  • Dark Lagers : American Amber / Red Lager, Czech Amber Lager, Czech Dark Lager, European Dark Lager, Märzen, Munich Dunkel, Rauchbier, Schwarzbier, Vienna Lager.
  • Specialty Lagers : Japanese Rice Lager, Chile Beer
The picture shows two large blue Paulaner cans and my big one-liter Disneyland cup filled beer with a thick white head.
Paulaner is a so called Festbier (or Octoberfest), which is type of Lager made especially for Octoberfest in Germany.

Finally, there are also specialty beers that are hybrids, or neither or that can be both.

  • Hybrid (Ale/Lager): Bière de Champagne / Bière Brut, Braggot, California Common / Steam Beer, Cream Ale.
  • Neither lager or ale, or can be both : Fruit and Field Beer, Low-Alcohol Beer, Rye Beer, Smoked Beer, Herb and Spice Beer, Kvass, Gruit, Happoshu, Pumpkin Beer.

That’s 120 styles of beer. I’ve had 110 beer styles. How many have you had?

To see the other Super Facts click here

Alien Civilizations and the Fermi Paradox

This is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

The AI generated image shows magical rotating things in the sky and an alien civilization below | Alien Civilizations and the Fermi Paradox
Image by Kevin from The Beginning at Last

Kevin’s artistic picture above makes me think of Alien Civilizations. Do they exist? Do they exist in our Galaxy? To quote Enrico Fermi, if they do exist “Where is Everybody?”. That is the famous Fermi Paradox.

A telescope and a background showing the milky way
Did we find an advanced civilization in our Galaxy, which has hundreds of billions of stars?

We have found thousands of exoplanets,  and it is estimated that there are 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets orbiting stars roughly the same size as the sun in the Milky Way. It is estimated that there are an additional 40 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets orbiting red dwarf stars in the Milky Way. Earth is an estimated 4.5 billion years old whilst our Milky Way Galaxy is an estimated to be 13.6 billion years old. Add that there are at least hundreds of billions of Galaxies like the Milky Way in the observable Universe. Yet, human astronomers have not detected any signs of alien civilizations, and there is no evidence Earth has been visited by aliens in the past.

A picture of the Andromeda Galaxy with a bright white light near its center. The bright light is almost outshining the entire galaxy | Alien Civilizations and the Fermi Paradox
It should be noted that even though our Galaxy is 13.6 billion years old, its beginnings were very violent with a lot of supernova explosions, which were necessary for higher elements to come into existence and making life possible. So, we need to count out the first couple of billions of years. This is a supernova explosion in the center of the Andromeda galaxy “Elements of this image furnished by NASA” It is essentially an enhanced photo of a supernova explosion in a neighboring galaxy. Stock Photo ID: 2495486227 by muratart.
Blue and brown Earth like planet with rings.
Exoplanets, we found thousands but there are likely many billion habitable exoplanets in our Galaxy. This is an imagined Earth like exoplanet. Stock Illustration ID: 1440413666 by Dotted Yeti.
A planet surrounded by rings that are hundreds of times wider than the planet | Alien Civilizations and the Fermi Paradox
This is an illustration of a real exoplanet that we’ve found. J1407b is an exoplanet 20 times more massive than Saturn. It has enormous rings and is often referred to as Super Saturn. It may not harbor life. Stock Illustration ID: 2329821675 by Love Employee.

In this context, I would like to mention the Drake equation. The Drake equation is a probabilistic equation used to estimate the number of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. It was created in 1961 by American astrophysicist and astrobiologist Frank Drake. This is the equation N = R * Fp * Ne * Fl * Fi * Fc * L. where N is the number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy with which communication might be possible.

  • R = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy.
  • Fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets.
  • Ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets.
  • Fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point.
  • Fi = the fraction of planets with life that go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations).
  • Fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.
  • L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

We have a pretty good idea of what R * Fp * Ne is but the remaining factors are unknown.

An astronaut is standing on the surface of an alien planet. He is surrounded by giant mushrooms and in the sky, there is a large moon or a planet.
Exoplanet with life Stock Illustration ID: 1524001694 by Dotted Yeti

This is not really a super fact but more of a mystery. The goal of this blog is to create a list of what I call super facts. Important facts that we to be true, and yet they are disputed by many non-experts, or just highly surprising to the general public. However, I also post interesting facts and book reviews in this blog.

Is there Scientific Evidence for Alien Civilizations?

UFO sightings are not proof of alien spacecraft. The term “UFO” or “Unidentified Flying Object”, simply describes something in the sky that a person can’t recognize. Studies by NASA, Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office show that the vast majority of these observations can be attributed to mundane phenomenon. Also, ask yourself, why would an alien civilization fly across interstellar space and only reveal themselves to random people with bad cameras and not to humanity as a whole. Why would they be flying around in little saucers? The typical flying saucer stories are not credible. Some UFO reports are also hoaxes or based on misidentified objects or misinterpretations of natural phenomena.

Grey alien with big black eyes showing peace sign, 3d render | Alien Civilizations and the Fermi Paradox
Alien showing peace sign. Shutter stock asset id: 2245224525 by adike

When I was in the Swedish army I was stationed near the Finnish Swedish border up north, which was close to Murmansk, a big Russian city which had the world’s largest navy base at the time. One night when I looked up in the sky I saw a shiny green elliptical shape in the night sky. It was quite big. I did not know what it was, but a lot of people called in to report it as a UFO. Were we being visited by space aliens as many believed. Some were even certain of it. No, it turned out to be Natrium cloud left behind by an intercontinental missile test launched from the Murmansk naval base.

A black hole with an orange accretion disk is approached by futuristic starship.
Was it a spaceship like this that we saw in the sky? No it was just a boring Natrium cloud left by a Russian missile. This spaceship approaching a black hole was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system. Stock AI-generated image ID: 2448481683 AI-generated image Contributor Shutterstock AI Generator.

Stories about past visitations are often guesses and conjecture mixed up with misrepresentation and fabrications. These stories are not taken seriously by scientists.  SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has not found any definitive evidence of alien life. SETI have not detected any signals that convincingly can be attributed to an alien intelligence. In summary, there is no scientific evidence for aliens in the declassified UFO videos, in purported alien bodies, mutilated cows or in anything else.

But why have we not found any traces of alien intelligence? Where is Everybody? That’s the Fermi Paradox.

Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

Interstellar travel and interstellar communication are incredibly difficult. Maybe we should take the fact that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light seriously. You can always speculate about warping space and wormholes but that does not mean such travel is at all physically possible. The distances in the universe are enormous and require thousands or millions of years of travel even at speeds close to the speed of light. Likewise, those distances make communication difficult. Perhaps interstellar travel and communication is too difficult to be worth it.

The so called “Great Filters” hypothesis suggests that advanced civilizations don’t last that long. Maybe they self-destruct in nuclear wars or germ warfare. Perhaps they burn fossil fuels causing severe global warming ending civilization. Maybe AI destroyed their civilization. There could also be a great filter before intelligent life occurs. What if life itself is extremely unlikely to happen.

The “Dark Forest” hypothesis suggests that advanced civilizations are hiding to avoid detection from hostile advanced civilizations. A related idea is that there is a very advanced civilization in our galaxy, which destroys all other civilizations when they become too advanced and a potential threat. If that is true, maybe we shouldn’t advertise our existence using projects like SETI.

Another suggestion is that advanced civilizations are extremely rare because they can only arise under extremely rare conditions. Not only does a planet need to be habitable, but plate tectonics, climate, the shape of continents and oceans all to be just right for intelligent life and advanced civilizations to evolve. Also, consider the fact that intelligent human life existed for hundreds of thousands of years before the rise of civilization. Perhaps we are the only civilization in our Galaxy. Perhaps we are the first civilization in our Galaxy.

Yet another suggestion is that beings that are part of advanced civilizations eventually will escape into a virtual reality world or escape into other alternative worlds.

Here is a video giving an overview of the Fermi Paradox

I would like to end with a famous quote by the famous science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark “There are two possibilities: either we are alone in the Universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying,”

So, what do you think? Where is Everybody?

To see the Super Facts click here

Review of Atomic Awakening

I recently read a very interesting book on the history of nuclear power and its possible future, Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power by James Mahaffey. Something like 90% of the book was history, the history of physics, nuclear physics, the Manhattan project, the nuclear bombs, the nuclear tests, nuclear reactors, etc.

About 10% of the book examined the viability of nuclear power and discussed the public’s fear of it. His approach to that is something like; well, no wonder people are afraid of nuclear power, look at the history. However, that fear is still irrational. The awesome power of nuclear power can give us safe and clean energy, replace fossil fuels and fight global warming, and also take us to the stars. He points out that nuclear reactions are millions of times more powerful than chemical reactions.

What Are Isotopes?

I should explain what an isotope is. Atoms consist of a nucleus and electrons surrounding the nucleus. In the nucleus there are protons and neutrons (and some other stuff). Neutral atoms have an equal amount of electrons and protons, which determines what kind of element it is. Hydrogen has one electron and one proton. Helium has two electrons and two protons. Oxygen has eight electrons and eight protons, etc. The number of protons/electrons is called the atomic number of the element.

The number of protons plus the number of neutrons is called the mass number. Atoms of the same element but different number of neutrons are called isotopes. Uranium-235 or U-235 has 92 protons and 235 – 92 = 143 neutrons. The number if protons/electrons determine the chemical properties of the element. The number of neutrons determines nuclear properties such as the stability of the nucleus, radioactivity, etc., as well as the weight. Therefore U-238 and U-235 are identical chemically and look and feel the same, but U-235 is more radioactive, and you can use U-235 for fission but not U-238.

Illustration of nuclear chain reaction. Uranium-235 fission.
This is an illustration of a chain reaction with fission of a Uranium-235 isotope. Notice the atomic number (number of protons) is incorrectly stated as 95 in the picture. It is 92.  When I have time, I will fix that. Shutterstock Asset id: 73714504 by Mpanchenko.

Cesium-137 in my Pocket

Before I continue with my review of the book I am going to tell a story about my crazy adventure with a Cesium-137, a very radioactive and dangerous isotope. In fact, Atomic Awakening claims that Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 are the two isotopes of the greatest concern with regards to nuclear waste.

Once when I was a young student of engineering physics, I was around 20 years old, we were doing experiments with radioactivity. We were using Cesium-137. There were signs on the walls warning about radioactivity and the Cesium-137 sample was enclosed in a little house built from lead bricks. We were supposed to quickly remove the lead bricks, take out the sample, do the experiment quickly, put the sample back and enclose it with the lead bricks. However, I got distracted by something and put the Cesium-137 sample in the back pocket of my jeans.

I walked around school with the Cesium-137 sample in my back pocket the whole day and after school I went shopping at the grocery store still having it in my back pocket. I discovered it once I got back to my room. I put in a drawer and stayed as far away from it as I could. The next day I woke up early, put the sample in my bag, went to the lab at school and when no one was looking I put the sample back in the lead brick house.

No, I don’t have any extra heads growing out of my buttocks, and I did not turn into the Hulk, but so much for nuclear safety.

Atomic Awakening Formats

Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power by James Mahaffey comes in four formats. I bought the hardback format.

  • Hardcover –  Publisher : Pegasus Books (June 23, 2009), ASIN : 1605980404, ISBN-13 : 978-1605980409, 352 pages, item weight : 1.42 pounds, dimensions : ‎ 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches, it costs $49.29 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Paperback –  Publisher – Pegasus Books (October 15, 2010), ISBN-10 : 1605981273, ISBN-13 : 978-1605981277, 368 pages, item weight : 12.8 ounces, dimensions : ‎ 6 x 0.92 x 9 inches, it costs $15.63 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle –  Publisher : Pegasus Books (October 15, 2010), ASIN : B004GUS68I, ISBN-13 : 978-1605982038, Item 369 pages, it costs $13.99 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Audio–  Publisher : Audible Studios (September 24, 2013), Listening Length : 11 hours and 44 minutes, ASIN : B00FBPGS78, it costs $21.83 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
Front cover of hardback format of the book Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power By James Mahaffey
Front cover of hardback format of the book Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the hardcover version of the book.

Amazon’s Description of Atomic Awakening

Nuclear power is a paradox of danger and salvation―how is it that the renewable energy source our society so desperately needs is the one we are most afraid to use?

The American public’s introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness, some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.

It has been said that if gasoline were first used to make napalm bombs, we would all be driving electric cars. Our skewed perception of nuclear power is what makes James Mahaffey’s new look at the extraordinary paradox of nuclear power so compelling. From medieval alchemy to Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and the Manhattan Project, atomic science is far from the spawn of a wicked weapons program. The discovery that the atom can be split brought forth the ultimate puzzle of the modern age: Now that the energy of the universe is available to us, how do we use it? For death and destruction? Or as a fuel for our society that has a minimal impact on the environment and future generations?

Outlining nuclear energy’s discovery and applications throughout history, Mahaffey’s brilliant and accessible book is essential to understanding the astounding phenomenon of nuclear power in an age where renewable energy and climate change have become the defining concerns of the twenty-first century.

My five-star review for Atomic Awakening

The Amazing History of Everything Nuclear

The book is divided into three parts with five chapters each. The first third of the book (titled the Fantasy) recounts the history of physics, electromagnetics, light, the Michelson-Morley experiment, relativity, the nonexistence of simultaneous events, Einstein’s miraculous year, atoms, spectrometry, atomic models, isotopes, the photoelectric effect, radioactivity, quantum physics, nuclear physics, nuclear decay, fission, fusion, and why nuclear reactions are millions of times more energetic than chemical reactions. I already knew a lot of this history having a degree in physics, but I did not know all of it and the way it was written made it very interesting.

The second third of the book (titled the Puzzle) describes the discovery of fission and fusion and it is explained why the isotopes Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239 (among 3000+ isotopes) were perfect for fission. The author provides an account of the Manhattan Project’s history, and he explains in a general sense how a nuclear reactor and a nuclear bomb work. This section reminded me of the movie Oppenheimer. He describes a bit about the various nuclear reactor designs and how the first nuclear submarine came into existence.

This part of the book is filled with interesting and surprising anecdotes about the various scientists. The first part of the book also contained many interesting anecdotes, but this part of the book really has some very interesting and crazy stories to tell. The author points out that because of Hitler there were many Jewish top scientist and other top scientists who had to flee Europe to the US, thus turning the United States into the scientific superpower it wasn’t before. He explains why the Germans did not have a chance creating a nuclear bomb. I found it interesting that the Soviets deduced that the US was working on a nuclear bomb from the fact that so many US. physicist stopped publishing in physics journals. Apparently, the Germans and the Japanese did not figure this out. However, silence is suspicious, very suspicious.

The third part of the book (titled the Paradox) is about what came after the Second World War. The author describes the development of better and safer nuclear reactors (BWR, PWR, CANDU, etc.) as well as giving us an overview of many nuclear accidents, one of them being the terrible Chernobyl accident, which largely happened because of the extremely dangerous and bad reactor design, a so called RBMK reactor. RBMK reactors are monsters that cannot be built in the West. He recounts the development of new nuclear bomb technology, such as thermonuclear bombs, more popularly called hydrogen bombs.

He also tells us about the large number of nuclear tests performed including the detonation of Tsar Bomba, the Soviet 50 Megaton bomb. It was 3,300 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. He makes it clear that there were thousands of nuclear bomb tests, but he did not specify an exact number, but I looked it up. There’s been more than 2,000 nuclear tests corresponding to a yield of 42,000 Hiroshima bombs. Many of the tests were not military. For example, project plowshare was about making a bigger and deeper Panama Canal by blowing a series of deep holes through Panama using hydrogen bombs. There were 35 nuclear bombs tests to determine the feasibility of creating giant holes with hydrogen bombs. He also explains how a nuclear bomb driven spaceship works and how we could have used it for interstellar space travel (Project Orion).

Towards the end of the book, he successfully makes the case that modern Nuclear Power (not the RBMK of course) is safe and clean. We avoid pollution, and it can be used to fight global warming. The same is true for solar and wind. However, he argues that the base power source must be constantly running, high-output nuclear stations. He argues that the public got a very bad impression of anything nuclear because of how it all started with nuclear bombs, nuclear tests, bad reactor designs and accidents, and how misinformation and miscalculations added to the bad impression. We often ignore the many tens of millions of victims of fossil fuels, and the hundreds of thousands of deaths from hydro, while exaggerating the dangers of nuclear power.

However, in nuclear power we have an immense power source that we are eventually bound to start using. That’s the Atomic Awakening. One of the shocking statements in this part of the book is that “all the medical and industrial radioisotopes, used daily in impressive quantities in the United States, are made in one reactor in Canada”. He blamed this on irrational fear of nuclear power. I checked whether this scary situation still existed today. Luckily, it is not as bad. Medical and industrial radioisotopes are still all imported but they also come from Europe and Australia. It is not just one reactor in Canada. He states that “the Paradox of Nuclear Power is that far more people die each year of radiation-induced disease from standing out in the sun than have ever died from the application of nuclear power” (page 223).

There were a few things that I did not like about the book. The first is that the author often describes complex experimental setups, designs, or tools that really could be better understood with an illustration, or a picture, but there were none. I found a typo on page 308, where he refers to fission as fusion in the third sentence. I think he spent too little space on the feasibility of Nuclear Power in the modern world and maybe too much on the history of physics. Nuclear Power seems to be what the book should be about and yet this topic was concentrated to the last 10% of the book and I don’t think he made his case as well as he could have. The end of the book seems rushed. On the other hand, it was a fascinating journey before we got there. Overall, I think this book is extremely interesting, it was a fun to read, and it was fact filled and a great learning experience. I loved reading this book, so even though I have a few misgivings I still think it is a five-star book. I highly recommend it.

Back cover of hardback format of the book Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power By James Mahaffey
Back cover of hardback format of the book Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.

Other Nuclear Related Posts

To see the Super Facts click here

We Exploded Thousands of Nuclear Bombs

Super fact 48 : Since 1945 we have set off more than 2,000 Nuclear Bombs corresponding to a yield of an estimated 42,000 times that of the Hiroshima Bomb.

According to the Arms Control Association there’s been 2,056 nuclear bomb tests. According to the UN there’s been more than 2,000 nuclear bomb tests, and according to Wikipedia there’s been 2,121 nuclear bomb tests, totaling 635 Megaton. Using the typical yield estimate for the Hiroshima bomb of 15 Kiloton that corresponds to more than 42,000 Hiroshima bombs. I think most of us know about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and we know about nuclear testing. However, I think the number of tests and the large total yield will come as a surprise to many, at least it was a surprise to me. That is why I consider this a super fact.

Atomic bomb explosion in a city - nuclear attack on a crowded city – 3D rendering of a mushroom cloud encompassing a city with skyscrapers | We Exploded Thousands of Nuclear Bombs
Nuclear bomb dropped on a big city. Shutterstock, asset id: 2188083835 by CI Photos.

Nuclear Landscaping

It may also come as a surprise that many of these tests were not for military purposes. Another usage for nuclear bombs is nuclear landscaping. Towards the end of the 1950’s the existing Panama Canal was thought to be insufficiently large and some people, including Edward Teller, the father of the Hydrogen bomb (Thermonuclear bomb), suggested that a new wider and deeper canal could be built simply by using nuclear bombs to blow multiple huge holes across Panama. The US was also interested in creating a new harbor in Alaska using nuclear bombs.

Thus, Project Plowshare was created to achieve this. As part of the Project Plowshare 35 nuclear warheads were detonated. The Soviet Union also had a similar program named “Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy” that included 124 nuclear bomb tests. Due to concerns over radioactive fallout the nuclear landscaping projects were eventually put to rest. The last Plowshare detonation was on May 17, 1973. The book Atomic Awakening by James Mahaffey recounts the history of nuclear testing and nuclear landscaping in greater detail.

An enormous nuclear bomb explosion in the dessert featuring a huge mushroom cloud.
Hydrogen bomb test by Alones Shutterstock Asset id: 2194195335.

Project Orion

Another non-military use of nuclear bomb testing was Project Orion. Project Orion was a study conducted from 1956 to 1964 by the US Air Force, NASA, and DARPA into the viability of a nuclear pulse spaceship that would be directly propelled by a series of atomic explosions behind the craft. A thick steel pusher plate would catch the blast and accelerate the ship forward.

The “Pascal B” shot in Operation Plumb Bob in 1957 was the first nuclear weapons test of the pusher concept. The Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 made it difficult to continue with the project. According to the book Atomic Awakening, if the design had been successfully completed, we could have created an interstellar spaceship that could have taken a crew and a large load to other planets and stars.

I can add that According to Atomic Awakening, in addition to Nuclear Landscaping and Project Orion, Nuclear Blasts were a tourist attraction.

Number of Nuclear Tests by Country

Below is a list of countries and the number of nuclear tests that they’ve performed according to the Arms Control Association and Wikipedia.

  • The United States – 1,030 – According to Wikipedia – 1,032
  • The USSR/Russia – 715 – According to Wikipedia – 727
  • France – 210 – According to Wikipedia – 215
  • United Kingdom – 45 – According to Wikipedia – 88
  • China – 45 – According to Wikipedia – 47
  • North Korea – 6 – According to Wikipedia – 6
  • India – 3 – According to Wikipedia – 3
  • Pakistan – 2- According to Wikipedia – 2

However, it should be noted that partially due to nuclear arms control legislation such as; the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT): Signed in 1963,  the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT): Signed in 1974, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signing in 1996, the number of nuclear tests have been significantly reduced. This is illustrated by the graph below from Our World in Data. The last nuclear test was done by North Korea in 2017.

The histogram graph shows how many nuclear tests took place each year since 1945. The different countries, the portion by each country, the US, USSR/Russia, France, United Kingdom, China, North Korean, India, and Pakistan are colored differently. The histogram shows the 1961 was the year when most nuclear tests took place. The vast majority of the tests took place between 1950 and 1990 | We Exploded Thousands of Nuclear Bombs
Data Source: Arms Control Association (2024). OurWorldInData.org/nuclear weapons.

Tsar Bomba

The biggest nuclear bomb ever exploded was RDS-220, or AN602, or Tsar Bomba. It was detonated by the Soviet Union on October 30th, 1961, on the arctic island of Novaya Zemlya, and yielded more than 50 Megaton. In other words, it was 3,300 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. According to Atomic Awakening, windows in Finland 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) away shattered. There are no cities large enough to match the size of the explosion. This is the kind of bomb that could obliterate states or small countries.

Tsar Bomba was a so-called thermonuclear device, or a hydrogen bomb as they are typically called. Hydrogen bombs are much more powerful than fission bombs, such as Uranium bombs or Plutonium bombs. To read my related post called “Ukraine Gave up Thousands of Nuclear Warheads” click here.

Russian Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud rising high above the clouds. High quality photo realist ( 3d make ) | We Exploded Thousands of Nuclear Bombs
This is an illustration of the Tsar Bomba explosion by by mbafai Shutterstock Asset id: 2208486661. To see a photo of the actual Tsar Bomba explosion click here (it is copyrighted).

Would you pay to watch a Nuclear Bomb Test? (Nuclear Bomb Test Tourism)

To see the other Super Facts click here