EP22 - Sunday, 4th October 2020 7:30pm BST - From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table by Richard Miller

[Grant]

@old_eyes / Richard Miller has kindly offered to give us his talk: From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table

Richard Miller trained as a Chemist, and after a long career in industrial R&D has now settled down as a consultant on innovation, sustainability and the future of cities. Took up astronomy 12 years ago and has now progressed to being a moderately incompetent astrophotographer (his words not mine!!!).

From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table

The Periodic Table of the Elements is the book from which we build our world. And yet we started after the Big Bang with just hydrogen, helium and a touch of lithium. How did we get from there to the 118 elements we know about today? The answer is in the stars.

The Periodic Table has a fascinating history over several thousand years of discovering the elements and searching for an underlying logic that made sense of it. But that did not tell us where all the unique elements came from. For that we needed a modern understanding of cosmology and stellar processes, from the Big Bang through nuclear fusion in the heart of stars to the immense energies of supernovae.

I'm very much looking forward to what promises to be a fascinating talk! 

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP22 - Sunday, 4th October 2020 7:30pm BST - From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table by Richard Miller
Time: Oct 4, 2020 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98355327288?pwd=VHhGOHNSUVJHTElTOGw4MmpHMkhldz09

Meeting ID: 983 5532 7288
Passcode: 393820

[steppenwolf]

This should be a really interesting and 'different' presentation - roll on Sunday!

[Grant]

Talk starts in 10 minutes! 🙂

[daz]

That was great - really enjoyed that!

And I forgot to say - if anyone is at Kelling for the Star Party, drop by 351 on the Red field and say 'Hi' (socially distant, of course!)

 

[steppenwolf]

I struggled with Chemistry at college but if I had had the pleasure of having Richard as my tutor, perhaps I may have become a Veterinary Surgeon after all!! 🤣

[Space Ranger]

Thank you Richard. That was a really fabulous presentation.

Also being a chemist, this has been a topic of interest to me for years. Last year I was lucky enough to take a trip to see a chemical elements exhibit in the Ulster Museum in Belfast - https://www.nmni.com/whats-on/elements-exhibition. It was fascinating, and if in the area it's well worth a visit. The person who put it all together is Dr Mike Simms - one of the people who has been researching the location of the asteroid impact site in northern Scotland 1.2 billion years ago - https://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2019/06/10/scotlands-earth-shattering-secret-how-to-find-a-meteorite-impact-crater/. 

Here's a few weblinks I found of particular interest whilst reading up on the topic in the past few years. Maybe others will find them of interest too...

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/a-chemical-history-of-the-universe ; http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~jaj/nucleo/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3cyRVDoePNf_rLQlwKpdeg/videos

https://elements.wlonk.com/ElementsTable.htm

 

[happy-kat]

very much enjoyed the presentation, thank you