Quote from: NeMo on June 02, 2017, 09:47:46 PM

Quote from: Jimbo on June 02, 2017, 09:18:37 PM
don't posses a microwave, don't 'nuke' anything for fear of getting that ready brek glow!

Microwaves are a completely different range of electromagnetic waves to gamma rays (the "radioactivity waves" in the EM spectrum). Microwaves actually sit at the other end of the spectrum, i.e., at the longer wavelength end of the spectrum, between radio waves and infrared waves. So despite the slang term "nuking" to refer to cooking food with microwaves, visible light is actually closer to gamma rays in terms of wavelengths and frequencies -- and nobody gets paranoid about kitchen lights irradiating their dinner!

In terms of nutrition, medics and scientists agree that microwaved vegetables contain more nutrients than vegetables boiled to an equivalent degree of cooking. Microwaving also uses less energy, so costs you less.

Cheers, NeMo

That's interesting about microwaves  , thanks......we steam our veggies, don't boil the life out of them, which I suppose is similar to microwaving them really then in that case.

Yes, as a physics teacher, I found students often found the term 'microwaves' misleading. As Nemo quite correctly states, it's the gamma EMR that is the one to steer clear of. Extremely short wavelength, therefore extremely high frequency and therefore high energy and very penetrating.

Quote from: Komata on June 03, 2017, 03:42:14 AM
It's going to show my age, but one thing that I DO miss is genuine 'Silver Service' (which some of the membership might also know as 'High Tea'), and all the ritual (aka 'dramas') which went with it.

Having said I don't drink tea, I do love the formality of 'high tea' and would really like to be able to attend one of the more formal Japanese gatherings as they have long made an art form of making tea (I first heard of the chanoyu when watching 'Shogun')..........
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

Quote from: Dorsetmike on June 02, 2017, 05:49:46 PM
Ah, but the tea you poured into your bone china had brewed in the pot without the presence of milk. Tea requires boiling water to brew properly, milk in the mug with the tea bag will cool the boiling water hence the brewing will not have its full effect.

That's what I used to think, but the owner of a Very Expensive tea merchant was on Radio 4 saying that the water should not be boiling.

On your main topic, on the very rare occasions when I fancy a cuppa I generally prefer large-leaf teas (Darjeeling, Nilgiri, Assam), so use a teapot or some kind of strainer device in the cup so that the leaves can expand.

Quote from: railsquid on June 03, 2017, 03:13:59 AM
Always wondered how they get the tea to grow in the Yorkshire climate though.

It won't be long with global warming. They're already growing it in Cornwall!

Quote from: newportnobby on June 03, 2017, 01:40:22 PM

Quote from: Komata on June 03, 2017, 03:42:14 AM
It's going to show my age, but one thing that I DO miss is genuine 'Silver Service' (which some of the membership might also know as 'High Tea'), and all the ritual (aka 'dramas') which went with it.

Having said I don't drink tea, I do love the formality of 'high tea' and would really like to be able to attend one of the more formal Japanese gatherings as they have long made an art form of making tea (I first heard of the chanoyu when watching 'Shogun')..........
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

Fascinating experience, if you get the chance.

Though it does get a bit annoying after a while when you get home dying for a cuppa and you have to change into a formal kimono, sit down in the special tatami room and ritually turn the tea bowl a set number of times, meditating over the whole tea-iness of it, before you can take a welcome slurp.

Quote from: daffy on June 02, 2017, 02:50:16 PM
Also, I offered some magazines and books to my step-son last week - "No thanks, I'm all digital these days." He's in his mid-forties so the future is bleak for the paper printed word as each successive generation are ever more digitised.

But I still use books. A bit.

Just read through the latest edition of the N gauge journal in the bath. Spend too much of my time in front of a screen, nice to have something tangible to peruse.

Quote from: trkilliman on June 03, 2017, 05:54:21 AM
Tea doesn't brew...debatable.

Absolutely. A question of dialect variation, I think.

Chambers: brew verb (brewed, brewing) 1 to make (eg beer) by mixing, boiling and fermenting. 2 (also brew up) tr & intr to make (tea, coffee, etc) by mixing the leaves, grains, etc with boiling water.

Oxford: 2 Make (tea or coffee) by mixing it with hot water.
'I've just brewed some coffee'

    2.1 brew up British informal Make tea.
    'he insisted on sitting us down and then went to brew up'

Tanks also brew up. (Not our esteemed leader, I hasten to add )

I think the debate between 'brew' and 'steep' has the potential to become a storm in a teacup.

I used to tell my wife "its festering"

Quote from: Bealman on June 03, 2017, 06:09:24 AM
it's the gamma EMR that is the one to steer clear of. Extremely short wavelength, therefore extremely high frequency and therefore high energy and very penetrating.

Though paradoxically, because it's so penetrating, it's much less ionising (and therefore dangerous) than alpha and beta radiation (which are both particles rather than waves). As a biologist it took me a long time to get my head around this seeming contradiction -- alpha, which penetrates the least, and can barely pass through skin, is the one that does the most damage because it's heavy particles (helium nuclei, I believe) have the most kinetic energy and therefore ability to damage DNA. Gamma, though it penetrates sheets of metal easily, let alone skin, simply zips past the DNA without much chance to interact.

Of course all ionising radiation has the potential to do harm, and the radioactive sources I play with at school in my lessons aren't just one kind, so even if the source emits gamma, it probably emits either beta or alpha as well. So you need to treat them all with appropriate respect, follow safety protocols, etc.

I'm sure @Bealman knows all this, but for everyone else, might be interesting to know! I certainly enjoy teaching this part of the syllabus.

Cheers, NeMo

'It's 'home brew' Jim, but not as you know it.....'

(Just saying)

Quote from: NeMo on June 03, 2017, 06:25:28 PM

Quote from: Bealman on June 03, 2017, 06:09:24 AM
it's the gamma EMR that is the one to steer clear of. Extremely short wavelength, therefore extremely high frequency and therefore high energy and very penetrating.

Though paradoxically, because it's so penetrating, it's much less ionising (and therefore dangerous) than alpha and beta radiation (which are both particles rather than waves). As a biologist it took me a long time to get my head around this seeming contradiction -- alpha, which penetrates the least, and can barely pass through skin, is the one that does the most damage because it's heavy particles (helium nuclei, I believe) have the most kinetic energy and therefore ability to damage DNA. Gamma, though it penetrates sheets of metal easily, let alone skin, simply zips past the DNA without much chance to interact.

Of course all ionising radiation has the potential to do harm, and the radioactive sources I play with at school in my lessons aren't just one kind, so even if the source emits gamma, it probably emits either beta or alpha as well. So you need to treat them all with appropriate respect, follow safety protocols, etc.

I'm sure @Bealman knows all this, but for everyone else, might be interesting to know! I certainly enjoy teaching this part of the syllabus.

Cheers, NeMo

Ah yes, the old isotopes. You're bringing back memories now! Had an accident with a Wilson cloud chamber one year and managed to set fire to the blinds in my lab and my hand as well, but we'll not go there! 

Does anyone still use a pressure cooker ?