Podcast
omega tau - English only
Hosted by Markus Voelter, Nora Ludewig · EN
How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, we have produced over 350 episodes in which we dug deeper, until we ran out of questions. Join us on our journey through the world of science and engineering: the closer you look and listen, the more interesting things get.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
398 - Surroundings
Jun 16, 202301:16:00Tap to summarizeHost: Nora Ludewig Shownoter: Jochen Spalding Gast: Etienne Benson I wanted to make an episode on a topic from the history of science for a long time, finally it happened. This is an interview with Etienne Benson, professor of the history of science and technology, on the history of how people of the western world have been seeing, studying and explaining their environment. We talk mostly about his book, Surroundings, but also briefly about his current field of study. Introduction of Todays Guest Dr. Etienne Benson 00:02:55 Dr. Etienne Benson | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Dr. Etienne Benson's Book 00:15:11 Surroundings: A History of Environments and Environmentalisms First Edition by Etienne S. Benson | Wired Wilderness: Technologies of Tracking and the Making of Modern Wildlife (Animals, History, Culture) by Etienne S. Benson | Darwinism | Epigenetics | Jean-Baptiste Lamarck | Lamarckism | Milieu | Jane Addams | W. E. B. Du Bois How Did The Term Environment Evolve? 00:37:00 Environmentalism | Environmental Defense Fund | United Nations Conference on the Human Environment | Ozone depletion | How Nuclear Tests Spawned Environmentalism | Murray Bookchin | Rachel Carson
Transcribe →Update 2023 English
Feb 20, 202300:11:51Tap to summarizeA quick update on why there’s so few episodes from Markus and Nora. In English and German.
Transcribe →392 - Helicopter Flight Test
Sep 1, 2022Tap to summarizeGuest: Antoine van Gent Host: Markus Völter Shownoter: Pascal Becker In July I visited the Airbus Helicopters factory in Donauwörth and spent time with Antoine van Gent, the Head of Development Flight and Ground testing for Germany. We talked about the helicopter flight testing process, some of the cultural aspects, the collaboration between pilots and the flight test engineer as well as his participation in a landing of an H145 on top of the Aconcagua mountain. Introduction Antoine Van Gent 00:02:28 (Head of Development Flight- and Ground Test @ Airbus Helicopters) | General Dynamics F-16 | Boeing AH-64 | Boeing CH-47D | Bell 412 | Bölkow Bo 105 | Aerospatiale AS 332 Flight Test Organization 00:06:03 Sikorsky CH-53 | Airbus H120 | Reciprocating engine | Iron Bird (Omega Tau 210 - A350 Flight Testing) | Situation Awareness | Fly-by-wire | VoloCopter | Interview with Billie Flynn F-35: Capabilities, Missions, Kinematics, Role In Ukrainian Crisis And Beyond. Interview With Billie Flynn Test Pilot Education and Testing Facilities 00:40:42 Wright Brothers | Empire Test Pilots' School | U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (EPNER - Ecole du personnel navigant d'essais et de reception) Evolution and Innovation in Helicopters 00:47:14 Bell UH-1 Aconcagua Story 01:28:54 Airbus H145 lands on top of the andes Becoming a Test Pilot 01:46:56 End of Interview and Bonus: Walk through the Assembly Line 02:05:51
Transcribe →387 - Direct Air Capture
May 20, 2022Tap to summarizeGuest: Peter Psarras Host: Markus Völter Shownoter: Simon Bretschneider The climate situatation is getting more and more dire, and in order to reach the goals the international community has set for themselves, engineering solutions seem increasingly necessary. After talking about solar geoengineering in episode 385, we will look at direct air capture in this episode. Direct Air Capture is a family of technologies that allow the extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere. My guest Peter Psarras explains the technology, the economics and also the political and moral challenges associated with the technology. Peter Psarras is introducing himself 00:02:10 Peter Psarras | Carbon Direct DAC 00:03:56 DAC (direct air capture) | CCS (carbon capture and storage) | Point source capture | CO2 | Lithosphere | Life cycle emission | Carbon neutral | Climate crisis How does it work? Physical mechanism, chemical processes 00:11:15 Concentration of CO2 in air | Physisorption | Desorption | Energy demand for DAC | Sorbent for CO2 capture Representative Example of chemical/physical processes to bind CO2 in the sorbent 00:19:12 Climeworks | Amine absorber CO2 | TRL (Technology readiness level) | LCA (Life cycle analysis) | Carbon engineering | Solvent based carbon capture approach | Overview absorber materials | Direct air mineralization | IPCC Report | Reforestation | Orca plant | Electric swing approach Economics of CO2 00:56:30 Regenerative agriculture | Ocean alkalinity enhancement | Heirloom CO2 DAC | Advanced market commitment for CO2 | Cost Curve DAC | Carbon Credit | X Price Carbon Removal | Carbon Storage in Concrete: | Moral hazard | Scaling of carbon removal | Short and longterm cost of climate change Other solutions 01:24:52 BECCS (Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) | Biomass | Waste biomass | Carbon mineralization | Enhanced weathering | Ocean acidification | Carbonate and bicarbonate cycle | Blue carbon | CO2 concentration in seawater | Electrochemical CO2 capture Wrap up and conclusion 01:34:41
Transcribe →385 - Solar Geoengineering
Mar 18, 202201:01:45Tap to summarizeGast: David Keith Host: Markus Völter Shownoter: Alexander Grote The root cause of global warming is that more and more of the energy supplied by the sun is captured by the atmosphere because of increased amounts of CO2 and other climate gases. One way of fixing this is to make sure that more of that energy is reflected and never even penetrates the lower atmosphere. Solar geoengineering proposes to put particles into the upper atmosphere to increase its reflectivity and thereby reduce the temperature. In the episode I talk with Harvard’s David Keith about some of the technical aspects, which role this technique can play in the overall fight against climate change, some of the political challenges as well as current avenues of research. Introduction of Peter Keith and to stratospheric aerosol injection 00:08:37 David Keith | Albedo | Cirrus cloud | Stratosphere | Tropopause | Aerosol | Stratospheric aerosol injection | Sulfuric acid | Pinatubo | Lockheed U-2 | Feedback Loop Unintended effects and moral implications 00:29:05 Rocket plume | Trolley Problem | Precautionary principle | Ozone depletion | Cost of climate change | Geo Engineering | IPCC Climate Model simulations and issues 00:54:22 Gaussian Grid | Plume
Transcribe →383 - The LHC Beam Dump
Feb 6, 202201:30:55Tap to summarizeGast: Marco Calviani Host: Markus Völter Shownoter: Kolja Dummann The beam dump is a large graphite block used to take up the energy stored in the LHC beam in case the beam needs to be shut down. Since the energy in the beam can be as high as the kinetic energy of a landing 747-400, designing and operating the dump is challenging. In this episode, Marco Calviani, who heads the group that is responsible for this and other beam dumps at CERN, tells us about how the dump works, and what they have recently changed in order to cope with the higher luminosity in future configurations of the LHC. Intro 00:04:24 Faster-than-light neutrino anomaly | CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso | Simon van der Meer | Fermilab | Graphite (omega tau 344 – History and Development of ATLAS) | Compact Muon Solenoid The LHC Beam Dump 00:16:09 (Beam Intercepting Devices at CERN – Types, Challenges, Design, R&D and Operation (1/2) | Beam Intercepting Devices at CERN – Types, Challenges, Design, R&D and Operation (2/2)) | Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) | High-Luminosity LHC Kicker Magnets 00:42:21 (omgea tau 096 – Controlling the LHC Beam) | LHC Abort Gap Monitoring and Cleaning (Chapter 17 - Beam Dumping System) Enhancing the Beam Dump 00:51:29 The SPS & PS Dump 01:06:54 Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) | Proton Synchrotron FCC Beam Dump 01:17:00
Transcribe →378 - Flying the F-18 Classic Hornet
Oct 22, 202103:40:04Tap to summarizeGuests: Jerry Deren, Nick Anderson Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Bastian Hundt It’s been 377 episodes and we have not yet dedicated one to the F-18. This changes now. In the episode we first talk with Jerry Deren, a former US Navy Hornet pilot who also flew with the Blue Angels; we cover both aspects of his career. In part two we chat with Nick Anderson, former RAAF F-18 pilot (and co-host of the Airline Pilot Guy podcast). We chat about his experience flying the Hornet Down Under, focussing on quirks and funny stories. There’s also a nice F-18 walkaround on Youtube with Jerry. Check it out! Introduction of Jerry Deren 00:02:08 US Navy Basics of the F/A-18 Hornet 00:03:48 F/A-18 Hornet | F/A-18E/F Super Hornet | A-6 Intruder | A-7 Corsair II | F-14 Tomcat | YF-17 | F-16 Fighting Falcon | Aircraft Carrier | Fly-by-Wire | Flight Controls | Arresting Gear | Folgind Wing | Stabilator | Angle of Attack (AOA) | Leading-edge extension | Dogfight | Basic Fighter Maneuvers | Episode OT-376 (German) about Air-to-Air Combat | Falling Leaf Landing and Handling the F/A-18 00:27:38 Head-up Display | Autothrottle | Aircraft Catapult | Glide Slope | Optical Landing System | Indicated Airspeed (IAS) | Tailhook | Trim | Jettison | Aerial Refueling Cockpit, Sensors, Avionics 00:56:00 HOTAS Operational History 01:00:33 USS Enterprise | Operational Deployment | C-2 Greyhound | S-3 Viking | Touch and Go | Operation Southern Watch | Night-Vision-Goggle | NATO | MIG-29 | SU-27 | Operation Desert Fox | Landing Signal Officer (LSO) | T-45 Goshawk Lost-Wing Incident 01:16:13 Flying with the Blue-Angels 01:21:28 Blue Angels | Aerobatics | Thunderbirds | Diamond Formation | g-suit | Traffic Pattern | Aerobatic Maneuver Nick Introduction and Exchange Tour 01:55:50 Airline Pilot Guy Podcast | Plane Tales | Mirage III | RAF Weapons School | Sunderland Flying Boat | Pom | F-16 | F-18 | F-18 in Australia Anecdotes from Australia 02:03:10 AIM-7 M Sparrow | P-3 Orion | Episode with Maz | OCU | Carbon Fiber | Cu Nim | HOTAS | Doll's Eye | Hypoxia | Probe and Drogue | INS | Laser Ring Gyro | Launch Bar | Ayres Rock | Pine Gap | Williamtown | F-111 | LEX Life after the Hornet 03:32:15 Tornado F.3 | Eurofighter | <a href=...
Transcribe →374 - Flying the F-22
Aug 1, 202101:47:35Tap to summarizeGuest: Dan “Animal” Javorsek Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Bastian Hundt The main part of this episode is about flying the F-22 Raptor, the most modern air superiority fighter in the inventory of the USAF. Our guest is Dan Javorsek, callsign Animal, who has previously flown the Raptor in operational test. Dan has also been the initiator of the Alpha Dogfight trials, where an AI was tested against a real pilot in a simulator air-to-air engagement. Dan also flew the F-117 and the F-35, so we cover those airplanes as well. Introduction of Dan "Animal" Javorsek 00:03:56 Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center | DARPA | F-35 Lightning_II | Aerial Refueling Flight Simulation and Airforce 00:11:36 Flight Simulator | Flight Controls | Hardware in the Loop | Aerodynamic Instability Testing World 00:15:21 U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School | A-10 Thunderbolt II | Multirole Combat Aircraft The F-22 Raptor 00:23:01 F-22 Raptor | Air Superiority Fighter | F-15 Eagle | F-16 Fighting Falcon | Fifth-Gen. Fighter | Next Generation Air Dominance | Stealth Technology | SR-71 Blackbird | Book: From Rainbow to Gusto | Avionics | Sensor Fusion | Kalman Filter | Radar | Infrared | Radio Frequency | Identification Friend or Foe | Electronic Warfare | Radar Warning Receiver | Inverse Square Law | Datalinks | AWACS | VHF | RF-Antenna Flying the F-22 01:07:16 Thrust Vectoring | Dogfight | Beyond Visual Range | B-52 Stratofortress | Angle of Attack Supercruise 01:17:58 Afterburner | Supercruise | Drag Curve | Mach Number | G-Suit | Automatic Ground Avoidance System Flying the F-117 01:27:56 F-117 Nighthawk AI in Air Combat 01:30:21 AlphaDogfight | Radio Jamming | Lethal Autonomous Weapon | Military Robot | Situational Awareness End and Outlook 01:43:36
Transcribe →370 - Nixus, the Fly-by-Wire Glider
Jun 4, 202101:42:07Tap to summarizeGuest: Paulo Iscold Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Kolja Dummann In this episode I talk with Paulo Iscold, a professor or aeronautical engineering at Cal Poly about Nixus Nixus, his most recent project. Nixus is one of the most fascinating and ground-breaking research efforts in the space of gliding. It uses advanced manufacturing techniques to support a very thing wing, plus a fly-by-wire system to control the ailerons and the flaps; the latter are automatically adjusted to the current speed. Here is the Idaflieg presentation I mentioned in the intro. Introduction 00:03:52 Akaflieg | Akaflieg Braunschweig SB-10 | Schleicher ASH 30 Nixus Airplane 00:11:31 (Omega tau 124 - The Concordia Sailplane) | Autoclave | Ventus Glider | Online Contest (OLC) | Minden–Tahoe Airport (Idaflieg Lecture with Paulo Iscold: Nixus Project - pushing forward) | How Nixus is build | Carbon fiber reinforced polymer | NASA X-57 Maxwell | Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Wing Accident 00:46:29 Fly by Wire System 00:58:05 (Glider competition classes - Open Class) | Lift coefficient (Omega tau 100 - System Health Management) | RS-485 | Fault tree analysis | The C Programming Language | Microcontroller | ARM Cortex-M | Hardware-in-the-loop simulation | Human Machine Interface (Omega tau 106 - Game Theory) | CAN bus | Ethernet
Transcribe →368 - Nuclear Waste Disposal and Storage
May 1, 202103:15:43Tap to summarizeGuest: Gareth Law, Heini Reijonen, Sophie Haapalehto Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Pascal Becker In this episode we cover the final storage of nuclear waste in underground facilities. We start out with a conversation about the basic process and the chemistry and physics of nuclear waste with Gareth Law, a professor of radiochemistry at the university of Helsinki. We then discuss geological issues with Heini Reijonen of the Geological Survey of Finland. Our third conversation is about the Onkalo storage facility in Finland with Sophie Haapalehto, who works for Posiva, the operator of the site. Here are a few additional links you might want to check out: Design and Performance of Engineered Barrier Systems for the Finnish Deep Geological Repository (Presentation, PDF) A Novel Adaptation Mechanism Underpinning Algal Colonization of a Nuclear Fuel Storage Pond (Paper, PDF) Discharges and Environmental Monitoring Annual Report 2019 (Sellafield) (HTML) Monitoring beaches near Sellafield for radioactive material (Report, HTML) Estimation of Global Inventories of Radioactive Waste and Other Radioactive Materials (Report, PDF) Introduction Gareth Law and Nuclear Power 00:02:44 Gareth Law | Radiochemistry | Pressurized water reactor | Uranium-235 | Plutonium-239 | Activation product | Nuclear reprocessing | Yellowcake Waste in Nuclear Power Plants and Short-Term Storage 00:25:11 Radioactive waste (The World Nuclear Waste Report 2019 - Focus Europe) Long-Term Storage of Nuclear Waste 00:50:21 Nuclear transmutation | Deep borehole disposal | Bentonite | Pictogram by International Atomic Energy Agency to warn future generations (OmegaTau 359 - Modern Fission Reactors) Introduction Heini Reijonen and Geological Stable Regions for Nuclear Waste 01:36:34 Geological Survey of Finland | Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM) (OmegaTau 81 - Geophysical Modeling in Oil Exploration) Storages in the Future 02:13:46 Voyager Golden Record Introduction Sophie Haapalehto and Posiva Waste Repository 02:27:14 Posiva Oy | Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository | Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant | KBS-3
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