Two Science Stories

 Over the past week, I've been entertained by a fair amount of reading regarding science.

First topic, Covid-19 and it's aerosol connection.

When I joined the Air Force in 1977....there was this training segment that continued for roughly fifteen years over chemical warfare.  

We were continually trained on the idea that when 'war' finally came, there would be chemical warfare as part of the situation.  So we trained with the masks, the standard operating procedures, and the suits.

We were always told....don't worry, we've got tons of the suits, the autoinjector kits, and the special filters.  

All of this chatter and training continued until we got to Desert Storm.  Then oddly, it disappeared.  We were issued a suit but told in the strongest sense....NOT to unpack the suit from the sealed bag.  The filter?  That was given.  

Now they started to talk about aerosol, chem warfare, and the lesser threat.  In this scenario, even if a missile with chemical agent hit within a mile....the warm atmosphere of Saudi Arabia would dissipate the agent in a matter of an hour. Fact or fiction?  Well, you had to take as gospel truth.

Eventually, one day (toward the end of the war) I had this chat with a guy in the camp.  Our sense was that warm/hot climates would be the perfect place to have a chem agent because it could not reach full value.  A cold or cool place was not a friendly place (like upstate Michigan or the UK).  

As the weeks roll by with Covid-19, it's obvious now that the same scenario runs along this path.  The warmer weather in Australia and NZ right now?  It's helping to reduce the infection rate.  Eventually toward April/May....unless the vaccination deal delivers full effect....a higher rate of infection/death....will occur in that region. Here in Germany, with the cooler air....the virus will stay in the air longer.  As May arrives....it'll lessen.

There's not a lot of science to this....it's just the way that a virus liking pro-aerosol situations works.  

The second topic?  A science story came out over mass extinctions on Earth....every 27-million years.  What is said here....a meteor-friendly period arrives, and repeats itself....over and over.  

Between impacts and volcanic eruptions (triggered by the impacts)....animals die off.

The most recent wipe-out?  Roughly seven million years ago....meaning we have around 20 million years to figure the 'game' out, and remove people from Earth.

But this whole discussion begs the question....are most all species of animals we see around us today....developed since seven million years ago?  

Staying around Earth for the next 20-million years?  Why would you?  It would seem that the driving priority is to leave the planet, explore the universe, and unpopulate the planet as the process of destruction repeats once again.