In the old days the older technology meant that these lights did consume a lot of energy to start but once they were running they were more efficient.  I think that the new technology with the new starters built into them they’re much better but I don’t know.  If anyone has the answer to that question about the energy consumption and the starting costs of a fluorescent tube, a modern fluorescent tube I’d be very interested to know.

We put this question to Chris Vivian from CEFAS...

"I suspect that it’s still better to have low energy bulbs.  I’d guess because electricity’s a very inefficient way of producing heat for space.  There are better ways such as using gas and so on.  I suspect it’s a question of efficiency."

We agree with Chris on this one, but it would be interesting to get any numbers on that.  If you’ve got any ideas on this then do let us know.

We put this question on our forum and got an answer from Bored Chemist.  You can read his answer as part of the Naked Scientists' Wet & Wild Show.

We put this question to Chris Vivian from CEFAS...

First of all the hydrogen itself will come from splitting of water, using energy.  So the net effect for the hydrological cycle will be close to zero.  The more important aspect is how much energy you’re going to use to generate hydrogen itself and how that is generated.

So if you had, say wind power or nuclear power generating it so there’s no net carbon gain for taking the hydrogen out of water.

You may change where things are happening in the hydrological cycle but the net effect should be zero I would have thought.

Helen - I’ve never heard about fish going in one single direction in a fish tank so I think we’re going to need some more data to back that up.  Fish can navigate, they do know where they’re going.  Why they’d swim in only one direction, I have no idea.  I can imagine they’d keep going round and round one but they can’t in the square one because there’s corners.

Chris - It’s also a myth that they’d lose their memory in 5 seconds, isn’t it?

Helen - Absolutely, fish are much cleverer.  They have much longer memories than 7 seconds.  Anyone else got any fish in their tanks, want to let us know what they’re doing?

We also received an answer from Izzy during the Naked Scientists Wet and Wild Show.