Dangers Of Nano – Technology

Uncategorized 2 Comments »

Worm_drive_animation5

Below is a list of dangers straight from the Centre Of Responsible Nanotechnology website

http://www.crnano.org/PR-dangers.htm

 Molecular manufacturing (MM) will be a significant breakthrough, comparable perhaps to the Industrial Revolution—but compressed into a few years. This has the potential to disrupt many aspects of society and politics. The power of the technology may cause two competing nations to enter a disruptive and unstable arms race. Weapons and surveillance devices could be made small, cheap, powerful, and very numerous. Cheap manufacturing and duplication of designs could lead to economic upheaval. Overuse of inexpensive products could cause widespread environmental damage. Attempts to control these and other risks may lead to abusive restrictions, or create demand for a black market that would be very risky and almost impossible to stop; small nanofactories will be very easy to smuggle, and fully dangerous. There are numerous severe risks—including several different kinds of risk—that cannot all be prevented with the same approach. Simple, one-track solutions cannot work. The right answer is unlikely to evolve without careful planning.

More coming SOON! :p

Brewing Enzymes

Biology, Enzymes, Human Body, Reasearch, Year 10 No Comments »

Enzymes for Brewing Traditionally production of beer is by mixing crushed barley malt and hot water in large vessel known as mash copper. This process is known as ‘mashing’. Apart from malt, other starch-based cereals such as maize (corn), sorghum, rice and barley, or pure starch itself, are added to the mash. These are known as adjuncts. After mashing, the mash is filtered in a lauter tun and the liquid, known as ’sweet wort’, is then run off to the copper, where it is boiled with hops. The ‘hopped wort’ is cooled and transferred to the fermentation vessels where yeast is added. After the fermentation, the so-called ‘green beer’ is matured before the final filtration and bottling.

Liquefying Adjuncts

Adjuncts are used as an extra source of starch in brewing and usually consist of cereals. Protein also plays a vital role in fermentation by providing soluble nitrogen compounds that the yeast needs. Since the protein proportion in some types of adjunct is very small, it may be necessary to provide extra protein in the wort. This can be done by utilising the protein in the malt more efficiently. By adding a protein splitting (protease) enzyme, more protein can be solubilised and made available to the yeast.

In their natural form, starch­based cereals such as maize grits and rice are boiled before being added to the malt mash. The boiled (gelatinised) cereals are very viscous and need to be thinned (liquefied) before they can be pumped into the mash copper. This is done using an alpha amylase. Heat-stable alpha amylases are also available that are effective even at 100?C to ensure full liquefaction of the starch

Filtration

Slow rate of filtration is generally a problem when the mash is run off in the lauter tun and also during the final filtration of the beer. This is due to the presence of certain polysaccharides, mainly beta­glucans and pentosans, which are found in barley and poorly modified barley malt. The solution is to break down the beta­glucans using a beta­glucanase added during mashing or at the start of the fermentation process.

Maps offers a range of amylases, glucoamylase, proteases for distilling depending on the processes and applications.

Palkolase HT Heat-stable alpha amylase for starch liquefaction
Palkodex Glucoamylase for starch saccharification
Palkoamylo Fungal alpha amylase for starch saccharification
Palkotase NUP Bacterial neutral protease for better yeast growth and reducing fermentation time
Palkobrew BG Beta glucanase for improved wort separation and beer filtration
Palkobrew APG AAlpha amylase, protease and beta glucanase for brewing high level djuncts

Compost Awareness Week…..

Biology, Fruit, Reasearch, green, planet No Comments »

WRAP ( Don’t Ask What It Stands For!) and The Composting Association will be encouraging everyone to ‘Green up their Environment’ this Compost Awareness Week, Sunday 4th May to Saturday 10th May. Gardening Celebs such as Charlie Dimmock and Matt James are enthusiastic about supporting WRAP and Compost Awareness Week.

In the next couple of weeks think about what YOU can do to help the planet become a greener place. Liturally! 

Yr 10 Injections 8/5/08 But Do You Know How They Work?

Biology, Reasearch, Vaccines, Year 10 No Comments »

When we catch a disease naturally, we usually produce antibodies to the organism that causes it. Antibodies are proteins in the blood which remember the organism which caused the disease, can recognise it and inactivate it when we come into contact with it again. Without us actually experiencing the disease, vaccines teach our body’s immune system to produce antibodies and identify certain potentially infective organisms even though we have never come into contact with them.

Vaccines take various forms:

  • Killed or inactivated vaccines are produced by chemically killing or inactivating bacteria or viruses. The now harmless bacteria or viruses, when injected, stimulate the body to produce antibodies, without the individual having to suffer the disease.
  • Live vaccines are produced by weakening the ability of the organism to produce disease while retaining its ability to produce immunity.
  • Vaccines may be made by identifying and purifying those fragments of the disease-producing organisms that are most import in stimulating antibodies. These fragments may be substances found on the surface of the organism which the immune system recognises or others such as the toxins produced by some bacteria.
  • These fragments can also be produced by modifying the genetic material of a totally different cell so that this cell produces copies of these fragments, which can then be purified and used to make a vaccine.

Once adminstered the user is usually protected for life or until a new strain comesabout.

:)

The Brief History Of The Typewriter

History, Reasearch No Comments »

The evolution of the typewriter is part of the ongoing history of the human need to communicate. The development of the typewriter was the result of a desire both to speed up this process and to produce an aid for the blind in reading and writing. Gradually a machine emerged that revolutionised the work of the writer. Painstaking tasks that were normally carried out by hand could be carried out in minutes on the machine, leaving time to enjoy the ‘finer things in life’. As the first Remington adverts declared; ‘To save time is to lengthen life.’

Unlike the telephone or the automobile, the invention of the typewriter has never received worldwide acclaim. This may be because the product is one associated with work rather than social life. Initially typewriters were slow sellers. When first shown to the public at an industrial fair, the machines attracted little interest, unlike the newly invented telephone, which received international attention. One reason given was that many professionals felt typing would appear rude to potential clients, as there would be no personal touch.

The first patent for a ‘writing machine’ was given to Henry Mill in 1714. Sadly there are no surviving details to prove its existence as a working machine. The first known typewriter was invented in the United States of America by William Burt in 1830. This was called a Typographer and printed one single letter after another. From this point on there was a flood of designs both in the United States and Europe, causing some dispute over who invented what components. These machines were usually one-offs and it was not until 1874 that a typewriter became a commercial success.

Next Week we look at the brief history of the Personal Computer

 

Europa Space Mission

Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Reasearch, Space No Comments »

Europa Space Mission

The European Space Agency is looking to send a mission to Jupiter and its moon Europa in 2018.

Currently the mission is called (deep breath) ‘The Jovian Minisat Explorer Technology Reference Study’. So… it needs a proper name to take it to the next stage of development.

We asked you if you could think of a good name for the mission.

The competition has now closed. We’ll update this page with more news about the mission as time goes on.

About the mission

  • The main aim of the mission is to confirm whether Europa has an ocean beneath its icy surface
  • If liquid water is there then so too may be alien organisms
  • The mission is likely to include two spacecraft – one that orbits Jupiter and one that orbits Europa
  • The Europa orbiter may carry a small probe that will land on Europa
  • These spacecraft will have to withstand the very high levels of radiation emitted by Jupiter

Further information can be found at Jovian Minisat Explorer study page.

Weird Animals

Animals, Uncategorized 2 Comments »

Mutated Genes can cause animals to look weird, however so can good photographic software……..Here is a collection of what I think are the weirdest looking animals….
Blobfish   The Blob Fish

Super Squirrel    Super Squirrel
 
Bat    Funny Looking Bat

Turtle - 2 Headed Two Headed Baby Turtle

Well that concludes my collection of Weird Animals, at least for now.

Birth Of The Earth!

Reasearch, Space, Year 10 2 Comments »

needs writing in your own words damian. you cannot steal other peoples work and pass it off as your own. this is plagiarism. if you do use other people’s work then attibute it with a link or a reference.

What Is The Most Poisonous Animal

Biology, Reasearch 2 Comments »

It is hard to say which animal would get this prize. A poisonous animal carries harmful chemicals called toxins. Usually, these toxins are used for defense, and are stored in the skin or in special glands. Compare these creatures to venomous animals, which deliver their toxins by stinging, stabbing, or biting.

Poisonous creatures don’t intend to hurt other creatures, which is why they have bright colors and markings that send a clear message: “Don’t touch!” If a predator ignores that warning, he might not get a second chance. One swallow, or even a little taste testing, and it’s all over. The toxin will stop the heart or lungs from working, and death will follow.

The poison arrow frog and certain salamanders would have to top most people’s list of “The World’s Most Poisonous Animals.” Just two micrograms of toxin from the poison arrow frog is enough to kill a human. A “microgram” is a very small amount. The ink in the period at the end of this sentence will weigh around six micrograms.

What about venomous animals? A good example of defense can be found in stonefish. They store their toxin in gruesome-looking spines that are designed to hurt would-be predators. This homely creature will win no beauty prize, but deserves honor and respect for being “The World’s Most Venomous Fish.”

Toxins also are designed to kill prey or, at least, slow them down. This is the tactic used by many snakes. The prize for “The World’s Most Venomous Snake” goes to the inland taipan of Australia. But the top prize, “The World Most Venomous Animal,” should go to the box jellyfish, which is found in the waters around Asia and Australia. They have long tentacles with stings at the very ends.

Hospitals often carry medicines that work against venom, but treatment has to be very fast to counteract the toxins of these prize-winning creatures.

One of the most poisonous, poison arrow frogs.

Updating Sep’s Blogs (2007/09)

Animals, Year 10 2 Comments »

Just Finished updating my Blog Roll which includes Woodchurch High Schools Yr 10 Seps group Blogs.


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