Week 13 - Memory and Magic

I have always been tricked by magic. I can't even get half of the changes in those pictures at the back of the trash gossip magazines. I do however have a good memory. the subtle changes in environment are difficult. I think it's great that scientists are studying magic and that people are questioning reality.

Week 13 -To live is to know

To live is to know, sure, but we can alter what we"know" just by changing our convictions. D o we truly know that we are alive and is that even the point? What is this obsession with proving our aliveness? Will this help people sleep at night? Why not be settled with what is there and interpret that and find meaning in the present?

Week 11 - Spike's Gallery

These images are beautiful although I am not entirely clear on what they all are. The geometric shapes in the fossil from Oamaru are spectacular!

Week 11 - links

I love this site. It has been really informative and easy to navigate.

Week 11- Diversity of species

I am surrounded by

2 Homo sapiens
1 Felus catus (sometimes 2 when the monster cat comes to bully Brio)
1 Hydrangea macrophylla
1 meyer lemon tree
deciduous trees
evergreens
succulent ground cover
Corvus brachyrhynchos
Musca domestica
Malus domestica
Allium sepa

Week 10 - Animations

These didn't work for me. i just got the Q for the player application but no animations.

Week 10 - Definitions of Chemistry of Life

Very comprehensive but not that fun to navigate. I have trouble reading purely informative text online, I would rather have a book.

Week 10 - Gene therapy

I think that gene therapy, in the right hands can do great things and save many lives. I would not be the person to deny a child, parent or person the right to alter their genetic make-up in order to survive a disease, inherited disfunction or cancer. I hope, but am skeptical, that we exercise caution when introducing this into the world of medicine. I can see it becoming the way to secure a "blue -eyed baby boy, tall, with athletic build and above average intelligence". This kind of gene "therapy" is not far from the aforementioned. This kind of abuse of privilege frightens me for the future.

Week 8 - Avogadros hypothesis

This website was fun. I wish we had more teaching tools/helpers like this when I was in school. It would have made these kinds of history and science lessons must easier to understand. The website was well put together and explained things on my level, which when talking physics, is probably the level of 10th grader.

Week 8 - What is a mole?

This post was informative but more history than explanation. It also assumes the reader has some base knowledge of chemistry, which is neither good nor bad, just probably not for beginners, meaning me before mondays' class.

Week 8 - Radium

Radium is the heaviest of the alkali earth metals. It is naturally a solid and white in color however it oxidizes in air and turn black. It is also slightly luminescent glowing a light blue color. It is extremely radioactive. Radium used to be used in watches until many of the watch makers died from radium exposure. Radium use is declining due to the it's volatility and the usage of less volatile isotopes as a substitute.

Week 6 - Halogen

Fluorine is the most chemically reactive element due to it's need for 1 more electron to fill it's outer shell. Fluorine is a pale yellow highly corrosive gas. In labs, fluorine must be contained in teflon or copper because it has the ability to burn glass, ceramic and most metals. Fluoride, a fluorine ion, is often added to our public drinking water. It is believed that small amounts of fluoride are helpful in reducing the decay of tooth enamel. 

Fluoride in toothpaste:

Fluoride is now viewed as a toxic substance and should be avoided in significant quantities. One hundred ppm for adults and 500ppm for children for toothpaste and 1 ppm for drinking water.Over consumption of Fluoride can lead to Fluorosis, dental or skeletal. Children under 8 years old can develop Dental Fluorosis, seen as white streaks or brown spots and cracking of the teeth. Skeletal Fluorosis is a result of fluoride reacting negatively with calcium and magnesuim in the body. The symptoms range from muscle and joint pain to compression of the spine, deformities of spine and other bones and calcification of ligaments.

Week 6 - Alchemy

Alchemy is science and art, I don't know if I think  anything is magic. I believe in a lot of things but magic, as in a persons' ability to do cut some one in half or read my mind, I am skeptical. Alchemy is certainly a science. It put us on the path to chemistry and the study of the elements. In this same way, it is an art. I can't help but think that we have back-tracked away from combining science, philosophy and religion. I can only imagine the discoveries if all the scientists, philosophers, mathematicians and religious leaders, worked together to find answers about our universe. 

Week 5 - Impression of Links

I really liked the first site. It always fascinates me that objects, atoms absorb light and therefore color. The second site was great because I didn't really understand anything about incandescence and luminescence. My parents live on the ocean and we have an inlet where we launch our kayaks. In the summer, we go down to the dock and stir the water to see the phosphorescence in the algae. I never realized this was energy being stored and slowly released as photon energy. Swimming in this water at night is always invigorating but now I wonder if some how we are absorbing some of the released energy?

Week 5 - Radon

Radon is the heaviest noble gas. It is formed during the decay of radium. It is considered a toxic chemical and is found in air and water. Second to cigarette smoke, radon is a leading cause of lung cancer with radon induced lung cancer being the 6th leading cause of cancer in the US. Radon is found as a natural emissions especially in ground rich in shale or granite. Radon is also emitted from oil and gas refineries and nuclear power plants. Radon has been used mildly as a medicine to relieve joint pain and increase energy. This practice is controversial due to the danger of being exposed to radioactivity.

Week 5 - Foods In My Kitchen

Red - Chard, wine, jam, chili sauce, salsa, cranberry juice, kidney beans, meat, tea

Orange - blood oranges, tangerines, clementines, carrots, orange juice, dried apricots, dried apples

Yellow - onion, corn meal, frozen corn, chicken broth

Green - chard, cabbage, celery, lettuces, scallions, avocado, frozen peas

Blue/ purple - prunes, dried cherries, raisins

White/Brown - rice, turnips, carrots, shallot, ginger, milk, butter, cheese, beans, peanut butter, sugar, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, rice noodles, oil

I did not include spices in any of these categories.

week 4 - Science without Social Responsibility

One hundred years ago people did not understand the effects our actions would have on the planet. They could not fathom that their seemingly insignificant actions would be catastrophic for the future generations. I do not think this was arrogance, near-sightedness yes. Humans had never before changed the weather, erased entire species from the planet, this power was only considered to be in God's hands. It is easy to sit on a high horse now and criticize the actions of the past. WE need not look to who is at fault but more what went wrong and how do we fix it it and avoid it in the future. I hope that we become better and better at learning from our mistakes. Not to point the finger and say " I told you so", because if you are a child of this earth, this is your responsibility too.

Week 4 - Cadmium

Cadmium - Cd has an atomic mass of 48 and is in the transition metal group in the periodic table of elements. In searching form information on cadmium as a catalyst, everything I found included silver and copper. I think cadmium is a catalyst but maybe only when in the presence of other transitional metals?

I decided to write about cadmium anyway due to the overwhelming relevance to our topics in yesterdays class. 

Cadmium is a toxic element known to cause cancer and death. It is most often found in batteries, paint, and plastics. Cadmium poisoning is considered an "occupational hazard" for workers in industrial plants. The government has placed regulations on cadmium leeks from chemical plants. Regardless, soil, plants and animals living near these plants have extremely high levels of cadmium. The fumes when inhaled cause cancer, pulminary edema and death. Cadmium is also found in cigarettes, causing smokers to have "4-5 times higher blood cadmium concentration". (wikipedia) 

Cadmium in plastics:

This has become an increasingly alarming issue for mother's and their babies. Cadmium is used to stabilize PVC, vinyl and other plastic products. It is also used in coatings and paint. This includes toys, games, packaging for foods and medicines, plastic bags, reusable containers and many other household use plastic products. Only nineteen states limit the use of cadmium in some plastics. "Currently there are no restrictions on the amount of cadmium used in children's products in the US. "*  Cadmium can be absorbed through the skin, ingested or inhaled. It is often found in trace amounts in public water supply, along with many other toxic heavy metals. In small amounts cadmium causes delayed sensory-motor development, hormonal effects and other symptoms often seen in Autism and Asperger's syndrome. There is increasing discussion that many developmental disorders, such as Autism and Asperger's are caused from heavy metal poisoning. 

What are we doing to prevent heavy metal poisoning? The Toxic Substances Control Act, enacted in 1976, grandfathered in all "existing chemicals". The act "prohibits the manufacture or importation of chemicals not on the TSCA inventory" (wiki) The inventory list does not separate the chemicals into toxic and non-toxic. All "new chemicals" must submit a review request to be put on the inventory list. The act also states "there is no legal requirement to test most chemicals for health effects at any stage of production, marketing or after market distribution."

*www.watoxics.org

Week 4 - Atom Economy

Looking on Google, I found informational sights and university and school sights teaching about atom economy. I could not find one news link mentioning atom economy. Is this correct, is no one, other than scientists, paying attention to atom economy? Please tell me if you have found otherwise. I appreciate companies trying to better control their waste percentage during production. I understand that once a plant is in place it is far more difficult to change the process, but it is important to give companies incentives to increase their atom economy to as close to 100% as possible. I also wonder why there is no blanket regulation on all new chemical plants and factories to be 90-100% efficient. This seems like a necessary next step, considering the colossal amount of waste we already have to clean up, why would anyone keep making more?

Week 3 - Roentgenium

Roentgenium was first discovered during a cold fusion experiement using Ni (nickel) ion and Bi (bismuth) ion, in 1994. The experiment was carried out in Germany by Peter Armbruster, Gottfiren Munzberg and their team. There was insufficient evidence to classify the existing three atoms as a new element. The team repeated their experiment in 2000 and in 2003 the atoms were officially recognized as a new element with atomic mass 111. The element was named after a well-known scientist from the beginning of the 20th centruy, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. There is little know about the reactivity and properties of element 111, as it is sometimes called. It is believed to be more noble than gold.

Week 3 - website review

I found the second site to be rather confusing. having little base knowledge to understand the molecular structures and the way the form, this was a little over my head. The movies were very short and also not very informative. Perhaps after next class the descriptions willmake more sense.

Week 2 - Review of links

I found all three links very helpful and informative. Obviously, the first two are very similar. I enjoyed the layout and header warning that each section was vital to understanding the one below, sort of a "proceed with caution". The visual aspects of the third link were also very helpful. It is fascinating to think that not only in the space around us but inside and making up everything we use, food, clothes, this desk and keyboard are all made of tiny atoms, molecules and mixtures bouncing around everywhere.

Week 2 - ozone

My father read an interesting article explaining that although the ozone allows more ultra-violet light down to earth, the particles in the atmosphere, created by pollution, filter a large amount of this light, helping to keep the earth cool. The concern was that if we eliminate green house gasses, which are heating up the earth, too quickly, then the light and heat absorption from the particles will start to cool the earth. This means that in order to keep things balanced, we must eliminate green house gases at the same rate that we remove the particles from the atmosphere. 

In discussing the effects of our disappearing ozone, two different concerns surfaced. First, will this kill off humans? Second, will this injure the earth irrevocably? Humans will not live into infinity, whether we die-off in the next 5 years or 5 million years, we will die off. The earth can certainly survive without us, but the earth can not survive with out the atmosphere. The damage therefore,  to our atmosphere is much more detrimental to the earth than the changes caused, superficially by our carelessness.

Week 2 Element of Choice - Helium

Helium - atomic number 2

Helium is odorless, colorless and non-toxic. It is part of the noble gas group of elements. A noble gas is a naturally occurring gas with very low chemical reactivity. This is due to Helium's complete outer layer of electrons, meaning it does not have any spaces or electrons looking to bond with other elements. Helium was first seen as a new yellow line in the solar spectrum, during a full solar eclipse. This was first observed in 1868 by a French observer Pierre Jannsen and understood to exist in the sun but was not discovered on earth until 1895. It was discovered by Sir william Ramsay during an experiment exposing clevite, a mineral containing uranium, to mineral acid. Helium was discovered among the gases released by the experiment. 

Next to Hydrogen, Helium is the second most abundant element in our universe. It is also the second lightest. Helium is found in natural gas. Most of the world's helium is found in the central United States underneath, Texas, Oklahom and Kansas. It is found regularly in the hottest stars. It has the lowest melting point of any element and, for this reason,  is often used in cryogenic research. 

Helium combined with oxygen is used in scuba diving tanks to create a nitrogen free environment. This keeps the scuba diver safe from nitrogen narcosis, also known as rapture of the deep. Helium is used to inflate balloons and blimps. It is also used to pressurize tanks of liquid such as rocket fuel. When hydrogen is fused into helium, it produces the energy for the hydrogen bomb.

Week 1 Quiz

1) chemical, physical, physical, chemical

2)mixture, pure substance ( didn't think of the caking agent), pure, mixture

3)non-homogenous, impure ( i thought that the coffee would have taken on some of the properties of the filter and plastic)

4)physical, physical (phew!)

Week 1

I was born in Natick, Massachusettes. I grew up on the coast of Rhode Island. As a kid, I was adamant about becoming a pastry chef. My father agreed to pay for culinary school as long as I got my bachelors' degree first. This turned out to be excellent advice. After working as a Pastry Chef for a few years I was diagnosed with celiac sprue disease. This discovery halted my present career goals and allowed my to re-think my future plans. I was so thankful to Acupuncture for finally showing me the path to whole health, but I knew I would really miss the personal/customer contact from baking & pastry. 

I worked in Marketing for Whole Foods Market for a few years until literally one day it occurred to me to go back to school for Acupuncture. Once this thought entered into my mind, all the other pieces of my life started to fall into place. In other words, it was the only thing that made sense. So...here I am.