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Thermal Decomposition of Sucrose

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:20:10 -0600

Below is a thermogravimetric (TG) scan of commercial grade sucrose. Over the course of the experiment, the compound is quite stable to decomposition to the gas phase under N2 up to the onset temperature of ~226 C. This is indicated by the constant temperature line leading up to the onset. Above 226 C it begins to evolve gas or aerosols.

The furnace temperature ramp is 10 C/minute, the purge gas is nitrogen, and the crucible is platinum. The software that presents the data determines an onset and offset temperature by intersecting lines extending from the slopes of the lines at points chosen by the operator. In this way, the computer "squares" the broad curves and reports a temperature at that point.

Meetings

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:07:03 -0600

I'm in Houston for GSA! It's my first GSA ever. I will only be at the meeting for two days (I have a thesis to write and classes to teach, so I can't stick around), but I'm excited to finally get to see this meeting. It's other side of the geology community, the people who only rarely come to the ginormous AGU meetings that take over San Francisco. GSA is more of the small college, paleo, Earth history, and honest-to-god straight-up geology crowd. I'm here in part to help out with our department search, and in part to see the meeting. Conveniently, there is a certain special someone that lives in this city that I get to see while I'm here!

Where are the NDP on science?

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:53:05 -0600

I've been paying attention to Canadian politics as I look forward to exercising my democratic rights ina couple of weeks. I've never been seriously interested in the NDP, for the simple reason that they never seemed to be in a position to take power, but with the Liberals melting down in the polls recently, I've come to view the NDP as a serious contender for (at least) the opposition. Since I would normally vote Liberal, this now leaves me pondering my choices more carefully.

To help figure out what I'm going to do, I sat down tonight to review the platforms of both the Liberals and the NDP. Mr. Layton's was interesting, with many ideas on important issues like climate change, the economy, and so on. But if you've read this blog for any time at all, you'll know that I'm a Ph.D student in Biology, and that science is very important to me. So what is the NDP stance on science and scientific research in Canada, you ask?

Beats me.

Teaching Election 2008 (and Other U.S. Current Events)

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:48:16 -0600

I typically love election years because of all of the teaching opportunities they provide. Teaching students about electoral votes, the electoral process, and the candidates' platforms always sparks interesting conversations. Students always wonder why the vote isn't just a popular vote, and they tend to have fun picking a favorite candidate for whom they are rooting throughout the whole process.

This year, however, I'm glad I don't teach older students. With my third graders, I can keep things light, and we'll focus largely on the fact that we'll have either our first non-white president or our first female vice-president. If I taught high school, the discussion might very well get much uglier.

How do you talk to high school students about the 700 billion dollar bailout without admitting that we've mortgaged their future?

CREATION IN THREE DARKNESSES

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:32:13 -0600

DO YOU KNOW ??

tHE qURAN SAYS;

6- ...He creates you, in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after the other, in three darkness.
39-The Throngs, 6

The fetus in the mother’s womb is a fragile thing. If it were not protected well, heat, cold, temperature variations, impacts or even the mother’s sudden movement might kill it or cause it irreparable damage. The three zones within the mother’s womb protect the fetus against all sorts of dangers. These are:

1- The abdominal wall,
2- The uterine wall, and
3- The amniotic sac.

Mentor Texts: Author Loreen Leedy

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:21:54 -0600

Crazy Like a Fox: A Simile Storyby Loreen Leedy is the newest book by this very fun author. I first became familiar with Leedy while using her book Postcards from Pluto as a mentor text (way back before I even knew what they were) for writing our own postcards and books about the planets when that was part of my science curriculum. Since then I have had the opportunity to meet her at the now defunct The Ohio State University Children's Literature Conference (boy I miss that opportunity to see so many great authors) and she has now written around thirty books.

Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:14:48 -0600

Ultrasound forcefields are used here to create invisible yet tactile 3D objects in space with the entire interaction rendered in computer displays. So one can reach out and 3D objects without the use of gloves or sensors. This has weird and interesting ramifications for art, gaming, education, human-computer interface, and of course, ero-tech.

"The team is working to adjust how the transducers are driven in order to produce realistic textures as well as shapes."

"Sanctuary" Shows Promise

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:53:54 -0600

--The show Sanctuary debuted on October 3rd on the SciFi channel. Previously seen only in "webisodes," the show centers on 157-year-old psychiatrist Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), who seeks to track down, study, and protect the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world and live among us. One of them is, yes, Bigfoot; there is also a young boy with a kind of tentacle attached to his chest.

Living longer with Cryonic Suspension

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:44:36 -0600

Cryogenics has been the subject of science fiction for as long as I can remember, but it has now become an accepted science in many ways.

Cryogenics is now commonplace for use in fertility health. It is quite common now for people to store eggs or embryo's for future implantation. Organisations like Fertility Associates in New Zealand have had success with freezing sperm, eggs and much more.

More and more people are starting to freeze the umbilical cord of newly born babies with a view to being able to use the cells to aid in treating serious immune conditions such as cancer with a guarantee of acceptance of the cells by the person, because they are in fact their own genetic matter.

Macs need to come with a health warning?

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:01:50 -0600

Apparently the French have found that Mac Pros emit benzene. What the article doesn't mention is that benzene is not only poisonous, but is classified as a carcinogen.

You'd think Steve Jobs would get right on that...

Some Who Stayed For Hurricane Ike, Did Not Survive; Hundreds Still Missing In Texas May Never Be Found

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:33:55 -0600

[caption id="attachment_3048" align="alignnone" width="426" caption="Bolivar Peninsula From Satellite Directly After Ike"][/caption]

Dying to be Heard

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:27:21 -0600

I wanted to plug a student production from Michigan State that was actually picked up by PBS, and has won multiple awards: Dying to be Heard

"Dying to be Heard tells the story of Michigan State University professor Dr. George J. Wallace, who discovered a link between DDT and dying birds on the MSU campus. His work was highlighted in Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring," which helped launch the modern environmental movement.

The film, produced by students and faculty in MSU's Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, is based on MSU professor Jim Detjen's editorial "Breaking the 'Silence'" that appeared in the fall 2005 issue of EJ Magazine."

Our Sun extending itself

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:07:10 -0600

Check out this picture of our Sun:

It is a picture of a solar prominence, a large bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface. Interestingly, the hot plasma structure is many times the size of planet Earth. In fact the largest ever prominence was some 350,000 km long - 28 times the diameter of the Earth. The mass contained within a prominence is typically of the order of 100 billion tonnes of material - WOW!

Follow the Money: First Rule of Journalism

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:46:39 -0600

And it's the rule that the biased media ignores when it comes to Obama.

Jack Kelly of the Toledo Blade reports on some very suspicious findings in the Obama campaign's fundraising totals, and the media's complete lack of interest in investigating it:

WHO is "Will, Good"?

10/4: New at the library this week

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:35:18 -0600

Audiobooks:

Real ponies don't go oink! / Patrick F. McManus (cassette)
"True-life" tales of man against nature in a collection sure to entertain the most hard-to-please listener.

Radio broadcasts

Sam Spade, private eye (cassette)
The falcon : Daring detective Michael Waring (cassette)
Murder at midnight (cassette)

Outrage out West

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:32:02 -0600

California is still part of the US, isn't it?

FRIENDS, FAMILY AND FELLOW OBAMACRATS...

Sarah Palin is coming to Carson this Saturday. Two days after the Vice Presidential Debate, she wants to show the world that she can come to one of the bluest areas in the bluest state in the Union and have over 10,000 people show up for a rally for her. This is outrageous!!!

Educator Alarmed Over Trainees Understanding of Science

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:11:34 -0600

James Williams is a lecturer in science education at the University of Sussex was very alarmed about the latest statics among future science teachers...

• 76% equated a fact with 'truth' and 'proven'

• 23% defined a theory as 'unproven ideas' with less than half (47%) recognizing a theory as a well evidenced exposition of a natural phenomenon

• 34% defined a law as a rule not to be broken, and forty-one percent defined it as an idea that science fully supports.

• Definitions of 'hypothesis' were the most consistent, with 61% recognizing the predictive, testable nature of hypotheses.

Obama does better with Germans than with US Soldiers

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:26:07 -0600

The photo comes from Obama's press office, otherwise known as the New York Times. Too bad for Senator Obama that Germans can't vote -- of course that won't stop ACORN from registering them!

PHOTO CREDIT CLICK

Who Decides When We Die?

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:25:12 -0600

Last night I got an urgent call to go to one of our ICU's. An elderly woman was having a (slow) dissection of her ascending aorta and was probably going to go to surgery. The surgeon in charge of the case was waiting for family to make a decision. The patient was stable at that time.

This woman was in her 80's, moderately demented and was currently in the ICU for a major infection. She had been living in a high level care nursing home. I reviewed the patient's echo and clinical status. I told the surgeon waiting for the family, that my best guess was that we were looking at about 25% chance of mortality on the OR table and probably another 50-60% if the proposed graft did not become infected. Probably about 100% if the graft did become infected. The family informed the surgeon that the patient had asked that if she were ever in a nursing home, that she not have major surgery. That request was honored.

Ne pas donner des Avis de Jurisprudence sans Science

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:20:18 -0600

Bismi-Lahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim

WordPress

admin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:03:10 -0600

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