Posted by Harry Gilbert on Jan 16, 2010 in
Biology,
Molecular Biology What is an Auto-immune disease?
An Auto-immune disease is a disease that people get because a part of their DNA is damaged, or mutated and it mistakenly allows your immune system to attack your body as if it had been invaded by a bacteria. It is a very difficult condition to remedy.
Tags: Auto-Immune diseases, Immune system
Posted by Harry Gilbert on Nov 10, 2008 in
Engineering,
Environmental & Earth Science 
Are plastic bottles really dangerous for your health?
I always told all of my kids to get their science information from reliable sources—If you need information on plastic safety, go to the American Chemical Society—try www.factsonplastic.com, which is sponsored by Amerian Chemical Council, part of ACS.
Keep this in mind: Trace chemical contamination might be harmful to babies, which are growing very fast, but adults are largely immune to trace chemicals because evolution has protected us from various chemicals that have been on earth for billions of years. For instance, Dioxanes are generated when wood is burned, so our ancestors were exposed to dioxans for millions of years.
Tags: BPA, dioxanes, leaching, plastic, polycarbonate, public health, safety
Posted by Harry Gilbert on Nov 3, 2008 in
Environmental & Earth Science Most scientists agree that global warming is a real, and serious threat that we’ve created for our Earth. We know we’ve done a lot of damage so far, and will continue to for some time. If we move toward a more sustainable world, will we ever be able to reverse what we’ve done? Or is it all just a matter of preventing the Worst?
It is a matter of slowing down, and eventually stopping our burning of fossil fuels which adds carbon dioxide to our atmosphere which leads to global warming. We must prevent “the worst”, which would be the tipping point–the point of no return–when the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is so high that the temperature on the surface of the earth can irreversibly reach the melting point of metallic lead! We cannot reverse what we already have done, but we can tolerate some climate change.
Tags: climate change, environment, global warming, sustainability
Posted by Harry Gilbert on Nov 3, 2008 in
Chemistry 
What is exactly is a polymer? Why do I need to know? I know you are a polymer chemist. What does this mean exactly? I know poly means “many”…so that’s a start! - Natalie
You are correct, poly means “many”. Polymer means many “mers’, And “mers” means monomers. A typical monomer is ethylene, whose polymer is polyethylene, the most common plastic film you buy in the grocery store.
I will let you digest that for the time being. You need to know what a polymer is because for one thing, you are made out of polymers. Yes, your body is essentially made out of protein polymers!
Read more…
Tags: ethylene, monomer, Polyethylene, polymer
Posted by Harry Gilbert on Nov 2, 2008 in
Chemistry 
You know when and where you were born. But, do you have any idea where your atoms (the very chemical elements you are made of) were born?
Our first suggestion might be that the atoms were all born simultaneously with the rest of the universe, during the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago. We can shoot down that idea easily: It was much too hot at the Big Bang for any kind of atom to survive. The nuclei of the 94 natural elements (including the protons, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms) would have all been torn to shreds at the near-infinite temperature of space at the instant of the birth of the universe. Read more…
Tags: Albert Einstein, atoms, chemical elements, e=mc2, Lord Kelvin, nuclear chemistry, Thomas Chamberlain
You know when and where you were born. But, do you have any idea where your atoms (the very chemical elements you are made of) were born?