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Author Topic: Share interesting science!!!  (Read 14955 times)  Share 

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Syndicate

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2016, 09:25:18 pm »
+1
Chemistry

sub::Elements


Four new elements were found at the start of this year! The elements are yet to be named, are were found in Japan(1), US(2) and Russia(1). It is also known that due to the discovery of these elements, the seventh row of the periodic table will finally by completed!

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/01/new-elements-periodic-table-seventh-row-iupac
Lot more information here  :)
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DeezNuts

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2016, 09:26:29 pm »
0
um righty oh  :o

well why would that first one be evolutioarily important?

I have no idea......I actually stumbled across that fact whilst doing research for Lit related work......
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keltingmeith

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2016, 09:26:49 pm »
+4
Too much bio for my tastes. :P I'm bringing in more... Not... Bio...

The word "acid" immediately scares people because they think "corrosive". However, not all acids are dangerously corrosive (or very corrosive at all!) - common examples include carbonic acid, which is present in most soft drinks and is responsible for the "fizzy" taste, and hydrogen sulfide, which can be found near active volcanic sites and is responsible for the "eggy" smell associated with thermal pools.

Another misunderstood concept relating to acids is that the stronger they are, the scarier they are. This is not true - the strength of an acid is not related to its corrosiveness. In fact, hydrofluoric acid (made popular for its use of dissolving a body in Breaking Bad) is actually a rather weak acid, with only a pKa of about 3.14. In comparison, the strong acid hydrochloric acid has a pKa of about -6 and carbonic acid has a pKa of about 6. (note: the smaller pKa, the stronger the acid). Put bluntly, despite being several times more dangerous than HCl, HF has an "acid strength reading" waaaaay closer to that of a can of soft drink.

blacksanta62

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2016, 09:32:41 pm »
+1
Anyone heard of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)? New form of technology where you take adult cells, add (4 I believe) gene sequences which encode the instructions for a cell to have stem-cell like capabilities, culture it and harvest it and grow new stem cells. The induction rate is only really between 0.01-0.1% but new research is finding ways to reach greater efficiency. This would allow for us to test drugs on an individual patients cells before they let the drug actually enter the body, can mean tissue regeneration is made up of a patients OWN cells, and can allow for quicker discovery of drugs for diseases by creating say neurons from the skin cells of a patient with Lou Gehreg's disease for example. Amazing possibilities  ;D I'm doing a speech on iPSCs at the National Youth Science Forum, really interesting stuff.

A-maze-Zing  :o :o :o
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Callum@1373

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2016, 09:33:09 pm »
+1
(made popular for its use of dissolving a body in Breaking Bad)
Legit my favorite scene!!!! I TOLD YOU TO GET THE F****** POLYETHENE
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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #20 on: January 15, 2016, 09:35:48 pm »
+1
um righty oh  :o

well why would that first one be evolutioarily important?

in fact, sometimes I wonder about the legitimacy of evolution in the sense that it is supposed to be an universally applicable/accepted concept. I believe that there are simply some things that will be an act of nature we will never truly understand.

One such example I can think of at the moment is a bird called Kakapo, which I believe is not only flightless but actually exudes an odor that attracts predators to them - hence it is no surprise it is now an endangered species.

Some info here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100929-birds-body-odor-rats-new-zealand-science-environment/
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blacksanta62

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2016, 09:37:09 pm »
0
Too much bio for my tastes. :P I'm bringing in more... Not... Bio...

The word "acid" immediately scares people because they think "corrosive". However, not all acids are dangerously corrosive (or very corrosive at all!) - common examples include carbonic acid, which is present in most soft drinks and is responsible for the "fizzy" taste, and hydrogen sulfide, which can be found near active volcanic sites and is responsible for the "eggy" smell associated with thermal pools.

Another misunderstood concept relating to acids is that the stronger they are, the scarier they are. This is not true - the strength of an acid is not related to its corrosiveness. In fact, hydrofluoric acid (made popular for its use of dissolving a body in Breaking Bad) is actually a rather weak acid, with only a pKa of about 3.14. In comparison, the strong acid hydrochloric acid has a pKa of about -6 and carbonic acid has a pKa of about 6. (note: the smaller pKa, the stronger the acid). Put bluntly, despite being several times more dangerous than HCl, HF has an "acid strength reading" waaaaay closer to that of a can of soft drink.

Would you say that bases can sometimes be even more dangerous than acids? Teacher specified that just because it's a base we were working with that it shouldn't be treated with less care than an acid. Especially since it's missing those acid triats such as burning on contact with the eye
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keltingmeith

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #22 on: January 15, 2016, 09:41:45 pm »
+3
Would you say that bases can sometimes be even more dangerous than acids? Teacher specified that just because it's a base we were working with that it shouldn't be treated with less care than an acid. Especially since it's missing those acid triats such as burning on contact with the eye

Without a doubt - something that I've used a lot in research is something called a "base bath". The purpose of the base bath is to completely and utterly destroy whatever is in your glassware. For example, you've got a beaker, reacted some stuff in it, and now it's covered with some weird black thing stuck to the sides. Easy fix - just chuck it in the base bath over night, and it'll be as good as new.

Why we use a base bath instead of an acid bath? No clue, because acid baths do exist. :P In all honesty, it could be down to it simply being that our base we use is cheaper than the acid would be. However, this thing is so concentrated, that if you put a hand into it, you will lose your hand - whenever using the base bath, we ALWAYS wear two layers of gloves - one latex/nitrile, and one heavy duty rubber glove, because the base bath is just that damn corrosive and dangerous.

Compare this to carbonic acid, which people literally pay money to drink because it tastes so good. :P

geminii

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2016, 09:46:12 pm »
0
Chemistry

sub::Elements


Four new elements were found at the start of this year! The elements are yet to be named, are were found in Japan(1), US(2) and Russia(1). It is also known that due to the discovery of these elements, the seventh row of the periodic table will finally by completed!

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/01/new-elements-periodic-table-seventh-row-iupac
Lot more information here  :)

I heard about this, it's pretty cool! Apparently they're now continuing to look for more.
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blacksanta62

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #24 on: January 15, 2016, 09:48:50 pm »
0
Without a doubt - something that I've used a lot in research is something called a "base bath". The purpose of the base bath is to completely and utterly destroy whatever is in your glassware. For example, you've got a beaker, reacted some stuff in it, and now it's covered with some weird black thing stuck to the sides. Easy fix - just chuck it in the base bath over night, and it'll be as good as new.

Why we use a base bath instead of an acid bath? No clue, because acid baths do exist. :P In all honesty, it could be down to it simply being that our base we use is cheaper than the acid would be. However, this thing is so concentrated, that if you put a hand into it, you will lose your hand - whenever using the base bath, we ALWAYS wear two layers of gloves - one latex/nitrile, and one heavy duty rubber glove, because the base bath is just that damn corrosive and dangerous.

Compare this to carbonic acid, which people literally pay money to drink because it tastes so good. :P

Man that's cool and beneficial at the same time. Are these the kinds of pracs or research you do at uni?
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Photon

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #25 on: January 15, 2016, 09:53:30 pm »
+1
Pikachurin is a protein named after Pikachu because Pokemon is cool.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikachurin
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keltingmeith

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #26 on: January 15, 2016, 09:54:21 pm »
+2
I heard about this, it's pretty cool! Apparently they're now continuing to look for more.

They will FOREVER look for more. :P

In particular, what physicists REALLY hope to achieve is what is known as the "island of stability". Like a lot of physics things that we're trying to find through experimentation, this is all theoretical. At the moment, the heaver the atom we make, the less stable it is, some of them only lasting for mere femtoseconds (10^(-15) seconds). However, physicists believe that after a certain point, the so called "island of stability", this trend will reverse, and the atoms will become MORE stable, allowing us what could be a never-ending supply of resources. (mainly in terms of stuff that is reallllllly not renewable and we're running out of)


Man that's cool and beneficial at the same time. Are these the kinds of pracs or research you do at uni?

This was research - if you want to know more about what I was looking out, check out this post here. I didn't do research into acids/bases, mind, I just used them for my research. :P In particular, hydrochloric acid acted as a solvent for one of my reactions - in the last step of the reaction, addition of acid caused what I was aiming to make to precipitate out, then I just had to vacuum it for the desired product. I don't think I used any more acid, but lots of others in the lab were using them as catalysts for their reactions. The only base that regularly got used was the base baths, though, and they were only used for cleaning glassware.

blacksanta62

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #27 on: January 15, 2016, 10:04:30 pm »
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They will FOREVER look for more. :P

In particular, what physicists REALLY hope to achieve is what is known as the "island of stability". Like a lot of physics things that we're trying to find through experimentation, this is all theoretical. At the moment, the heaver the atom we make, the less stable it is, some of them only lasting for mere femtoseconds (10^(-15) seconds). However, physicists believe that after a certain point, the so called "island of stability", this trend will reverse, and the atoms will become MORE stable, allowing us what could be a never-ending supply of resources. (mainly in terms of stuff that is reallllllly not renewable and we're running out of)


This was research - if you want to know more about what I was looking out, check out this post here. I didn't do research into acids/bases, mind, I just used them for my research. :P In particular, hydrochloric acid acted as a solvent for one of my reactions - in the last step of the reaction, addition of acid caused what I was aiming to make to precipitate out, then I just had to vacuum it for the desired product. I don't think I used any more acid, but lots of others in the lab were using them as catalysts for their reactions. The only base that regularly got used was the base baths, though, and they were only used for cleaning glassware.

Is the link you provided above mentioned in detail in VCE? Didn't really learn about polymers and the 3d pic was a bit hazy to me
Sorry for going off topic everyone it's the last question (hopefully) that is slightly off topic
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keltingmeith

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #28 on: January 15, 2016, 10:08:23 pm »
+1
Is the link you provided above mentioned in detail in VCE? Didn't really learn about polymers and the 3d pic was a bit hazy to me
Sorry for going off topic everyone it's the last question (hopefully) that is slightly off topic

Argh, I wish. All the fields of chemistry I really love aren't even thought about for VCE... (possible insight as to why I hated 3/4 chem but love uni chem LOL)

I just picked that picture because I felt it simply showed what the structure of a coordination polymer might look like. Here's a whole page of some, though, so go nuts.

Also, if this is science that you find interesting, it's literally in the name of the topic. Defs not off at all. :P

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Re: Share interesting science!!!
« Reply #29 on: January 15, 2016, 10:09:39 pm »
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in fact, sometimes I wonder about the legitimacy of evolution in the sense that it is supposed to be an universally applicable/accepted concept. I believe that there are simply some things that will be an act of nature we will never truly understand.

One such example I can think of at the moment is a bird called Kakapo, which I believe is not only flightless but actually exudes an odor that attracts predators to them - hence it is no surprise it is now an endangered species.

Some info here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100929-birds-body-odor-rats-new-zealand-science-environment/
Just because there's something with a seemingly ineffective trait, I don't think we can necessarily attack the legitimacy of evolution. Sure, the Kakapo might be carrying some pretty dumb genes, but as you said, it's dying out - isn't this a classic case of natural selection?