Enzymes

Posted on April 30th, 2008 in Biology, Homework, Research, Year 10 by beethieee jaynnee

Okkaaayyy…… this is some stuff i found out about enzymes just for you Mrs mouton =]

Enzymes are biological catalysts: this means that they speed up the chemical reactions in living things. Without enzymes, our guts would take weeks and weeks to digest our food, our muscles, nerves and bones would not work properly and so on – we would not be living!

A catalyst is any substance which makes a chemical reaction go faster, without itself being changed. A catalyst can be used over and over again in a chemical reaction: it does not get used up. Enzymes are very much the same except that they are easily denatured (destroyed: but do NOT use this word since the protein molecule is not broken down into amino-acids, it just loses it shape and will not work any more) by heat. Our enzymes work best at body temperature. Our enzymes also have to have the correct pH.

All enzymes are made of protein; that is why they are sensitive to heat, pH and heavy metal ions. Unlike ordinary catalysts, they are specific to one chemical reaction. An ordinary catalyst may be used for several different chemical reactions, but an enzyme only works for one specific reaction.

Human saliva contains an enzyme called amylase. This enzyme helps to turn starch into a sugar called maltose. When you swallow a mouthful of food, the amylase stops working because it is much too acid in the stomach pH 2. Amyalse works best in neutral or slightly alkaline conditions, i.e. at about pH 7. When your food gets into the small intestine, more amylase is made by the pancreas and this turns the remaining starch into maltose. Another enzyme (maltase) turns all this maltose into glucose. Glucose is then absorbed into the blood.

=]

Dangers and concerns about nanoscience

Posted on April 30th, 2008 in Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Research, Year 10 by beethieee jaynnee

NanoNanotechnology 2Moving animation

Here is a few things i found out about the dangers and concerns of the use of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology as an emerging field is strongly related to visionary prospects which are disposed to reappear as dystopian concerns. As long as nanotechnology does not provide reliable criteria for assessing these worries as rational or as irrational they remain a challenge for ethical reflection. Given this underdetermination, many nanovisions and their corresponding concerns should therefore be considered as “arational.” For that reason, a “constructivist” stance is endorsed which does not seek to take part in discussions as to how ethicists should cope with controversial worries, but tries to observe how concerns are managed by different social actors. This perspective allows us to remodel some concerns such as “grey goo” not solely as a societal reaction, but also as challenging and irritating factors. As such they potentially initiate two different processes simultaneously: a differentiation in terms of demarcating science from non-science on the one hand, and a rationalization of concerns on the other. Analyzing these processes empirically allows to reconstruct how “arational” concerns are socially made rational or, on the contrary, irrational.

Okayy so maybe the last one didnt make much sense but you get the general idea dont you.

Also because nanotechnology is used on such a small scale it can easily be lost or get out of control.

sosmething about ‘grey goo’….. :s

Nanotechnology Research

Posted on April 29th, 2008 in Chemistry, Homework, Nanotechnology, Research, Year 10 by beethieee jaynnee  Tagged

image- nanotechnology< an example of the use of nanotechnology =]
A basic definition: Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced. In its original sense, ‘nanotechnology’ refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. <source:http://www.crnano.org/whatis.htm>

So basically it is like building someNanotechnology comprises technological developments on the nanometer scale, usually 0.1 to 100 nm (1/1,000 µm, or 1/1,000,000 mm). The term has sometimes been applied to microscopic technology. Nanotechnology is any technology which exploits phenomena and structures that can only occur at the nanometer scale, which is the scale of several atoms and small molecules. The United States’ National Nanotechnology Initiative website defines it as follows: “Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications.” Such phenomena include quantum confinement–which can result in different electromagnetic and optical properties of a material between nanoparticles and the bulk material; the Gibbs-Thomson effect–which is the lowering of the melting point of a material when it is nanometers in size; and such structures including carbon nanotubes. thing that works on an extremely small scale.<source: http://www.nanotechnology.eu/>

We use a lot of nanotechnology in daily life even though we may not realise it….

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2007) — — The number of consumer products using nanotechnology has more than doubled, from 212 to 475, in the 14 months since the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies launched the world’s first online inventory of manufacturer-identified nanotech goods in March 2006. Clothing and cosmetics top the inventory at 77 and 75 products, respectively.

It is thought that in the future the use of nanotechnology will become dramatically more than now and it is the way forward.

bethan =]

Nanotechnology

Posted on April 25th, 2008 in Chemistry, Homework, Nanotechnology, Research, Year 10 by beethieee jaynnee

We are going to learn about nanotechnology over the next few weeks in chemisty.

Hello world!

Posted on April 19th, 2008 in Uncategorized by beethieee jaynnee

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