Concentrations Search Results

How To: Make nitric acid

Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make nitric acid. They show three ways to make nitric acid based on two different chemical approaches, both of which can be done using easily accessible materials.

How To: Test for boron with curcumin

Want to test whether the soil sample or a water sample contains boron, watch this video. As shown in the video, the first step is to create test specimens of various concentrations using a simple turmeric and ethanol solution as a base for comparison. The basis of this experiment is the fact that curumin present in turmeric reacts with boron to form a reddish compound and so the result of this reaction can easily be verified visually.

How To: Find gold in rivers and streams

This film is about gold. Gold diving. Use of the hookah rig to find gold. Gold flakes, nuggets, and platinum nuggets are shown. Gold and platinum are 15-19 times heavier than other streambed materials and concentrate in low pressure areas and cracks that run across rivers and streams. You look for a crack on the bank, and follow it out until you meet the "gold line" and there you suck it out with your dredge. Gold will be on the outside edge of a river gravel bar, at the head of the bar (larg...

News: Supercomputer's Simulated Patients Help Doctors Choose the Right TB Meds

The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is dropping in the US, but the World Health Organization (WHO) considers it to be epidemic in the rest of the world — there were over 10 million new cases in 2016.

How To: Make Soap Out of Guava Leaf Extract for a Science Investigatory Project

Unless you're a high-schooler building a nuclear fusion reactor, the hardest part of a science investigatory project often is coming up with a good idea. You want it to be cool yet feasible, novel but still useful.

How To: Find gold and sapphires

Do not discount the "pretty" rocks found along with gold. The sapphires you see are worth many times more than gold. Sapphire (& Ruby, (corundum), is like garnet, a relatively high specific gravity that will catch in a sluice readily. These gems act as gold, they will drop behind a boulder, in bedrock cracks, and set up in the stratiform layers of a bar on the inside bend of a stream. In a perfect (laboratory world) a river bar sets up from front to back: Gold, Platinum, Lead, Iron Ore (black...

News: How Livestock Farts Lead to a Warmer Climate

When it comes to global warming, most of us think of carbon dioxide emissions. While carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide emissions have stayed constant for the last three years. On the other hand, methane, the second most important gas, has been steadily rising since 2007.

News: Sexually Confused Fish Are the Canary in the Coal Mine of Water Pollution—But Bacteria Could Come to the Rescue

Exposed to hormones, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals, the beautiful wild fish in Canada's Grand River have taken on some pretty odd characteristics—they're turning into females. A long-term study suggests using bacteria to manage polluted water could turn the tide for feminized fish.

News: How an Innocuous Bacteria Lots of Us Have Turns into Deadly Meningitis & Sepsis

How can bacteria that lives in the throat of 10%–35% of people—without causing an infection—cause life-threatening meningitis and sepsis in others?

How to Beat Dehydration: Bye-Bye Gatorade, Hello Banana Bag

The war on dehydration is a commercially burgeoning marketplace. An increasingly sophisticated consumer population hoping to conquer everything from 26-mile marathons to vodka shots is deconstructing every functional remedy in the fight to quell the effects of severe dehydration.

News: Sponge Bacteria Clean Heavy Metals & Toxins Like Arsenic from Water, Saving Turtles & Humans Alike

Arsenic occurs naturally in the environment, but it is also one of the most commonly found heavy metals in wastewater, deposited there by inappropriate disposal and arsenical pesticides, for example.

News: Use This Type of Repellent to Avoid Mosquitoes—& Zika

Responding to the emergence of Zika in the US, researchers investigated what type of repellent works best to reduce your odds of a mosquito bite from Aedes aegypti, the mosquito species that spreads the Zika virus.

News: New Study Says Stopping Slimy Biofilms Could Save Thousands a Year from Legionnaires' Disease

In the summer of 1976, 4,000 American Legionnaires descended upon the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for a four-day convention. Several days later, many of the attendees experienced symptoms of severe pneumonia. By the beginning of August, 22 people had died. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that about 180 people were sickened and 29 people died before this mysterious outbreak burnt out.

Food Tool Friday: Meet the Big Green Egg—The Ultimate Cookout Machine

At first glance, the Big Green Egg looks like it was created by Dr. Seuss or some other whimsy-driven being, like Zooey Deschanel. And while this earthenware cooker may look cute, it produces serious results that can rival the best barbecue or grill. In fact, it's got quite a large cult following. Entrepreneur and former Navy serviceman Ed Fisher fell in love with the taste of food cooked in kamodos (traditional domed, covered earthenware vessels in Japan) and began to import them for sale in...

News: Finally, a New Drug Against 'Untreatable' Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea infections reached a peak in 1975, then decreased until 2009, when infection rate started rising and has increased each year since. With the rise of antibiotic resistance, those numbers are only going to get worse — unless we find new treatments against the bacteria.

News: Scientists See Bacteria Responding Electrically to Physical Stimuli for the First Time

Scientists know that bacteria create their own energy, get nutrients to run their cellular processes, and multiply. But, bacteria haven't been shown to respond to external mechanical stimulation or signals in a way that's similar to how our bodies respond to touch, until now.

News: Defective, Infectious Proteins Linked to Type 2 Diabetes

More than one in ten people in the US have type 2 diabetes — that's over 29 million people. It's characterized by excessive sugar (glucose) in the blood due to the development of resistance to insulin, the hormone that normally metabolizes glucose.

News: Bacteria-Based Fuel Cell Aims a One-Two Punch at Global Warming

About a third of the methane released into the environment comes from the production and transport of natural gas. The gas leaks as it moves along the transport chain from gas wellheads to market.

Mystery Solved: Oil-Munching Bacteria Helped Clean Up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill that began on April 20, 2010, was the largest maritime oil spill in history. Killing 11 people and discharging 4.1 million barrels of oil and natural gas into the Gulf of Mexico, the event was an unparalleled personal, environmental, and business disaster. It was also the first major oil spill to take place in the deep ocean.

News: Ebola Drug May Offer Safe and Effective Treatment for SARS & MERS

Coronaviruses are common viruses, and most of us catch one at some point — they cause about 30% of all common colds. A new accidental discovery could help fight these viruses, even the deadlier, emerging ones.

News: Stop Using Citronella Candles — They Don't Work

Mosquitoes are a big problem, and citronella candles are not the solution. There are a lot of mosquito species. The American Mosquito Control Association reports there are more than 3000 mosquito species in the world, and about 200 of those occur in the US. The most common are the Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex species. These are also the three mosquito species most likely to transmit serious illness, and all of them live in the US.

News: New Gut Bacteria Theory Could Revolutionize Our Understanding of Diabetes

Several recent research studies have pointed to the importance of the microbes that live in our gut to many aspects of our health. A recent finding shows how bacteria that penetrate the mucus lining of the colon could play a significant role in diabetes.

News: Your Doctor May Start Giving You Penicillin Even if You're Allergic

A new study has found that up to half of people who think they have a penicillin "allergy" can still receive the drug, and other antibiotics with similar structures, without any negative reactions to the meds. Why? Because they're not really allergic, doctors say.

News: Researchers Have Just Discovered How a Hospital Fungus Forms Slime, Becomes Drug Resistant & Kills Patients

It hasn't even been eight years since Candida auris was discovered—cultured and identified from the ear canal of a patient in Japan—and now it's drug-resistant, setting up residence in hospitals, killing patients, and wreaking havoc across the globe.

News: Wine Research Study Reveals How to Make Better Booze by Dosing Yeast with Nitrogen

Ah, wine. The bouquet fills your nose. The rich finish fills your mouth with soft flavors of oak and raspberries. The wine warms your belly and soothes your mind. Yeast and their biochemical factory help create this feast for your senses. Thanks to a research group from France, we now have a little more information on how that process works and a little more appreciation for yeast's contribution.

News: Visiting a National Park in the East? Watch for Lyme-Spreading Ticks

Transmitted by ticks, Lyme disease is a serious infection that is probably headed your way. A recent study confirms the pathogen that causes Lyme disease is now established in nine national parks in the East, including Acadia and Shenandoah National Parks.

How To: Why You Should Be Using Fleur De Sel Instead of Regular Table Salt (Plus, How to Fake It)

Foodies and big-time chefs like Thomas Keller go crazy for fleur de sel. This finishing salt appears in fancy eateries and cookbooks the world over, and in the early 2000s, it was not uncommon to see diners in a high-end restaurant sprinkle a pinch of fleur de sel on their plates from their own personal stash.

How to "Eat" Your Sunscreen: 10 Nutrient-Rich Foods That Will Increase Your Sun Tolerance

Even as someone with super pale skin that burns instead of tanning, I don't use sunscreen nearly as often as I should. Or, uh...ever. My skin cancer prevention routine mostly involves hiding from the sun as much as humanly possible. If you're like me and hate the greasy feeling of sunscreen, there are other ways you can protect your skin by increasing your sun tolerance. Your diet actually has a lot to do with how easily you burn, so by getting enough of a few key nutrients, you can decrease ...

How To: Find the geometric mean

It doesn’t matter how long ago your last geometry class was, you can still impress your friends by finding a geometric mean. The geometric mean can be used to find the average of numbers with out unusually high or low results effecting the result.

How To: Weigh samples in the lab using a balance

The Interactive Lab Primer (ILP) has been developed as part of the Royal Society of Chemistry Teacher Fellowship Scheme, one of the themes of the Chemistry for Our Future program, and initiative which aims to secure a strong and sustainable future for the chemical sciences in higher education. The aim of the ILP is to address the diverse range of experience and skills students bring with them to a university by offering a resource to support their transition from school to the university chem...

News: Plastic Kills?

BPA: Why Plastic Ain't Good For You BPA or Bisphenol A is in many of the products we use. Everything from Ziploc bags to shower curtains, we are exposed to BPA all the time.

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: ISOPLETH

ISOPLETH 63 points (13 points without the bingo) Definition: a type of isogram [n]

News: Ten foods to eat for clear, acne-free skin - part 1

You can blame your naggy mom, a crappy soap bar, and school or work stress for your acne. But ultimately, you should blame yourself. While it's true that your skin type (oily vs. dry vs. sensitive) and how your skin reacts to stress play a big part in blemishes, there is a nurture component to this argument.