Simple things to do to save our PLANET !!!

No doubt that you are aware about climate change. If you want it or not, the climate is changing and we'll have to face the harsh reality of mother nature. And so it is important that we prepare ourselves to this dire reality and take small action that could possibly avert this cataclysmic event.

1. Use recyclable bag. There's whole heaps of option out there. Most common and durable are the Jute bags, that has been traditionally used in countries like Bangladesh, India and China.

 2. Waste less! We do waste a lot of things in our daily life. Don't believe me, go have a rummage thru your rubbish bin. You maybe surprised at how much wasteful we are.

3. Plant more trees. There is nothing in the world that is best at removing carbon dioxide from atmosphere then plants. So if you have a large backward then plant some trees or a garden. This way you can enjoy the flowers it may blossom and know that your doing something to help the planet.

4. Walk the extra mile. If you say going to the shops nearby or the playing ground, walk there instead of taking your car. This way not only you saving on fuel but doing some much needed exercise. If everyone stops driving their car for a day, we'd make a huge contribution to our plant. So why not celebrate next Earth day (22nd of April) by leaving our cars home and take the public transport.

Cell membrane Proteins

In the cell membrane, there are a wide composition of proteins present. The most common protein you'll find in the membranes are receptors and channels. They are the messenger of cells. Receptor senses whats going on outside the cells and sends signal down to adjust accordingly. On the other hand, channels are like doors for your cells. They allow passage of nutrients and biochemicals. The most common type of channels you might find in a cell are aquaporins. The clever amongst you may have already realised what this channel/transporter do. It allows movement of water molecule through the membrane. Whilst water is a polar molecule and can move through the membrane bi-layer, it predominately uses this transporter for efficient and fast transport of water molecules. Down below is an actual X-ray crystallography picture of aquaporin channel.

This is a top down view of the channel. Its made up of four sub-units.

Cell Membrane

Cell membrane plays the most important rule in cellular biology. It controls the input and output of any substances in cells. However, as it is an important component of cell it is at the same time has a very complex structure. The most current model on how a cell membrane works is that of fluid mosaic model - that proteins are embedded into the cytoplasmic membrane. Nonetheless, let us look at a diagram of the plasma membrane as depicted below:

I will discuss in more details about this figure later. The membrane is made out of amphipathic phospholipids. That in other  word means that it has a hydrophobic component and a hydrophilic component. As you can see on this figure: 

 The hydrophobic component is the tail part of the phospholipids, as it is a water fearing molecule meaning that it does not interact with water or any polar substances. On the other hand the hydrophilic component of phospholipid is exposed to the both outer and inner cellular fluid. The hydrophilic component interacts with water and other substances that are in both extracellular and intercellular fluid. This amphipathic characteristics is very important for cell membrane as it allows only  selective substances to pass through, making it semi-permeable. So if you wondering why the cell membrane is semi-permeable, than the simple answer is because of this hydrophilic and hydrophobic component that blocks access to important nutrient (large macro-molecule and ions) passing through it. 

Dating Method

If you have sample of fossil than obviously you are keen to know how old it is.  With dating method one can estimate how old an object is. Dating procedure gives you a estimated time period. The most common dating is Carbon-14 dating. Because carbon-14 has a half life of 5730 years means it will take 5730 years to decay half of it original quantity. So if you have 10 g of Carbon-14 now than after 5730 years 5 g of Carbon-14 will decay and will form different element and you will left with 5 g. So what is the equation that uses to determine the age. There are two different equation of dating but in this post I will discussing about the first equation which is: 

                                                                     N = N₀ e^ˉλt

N is remaining, N0 is original quantity e is approximately 2.718 and t stands for the age and lambda λ

Lets do an example: 

You have a sample of a fossil, originally it has 0.0025 g of C-14 and now you has 0.00068 g. How old this fossil is ? 

ln is the natural log and t stands for the half life of the radioactive isotope in this case C-14. 

So the sample that we had it is approximately 10762 years old. Though it is not exactly this many years, we should have use other radioactive isotope that has a half life of 9000 - 15000. So before doing the dating archaeologist needs predict how old the fossil might be. If you have any question regarding the calculation than comment below I will try to solve this. Note that this blogs is designed to high school students, so if you find something ambiguous or wrong so please don't hesitate to comment.  

Calculate Mass Defect Cont'd

This post will focus in finding mass defect and binding energy of a reaction. In the last post, I did not mention about binding energy. Here, we will learn how to calculate binding energy as well. Lets find mass defect and binding energy for following equation: 

                                             

Mass of Ne-21= 20.99 u Mass of He-4 = 4.002 u  Mass of Mg-24 = 23.98 and Mass of n= 1.008

Then, Mass defect = (mass of Ne + Mass of He) - (Mass of Mg + Mass of n)

                              = (20.99 u + 4.002 u) - (23.98 u + 1.008 u)

                              =  24.992 u - 24.988 u

                              = 0.004 u

There are two unit to calculate binding energy one in MeV and second one is in J. In this we will calculate in MeV because it is the SI unit for binding energy and fastest plus easiest way to calculate. 

Binding Energy = Mass defect × 931.49 MeV/u 

                          = 0.004 u × 931.49 MeV/u

                          = 3.726 MeV

Note: 1 u = 931.49 MeV

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Calculate Mass Defect

Mass Defects is the difference between masses of isotopes and its masses number. 

Lets calculate the mass defects of tritium, H-3 which has a mass of 3.016049 u. 

It requires 2 neutrons and one proton. 

Mass of one proton               = 1.007825 u

Mass of two neutron             = 2(1.008665) u

Sum of proton and neutron   = 3.025155 u

So the mass defect = 3.016649 u − 3.02515 u = −0.009106 u

Note: the singe plus or minus doesn't matter it just tells this mass has been lost. 

Nuclear Power Plant

This post will briefly describe how Nuclear Power Plant works. Nuclear Power Plants is know as thermal power station because it heats the water to get electricity.

In a nuclear power plant you have reactor or fuel rods immersed in water than you have control rods a pump steam generator and turbine areas. Once the chain reaction starts in this case Uranium-235 it decays to Krypton-89, Barium-144 and 3 neutrons. Through this it releases heat energy, because of high pressure the water does not boils. In this case a pump that helps to exchange the water and water are supplied into another that helps to create steam. Steam than passes through a pipe line to rotate than turbine. Thus, the rotation of turbine generates electricity. Nuclear process is the most efficient method to generate electricity if the reaction held control. Once the expected amount of heat released by the reaction control rods are immersed into the water. These rods are made of Cadmium metal which can easily absorb water. These rods absorbs neutrons for further reactions.