Sunday, September 30, 2012

How is Nylon made

The idea for Nylon was first put forward by Charles Stine the director of Du Pont's Chemical [ie.,central research] Department it was through Wallace Carothers who also worked at DuPont that created the first nylon material on 28 February 1935

Nylon is made by condensation copolymers formed by reacting equal parts of a Diamine and a Dicarboxylic acid as this video below shows here.


The semi-liquid material is then forced into a spinneret, which is used to separate the nylon into thin strands.

As the Nylon is exposed to the air it causes the strands to harden immediately and once they are hard, they can be wound onto bobbins. The fibres are stretched to create strength and elasticity. The filaments are unwound and then rewound onto another, smaller spool. This process is called drawing and is used to align the molecules into a parallel structure.
After the nylon has been wound onto the smaller spool, it is ready for use. Nylon products are created by weaving the filaments together. The tighter the weave, the more strength the fabric will have.



Sunday, September 23, 2012

Dragonflies close up

A photographer David Chambon, working in Doubs in eastern France, took some close up images of dragonflies and flies frozen in time as they appear to by crystallised by the morning dew making the colours on their bodies show for clearly.

A dragonfly peering back at the camera with large beady eyes

The bug peeking out from over the fronds, keeping an eye on our beady photographer

Bubbles of water magnifing the beauty and reveal the details and bright red, orange, green and blue colours of the flying insects


Thousands of tiny drops of dew covering the insects
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A man's secret tribute to his wife

A man called Winston Howes who lives in the Gloucestershire countryside created a lasting memorial to his wife who passed away 17 years ago at the age of 50. 
What he did was got 6000 oak saplings and planted the saplings on his property. The trees form a heart shape, which is kept bare by a large hedge, and the bottom tip of the heart points to Janet's childhood home. 
Winston Howes who is now 70 years old, said he got the idea for the meadow in a flash of inspiration, and has since put a seat in the field. He sometimes goes down there, just to sit and think about things.


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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Spider Webs

Almost since i got my car ive had spider webs being made near the front door, last week finally found a spider which was removed, it got me thinking what a spider web is made from.

Spider webs or cobwebs (from the obsolete word coppe, meaning spider) are made from built by a spider out of proteinaceous (protein) spider silk extruded from its spinnerets .What spinnerets are, are glands located at the tip of a spiders abdomen

Each gland produces a thread for a special purpose – for example a trailed safety line, sticky silk for trapping prey or fine silk for wrapping it. Spiders use different gland types to produce different silks, and some spiders are capable of producing up to 8 different silks during their lifetime.

How most spider webs are made is first the spider lets out a fine adhesive thread hoping a faint breeze will move it across the gap the spider then will carefully walk along it and strengthen it with a second thread. This process is repeated until the thread is strong enough to support the rest of the web.

Spider webs are used to 2 main reasons one is to use to catch prey the other used to run along to catch their prey keeping their back legs firmly attached to the web as well as being protection from birds.

The stickiness you feel on the webs is droplets of glue as the webs are made. Spiders do not usually get stuck to their own webs cause they are able to spin both sticky and non-sticky types of silk, and are careful to travel across only non-sticky portions of the web.

After the web has been there for awhile the silk will lose its stickiness and become less inefficient at capturing prey. It is common then for spiders to eat their own web daily to recoup some of the energy used in spinning. with the silk proteins are recycled.

Ive tried to shorten alot of the information but you can read more here
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Inspiring pictures from the Paralympics


Sometimes life can appear hard, but with determination you 
can achieve anything


Alphanso Cunningham of Jamaica competes in the Men’s Discus Throw – F51/52/53 Final.

The South African Men’s 4x100m relay team celebrates winning gold and setting a new world
record in the T42/T46 Final.

Matt Stutzman of the United States competes in the Men’s Individual Compound Archery

Katherine Downie, Ellie Cole and Maddison Elliot of Australia celebrate as teamate Jacqueline Freney
wins them the gold medal in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle.

Guide Guilherme Soares de Santana reacts to Terezinha Guilhermina of Brazil winning gold before
she knows she’s won the Women’s 100m T11 Final.

James O’Shea of Great Britain dives from the blocks in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke – SB5 Final.

China’s He Junquan bites on a towel to aid his start in the men’s 50m Backstroke S5.
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Sunday, August 19, 2012

About your Teeth

As an embryo at certain times your teeth are starting to develop as the future line of the jaw bone thickens  bud like thickening's form along each jaw with 10 of these being made for the baby teeth, at around three months more tooth buds are made on the inside of the baby teeth which will be used for the permanent teeth which seem to appear at around 7 years old

Even though teeth are composed of a hard bone-like tissue, they are in fact derived from various skin tissues in much the same way as the placoid scales like on sharks and rays.

Each person has 4 different types of teeth in their mouth Incisor, Canine, Premolar and Molar

Each tooth is made of 4 structures

  • Enamel is the hard, white covering. Enamel protects the tooth from the wear and tear of chewing. The enamel on your teeth is the hardest substance in your body. 
  • Dentine  is below the enamel on your teeth. It's a yellow bone-like material that's softer than enamel and carries some of the nerves that tell you when something is going wrong inside your tooth.
  • Pulp   is the centre of the tooth. It's a soft tissue that contains blood vessels and nerves. The pulp is how the tooth receives nourishment and sends signals to your brain.
  • Cementum   is what covers most of the root of the tooth. It helps to attach the tooth to the bones in your jaw. A cushioning layer called the Periodontal Ligament sits between the cementum and the jawbone. It helps to connect the two.
For a more in-depth explanation of how your teeth are made link to this great page 

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