Common Science Myths That Most People Believe There are a number of old wives’ tales out there regarding some basic scientific principles. Though most of them were refuted years ago, these rumors just won’t go away. Here are some of the top myths floating around out there that just aren’t true: We only use 10% of our brains. It's true that there’s a great deal we don’t know about the brain, but we certainly do know that we use our entire brain. Even if we didn’t have a wealth of data from brain scans to show this 10% figure is completely false (we do), it doesn’t even make sense using basic logic. Additionally, there is no evidence that someone was ever diagnosed with a brain tumor but was told: “Great news! While you might not be using every bit of your brain at all times, but you do use the entire brain over the course of the day. There is a dark side of the moon. Oh, Pink Floyd, how you have led us all astray. From our perspective on Earth, we are able to view about 59% of the moon’s surface (though not all at the same time).
7.6 Molecular Structure and Polarity | Chemistry Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: Predict the structures of small molecules using valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theoryExplain the concepts of polar covalent bonds and molecular polarityAssess the polarity of a molecule based on its bonding and structure Thus far, we have used two-dimensional Lewis structures to represent molecules. Valence shell electron-pair repulsion theory (VSEPR theory) enables us to predict the molecular structure, including approximate bond angles around a central atom, of a molecule from an examination of the number of bonds and lone electron pairs in its Lewis structure. VSEPR theory predicts the arrangement of electron pairs around each central atom and, usually, the correct arrangement of atoms in a molecule. As a simple example of VSEPR theory, let us predict the structure of a gaseous BeF2 molecule. Figure 2. Electron-pair Geometry versus Molecular Structure Figure 4. Example 1 Figure 8. Answer: Example 2 Example 3
New evidence that plants get their energy using quantum entanglement The fact that biological systems can exploit quantum effects is quite astounding. No it is not, not even remotely.There is literally no possible way that photosynthesis could take place without involving quantum physics. This particular exploit is really neat, of course, but far too much as been made of how mystical or ungraspable quantum physics is. Basic chemistry is defined by quantum physics. The distinction being made is that toast-making was just as explicable with continuous waves of energy being absorbed by the bread but that no such classical interpretation is possible for these new photosynthesis observations. Right? Yeah, it's always easy to come in after someone's done the hard research and go "Oh, pff. Or, you can sit back and let people admire how wild our Universe is and just how little we know about it. well now why havent all the people working on this already aware of this? To think you are wasting all that genius writing on here! sort of like cells : animals
Getting your practical programme together - OSC IB Blogs Hopefully, by now you will have had time to reflect on the new course and start thinking about your practical programme (PSOW). It is my intention of this blog post ot give you some ideas of things you can add to your PSOW. Are you aware of the ten mandatory labs / skills that you are expected to teach your students? Hang on, I hear you say – you said ten mandatory skills – but I can count twelve.
10 Strange Things About The Universe Space The universe can be a very strange place. While groundbreaking ideas such as quantum theory, relativity and even the Earth going around the Sun might be commonly accepted now, science still continues to show that the universe contains things you might find it difficult to believe, and even more difficult to get your head around. Theoretically, the lowest temperature that can be achieved is absolute zero, exactly ?273.15°C, where the motion of all particles stops completely. However, you can never actually cool something to this temperature because, in quantum mechanics, every particle has a minimum energy, called “zero-point energy,” which you cannot get below. One of the properties of a negative-energy vacuum is that light actually travels faster in it than it does in a normal vacuum, something that may one day allow people to travel faster than the speed of light in a kind of negative-energy vacuum bubble. Relativity of Simultaneity Antimatter Retrocausality
3-D Biological Molecules Listed below are links to pages containing 3-dimensional displays of models of molecules of Biological interest. These may be moved in an intuitive way using the computer mouse or touchscreen. In the explanatory text are links which highlight features of the molecule or give extra information. These units are now based on HTML5 and javascript, so they should be more accessible from most PCs and tablets, including iPads. On Windows PCs, best results are obtained using Firefox or Chrome. Some files have been converted to be compatible with mobiles and tablets which have a narrower screen, incompatible with the display format used on desktop/laptop machine. Please let me know if these are (or are not) working on your system! More molecules to be added in the near future Web references and useful websites The Protein Data Bank (PDB; ) is the single worldwide archive of structural data of biological macromolecules, now containing more than 100,000 structures.
Warp Drive More Possible Than Thought, Scientists Say HOUSTON — A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television's Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say. A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre; however, subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy. Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science. "There is hope," Harold "Sonny" White of NASA's Johnson Space Center said here Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting to discuss the challenges of interstellar spaceflight. Warping space-time Laboratory tests
CORE_Chapter Fourteen - Gas Phase, Solubility, Complex Ion Equilibria NO2N2O4 Equilibrium This animation shows the effect of change the volume of a gas phase equilibrium mixture where the numbers of reactant and product molecules are different. CaO CaCO3 Equilibrium This animation shows a solid and gas equilibrium system and the effect adding additional solid on the position of the equilibrium. Energy of Activation This animation shows the change in the number of molecules with energy greater than the energy of activation as the temperature increases. H2 I2 Equilibrium This animation shows the effect of change the volume of a gas phase equilibrium mixture where the numbers of reactant and product molecules are the same. N2 O2 Equilibrium This animation shows a gas phase equilibrium system. Solubility of AgCl This animation shows the equilibrium between an ionic solid and the ions in solution for slightly soluble AgCl. Ksp of Mg(OH)2 and Ca(OH)2 Lab Document This is the document for the determination of the Ksp of Ca(OH)2 and Mg(OH)2 lab.
Can we grow a stronger-than-steel 'wonder material' to save the world? It’s stiffer than Kevlar, thinner than paper, and in a few years, it may be mass-produced using only sunlight and water. Scientists in the US this week announced a new, and potentially groundbreaking method for producing nanocellulose — a so-called "wonder material" derived from tree fiber that could be used to create ultra-thin displays, lightweight body armor, and a wide range of other products. Their key ingredient? Algae. "one of the most important discoveries in plant biology" Dr. At the core of Brown's research is a family of bacteria that produce vinegar, Kombucha tea, and nata de coco. Brown's method, by contrast, is vastly more efficient and environmentally friendly, requiring only sunlight, water, and algae. Organic, self-sustaining factories These genetically-altered algae, known as cyanobacteria, are entirely self-sustaining. The team is currently working on synthesizing a more complete and stable form of the material, though their progress is already promising.
IB Biology/Chemistry: Error/Uncertainty IB Chemistry,Uncertainty, Error Analysis, Standard Deviation Uncertainty Calculation for Rate and Concentration of reaction. Rate = 1/time, Time for X to disappear. ( Iodine Clock Reaction) 3 Methods for Uncertainty Calculation for Rate (0.10M) KI. Average time is (5.28 + 4.75 + 4.47) / 3 = 4.83 1) % Uncertainty Method Uncertainty time = Uncertainty stop watch + reaction time, ( 0.01 + 0.09 ) = ( 0.10 )Time = 4.83 ±( 0.10 ) 2) Max-min range Method Uncertainty time = (Max time - Min time)/2, = ( 5.28 - 4.47 )/2 = 0.41Time = 4.83 ±0.41 1) %Uncertainty Method Uncertainty time = (4.83 ± 0.10) Rate = 1/ time, 1/4.83 = 0.207 2) Max-min range Method Uncertainty time = ( 4.83 ± 0.41) Rate = 1/time, 1/4.83 = 0.207 %Uncertainty time = (0.1/4.83) x100 %=2.07 %Uncertainty Rate = %Uncertainty time %Uncertainty Rate = 2.07% Rate = 0.207 ± 2.07 % Rate = 0.207 ± 0.004 % Uncertainty time = (0.41/4.83) x 100% = 8.48% % Uncertainty Rate = % Uncertainty time %Uncertainty Rate = 8.48% Rate = 0.207 ± 8.48% Rate = 0.207 ± 0.017 1.
Make graphene in your kitchen with soap and a blender - physics-math - 20 April 2014 First, pour some graphite powder into a blender. Add water and dishwashing liquid, and mix at high speed. Congratulations, you just made the wonder material graphene. This surprisingly simple recipe is now the easiest way to mass-produce pure graphene – sheets of carbon just one atom thick. "There are companies producing graphene at much higher rates, but the quality is not exceptional," says Jonathan Coleman of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Coleman's team was contracted by Thomas Swan, a chemicals firm based in Consett, UK, to come up with something better. Carbon smoothie The team put graphite powder and a solvent fluid in a laboratory mixer and set it spinning. "If you are using a blender, why use a fancy expensive surfactant? Still, Coleman says you may not want to try this at home. "It is a fun experiment, but it wouldn't get you very far," says Colman. Useful defects Coleman is excited about the scientific potential of cheap, abundant graphene. More From New Scientist
mplex ions - colour What about non-transition metal complex ions? Non-transition metals don't have partly filled d orbitals. Visible light is only absorbed if some energy from the light is used to promote an electron over exactly the right energy gap. Non-transition metals don't have any electron transitions which can absorb wavelengths from visible light. For example, although scandium is a member of the d block, its ion (Sc3+) hasn't got any d electrons left to move around. In the zinc case, the 3d level is completely full - there aren't any gaps to promote an electron in to. Tetrahedral complexes Simple tetrahedral complexes have four ligands arranged around the central metal ion. The net effect is that when the d orbitals split into two groups, three of them have a greater energy, and the other two a lesser energy (the opposite of the arrangement in an octahedral complex). The factors affecting the colour of a transition metal complex ion The nature of the ligand The list shows some common ligands.