Monthly Archives: April 2018

Happy Earth Day 2018 – Learn more about the #1 Threat to a healthy ecosystem


A campaign to End Plastic pollution is the theme of the 2018 Earth Day Celebrations. 

Learn more about health problems posed by plastic pollution.


 

“PLASTICS AND YOUR OWN HEALTH

After decades of producing trillions of oil-based plastic items, the negative consequences are star- tling. Plastic pollution is now recognized as a hazard to public health and the human body. Chemicals leached from some plastics used in food/beverage storage are harmful to human health. Correlations have been shown between levels of some of these chemicals, and an increased risk of problems such as chromosomal and reproductive system abnormalities, impaired brain and neurological functions, cancer, cardiovascular system damage, adult-onset diabetes, early puberty, obesity and resistance to chemotherapy.

Many plastics contain phthalates (DEHP) and the chemical BPA. If food or drink is stored in these plastics, they can be contaminated with these chemicals. If food is heated inside these containers in the microwave or if the plastic is ingested as in the case of a small child, these chemicals make their way into our food and into our bodies. Both chemicals are potentially harmful to human hormones, reproductive systems, and early childhood development.”

Happy Birthday to Glen Seaborg – the discovers of the “transuranium” elements

Glen Seaborg is credited with the discovery of the “transuranium” elements. The transuranium elements are elements in the periodic table after uranium. 

Learn more about Seaborg, the “transuranium” elements, Plutonium, and the Bomb”.

Seaborg was lead discover for plutonium, americium, curium, and berkelium; he was co-discoverer of californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and seaborgium. Having seaborgium named after him made him the only person to have an element named after them while they were still alive until oganesson was named after Yuri Oganessian in 2016. Seaborg jointly won a Nobel Prize in 1951 for his work.

Nuclear fission of uranium produces a fission product, neptunium (element 93).

Nuclear fission occurs when uranium is bombarded with neutrons.  The neutrons in Seaborg’s lab were produced from deuterons using the small cyclotron at Berkeley.

Learn more about the history of how some of the elements on the Periodic Table were discovered.

Learn more about chemical reactions that take place in outer space

Time to take chemical reactions into outer space:

 

 

Nuclear Fission

 
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