The evolution of camels is particularly well documented with many connected examples of their species’ development visible through the fossil record. There were camel-like antelope grazing on the plains of North America over 40 million years ago. They have been so successful because they are well adapted to their environment. The two types of camel …
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Category:Biology
Cows – Nature’s Most Noble Beasts…
Some of you will know that cows are my favourite animals so you can imagine how delighted I was to see a headline a few years ago in the Telegraph… “McDonald’s launches study into flatulent cows used in its burgers” This seems to include several of my favourite scientific themes; namely cows, the scientific method, food and burping (eructation). What …
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Carbohydrate…
If you look at the word carbohydrate you can probably work out what elements it must be made from. The letters ate at the end of a compound indicate that there is oxygen built into the molecule. Examples would be copper sulfate (copper, sulfur & oxygen) or calcium carbonate (calcium, carbon & oxygen). Carbohydrate does …
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Various Reagents…
There are numerous chemicals that are used in science practical work but which only get the briefest of mentions. I thought it might be useful to make a list of some here so that you can learn what they all do. Solvents We use various solvents (to dissolve things) with water being the most obvious. …
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I Can See Clearly Now…
Eating carrots won’t improve your eyesight. That is, unless you have vitamin A deficiency which causes a condition known as nyctalopia (or night blindness). People suffering from this condition are less able to see in low light levels. In extreme cases it may lead to poor vision in the light as well. Nyctalopia is not …
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Tryptophan…
I go on about amino acids a lot. Sorry about that! If you click here you will be logged into Focus eLearning (come straight back!), then if you click here you will be taken to a nice page about how the digestive enzyme pepsin breaks a protein molecule in your food down into individual amino …
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Brussel Sprouts…
I didn’t like sprouts as a child and I must admit to a degree of ambivalence even now as an adult. I think they are generally better-cooked these days so that they arrive at the table crunchy rather than mushy (everything seemed to be boiled to destruction when I was young). I am just not …
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Coloured Compounds….
Although I have written about chromatography, and how it can be used to separate mixtures of coloured compounds, it occurs to me that I have not really talked about why certain chemicals are a particular colour or even what colour really is. I shall try to address this omission here. Our experience of colour is …
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Balthazar…
NB – if you have posted comments, I often include follow up questions in my replies so do check back and read my responses. A standard wine bottle holds 750 ml (cm3) of liquid. That is ¾ of a litre, sometimes called 75 cl. We almost always use units derived from the litre to measure …
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Respiration…
I often refer to respiration as the most important chemical reaction on the planet (arguable!). Encyclopaedia Britannica defines cellular respiration as… the process by which organisms combine oxygen with foodstuff molecules, diverting the chemical energy in these substances into life-sustaining processes and discarding, as waste products, carbon dioxide and water The Oxford English Dictionary divides …
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