Innholdsfortegnelse for Special Edition 3 i MiniMag - Easy Science Special Edition

There’s no way to escape chemicals. They surround you as you snuggle in your bed, they scrub you clean in the bathroom, and they slide down your throat during meals. You are a living, walking, breathing chemical factory. You’re in contact with millions of different chemicals on a daily basis, because everything is made from them. But what exactly are they? Chemistry’s alphabet: the Periodic Table Chemicals are built out of atoms: tiny building blocks so small that you can’t see them with the naked eye (or even with most microscopes). The different types of atoms are called elements - for example, a gold coin consists of billions of atoms of the element gold. The atoms of different elements are like the letters of the alphabet. Though English only has…

Human Growth Hormone (hGH) This hormone produced by the pituitary gland is of great importance to kids, as it helps you grow, stimulates your appetite and even helps your body heal when you get hurt! A deficiency in this hormone results in children being very short (short stature) and is associated with Turner’s syndrome – a genetic disease that only affects girls. Their reproductive organs do not develop properly making them unable to have children. If diagnosed at a young age the syndrome can be treated with hGH. Before 1985, hGH could only be obtained from the pituitary glands of dead people. Once again, thanks to biotechnology we have an easier and safer way to get this hormone. It is now produced in the same way as insulin i.e. using…

How does soil get its smell? The fresh scent of soil after rain is not actually the soil that you’re smelling, but a chemical called geosmin that is associated with the spores of certain soil bacteria. Biotechnology as a solution Biotechnology is all about finding ways to use living organisms to solve problems. Earth’s soil has plenty of problems, so it is the perfect place for biotechnology to lend a helping hand. Worldwide crop production needs to double by 2050 but besides the rapid loss of topsoil, pollution with plastics, pesticides and fertilisers are stripping soils of their ability to nourish plants properly. Certain bacteria could be added to soils to degrade the toxic chemicals that pollute it. Biotechnologists are even dreaming of finding the genes that are responsible for…

Grab your friends, some colourful balls and discover the magic of gravity together. Imagine gravity as a giant magnet that attracts everything with mass! Experiment STEP 1: Let each of your friends try out the different balls: test how high you can make them bounce, how heavy they are and so on. STEP 2: Go to a place which is high up, like a balcony, but make sure there are no people or things on the ground below you or they might get hurt! STEP 3: Get everyone to stand in a straight line at the edge of the balcony and put their ball on the railing of the balcony in front of them, so that all balls are exactly the same distance from the ground. STEP 4: Count to…

Matter is everything around us, everything that has mass and takes up space. This means all solids, liquids and even gases are classified as matter. Because matter is a very big group of substances, it was decided to put the substances into two main groups: elements and compounds. Elements An element is the simplest form of a substance. All elements are made up of atoms (main building blocks of matter) that contain even smaller particles, namely protons (+ particles), electrons (-particles) and neutrons (neutral particles). These tiny particles are called subatomic particles. So, what makes elements differ from each other? The number of sub-atomic particles they have in their atoms. There are about 118 different elements, each with their own characteristics. Just like people, they all look different and react…

If you were to chop anything on Earth into its smallest possible pieces, you would end up with atoms. Atoms are the tiny building blocks that make up all matter. Chemistry’s Mickey Mouse Water’s design is deceitfully simple. Each molecule is made of three atoms: two hydrogens and one oxygen (hence the well-known formula’ H2O). The two hydrogen atoms are attached on either side of the oxygen – like Mickey Mouse’s ears and head! The oxygen atom is slightly negative and the hydrogens are slightly positive. The positive hydrogens on one molecule are attracted to the negative oxygen of a neighbouring water molecule. This pulls the two neighbouring molecules together with a force that is called a ”hydrogen bond”. These hydrogen bonds are responsible for most of water’s special properties.…

What is chemistry and how did it all start? 20 000 Years ago The first time chemistry was used, believe it or not, was in prehistoric times. During this time, humans stayed in caves and couldn’t even talk to each other. They communicated using hand signals and sounds. The Greeks 500 to 300 BC is called the Historic Age or Hellenistic period. The Greek philosophers and scientists were the first to investigate the nature of matter. Democritus who lived between 460 and 370 BC had a very modern theory about matter that said it consists of tiny particles that cannot be broken into smaller parts. He called these particles atoms (comes from the Greek word “a-tomos”, which means “not divisible.”) Atoms form bonds between each other. This was the first real…

This theory was suggested around 450 BC, and it was later supported and added to by Aristotle. (Aristotle also suggested that there was a fifth element, aether, because it seemed strange that the stars would be made out of earthly elements. He would be surprised to learn that they are in fact made up of many elements found on earth, and are so hot they could be said to be on fire all the time!) The idea that these four elements – earth, water, air and fire – made up all matter was the cornerstone of philosophy, science and medicine for two thousand years. The elements were “pure” but could not be found in that state on earth. Every visible thing was made up of some combination of earth, water,…

A. Glands are small organs located throughout the body that release substances called: ❏ 1. Plasma ❏ 2. Hormones ❏ 3. Enzymes ❏ 4. Bile B. Which was the first hormone produced using modern biotechnology? ❏ 1. Adrenalin ❏ 2. Insulin ❏ 3. Growth hormone ❏ 4. Glycogen C. What does DNA stand for? ❏ 1. Do not ask ❏ 2. Deoxyribonucleic acid ❏ 3. Diprotic nitric acid ❏ 4. Does not apply D. The technique of ............................................. changes a bacterium to be able to produce human hormones? ❏ 1. Cloning ❏ 2. Gender modification ❏ 3. Recombinant DNA technology ❏ 4. Bioprocessing E. This gland is sometimes called the master gland, although it is only about the size of a pea: ❏ 1. Pituitary ❏ 2. Adrenal ❏ 3.…

Wait … what? Okay, there are quite a few big words in that sentence, so let’s explain: • MOMENTUM describes how strong a moving thing is. If an object is not moving, it has no momentum. It’s like when you are running really fast, you first need to slow down before you could stop, right? The reason why you wouldn’t be able to come to a complete stop immediately is because your body has momentum. • MASS on the other hand, to put it very scientifically, is the measurement of the amount of atoms in an object combined with the density of the atoms … So, in simple terms, mass is the measure of how much an object weighs! Now, going back to momentum, do you think it would take…

What makes geoscience especially interesting is that we work with things and events that we often cannot observe in real time and space – either because they happened in the very distant past (millions of years ago), or because they are buried deep inside the Earth. And yet, these unseen aspects impact in so many ways on our daily lives – the food we eat, the water we drink, the minerals we use in industry, the economy of our country, the materials we use to build with, the safety of everything we build and the protection of the natural environment. These are important factors in ensuring quality of life for humans and our animal neighbours, and that’s why geoscientists have an important job to do. Let’s take a closer look…

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The 18th century was also very important for the development of chemistry. The first elements were discovered and molecules (combined atoms) were produced. Here are a few examples of what was done during this time: • Joseph Black (1728 – 1799) studied carbon dioxide (CO2 )• Henry Cavendish (1731 – 1810) produced water by burning hydrogen gas in air.• Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804) and Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742 – 1786) identified and purified oxygen (O2 ). This century ended with the invention of the first battery, built by the Italian, Alessandro Volta, who also discovered methane gas (CH4 ) – the “gas of swamps.” The history of nanotechnology Compared to the history of chemistry, nanotechnology is still very young, as it first became talked about in 1959. It has since given scientists…

ENDOCRINE SYSTEM Your body has two control systems. One is the nervous system, which sends messages around the body in the form of nerve signals. The other is the endocrine system, which sends messages around the body in the form of chemicals called hormones. Hormones are made in special glands called hormonal glands. Each gland releases its hormone directly into the bloodstream. As the bloodstream carries the hormone through the body, the hormone affects the working of specific body parts, called its target organ. Biotechnology Biotechnology is about using living organisms (plants, animals, microorganisms) to make products for us. Examples of simple biotechnology products include bread, yoghurt and cheese. Biotechnology has a variety of uses, one of which is the production of specific human hormones. The higher the level of…

It’s fun and gooey when wet – then it’s called mud. If you step some of it into the house, your mom calls it dirt. When it makes you sneeze while cleaning your room, you call it dust. When it’s sticky and dense it’s called clay, and when it runs through your fingers at the beach it’s called sand. But usually, this vital material that nourishes life is simply called soil. This ancient substance may seem dead but it’s teeming with life you never dreamed existed and need more than you know. Biotechnology could be used to add the right organisms like mycorrhizae or PGPRs to soil and make life as comfortable as possible for them. This can decrease the amount of chemicals like fertilisers and pesticides that are needed,…

Meet Galileo (1564-1642), a brilliant scientist who revolutionised our understanding of motion! He discovered ground-breaking ideas that changed how we see the world. Galileo realised that heavy and light objects fall at the same speed, challenging common beliefs about gravity. By dropping objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa (or so the story goes), he showed that the force pulling things down is the same for everything, regardless of weight. Galileo also delved into the mysteries of motion. He observed that objects keep moving unless something, like friction or a force, stops them. Imagine a spinning top – Galileo studied its motion and unlocked the secrets of why it stays twirling. His findings laid the foundation for our modern understanding of physics and influenced the development of amazing inventions. Galileo’s…

A majority of earthquake and volcanic activity occurs above plate boundaries. You can see this folding at a scale of kilometres. What is fascinating, is that if you should pick up a rock from the same terrain, you may see the same fold patterns reflected on a smaller scale, possibly millimetres. And if you look at a very thin section of the rock under a microscope, you may also see fold patterns at a scale of tens of microns (there are a thousand microns in a millimetre). So, whatever scale you use, the deformations, resulting from the forces in the Earth’s crust are all related. These forces exert pressures that cause certain minerals in the rock to deform, and in some cases some of the minerals become plastic, “flowing” like…

Let’s mix some new words! Chemistry isn’t just about compounds and reactions; it can also be a playground for creativity! By combining symbols from the periodic table of elements, you can invent new and inventive words (Neologisms). Here are examples that show how the elements’ symbols can be rearranged to form new and fun words! 1. Cafeinium (CfFeInUm): Imagine a futuristic café where coffee is brewed using an exotic element – Cafeinium! It’s the perfect spot for chemists and caffeine aficionados. 2. Carbonize (CArBONiZe): Transforming something into its carbon form – this word could represent a magical process turning objects into carbon replicas! 3. Kryptonize (KrYpToNiZe): In superhero lore, to “Kryptonize” could mean rendering someone as vulnerable as Superman when exposed to his home planet’s element, Krypton. 4. Neonify (NeONiFy):…