Wood, or rather the inside of wood, is a bit like tonnes of tubes that are attached via "doors" which are spaced-out amongst the tubes.
These tubes are are actually the walls of living cells, they have however been dead for a long time and literally only the skeleton remains. The hollow tubes, the cell walls, are the skeleton of those cells.
Fungi, attach themselves to wood and secrete enzymes which literally eat their way through the wood. As they eat they destroy the "doors" between the tubes and this creates vast open gaps in the wood, making it POROUS!
This allows water to invade the open spaces of the wood as it is absorbed through the pores that have been made by the fungi.
This makes the wood HUMID which actually helps fungal growth, which in-turn makes the wood decay quicker.
As the wood becomes more porous it also starts supporting bacterial growth aswell as they too favour these conditions. Fungi and bacteria team-up and eat through the soft SUMMER growth rings and then the harder WINTER growth rings until there's no more wood!
Thanks
Adam :-) X
Monday, 8 October 2012
Monday, 1 October 2012
Time really does fly when you're having fun!
Yes it's true! When you're care-free and happy, life seems to fly-by!
Your brain typically transposes 30 images a second - this is standard and allows you to digest info and go about your daily business.
However, when you are stressed or under pressure, your brain THINKS more, which makes sense as often you are searching for an answer to a predicament that you have or worrying yourself over something.
Now, because the brain is more ACTIVE in these cases it is digesting MORE info!! You are making your brain WORK harder, giving it more information.
This actually makes TIME seem to SLOW down!! SEEM is a strong word.
In many cases, this is how your BRAIN literally saves you from making a bad decision, if you are given a short time-span to make a decision.
Being trapped in an inferno, averting a collision, catching something are all examples of where your BRAIN appears to slow time down, thus you feeling like you're given extra-time to make a decision.
Your BRAIN is definitely transposing way more than 30 images a second in these cases. More images = more frames of reference = more decision opportunities.
Many thanks
Adam :-) X
Your brain typically transposes 30 images a second - this is standard and allows you to digest info and go about your daily business.
However, when you are stressed or under pressure, your brain THINKS more, which makes sense as often you are searching for an answer to a predicament that you have or worrying yourself over something.
Now, because the brain is more ACTIVE in these cases it is digesting MORE info!! You are making your brain WORK harder, giving it more information.
This actually makes TIME seem to SLOW down!! SEEM is a strong word.
In many cases, this is how your BRAIN literally saves you from making a bad decision, if you are given a short time-span to make a decision.
Being trapped in an inferno, averting a collision, catching something are all examples of where your BRAIN appears to slow time down, thus you feeling like you're given extra-time to make a decision.
Your BRAIN is definitely transposing way more than 30 images a second in these cases. More images = more frames of reference = more decision opportunities.
Many thanks
Adam :-) X
Monday, 13 August 2012
Colour
The human eye can only perceive a small section of the electromagnetic spectrum. We call this section "VISIBLE LIGHT". Different colours across the spectrum correspond to different WAVELENGTHS of light.
Our eyes contain cells called CONES, which are sensitive to these different types of wavelength and allow us to see in COLOUR. Three different types of cone are affected by light in the RED, GREEN AND BLUE parts of the spectrum. These correspond to the PRIMARY COLOURS. Different light sources give out different parts of the spectrum, which appear as different colours. When combined, coloured lights appear as different colours. This is called the ADDITIVE PROCESS. Adding primary light sources in the correct proportions can produce the sensation of other colours in our eyes.
When light hits a pigment in an object, only some colours are reflected. Which colours are REFLECTED and which are ABSORBED depends on the pigment. This is the SUBTRACTIVE PROCESS. Looking at a coloured object in coloured light may make it appear different. This is because pigments can ONLY reflect colours that are PRESENT in the oncoming light.
Many thanks, much love, ADAM! :-) X
Our eyes contain cells called CONES, which are sensitive to these different types of wavelength and allow us to see in COLOUR. Three different types of cone are affected by light in the RED, GREEN AND BLUE parts of the spectrum. These correspond to the PRIMARY COLOURS. Different light sources give out different parts of the spectrum, which appear as different colours. When combined, coloured lights appear as different colours. This is called the ADDITIVE PROCESS. Adding primary light sources in the correct proportions can produce the sensation of other colours in our eyes.
When light hits a pigment in an object, only some colours are reflected. Which colours are REFLECTED and which are ABSORBED depends on the pigment. This is the SUBTRACTIVE PROCESS. Looking at a coloured object in coloured light may make it appear different. This is because pigments can ONLY reflect colours that are PRESENT in the oncoming light.
Many thanks, much love, ADAM! :-) X
Sunday, 12 August 2012
A bit about Kidneys!
The kidneys serve two major functions:
they keep the salt content of the blood constant, and they filter waste out of the bloodstream.
So, the main components of urine are (salt) water and waste products. The major waste product from cells in the body is ammonia, and the major waste product from blood is a broken form of heme called bilirubin. In the liver, each of these is converted into a less hazardous form: ammonia is converted to urea, and bilirubin is degraded to urobilins. Salt, water, and urea are all colorless, but urobilins (which come from degraded pigments) are yellow.
So, if you drink a lot, your urine will be more dilute and clearer, and if you get dehydrated, your urine will contain less water and be darker yellow.
they keep the salt content of the blood constant, and they filter waste out of the bloodstream.
So, the main components of urine are (salt) water and waste products. The major waste product from cells in the body is ammonia, and the major waste product from blood is a broken form of heme called bilirubin. In the liver, each of these is converted into a less hazardous form: ammonia is converted to urea, and bilirubin is degraded to urobilins. Salt, water, and urea are all colorless, but urobilins (which come from degraded pigments) are yellow.
So, if you drink a lot, your urine will be more dilute and clearer, and if you get dehydrated, your urine will contain less water and be darker yellow.
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Drugs!!
Not the dodgy kind you can buy!!
A drug is designed to either prevent or cause something to happen in your body.
Every cell of your body has RECEPTORS on its surface. These RECEPTORS receive chemicals that transmit a message to the cell.
Your body is full of chemicals, in fact, it is jam-packed with them. Your cells are constantly receiving chemical messengers.
Sometimes, you don't want the message to get there or you want a different message to be received instead - this is where DRUGS come in to it.
A drug is technically a chemical that intervenes and changes things.
A drug may help your body deliver more of the same message to a cell or it can lodge itself in a cell receptor to stop the message being received by the cell.
Random fact: the Greek doctor Hippocrates used willow bark as long ago as 400BC to relieve the pain of his patients.
Wounds can become infected with harmful bacteria if an antiseptic is not applied to kill them. Antiseptics are able to kill bacteria in many ways. The alcohol rubbed onto your skin before an injection kills bacteria by breaking up the protein that makes up their cells.
There are 2 main ways in which antibiotics work. One type prevents the bacteria from making its cell walls. Another type interferes with the chemical activities in the cells of bacteria.
Anaesthetic drugs are designed to stop the brain from receiving messages of pain.
Antiviral drugs work by blocking the chemicals the virus needs to reproduce.
Drugs go vigorous testing that can span 8 years.
A drug is designed to either prevent or cause something to happen in your body.
Every cell of your body has RECEPTORS on its surface. These RECEPTORS receive chemicals that transmit a message to the cell.
Your body is full of chemicals, in fact, it is jam-packed with them. Your cells are constantly receiving chemical messengers.
Sometimes, you don't want the message to get there or you want a different message to be received instead - this is where DRUGS come in to it.
A drug is technically a chemical that intervenes and changes things.
A drug may help your body deliver more of the same message to a cell or it can lodge itself in a cell receptor to stop the message being received by the cell.
Random fact: the Greek doctor Hippocrates used willow bark as long ago as 400BC to relieve the pain of his patients.
Wounds can become infected with harmful bacteria if an antiseptic is not applied to kill them. Antiseptics are able to kill bacteria in many ways. The alcohol rubbed onto your skin before an injection kills bacteria by breaking up the protein that makes up their cells.
There are 2 main ways in which antibiotics work. One type prevents the bacteria from making its cell walls. Another type interferes with the chemical activities in the cells of bacteria.
Anaesthetic drugs are designed to stop the brain from receiving messages of pain.
Antiviral drugs work by blocking the chemicals the virus needs to reproduce.
Drugs go vigorous testing that can span 8 years.
Monday, 9 July 2012
What causes weather - wind
Wind comes from the churning movement of air heated up by the Sun. It moves from the equator to the poles and back again. It breezes in from the sea by day, and breezes back out again at night. Wind is always moving, but it never has a destination.
There isn't a place on the planet that accumulates wind. Some places seem windier than others, but not constant and getting worse all the time.
Wind doesn't stop, it has a continuos cycle like lots of things on the planet.
WIND MOVES FROM AREAS OF HIGH TO LOW AIR PRESSURE IN AN EFFORT TO BALANCE OUT THE AIR PRESSURES AROUND THE GLOBE.
You can say that winds starting point is the equator, not because it is "born" here but the FORCES responsible for its MOVEMENT are located here.
This is where the AIR PRESSURE starts to shift about. There is plenty of WARM AIR at the equator due to the bulge of the EARTH and the amount of DIRECT SUNLIGHT that hits it. The sunlight heats the air and the air then RISES, this creates a GAP below it and this GAP is now an area of LOW PRESSURE. As air naturally moves from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration (known as DIFFUSION), air moves in to fill this GAP, this rushing air is WIND.
The warm air that is higher up must go somewhere (remember, it's a cycle). Depending on which side of the equator it is, either drifts north or south, towards the poles. However, it doesn't go straight to the poles, after travelling about 30 degrees north or south (about 1/3 of the distance between the equator and poles), it starts to cool off and starts to sink (because it's the opposite to hot air) towards the ground. Some of this COOLER air will make its way back to the EQUATOR, filling the GAP left there by the air still warming and rising there. This makes a mini-cycle within the cycle known as a WIND CELL between the EQUATOR and the tropics located 30 degrees on either side of it. More WIND CELLS form between the areas of 30 - 60 degrees, 60 - 90 degrees and so on until you get to either the north or south pole. The entire planet is covered by this vast chain of WIND CELLS. The wind follows the shifting air, blowing north to south and south to north within these WIND CELLS.
Depending on where you live, winds often come from east or west, this is due to one very IMPORTANT FACTOR - THE EARTH IS SPINNING!
The Earth spins, taking the air with it. This creates a force called the CORIOLIS FORCE that puts a spin on the rising and falling air, making the wind cycle within each cell travel clockwise or anticlockwise, instead of straight up and down. It's a MESS! Seriously, we end up with a COMPLEX pattern of moving air, with alternating bands around the Earth having either westerly or easterly prevailing winds.
SEA BREEZE: again, this is kind of a mini-cycle within a cycle. It is caused by a smaller set of forces (hence the term breeze). The sea breeze is caused by the fact that the land heats up and cools down faster than the sea does. As the air is heated on the ground and rises, the air over the sea can rush in and fill this GAP on the land - giving you a SEA BREEZE. At night however, the REVERSE happens, the land COOLS faster (there's no heat - the Sun is shining on the other side of the planet). The warmer air over the sea is replaced by the air from the land. This in-turn creates a breeze that goes out to sea at night.
Thanks, much love. Adam :-) X
There isn't a place on the planet that accumulates wind. Some places seem windier than others, but not constant and getting worse all the time.
Wind doesn't stop, it has a continuos cycle like lots of things on the planet.
WIND MOVES FROM AREAS OF HIGH TO LOW AIR PRESSURE IN AN EFFORT TO BALANCE OUT THE AIR PRESSURES AROUND THE GLOBE.
You can say that winds starting point is the equator, not because it is "born" here but the FORCES responsible for its MOVEMENT are located here.
This is where the AIR PRESSURE starts to shift about. There is plenty of WARM AIR at the equator due to the bulge of the EARTH and the amount of DIRECT SUNLIGHT that hits it. The sunlight heats the air and the air then RISES, this creates a GAP below it and this GAP is now an area of LOW PRESSURE. As air naturally moves from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration (known as DIFFUSION), air moves in to fill this GAP, this rushing air is WIND.
The warm air that is higher up must go somewhere (remember, it's a cycle). Depending on which side of the equator it is, either drifts north or south, towards the poles. However, it doesn't go straight to the poles, after travelling about 30 degrees north or south (about 1/3 of the distance between the equator and poles), it starts to cool off and starts to sink (because it's the opposite to hot air) towards the ground. Some of this COOLER air will make its way back to the EQUATOR, filling the GAP left there by the air still warming and rising there. This makes a mini-cycle within the cycle known as a WIND CELL between the EQUATOR and the tropics located 30 degrees on either side of it. More WIND CELLS form between the areas of 30 - 60 degrees, 60 - 90 degrees and so on until you get to either the north or south pole. The entire planet is covered by this vast chain of WIND CELLS. The wind follows the shifting air, blowing north to south and south to north within these WIND CELLS.
Depending on where you live, winds often come from east or west, this is due to one very IMPORTANT FACTOR - THE EARTH IS SPINNING!
The Earth spins, taking the air with it. This creates a force called the CORIOLIS FORCE that puts a spin on the rising and falling air, making the wind cycle within each cell travel clockwise or anticlockwise, instead of straight up and down. It's a MESS! Seriously, we end up with a COMPLEX pattern of moving air, with alternating bands around the Earth having either westerly or easterly prevailing winds.
SEA BREEZE: again, this is kind of a mini-cycle within a cycle. It is caused by a smaller set of forces (hence the term breeze). The sea breeze is caused by the fact that the land heats up and cools down faster than the sea does. As the air is heated on the ground and rises, the air over the sea can rush in and fill this GAP on the land - giving you a SEA BREEZE. At night however, the REVERSE happens, the land COOLS faster (there's no heat - the Sun is shining on the other side of the planet). The warmer air over the sea is replaced by the air from the land. This in-turn creates a breeze that goes out to sea at night.
Thanks, much love. Adam :-) X
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Collagen!
Collagen is a PROTEIN!
Proteins are made of long chains of AMINO ACIDS.
You've probably heard of a COLLAGEN in a cosmetic sense (plastic surgery - lips etc).
Hopefully, after reading this you'll know a lot more about COLLAGEN.
Collagen is found in all animals. It is multifunctional and can be found in various parts of the body. It is the most abundant protein in your body. The most occurring types of COLLAGEN are labelled I - IV. These four types of COLLAGEN are found in over 90% of the body in tissues including skin,bones, tendons and ligaments.
Collagen makes up 30% of your bones. Type I collagen found in the bones combines with HYDROXAPITITE to give strength and resistance to the bones.
Skin: the DERMIS layer of the skin is the thickest part and comprises of the PAPILLARY and RETICULATE dermis. The papillary dermis consists of fine fibres of type III collagen that make the skin pliable, while the reticulate dermis is made of the broad type I collagen and gives the skin tensile strength (the opposite to pliable). Overall COLLAGEN gives the skin everything it needs to work.
Absence of COLLAGEN in the skin causes wrinkles, there are various foods that you can scoff to increase your COLLAGEN, I'll put them in at the end.
MUSCLES:
Thousands of individual muscle fibres combine to form a a muscle. Each muscle fibre is covered by 3 layers of collagen. The innermost COLLAGEN sheath is the ENDOMYSIUM, followed by the much thicker PERIMYSIUM. The EPIMYSIUM is the last COLLAGEN layer. The collagen in the muscle helps it to contract and stretch to transmit force, which can be translated into motion or more strenuous activities like lifting.
Tendons, ligaments and cartilage:
All 3 are made of COLLAGEN. Type II collagen is found in cartilage. Collagen gives tendons and ligaments the ability to transmit force from the muscle and assist in the translation of this force to movement and exercise.
WOUND HEALING:
The COLLAGEN in the DERMIS is responsible for helping BUILD the skin back that has been damaged. COLLAGEN DEPOSITION is initiated by the body in a wound for the healing process. The right amount MUST be deposited for the skin to heal correctly.
FACTS ABOUT COLLAGEN:
Good sources of it!
Soy milk
Cheese
Dark green veg
Kale
Spinach
Collards
Asparagus
Red fruits and veg
Omega acids
Salmon
Tuna
Cashews
Pecans
Almonds
Brazil nuts
Avocados
Green and black olives
Cucumber
Celery
Vitamins A and C
Many thanks, much love, Adam :-) X
Proteins are made of long chains of AMINO ACIDS.
You've probably heard of a COLLAGEN in a cosmetic sense (plastic surgery - lips etc).
Hopefully, after reading this you'll know a lot more about COLLAGEN.
Collagen is found in all animals. It is multifunctional and can be found in various parts of the body. It is the most abundant protein in your body. The most occurring types of COLLAGEN are labelled I - IV. These four types of COLLAGEN are found in over 90% of the body in tissues including skin,bones, tendons and ligaments.
Collagen makes up 30% of your bones. Type I collagen found in the bones combines with HYDROXAPITITE to give strength and resistance to the bones.
Skin: the DERMIS layer of the skin is the thickest part and comprises of the PAPILLARY and RETICULATE dermis. The papillary dermis consists of fine fibres of type III collagen that make the skin pliable, while the reticulate dermis is made of the broad type I collagen and gives the skin tensile strength (the opposite to pliable). Overall COLLAGEN gives the skin everything it needs to work.
Absence of COLLAGEN in the skin causes wrinkles, there are various foods that you can scoff to increase your COLLAGEN, I'll put them in at the end.
MUSCLES:
Thousands of individual muscle fibres combine to form a a muscle. Each muscle fibre is covered by 3 layers of collagen. The innermost COLLAGEN sheath is the ENDOMYSIUM, followed by the much thicker PERIMYSIUM. The EPIMYSIUM is the last COLLAGEN layer. The collagen in the muscle helps it to contract and stretch to transmit force, which can be translated into motion or more strenuous activities like lifting.
Tendons, ligaments and cartilage:
All 3 are made of COLLAGEN. Type II collagen is found in cartilage. Collagen gives tendons and ligaments the ability to transmit force from the muscle and assist in the translation of this force to movement and exercise.
WOUND HEALING:
The COLLAGEN in the DERMIS is responsible for helping BUILD the skin back that has been damaged. COLLAGEN DEPOSITION is initiated by the body in a wound for the healing process. The right amount MUST be deposited for the skin to heal correctly.
FACTS ABOUT COLLAGEN:
Good sources of it!
Soy milk
Cheese
Dark green veg
Kale
Spinach
Collards
Asparagus
Red fruits and veg
Omega acids
Salmon
Tuna
Cashews
Pecans
Almonds
Brazil nuts
Avocados
Green and black olives
Cucumber
Celery
Vitamins A and C
Many thanks, much love, Adam :-) X
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