Crystals And Catalysts

Everyone starts their day with a caffeinated drink, mainly coffee or tea. And everyone believes that coffee is the sole reason why they wake up in the morning.  But did you know that you might be drinking coffee the wrong way? And you might not get all of coffee's benefits ? ASAPScience gives all the details in the video below. 

Fact: The radioactive potassium-40 emits about 15 articles of antimatter a day. So what, exactly, is antimatter? Antimatter is matter consisting of elementary particles which are the antiparticles of those making up normal matter. The person who discovered antimatter was the English Physicist Paul Dirac (1902-1984). Dirac derived an equation that explains how really small and really fast things behave, such as electrons travelling near the speed of light. Later, Dirac realised that not only did his equation & theory discover the behaviour of very tiny things, he also discovered something new to the growing world of science; anti-particles. Paul Dirac continued to assert that every particle has a mirror-image particle with nearly identical properties, except for an opposite electrical charge.  Similar to the way protons, neutrons and electrons combine to form atoms and matter, antiprotons, antineutrons and anti-electrons (called positrons) combine to form anti-atoms and an

Vitamin D refers to a group of fat-soluble secosteroids (a subclass of steroids that consist of “broken” ring structures) that are responsible for the intestinal absorption of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphate and zinc. The major natural source of the vitamin is in the skin. For vitamin D to be activated from cholesterol (via the skin) it requires sunlight to initiate the activation (especially UVB radiation); you can also obtain vitamin D from food, such as oily fish (salmon, sardines, cod liver oil etc...) and some fortified foods. Vitamin D has been shown to boost bone health and it may play a role in preventing diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. Vitamin D deficiency can occur if: the body has an increased need for vitamin D, the body is unable to produce enough vitamin D, or not enough vitamin D is being taken into the diet. Vitamin D deficiency is more common than vitamin D toxicity. High doses of vitamin D... A study conducted from 2002-201

***********UPDATED*********** 29/05/2015 The 30 Day Science Blog Challenge will commence on the 1st of June 2015. 30 Days. 30 Topics. A challenge in a month. ______________________________________________________________________________ As many of you have seen, I was starting the 30 Day Science Blogging Challenge and I had hoped I would be able to post for 30 consecutive days during May 2015. However due to unforeseen circumstances and technical difficulties I am not able to keep up with the daily posting so I have postponed the challenge till June 2015. Sorry if this disappoints anyone. I am also thinking of trying to find a better theme/template for my blog with a better user interface. Your thoughts about the current theme would be appreciated!

A promising cure has been found which uses an anti-cancer drug along with an anti-viral drug to treat hepatitis b, and within phase 1/2a trials and has achieved 100% success. Hepatitis-B is a chronic viral disease that is currently incurable.  Over two billion people worldwide are infected with hepatitis B and approximately 400 million have a chronic HBV infection, unimaginable numbers. The virus infects liver cells and can lead to complications including cirrhosis and liver cancer, resulting in more than 780,000 deaths annually. Hepatitis B patients in Australia are the first people who will have access to the potential treatment. The scientists from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researched the combination of the anti-viral drug and the anti-cancer drug (developed by a US company-TetraLogic pharmaceuticals). Dr Marc Pellegrini and Dr Greg Ebert and their colleagues at the institute utilised their research on the behaviour of Hep-B in infected cells as

Even though there are thousands of studies proving the efficiency of vaccines and that there is n o association found between MMR vaccine and autism, even among children at higher risk there are still people who believe in anti-vaccination and they are currently putting everyone's lives at risk.  This humerous video shows you how anti-vaxxers sound to normal people (pro-vaxxers). 

This weeks #SOTW is  Elsie Widdowson CBE CH FRS . The well-known British chemist and dietitian. Famous for her research on food composition tables and setting the limits of dietary intake of food, vitamins & minerals in World War 1. Biography  Elsie was born in Surrey, United Kingdom. Her schooldays were spent in south east London where her favourite subject was Zoology. But she had a dedicated chemistry teacher how encouraged her to study chemistry at university instead.   Elsie studied chemistry at Imperial College London and graduated in 1928. She was one of the first females to graduate with a Bachelors of Science from Imperial College (there were only 3 women in her year of a group of 100 students). Elsie took her final exam after only 2 years of studying however had to continue at university for another year before her degree was awarded. In her final year, she spent time in the biochemistry lab presided over by Prof. Sammy Schyver.   Elsie received an offer fo