Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Advantages of GM Foods
Frost can destroy seedlings. An antifreeze gene has been introduceed into some plants like tobacco and potato. With this gene plants are able to withstand cold temperatures.
Some plants can hold more nutrition than others and in third world countries this helps a lot. While trying to develop a rice with more iron content, funding was stopped so this may not come to market but with the right resources, hunger could be reduced with GM foods.
Medicines and vaccines often are costly to produce and sometimes require special storage conditions not readily available in third world countries. Researchers are working to develop edible vaccines in tomatoes and potatoes. These will be much easier to store and administer than traditional injectable vaccines.
Plants need to be able to withstand bad conditions. Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in more places.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Microscopes

Optical microscopes typically use refractive lenses of glass and occasionally of plastic or quartz, to focus light into the eye or another light detector.
Chromatography
Column chromatography is a separation technique in which the stationary bed is within a tube.
Planar chromatography is a separation technique in which the stationary phase is present as or on a plane. The plane can be a paper, serving as such or impregnated by a substance as the stationary bed or a layer of solid particles spread on something such as a glass plate.
Paper chromatography is a technique that involves placing a small dot of sample solution onto a strip of chromatography paper. The paper is placed in a jar containing a shallow layer of solvent and sealed. As the solvent rises through the paper, it meets the sample mixture which starts to travel up the paper with the solvent. This paper is made of cellulose, a polar substance, and the compounds within the mixture travel farther if they are non-polar.
Thin layer chromatography is a widely-employed laboratory technique and is similar to paper chromatography. However, instead of using a stationary phase of paper, it involves a stationary phase of a thin layer of adsorbent like silica gel, alumina, or cellulose on a flat, inert substrate. Compared to paper, it has the advantage of faster runs, better separations, and the choice between different adsorbents.
Gas chromatography, also sometimes known as Gas-Liquid chromatography, is a separation technique in which the mobile phase is a gas. Gas chromatography is always carried out in a column.
Liquid chromatography is a separation technique in which the mobile phase is a liquid. Liquid chromatography can be carried out either in a column or a plane.
Supercritical fluid chromatography is a separation technique in which the mobile phase is a fluid above and relatively close to its critical temperature and pressure.
Fast protein liquid chromatography is a term applied to several chromatography techniques which are used to purify proteins. Many of these techniques are identical to those carried out under high performance liquid chromatography, however use of FPLC techniques are typically for preparing large scale batches of a purified product.
Evidence leading to the BTK murderer arrest
Because Rader did not contest his guilt, most evidence was not tested in court. However, physical and circumstantial facts that would have corroborated Rader as the BTK killer include:
DNA analysis of BTK's semen and material taken from underneath the fingernails of victim Vicki Wegerle match the DNA profile of Dennis Rader.
Rader's grammar and writing style matches letters and poems received from BTK, though none of his communications were handwritten, but typed, stenciled, stamped with a stamp set or computer generated.
A pay phone that the killer used to report a murder in 1977 was located a few blocks from ADT Security (Rader's workplace at the time).
Rader had attended Wichita State University in the 1970s. Wichita Police Detective Arlyn G. Smith II and his partner George Scantlin traced BTK's photocopied communications to two photocopy machines, one at Wichita State University and a second copier at the Wichita Public Library. BTK murder victim Kathryn Bright's brother Kevin, who was shot twice by BTK, reported that the killer had asked him if he had seen him at the university. A poem in one of the killer's letters was similar to a folk song taught by a professor on that campus in that time period, though Rader himself dismissed any connection.
Rader lived on the same street as Marine Hedge, just houses away. The BTK killer's other victims were in and around central Wichita, except for his final victim Dolores (Dee) Davis, who lived a half-mile east of Park City.
Two of the victims (Julie Otero and Kathryn Bright) worked at the Coleman Company, though not during the same period that Rader worked there. Rader worked at Coleman only a short time and not at the same location as the victims.
Rader's 16 plus hour confession, given fully and freely after receiving multiple Miranda warnings and recorded on over 20 DVDs, in which he alluded to all 10 known murders in remarkable (and grisly) detail.
Semen found on Josephine Otero or near the bodies of his victims Josephine Otero, Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox was critical evidence linking Rader to the crimes, and DNA obtained from fingernail scrapings of Vicki Wegerle's left hand matched Rader's DNA, eliminating any doubt that he was her murderer. Rader also sent trophies to police in his letters, and others were discovered in his office. Other cold cases in Kansas were reopened to see if Rader's DNA matched crime scenes, but Rader's confession was limited to the 10 known victims and police and prosecutors do not believe there were any more victims because of the extensive records and memorabilia he kept on each of his victims.
Dennis Rader
Blood Types
There's also another antigen - the Rh antigen. Some of us have it, some of us don't. If it is present, the blood is RhD positive, if not it's RhD negative. So, for example, some people in group A will have it, and will therefore be classed as A+ (or A positive). While the ones that don't, are A- (or, wait for it...A negative). And so it goes for groups B, AB and O. 84% of the population is Rh positive.