tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41998011559861277852024-02-02T12:37:55.871-08:00A Byte of ScienceA Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-7958257581444418272012-10-17T13:55:00.000-07:002012-10-17T13:56:54.558-07:00The World's Highest Skydive - Red Bull Stratos<br />
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">The Red Bull Stratos mission is
a team of Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian base jumper, along with over 100
support staff. The aim of this mission was jump from the edge of the world from
a helium balloon and capsule, over 24 miles above the earth’s surface. This
mission aimed to break the following world records:</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>1) </b></span>The first human to break the
sound barrier without the assistance of a vehicle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>2)</b></span> The highest skydive</span><br />
<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>3)</b></span> The highest manned balloon
flight</span><br />
<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>4)</b></span> The longest time in freefall</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">On October 14<sup>th</sup><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>2012, 3 of these 4 world records were
broken when the Red Bull Stratos mission finally launched. The original
date was planned for October 9<sup>th</sup>, but this was called off due to
weather conditions; however when the weather conditions finally became
favourable for launch on October 14th, Felix Baumgartner began his accent up to
a record breaking 24 miles, or 120,000ft above the earth’s surface. After
pressurizing his suit and stepping out onto the ledge of the pod, Felix
Baumgartner gave a quick salute, and then jumped.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">At first the free fall seemed
to be going smoothly, however soon he began spinning uncontrollably – something
that could lead to death if continued due to the blood rushing to his head.
However Felix’s extensive training came into play and he quickly managed to
regain stability and stop the spin.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">Next came another problem - the
visor on the suit that Felix was wearing began to fog up. This meant that he
had almost no vision, and subsequently no idea what speed he was falling at, or
what his altitude was because he could not see his watch where this information
was available. He had the obvious problem that he did not want to pull his
parachute before he had broken the speed of sound, or before he had broken the
time for the longest time in free fall; however he did not want to pull his
chute too late either.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">Felix Baumgartner finally
deployed his parachute after a time of 4 min 19 sec in free fall and landed in
the New Mexico Desert, this time falls just shy of the record of 4min 36sec.
Even though this was not achieved, Felix did gain the accolade of becoming the
first man to go supersonic in free fall, and did so by 100 mph over the speed
of sound - a giant step in further aeronautical design as experts were
previously unsure of what would happen to the human body at this speed. He also
broke the ‘Highest manned balloon flight’ as well as ‘the highest skydive’.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">This incredible achievement was
watched by over 7 million people worldwide, and the video of the events have
been watched back on YouTube by countless million more, demonstrating the
public’s avid fascination of such a dangerous, yet important space stunt.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: '', sans-serif, '', serif; font-size: 11pt;">“When you’re standing there, on
top of the world, you become so humble. You do not think about breaking records
anymore or collecting scientific data, the only thing you want is to come back
alive to your girlfriend and family”.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: ""sans-serif"","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Felix
Baumgartner, 2012.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-3705178537938789502012-10-17T13:22:00.000-07:002012-10-17T13:23:23.492-07:00Module 2: Features of a Pendulum (SHM)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-lCq2LBq25gx8NQB_T8E_yLc-hQSL-u-NR0lYenxkWb5zO5P20DhMOvlCpEZXGuset42egt44PqVr5wbkfSwCzPyaJmtKHwmtq85ap1MEFPVV4S5VfMi_YVZyMCqtkLWgEWbPrRvpic/s1600/Features+of+a+Pendulum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-lCq2LBq25gx8NQB_T8E_yLc-hQSL-u-NR0lYenxkWb5zO5P20DhMOvlCpEZXGuset42egt44PqVr5wbkfSwCzPyaJmtKHwmtq85ap1MEFPVV4S5VfMi_YVZyMCqtkLWgEWbPrRvpic/s640/Features+of+a+Pendulum.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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These are some more revision sheets that I have made. These ones are on the features of a pendulum which comes under <b>Simple Harmonic Motion</b> in <b>Module 2</b> of the OCR Physics A G484 course. including all the relevant equations and relationships. Hope this helps, let me know if you don't understand any of it. <div align="center" class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
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A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-75490862149365346862012-10-17T13:19:00.001-07:002012-10-17T13:19:48.189-07:00Module 2: Simple Harmonic Motion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAF7oAXE0lZpbYDSC61LnU_yOzr-Rv5B1ALu_MGHFlx36kxo5NrnttUgawDkxQa45-TS6nkpGGVmvK74xR0CYIjRb99b-BuMQc9VM4bpekJrN-ERW-KtAlwAI9qZ_9VQYkwIvl3IT4e40/s1600/SHM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAF7oAXE0lZpbYDSC61LnU_yOzr-Rv5B1ALu_MGHFlx36kxo5NrnttUgawDkxQa45-TS6nkpGGVmvK74xR0CYIjRb99b-BuMQc9VM4bpekJrN-ERW-KtAlwAI9qZ_9VQYkwIvl3IT4e40/s640/SHM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87ulCXJefFSjVYWnaemo2FQULv0DxuAKJbKbUDhw2z0oYVeSzL8eWjvV4M1ooVmEiZRyyaAN-eGfl7ne6J9qqPna5FuDHaZDvFdAMKVl2tKQcWK0Eq6f9k-bXuK4NxKMHGLc7GC5whyphenhyphenU/s1600/SHM2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87ulCXJefFSjVYWnaemo2FQULv0DxuAKJbKbUDhw2z0oYVeSzL8eWjvV4M1ooVmEiZRyyaAN-eGfl7ne6J9qqPna5FuDHaZDvFdAMKVl2tKQcWK0Eq6f9k-bXuK4NxKMHGLc7GC5whyphenhyphenU/s640/SHM2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Some more revision sheets for you all, this time on <b>Simple Harmonic Motion</b>, which comes up in <b>Module 2</b> of the OCR Physics A G484 course.A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-26186486408755002492012-10-17T13:15:00.000-07:002012-10-17T13:24:38.695-07:00Module 2: Satellites (Gravitational Fields)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDbDAey4WxJbvcao4y6M-FCK3g9syeiRFwpnkjhaeoQnQCyItPIBhV-HitByKhJ2gH8C6wlfChHh5PXxjMoPtEI9_pzbiwX25lRSm5WRTr_NWmanP-JxkJYKTFwA_Kmi-CJftPZrwC9w/s1600/Satellites.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDbDAey4WxJbvcao4y6M-FCK3g9syeiRFwpnkjhaeoQnQCyItPIBhV-HitByKhJ2gH8C6wlfChHh5PXxjMoPtEI9_pzbiwX25lRSm5WRTr_NWmanP-JxkJYKTFwA_Kmi-CJftPZrwC9w/s640/Satellites.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Another revision sheet but this one is on Satellites which comes under <b>Gravitational Fields</b> in <b>Module 2 </b>of the OCR Physics A G484 course. This revision card describes the features of geostationary and low - level satellites and we as giving equations derived from Kepler's 3rd Law.A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-8001875809923375542012-10-17T13:12:00.002-07:002012-10-17T13:25:11.242-07:00Module 2: Gravitational Fields<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdI1aAmhV1DO3cXy4rIcIwP35MVEun9KU_aCyG0jl4fEFrEo6zATKZy3bhbko48WjBT_Prmf5WB9TVAy3hV7OBagHsMuUBSg2fonB2jvpKP5ZVKioE-imD7oxdTyOAyZ-2GOob155Ooo/s1600/Gravitational+Fields.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdI1aAmhV1DO3cXy4rIcIwP35MVEun9KU_aCyG0jl4fEFrEo6zATKZy3bhbko48WjBT_Prmf5WB9TVAy3hV7OBagHsMuUBSg2fonB2jvpKP5ZVKioE-imD7oxdTyOAyZ-2GOob155Ooo/s640/Gravitational+Fields.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZrQDNeQ7HL_5UCJI346JY8o7YcZ-HRZWgYIQa0d6XwPJP-Y7KRPKXv0Jgcs68gNwvUOlwYk4vqlg0dNP_hNcIL5x9F_rxVm15C6EDLGIc9f50M3VrXdd40-B4_FyaRDT7y8wNiaqPYI/s1600/Gravitational+Fields+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZrQDNeQ7HL_5UCJI346JY8o7YcZ-HRZWgYIQa0d6XwPJP-Y7KRPKXv0Jgcs68gNwvUOlwYk4vqlg0dNP_hNcIL5x9F_rxVm15C6EDLGIc9f50M3VrXdd40-B4_FyaRDT7y8wNiaqPYI/s320/Gravitational+Fields+3.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>
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<br /><br />These are a set of revision card for the topic of <b>Gravitational Fields</b> which comes up in <b>Module 2</b> of the OCR Physics A G484 course. This explores various sections including Newton's Law of Gravitation, gravitational field strength and Kepler's 3rd Law. The last image is an extension for the 2nd image (I'm sure you can match the title's up). <br /><br />Hope these help!<br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-80801782978017288692012-10-17T13:07:00.000-07:002012-10-17T13:25:54.417-07:00Module 2: Circular Motion<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp58CpnxNBd0hO7MLqsEZmP-_zgujrBT0NL6gXiADmHgjhqS8xX1AvMihNm4qKAteyFDQEcTLPOZPQHDBXHa-0HSxUJfjCvpjcRc-BqBk3ToOlplZkkC69i94kTTVREHGN7jJJqcTZLMo/s1600/Circular+Motion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp58CpnxNBd0hO7MLqsEZmP-_zgujrBT0NL6gXiADmHgjhqS8xX1AvMihNm4qKAteyFDQEcTLPOZPQHDBXHa-0HSxUJfjCvpjcRc-BqBk3ToOlplZkkC69i94kTTVREHGN7jJJqcTZLMo/s640/Circular+Motion.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is a revision sheet I made for C<b>ircular Motion</b> which is in <b>Module 2</b> of the Physics A G484 course. I hope this helps people with their revision, let me know if you have any questions about it.A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-4903844907352516442012-10-17T13:02:00.002-07:002012-10-17T13:04:17.204-07:00Module 1: Newton's Laws and Collisions<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2lH0CuzmZA9dtX9wQsi4Eu1B5T3dHMojKHVYzTqEX7_dZBNaEcjGErlJ6xfxlEnx-S-hRUfo8HDCf1oECWJtTem-6AFEt-iUbYeGSp26JFCZt9MLXtJIHcajlwXss9zP3NSTj7MXt4g/s1600/Newton's+Laws+Momentum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2lH0CuzmZA9dtX9wQsi4Eu1B5T3dHMojKHVYzTqEX7_dZBNaEcjGErlJ6xfxlEnx-S-hRUfo8HDCf1oECWJtTem-6AFEt-iUbYeGSp26JFCZt9MLXtJIHcajlwXss9zP3NSTj7MXt4g/s640/Newton's+Laws+Momentum.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is a revision sheet for <b>Newton's Laws of Motion and Collisions</b>. It explains what elastic and inelastic collisions are, as well as describing momentum and impulse. This topic appears in <b>Module 1</b> of the OCR Physics A G484 course. <br />
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A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-40231344928273268082012-07-04T10:39:00.002-07:002012-07-04T10:44:29.307-07:00What Causes Our Weather Here in the UK?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYK6g0P42lwT3i-PAUFXp2pcBrXiikO5obEcWmrKteZEpLgdM3shIDrwHDikG15kVsvlHojBgd0-HupNadjzBUgGJVZ7xxdBOYRXwDXXiAeQh49BqTuyGtIBxi2H3afmchkD2NIvPb-to/s1600/severe-weather-weather-250418_1280_960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYK6g0P42lwT3i-PAUFXp2pcBrXiikO5obEcWmrKteZEpLgdM3shIDrwHDikG15kVsvlHojBgd0-HupNadjzBUgGJVZ7xxdBOYRXwDXXiAeQh49BqTuyGtIBxi2H3afmchkD2NIvPb-to/s400/severe-weather-weather-250418_1280_960.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every day we
experience the weather and the effects that come with it, whether it’s the grey
clouds and drizzle we so often see, or the rare occurrence of hot sun with
clear blue skies. But as you become drenched in the April showers, or get
thrown about in gale force winds; just take a moment to think; what is actually
causing these natural phenomena’s to take place? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u><i>What Causes Our Rainfall?</i></u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rainfall is
one of the most common weather types in England, and one that I’m sure has
ruined many hours of carefully perfected hair-dos, but why do we seem to get
rain so much more than any other country? Well, it’s all to do with things
called <i>jet streams </i>which criss-cross
the earth at around 20,000ft above its surface and are basically narrow bands
of very strong westerly winds. The UK is at just the right latitude that the
polar jet stream passes right over it, and because of this, areas of low and
high air pressure are formed, which in turn create similar patterns in sea
pressure.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These
changes in sea pressure affect the movement of winds and cause a common weather
feature called <i>depressions</i> to form.
Depressions are regions of low pressure which produces rainy and windy weather,
and is the main cause of the miserable and changeable weather we so often see
in the UK. Quite simply, a depression forms when a large mass of cold air meets
a large mass of warm air, with the cold air usually coming from Polar Regions
and the warm air from the Tropics. Heavy rain and strong winds form where these
two air masses meet because the warm air rises over the cold air and condenses
to form rain clouds. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u><i>How about our Snowfall?</i></u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have
explained the cause of the wet and wind that we are so used to in the UK, but
how about snowfall? It may not be such a common occurrence, but still... why do
we get it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;">As we have already found out, the majority of the UK’s weather is
determined by the polar jet stream, which brings us wet and damp weather in the
form of depressions. However during </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">winter<span style="background-color: white;">, the oceans are normally
much warmer than the land because they take longer for them to change
temperature, and because of this, an area of high pressure forms above them and
this interferes with our usual jet stream position. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When this newly created area of high pressure forms over the Atlantic, our
usual jet-stream becomes blocked, and instead of flowing right over the UK as
normal, it is actually deflected southwards slightly – allowing chilled air
from the north to flood into its place – and where our usual Atlantic weather
system meets the cold front from the north, snow falls. The <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> was stuck like this for several weeks in
2010, which was the cause of widespread snowfall. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i><u>How About our Warm Weather?</u></i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So now all the cold, wet and windy weather is other with, how about the
hot weather? This may seem like an even rarer occurrence in this country, but
nevertheless it does happen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cause of these blissfully hot days and clear blue skies are from a
weather phenomenon called anti-cyclones. These anti-cyclones are the opposite
of depressions and are instead areas of high pressure where the air is
constantly sinking, as opposed to rising in a depression, but why does this
cause nice weather, and not bad?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, because this air is sinking instead of rising in an anti-cyclone, clouds
aren’t formed which means that no rain can be produced, and the fact that there
are no weather fronts also means that no wind can form. If an anti-cyclone was
to form during the summer then would most likely bring warm weather with clear
skies; while if in winter, then it would bring clear but cold days, with frosty
nights. The weather will always be consistent and unchanging as long as an
anti-cyclone is present. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, there’s a quick introduction into the causes behind our country’s weather
for you, and hopefully the next time you look out of your window, deciding what
clothes to wear for the day and see the all-too familiar grey clouds forming
above, you’ll know a little more about why it’s all happening. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-71919018659518118892012-06-28T15:02:00.001-07:002012-07-04T10:41:20.435-07:00What Does the Large Hadron Collider Actually Do?<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">What Does The Large
Hadron Collider Actually Do?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Over the
last year or so you’ve probably heard of the large hadron collider at some
point, whether it’s because you have a particular interest in particle physics
or even just if you just watch the news; but what actually is it, and what does
it actually do…?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘The Large Hadron Collider’ - bit of a strange name, what
does it really mean? Well, a <i>hadron</i>
is a composite particle made of <i>quarks </i>(extremely
small sub-atomic matter) that are all held together by something called the <i>strong force</i> which is just one of the 4
fundamental interactions between matter. The best known types of hadrons are protons
and neutrons. A <i>collider </i>is simply a
piece of equipment that is used to accelerate elementary particles at each
other. <i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You may have some basic knowledge of
what this Large Hadron Collider achieves such as “it fires small things at
other small things to see what happens” and in its very basic form – Yes,
you’re correct. But you may be lost in the details of what it is trying to
achieve, and with the whole construction costing well over £4bn, you would
expect it to be doing something useful, right? <span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #990000;"> </span><u><span style="color: #990000;">Short History:</span><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So, the Large Hadron Collider is
situated in the town of Geneva, Switzerland and it is the most powerful particle
accelerator ever to be made. The LHC was built by an organisation named CERN
and this whole process of construction took around 10 years – with the grand
opening being in 2008. The LHC lies in a tunnel which is 27km long, and as deep
as 175 metres in most parts. The first successful attempt to fire beams of
particles was completed on the 10<sup>th</sup> September 2008, and on the 30<sup>th</sup>
March 2010, the team at CERN broke the world record for the ‘highest energy
man-made particle collision ever’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <u><span style="color: #990000;">What happens in the Large Hadron
Collider:</span><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So, let’s
work on our basic understanding from before: “It fires small things at other
small things to see what happens”. In this basic understanding, the ‘small
thing’ is something called a particle – a particle is simply a sub atomic mass
which is one of the building blocks of everything around us. These particles can take a few different
forms such as an electrons, neutrinos and photons just to name a few.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The process of firing these particles together is the job of
the team at CERN and it is what they have they been doing since its opening in
2008. They use something called a synchrotron (a fancy word for the equipment used
to accelerate the particles) to collide opposing particle beams, this was built
by a team of 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries around the
world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So once the beams have been fired, they travel around the
course of the LHC and are constantly accelerating towards until they reach the
speed of light – a universal speed limit for any object at 300,000,000 metres
per second. If your thinking, ‘Why the value of 300,000,000’ then that’s a
whole different topic (‘general relativity’ to be precise) and you don’t need
to worry about to understand this at the moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are 4 main, multi-purpose
particle detectors at the LHC, these are called; ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LCHb.
You may be thinking; ‘What is the purpose of these particle detectors?’ Well… When
the particles hit each other, their <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">energy</span> is
converted into many different particles, and these particle detectors keep
track of the pieces that are created. By looking carefully at the data from
these detectors, <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">scientists</span> can study what certain particles are made of
and how the particles interact with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #990000;"> </span><u><span style="color: #990000;">Purpose of the Large Hadron Collider:</span><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The main aim
for the team at CERN who came up with the idea and built the Large Hadron
Collider is to answer some of the fundamental questions that scientists have
about the basic laws of the universe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a world where we are immersed in technological innovation and
where scientists have the answer for so many problems, it may seem strange that
they are still trying to understand basic laws – but, while the advancements in
gadgets such as phones, computers and televisions seems almost unstoppable, the
basic laws of physics are part of a much wider picture, and one that unifies
everything around us – from the particles being fired at CERN, to the
smartphone in your pocket. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The accelerator’s experiments are designed to collide the particle
beams together to try and recreate the conditions of the early universe, just
after the ‘Big Bang’ – which is <i>the</i>
fundamental event responsible for the creation of our whole universe. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 36pt;">Where the LHC becomes incredibly useful is in answering these
basic laws of physics , scientist want to learn more about particular topics
that will have the greatest impact on our understanding of the universe, a few
of these include:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> -- The
forces among particles<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="line-height: normal;">-- </span><span style="line-height: normal;">T</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">he
structure of space and time<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="line-height: normal;">-- </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Where,
and if the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics overlap – as
there is very little understanding of this so far. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="line-height: normal;">-- </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Physicists
also want to find out more about the famous ‘God Particle’ or better known as
the Higgs Boson Particle – the piece of matter which is responsible for all giving
objects mass. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, while it may be easy for sceptics to be negative about
the Large Hadron Collider from both a price and purpose stance, the work that
it conducts cannot not be denied to be any less than remarkable; not only
because it applies to and affects every aspect of our life and the universe we
live in, but because without it – how can we expect to explore and endeavour
into the vast universe that surrounds us? Without the knowledge that the LHC
provides, we would be restricted simply to planet Earth in our scientific
evolutions, and with such a vast universe surrounding us… where’s the fun in
that?<span style="color: #0070c0;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-37319687097990689982011-10-27T16:06:00.000-07:002011-10-27T16:32:50.799-07:00The Neutrino Particle - The Big Debate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWb5_5nKEM6rP135Fzt5asfeSziJj1KE4pGeFIRaC0yFqqSl4Qzvz1tVD1OPnNlkCKCYWRV8wK_u8rMWeAnUxr22Ne6wP5MYty-EkCAc3JJ4aTohpNl3OXpzNmB0R8KXcCk8EKLdkEYyg/s1600/collll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWb5_5nKEM6rP135Fzt5asfeSziJj1KE4pGeFIRaC0yFqqSl4Qzvz1tVD1OPnNlkCKCYWRV8wK_u8rMWeAnUxr22Ne6wP5MYty-EkCAc3JJ4aTohpNl3OXpzNmB0R8KXcCk8EKLdkEYyg/s1600/collll.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">What We Already Know About the Neutrino Particle: </span></u></b><br />
<div><br />
</div><div>The Neutrino particle was discovered in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli, it is a particle which is electrically neutral, has almost no mass, and is weakly interacting which means that it does not interfere with the ordinary matter it passes through, and ordinary matter has no affect on it.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Neutrino particles are created from types of radioactive decay or nuclear reactions that mainly happen in the Sun. There are 3 types of Neutrinos: Electron, Muon and Tau, and for each of these, there is an antineutrino. Most of the neutrinos that pass through the earth, come from the Sun, and just to get an idea of how omnipresent they are; approximately 400,000 billion neutrino particles pass through the earth every second.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The Big Debate:</span></u></b></div><div><br />
</div><div>According to the famous theory of relativity written by Albert Einstein, if the neutrino particle has no mass, then it must travel at the speed of light. However, if it does have mass, then it must travel below the speed of light. And up until 2011, that's exactly what has always been believed. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">In late September</span> experiments carried out by CERN at the large hadron collider in Geneva were originally designed to find the mass of a neutrino particle, however, when the results came back, an incredible discovery was made; the neutrino particles were detected travelling 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. </div><div><br />
</div><div>CERN published these finding immediately to invite scrutiny from other scientists, all in an attempt to find out whether these findings could possibly be right. Unfortunately, within 2 weeks, over 30 scientists had published papers reporting on the faults of the experiment and how the findings could not be trusted. These results are yet to be assessed by a peer group, which would massively improve the reliability of them but physicians are keen to repeat these experiments to determine whether it could be possible. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Scientists are obviously very sceptical to believe these results because if they are correct, then the whole base of particle physics, cosmology, astrophysics, and Einstein's famous law of relativity could be proven to be wrong - something which would change physics forever. Also, if this turns out to be the case, incredible ideas only previously feasible in films such as worm holes and time travel could be possible. </div><div><br />
</div><div>However, the only way such bold claims will ever be believed is when more controlled experiments are carried out on neutrino particles to find the same result, which may not be too far away, the detectors on the large hadron collider are currently being upgraded, and once they are, new tests will be done to determine the velocities of these peculiar particles.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So watch this space and listen close ladies and gents... because if the scientists at CERN discover neutrino particles to travel faster than the speed of light; well, it might just be the one of biggest and most controversial discoveries made by man. </div></div>A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199801155986127785.post-84589888991360292892011-10-27T13:02:00.000-07:002011-10-27T16:33:24.809-07:00'The Specific Carbohydrate Diet' - A Cure for IBD?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiumr4fvVyThiXimaUeas4TAZ2o_1raaqSXvb3IYhwzFX4h4bzDwi1bmr0GN6rDVyvTpTMXMqWlBr2hPsFQV7ePqRekSAvDTCcCeviQiJJI3tfrc_2gfr27SAuwFhIi7pQ7g32nAp5zdgA/s1600/scd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiumr4fvVyThiXimaUeas4TAZ2o_1raaqSXvb3IYhwzFX4h4bzDwi1bmr0GN6rDVyvTpTMXMqWlBr2hPsFQV7ePqRekSAvDTCcCeviQiJJI3tfrc_2gfr27SAuwFhIi7pQ7g32nAp5zdgA/s1600/scd.jpg" /></a></div><br />
For thousands of people all around the world, inflammatory bowel diseases cause fatigue, pain and a lifelong struggle to manage crippling symptoms with hospital stays when flare-ups occur. While the future can look painfully bleak when the disease is first diagnosed, famous icons such as Sir Steve Redgrave, John F. Kennedy and Anastasia are all examples that an extremely successful and normal life can be achieved.<br />
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<u><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>Possible Causes:</i></span></b></u><br />
Specialists in Colitis still do not know the exact cause of the disease, however there are 3 favourable factors: Gentic; Environmental and Autoimmune Disease. Genetically, the most convincing theory is that there are HLA's (Human Leukocyte Antigens), a large gene family found in chromosome 6 which is key to the function of the immune system, that may not be functioning properly. Environmental factors include diet and, surprisingly, breastfeeding. Diet is the key topic of this blog that i will come back to shortly. Breastfeeding is a peculiar one, there has been conflicting reports to show that breastfeeding may cause the development of IBD, and some studies have been carried out, but solid evidence is yet to be found. Finally, some sources refer to Colitis as an autoimmune disease, which is when the immune system malfunctions and attacks parts of its own body, in this case being the bowel, often for unknown reasons.<br />
These are all theory's that scientists have come up with, and some are much more feasible then others, however there is one possible cause that is regularly overlooked by many; diet. Everyone knows that the gut plays a vital role in digestion and absorbtion, so surely diet is an obvious factor to consider? Sadly not as many sufferers of IBD take no notice of there food intake, eating foods high in saturated fats, complex carbohydrates and refined sugars, all of which do much more damage then they realise. Even IBD specialists are very sceptical that diet makes much of a difference, often only recommending that patients are not to eat curry's, take-away's and excessive sugary foods which may aggravate the condition further. Strong medications such as Azathioprine and Prednisolone are prescribed eagerly, and while they work for many patients, the sufferers that they don't work for are usually left with limited options, and they all know one option is surgery. A persistent thought, and very daunting to address head on.<br />
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<u><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>How Things Go Wrong:</i></span></b></u><br />
To fully understand how the diet works, you must first understand how the gut is harmed by the diease process: The gut of a normal person has over 400 bacterial species, some which are harmless, some which are not, these species are constantly competing for sparse food which causes them to be in constant equilibrium. Cleverly, in the large intestine, each species inhibits an over-abundance of the others which prevents one particular microbe from overwhelming the body. However, when the balance in the gut is disturbed, an overgrowth of bacteria can occur, and as a result, damage the small intestine<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. This overgrowth can be triggered by many things: overuse of antacids, weakened immune system (by poor diet, malnutrition or genetics) or a change in microbial environment through long term antibiotic use. </span><br />
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<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>The Link to Diet:</i></span></u></b><br />
However, diet may be much more significant than many think in calming, and in many cases, curing the inflamed bowel. 'Breaking The Vicious Cycle' is a book by Elaine Gottschall which focuses on dramatically altering the diet of a Colitis sufferer to improve intestinal health. The diet completely eliminates all complex carbohydrates, commonly found in bread, rice, oats, potatoes, starch and hundreds of other everyday foods and flavourings. It also prohibits the use of lactose and refined sugars.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Quite simply, when foods such as carbohydrates are not digested, they remain in our gut and become a breeding ground for microbes, unfortunately microbes digest these carbohydrates through fermentation. The waste products of fermentation includes methane, carbon dioxide, lactic acid, acetic acid and other toxins - all of which damage the gut wall. There is evidence to show that this increased acidity mutates harmless bacteria into much more dangerous ones, and interestingly, the lactic acid produced has had proven links to abnormal brain function and behaviour often related to IBD. This overgrowth of bacteria further mutates bacteria and creates more and more gas and acid which in turn damage the gut wall even more, this damage causes protective mucus to form, which further damages the lining and causes it to become ulcerated - This is the vicious cycle. This whole process also destroys microvilli, the </span>absorptive cells which means we take less nutrients into the body and a<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">s more carbohydrates are left in the gut, they cause water and nutrients to be pulled from the body into the colon, resulting in chronic </span>diarrhoea.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Absorption is further affected as </span>diarrhoea<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> increases the rate with which food travels through the gut, leaving </span>insufficient<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> time for nutrients to be absorbed from the food.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><b><u><i>How the SCD Works:</i></u></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> This is how the diet helps: The Specific Carbohydrate Diet bases itself around eating the foods that contain simple carbohydrates, ones that we can fully digest and leave virtually none behind in the gut, thus causing a decrease in the harmful bi-products of fermentation as microbes food supply of carbohydrates decreases. As the presence of these harmful acids and gases decrease, the gut wall stops the need to be protected, so mucus production stop, and carbohydrate digestion is improved. As the individual becomes more nourished and gains more energy from their food, they are in a better state to fight off bacteria. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A key part of the diet which the book insists on is eating home made yoghurt. Commercial yoghurt is banned as it has not properly fermented and the complex sugar molecules are still present which are strictly avoided in the diet, however home made yoghurt can be made as long as it is left to ferment for at least 24 hours. In this time all of the complex sugar molecules (disaccharides) are converted into simpler ones (saccharides) which the gut can digest. This yoghurt is very </span>important<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> as it naturally contains healthy bacteria to help maintain an even balance in the intestines. Through this diet, harmful microbes creating harmful bi-products are slowly eliminated, causing the natural flora in the gut to return to equilibrium and with the addition of friendly bacteria from the yoghurt, a much calmer and healthier environment is created. </span>Diarrhoea begins to stop as less water is drawn from the body to flush out the mucus produced when inflammation is high, gas is reduced as the microbes, producing gas as a bi-product of fermentation, decrease and finally, blood is eliminated ulceration on the gut lining is repaired.<br />
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Drugs are very often a miracle cure, completely restoring a Colitis sufferer back to full health. However for those who drugs have not worked for, specialists are keen to suggest the option of surgery, while completely disregarding another diet such as SCD. Thousands of sufferers have been cured by sticking to the diet, proof that it really does work for many, the science behind the diet makes perfect sense, and while it doesn't work for everyone, the information and support on the internet for IBD sufferers is fantastic. So please, if you suffer, or know of anyone who suffers from Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's, or any other IBD, recommend them to read 'Breaking The Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall'. Even if from this post, one sufferer of IBD becomes aware of the positive effects of this diet, i would consider it a huge achievement.<br />
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I myself can report first-hand that, after a 3 year struggle with Colitis, this book has changed my life for the better, and i pray that it may just change yours too.A Byte of Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02542416037198232028noreply@blogger.com2