




3. Beach Sand
Sand is made of minerals and tiny pieces of rock because of erosion. The composition of sand varies, because not all of the places around the world have the same rocks from which sand can made of. The most common components of sand on beach sand, as well as other sand is silica (silicon dioxide). I think that the only way we can prove this is by talking one grain of sand, and put it under a microscope to see if we can match it with a type of rock.
ChemMatters - Episode 2: Plastics Go Green from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo.
Did you know that about 90,718,474,000kg, or 200,000,000,000lbs of plastic is manufactured every year? And that 20 present of that could be Bio-degradable, and Eco-friendly Bioplastic? what is Bioplastic you ask? Well, in this video from Vimeo.com,it tells us everything you need to know about this newly discovered plastic. Green Plastic, or Bioplastic, is a plastic made of of Corn, Sugar Cane, and Sugar Beets, and is supposedly the best way to go. Or is it? In this video the narrator talks about the good, and bad characteristics of Bioplastic. He also talks about were plastic comes form, how its manufactured, and what it is manufactured out of.
Like I said before, Bioplastic is made up of the sugar form Corn, Sugar Cane, Sugar Beets, and many others. This plastic, because it is made up of biological material, is more environmentally friendly, than traditional plastic. But is it all good?
Organisations like "Nature Works LLC", who manufacture Bioplastic, say it is the best way to go. That it is extremely environmentally friendly. It does not require any fossil fuels, natural gas, or coal, it can be used to make compost, it uses organic substances such as corn, and it does not cause water, or air pollution. What could be better right? Wrong. Yes, the product itself does not pollute, but look around it. To grow corn and other crops used to make Bioplastic you need pesticides, urbacides, and fertilizers, contributing to water pollution. Also, motor vehicles used for planting, cultivating, harvesting, and shipping crops use crude oil and release carbon dioxide and are mayor affects in air pollution. Also, Bioplastic factories may not use oil to make the plastic, but they use electricity that is made usually by using fossil fuels. Also, the risk of using too much farmland for plastic instead of food, could result in a food crisis, or famine. Some organisations might cut down forests and jungles to make more farmland, but thats not a solution either. Another thing is that when degrading in a compost pile it gives of CO2 and methane gas that is harmful to the environment. Sometimes even, instead of being used as compost, it is thrown away like the rest of the trash, and then dangerous gases get released into the air causing more air pollution. So Bioplastic is not as great and perfect, as it sounds.
Like I mentioned earlier, the production of Bioplastic creates a lot of chemical reactions. here are a few; Molecules (a group of two or more elements or atoms binded together), Monomers (a pair of molecules), Polymers (long chains or collections of monomers, Polymerization (linking different monomers to create irregular polymers), Condensation Reaction (when polymerization gives off a small molecule, every time a bond is formed), Addition Reaction (when polymerization is occurring, and molecules have double bonds or triple bonds), when Bioplastic is degrading it can give off CO2 or methane gas. In the video we saw a number of elements, but only a few were different. These were; Oxygen, hydrogen, Carbon, and element “R”. This just proves that multiple molecules, are made up of similar elements and make totally different results.
In this article the author(s) were talking about how rare the element helium is on our planet Earth. It talked about all the different organisations, and showed some facts about helium. it also talks about how helium is one on the most important substances on Earth that might become more rare than gold.
The element helium, though rare on Earth, is the second most common element in the universe after hydrogen. Helium, in space, over time creates stars, and sometimes even planets. Because of this, all planets and stars are full of helium, especially gas giants. Earth once had a great supply of helium that got boiled away by the suns rays. Over time the helium regenerated on Earth but is now once again being depleted, but this time by humans. One of the problems is that when helium is used, it is hard to contain, and usually escapes into the atmosphere.
Helium is an element used world wide. It is used by rocket scientist, engineers, and even ordinary people using them for a profit. they are used for liquid-fueled experimental rockets, semiconductors and optical fibers cannot be easily manufactured, and cryogenically cooled particle accelerators and medical MRI machines cannot function. Helium may also once be used as a fuel in future nuclear reactors. Ordinary people around the world are selling helium balloons for profits at a huge rate. Because of all these reasons, helium is depleting faster than it is regenerating. Scientists estimate that Earth will only have a supply of helium for only 40 more years.
There are few things that we can do to solve this depleting problem. and the solutions we have, will only help on a long term scale, but they will help. The main thing we can do is minimize the amount of helium balloons. Also, we could try, to send space probes, to gas planets, and try to collect some of the helium from there.
This problem does not only have to apply to helium. After helium is gone, people will find an alternative element, and the process will just repeat with different elements. for example, gold, which is very rare, and is soon going to be replaced by silver and diamonds.