Radiation Protection: A Holistic Health Approach

Radiation effects:

            • Anti-oxidant depletion- leads to various types of cancer

• Nausea, vomiting, diarreah, fatigue, fever, loss of appetite,

skin damage (swelling, itching, redness, and hair loss)

• Long-term effects: loss of IQ, mental illness, esp. depression

Clean Radiation Free Water

• Reverse Osmosis combined with an Ion exchange filter

• Water Distillation combined with an Ion exchange filter

Clean Food- Foods lower on the food chain

• Animals and dairy concentrate radioactive particles 30 times higher than plants

• Anti-oxidants packed in fruits and vegetables can reduce damage caused by radiation.

• Increase the intake of cruciferous vegetables, cabbage, and beets

• Eat alkalizing foods

Natural Cellular Defense Liquid Zeolite

• Removes almost all radioactive materials out of the body

• Removes heavy metals, herbicides and pesticides, free radicals, cancer cells, viral particles, alkalizes the body

• Increases immunity, helps with nutrient absorption, reduces allergy symptoms; a good source of anti-oxidants, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, and iron

• Dosage: Take 10 drops of Liquid Zeolite 4 times daily for at least 3 months, preferably longer.

Main Radioactive Isotopes from Nuclear Fall-out

Radioactive Iodine-131

            • Half-life is 8 days, therefore more dangerous right after radiation exposure

            • Linked to thyroid cancer and thyroid disease

• Iodine deficient people (est. 72-99% of the population) will uptake radioactive iodine into their thyroid instead of the healthy iodine that keeps thyroid, breasts, ovaries, uterus, and prostate healthy.

Natural Healthy Iodine: potent anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal that increases our body’s ability to fight infections

            • Increase intake of healthy iodine to protect against radioactive Iodine

            • High occurring sources of iodine:

• Sea Vegetables: Kelp, Arame, Hiziki, Kombu, and Wakame. Kelp has the highest amount of Iodine on the planet and one serving offers 4 times more than a daily minimum requirement.

• Strawberries, potatoes, navy beans, cranberries, Himalayan crystal sea salt, seafood, and dairy all have naturally occurring iodine

• Also helps regulate estrogen production, protects hormones that stabilize mental health and body weight, keeps

Radioactive Strontium-90

1.   Behaves like calcium in the body

2. 70-80% passes through the body
3. 20-30% deposits in bone and bone marrow

• Reduces the body's supply of white blood cells and platelets.

• This renders people more prone to infection as well as uncontrolled bleeding

4. Linked to bone cancer and leukemia
5. Increase Ca intake through leafy green veggies and/or Cal Mag

Radioactive Cesium-134 and 137

1.     Behaves like potassium in the body

2.     Taken up by cells throughout body, esp. muscle tissue

3.     Increased risk of cancer due to high gamma radiation   

4.     Increase high-potassium foods to prevent Cesium uptake:

• avocados, sea vegetables, leafy green veggies, coconut water

• Prussian Blue helps body to excrete Cesium 137

Other superfoods that help the body to fight radiation:

Bee pollen: increases anti-bodies that help fight radiation

Spirulina, and chlorella

Siberian ginseng, chaparral, and aloe vera taken at 1oz twice daily

gotu kola, and ginko biloba.

Holistic Doctor Gabriel Cousens’ blog:

http://www.treeoflife.nu/DRCOUSENS/DRCOUSENSBLOG/tabid/364/language/en-US/~/Default.aspx?tabid=364&PostID=153&language=en-US

Week 14: Cognition

Is to live to know?

To live is not to know. To live and to seek, to meditate, study, and to love is to know. There are plenty of ignorant and useless consumers walking around like emotional zombies, spiritually devoid of any greater truth than their next fix or fleeting satisfaction or struggle, vamping other people of their emotional energy who in turn spread the heart-break and headache like an emotional virus that goes around and around until the whole planet is filled with victims and predators in some vicious, cancerous cycle….what do these people know other than scripted patterns that keep them knowing their true power and intrinsic divinity?

Memory & Magic

Our brains filter out a huge amount of information and see what they expect to see- which means magicians- by manipulating what we expect to see- can influence our minds towards certain events and away from others. Distraction is a way of influencing the sensory input we experience so that we only see what the magician wants us to see.

Cell Biology Quiz

I myself was forced to call myself a molecular biologist because when inquiring clergymen asked me what I did, I got tired of explaining that I was a mixture of crystallographer, biophysicist, biochemist, and geneticist, and explanation which in any case they found too hard to grasp,” Francis Crick

How would you now describe yourself?

1. Simply speaking, I am a shamaniacal energy exorcist (and actual exorcist which is a job only a true Scorpio could really ENJOY), which is another way of saying I’m a mad genius artist healer philosopher mystic rebel crystal shaman whose taken to Vajrayana (tantric) Buddhism, yoga, writing, music and dance. You could get even more complicated (which is an occasional underpinning of a highly complex being) and say that my true self (without this Earthly body) is an ancient alien tantric cat warrior spirit from Sirius B who is just passing through Earth during this 3^rd to 5^th dimensional shift to code the grid and its inhabitants with novel and secret information to wake people the fuck up. My methods are many and my motives are vast. I believe in love, truthful wrath, and unconditional forgiveness. I’m like a ghetto Jesus as a foxy femme fatale.

Why might it be wrong to maintain that genes contain the information that specifies a human being?

2. When we say that DNA has the only role in specifying the information responsible for making a human being, we are mistakenly separating DNA from the rest of the organism’s autopoetic and interrelated network of interactions that comprises and composes the total human organism. Nothing in an interrelated autopoetic system is separated from anything else in the system. An organism does express certain qualities based on its genetic composition, but that DNA and genes aren’t the only factor in the different expressions and behaviors of cells and interactions in the holistic human being. The complex set of interactions.

How close do you feel we are to reaching a sustainable population level?

3. A large portion of the human race is going to have to die due to any number of causes, including but not limited to: nuclear fall-out, cancer, solar storms, ice age, starvation, and other geological, health, and government created disasters before the human race is anywhere close to reaching a sustainable population level. While human population is growing at a rate of 10,000 per hour, right-wing activists are picketing “Abortion is Murder,” signs, as if the human species is any more sacred than the hundreds of thousands of species our collective presence is helping to destroy completely. Humanity is responsible for causing at least half the creatures of Mother Earth to become extinct, creatures that are responsible for the diversity that keep ecosystems functioning. With hundred of species becoming extinct every year for the last 400 year since the Industrial Revolution, ecosystem services formerly provided by such species cause a loss of ecosystem services like recycling waste, providing fresh oxygen, food, clean water, new clothes, food to eat, and other crucial services that help sustain us.

Biochemistry Week 13: Living Diversity

 1. In what ways do you feel we have changed our attitudes to ecosystem services?

The kind of wreckless dominate nature tendency man has had is starting to crack and give birth to an interest in creating a global network of biodiversity science to study the intricacies of different ecosystems and what is needed to keep it all in balance so that we have a healthier relationship to nature which in turn will take care of us. Scientists are taking not just a scientific look at biodiversity, but an economic and practical one too to see how to best prioritize biodiversity issues and how to promote individual human behavior to intervene or adapt to ecosystem losses. A global network of biodiversity conscious warriors would at its best not just include scientists but indigenous peoples and participants in all interdisciplinary fields (including the social realm to spread awareness).

We are waking up to the fact that it is going to take a group effort based on The Law of One to save the planet, her species, and out health which is dependent on the health of the  different ecosystems’ species.

2. Discus why top predators are a healthy sign in an ecosystem.

Top predators like sharks are a healthy sign in an ecosystem because they naturally keep the balance of other wildlife ocean as it should be. In one study of a part of the Atlantic where sharks were virtually eliminated, 12 species that they fed upon became more abundant and caused great harm to the ecosystem. For example, the cownose rays- which the sharks usually fed upon- grew to out of control numbers and destroyed the population of bay area scallops. There were less scallops available for human consumption and no scallops to help clean and filter ocean water.

Sharks tend to hunt efficiently, which means they eat the sick and old fish of other species. This is actually good for the prey fish species as it helps prevent the spread of disease amongst the fish, outbreaks that are potentially devastasting. Sharks strengthen the gene pool of prey fish species by eating is weakest and sickest members, which leads towards greater numbers of strong and healthy fish who in turn reproduce greater numbers of strong and healthy fish for human consumption, keeping everyone healthier.

3. Chocolate’s health effects?

In health cases where the heart is not getting enough blood flow, dark chocolate eaten regularly can help coronary blood flow. The less sugar and fat the chocolate has, the better its impact on your health, especially if heart attack is a risk, in which case saturated fat would be best kept to a minimum in chocolate treats. However, chocolate is a hot food, and so a person has excess heat, eating chocolate in smaller quantities may be advised.

Biochemistry Week 13: Living Diversity

Examine your own immediate environment for diversity of species.

Okay, so technically I know this challenge has more to do with species outside the human race, but I cannot help but take this golden ghetto opportunity to shed light on the peculiar diversity of creatures of San Francisco’s 16^th and Mission barrio. Just this past week, I have seen hookers, crackheads, a tough Mexican homie with a mohawk checking me out, fashionistas, crazy schizophrenics (or maybe meth heads?) screaming at people who didn’t exist, skinny pissed off crackheads, Jesus freaks trying to save the crackheads, sweet Mexican women serving me huevos con nopales, Occupy yoga girls serving free food and teaching free yoga on the crackhead corner, revolutionary squatting roommates who have given up on capitalism and have a Free Store, alterna girls with tattoos, bike punk clown types downstairs at the experimental venue “The Lab,” and my favorite star of the ghetto- whom my boyfriend and I lovingly refer to as “Homie.” Homie is our wheel-chaired beggar friend outside of Walgreens who sounds like he had his vocal chords half ripped out of his throat and who won our hearts with his “I love my Mom” tattoo on his chest and the day he lovingly ushered me into Walgreens like the Queen of the Ghetto. Other than that, I’d say the only other “species” that live in my immediate environment are my tattooed Colombian rockstar boyfriend and the mold that lives under the fridge. There’s probably some microscopic bacteria and other things I don’t want to know about that live in our studio apartment in the Red Brick Building on 16^th St.

May Chocolate help keep people slim?

Whose to say if the catechins in chocolate that improve lean muscle mass and reduce weight- balance out the amount of saturated fat and sugar in the chocolate that most people eat? I think a more informative article would have included what percentage dark chocolate bars in the standard dark chocolate bars that people eat still helps reduce weight. Obviously, ingesting a raw cacao treat with low glycemic agave nectar is going to have different effects on the body than a 60% dark chocolate bar loaded with cocoa butter and sugar. And let’s not even talk about the abomination of chocolate known as milk chocolate. I think adding raw chocolate to smoothies with banana, kefir, almond milk, almond butter, green food powder, and protein powder is one of the best combination of ingredients I ever thought up to put in a blender.

Plutonium

After our conversation about the stockpile of plutonium held in Japan and its cooperating countries, I decided to do a little online research about plutonium, and this is what I found:

The main carcinogenic property of plutonium-239 comes from the energetic alpha radiation it emits. Once in the body, plutonium-239 is preferentially deposited in soft tissues, notably the liver, on bone surfaces, in bone marrow and other non-calcified areas of the bone, as well as those areas of the bone that do not contain cartilage. It can have especially harmful effects in the bone marrow, where blood is produced.The greatest health danger from plutonium-239 is from inhalation, especially when it is in the common form of insoluble plutonium-239 oxide. The risk from absorption into the body via ingestion is generally much lower than that from inhalation, because plutonium is not easily absorbed by the intestinal walls, and so most of it will be excreted.

 

Biochemistry Week 12

Meiosis, Mitosis, and the Creation of the Universe

Bio-chemistry doesn’t always inspire a complex mix of feelings wavering between primordial wow-ness mixed with wonder at the possibility of some grand orchestrating force that some people call “God” and that I might refer to as a multi-dimensional pantheistic playing field where higher dimensions interface with material reality mysterious and inexplicable ways. In this multi-dimensional mystical reality circus, I sometimes wonder how EXACTLY non-physical entities (Gods, angels, demons) influence material reality, or does science have creation all figured out with the Big Bang theory and quantum physics? The fact that nature seems to have synchronistically worked out both asexual reproduction (mitosis) and sexual reproduction (meiosis) to the effect that babies are given EXACTLY half of the chromosomes of each parent- to me- seems like some kind of small miracle that I have a hard time believing nature- in a strictly material or Darwinian natural evolution sense- just came up with by mere coincidence subject to survival of the fittest. Now I’m no creationist, but who or what inspired the process of mitosis whereby the innate intelligence of a cell causes its nucleus to split, creating two identical nuclei, or the equally small miracle of meiosis whereby an egg or sperm “know” that its chromosomal half is just around the bend in a hopefully suitable mate’s matching parts? If we are biologically dependent on the other sex’s chromosomes to create new life, might we also be emotionally or spiritually interdependent as well? Such musings conjure up images of Tibetan consorts sitting in yab yum- god and goddess dependent on the other to create the universe.

Citric Acid Cycle Animation

The animation we were asked would be more comprehensible if we more extensive chemistry foundation. I felt like I was listening to some quixotic futuristic language, and one that would take me years to learn. The one thing I got out of it is that citric acid cycle helps a cell produce ATP or other molecules out of raw building blocks such as amino acids, fatty acids, and monosaccharides. The other thing I got ouf of it was that I am a chemistry novice. I wish I had more to add.

Do humanity and bacteria share a common ancestor?

At first, I thought, “No way do human beings and bacteria have a common ancestor.” In bacterias’ cells, DNA is not separated from the cytoplasm, whereas in humanity’ DNA, the DNA is located in the cell nucleus. This biological difference seems to point to a lack of relation. However, there is a theory that suggests that all living things on Earth have a common ancestor, and this study has aimed to find the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). The theory suggests that the LUCA is a single cell that existed 3 or 4 billion years ago from which all life as evolved since. The scientific evidence for the common ancestor of humanity and bacteria is that the same exact genetic code is used in humans and bacteria, so that a gene from a human can be place into a bacterium, and the bacterium will make a human protein. This is how insulin is made. Who knew?

BioChemistry Week 11- Chemistry of Life

Biography:

Erin is a tantric yogini, crystal aficionado, singer, clarinetist, pianist, composer, face-painter, Vajrayana Buddhist & Hindu, and believer in the true teachings of the Cosmic Christ. She got her BA in music and studied hatha, Iyengar, bhakti, tantric yoga, dance, Eastern philosophy, and pranic healing outside of school. She is an empathic healer, mystic, masseus, and magician (both sex magic, wicca, and life as a magical practice) with keen insight into human psychology and a novel approach to combining yoga asanas and chakra sounds in order to open all the chakras, including the sacral and throat chakras. She had a full kundalini awakening a few years ago, which was one of the most ecstatic moments of her lie and opened up some past-life and multi-dimensional awareness. She has been around the universe a long time….

Once upon a time in her mid 20s, she accidentally became the clownarchist queen of the L.A. Underground and lived on a fairyland in Topanga Canyon, throwing shocking social deprogramming costume parties, performing Dadaist poetry, performance art, and generally creating all kinds of beautiful madness. Her life was truly like a living fairytale, before crashing down at the height of her fame, divorcing her husband and grieving her father who was murdered. She went from thinking she was going to become a rockstar and model in Europe to having a near-death episode at 27 which sent her fleeing to Tucson Arizona to rest for a few years before the Great Spirit told her move to San Francisco. It was in the ghetto of the Mission that she met her fairy rockstar soulmate who is currently producing and co-writing her first album, a haunting elegy of alien conspiracy and dark emotional landscapes.

Erin is still healing while attending acupuncture school. Her illness gave birth to an intense interest and study in healing, spiritual devotion and discipline, and a passion for crystal jewelry making, including crystal womb belts for female reproductive pain. She is currently getting weekly acupuncture sessions and studying like a prophetic lunatic.

Review of Animation

I may have the image of an animated dog with his head in the toilet forever emblazoned in my mind after checking out the Acids and Bases link. I may not. But what I will always remember is that aspirin, coca cola, citrus fruits, and vinegar are acidic. I actually heard somewhere that coca cola was so acidic it could clean the gunk caked onto your toilet bowl. More chemically speaking, an acidic substance is anything that produces hydrogen ions. A basic substance is anything that produces hydroxide ions. Examples of basic solutions are baking soda, detergents, ammonia cleaners, tums and Rolaids. I learned that when acid and bases react, they form salt and a water. I found a pH chart of common substances like blood and coffee interesting, as chemistry is more intereting when it is connected to the common items of every day living. Some of the other information was dry and technical, and no amount of cute blue bubble boxes and bullet points could make fun or accessible enough to say, yeah, I read it but still didn’t “get it.”

Does the End justify the Means?

“The ends justify the means” is usually a phrase trying to pawn off unethical actions because supposedly, the end result makes it worth the perceived harm of the causes or procedures that go into that end result. My view is that all actions have karma, and it is a fool’s errand to think that shitty procedures produce somehow good outcomes. “The ends justify the means” is a phrase often used to justify war, (including the Gulf War which caused many birth defects of veterans’ children and cancer as a result of the use of depleted Uranium weapons used). “The Ends justify the means” never looks at long-term effects, only immediate gratification for some desired outcome which usually only benefits one party and not the Greater Whole (and really, we are all One). Every single action has karmic repercussion, which is why it’s a stupid phrase to use as an excuse to justify any unethical behavior thinking that if we can just put up with the b.s., we will somehow grow flowers out of it.

Chemistry Week 8

Silicon as a Semiconductor

Silicon and Germanium are the most common semi-conductors. Silicon’s atomic number is 14; its symbol is Si, and its atomic weight is 28. 0855 Silicon (along with) has 4 electrons in its outer orbital, which each form covalent bonds with other atoms. These four covalent bonds give Silicon both crystal and a lattice structure. The crystalline structure that its forms is a silvery, metallic-looking substance, although it is not actually a metal. A pure silicon crystal is nearly an insulator by virtue of the fact that its electrons are all “tied up” in covalent bonds and can’t move around freely. In order for a substance to be a good conductor, it has to have free electrons to move around, since electricity is dependent on the free flow of atoms. However, Silicon can become a better conductor by “doping” it up, adding impurities that allow it to become a better conductor in addition to an already viable insulator, hence the term “semi-conductor.” Silicon is used in almost all electronic devices.

Chembalancer- More Fun than you’d Guess

I have to admit I was skeptical of the fun potential of a fun based chemistry website, but for someone with a genuine curiosity about the way the world works, funbasedlearning.com actually was fun. Balancing chemical equations in the Classic Chembalancer game was easy enough, but the fun part was the info about the molecules once you got the answer right. It made chemical equations seems much less esoteric, abstract, and removed from my daily life to be rewarded with interesting information after correctly balancing chemical equation, so that I knew what these compounds were actually responsible for in the real world. Some things that I learned were that HCl is the hydrochloric acid that helps us digest food; magnesium gives fireworks their pyrotechnic flare; mercury is in thermometers but poisonous with skin contact. The element quiz was interesting, somehow not as addictive, but certainly good fodder for preparing for a Chemistry category on Jeopardy. I might be an uber nerd for admitting as much, (or I may just put a smile on my Chemistry teacher’s face), but I may even dink around on this site instead of using all my internet freetime on youtube music videos and online tattoo photographs.

Balancing Equations Tutorial

In the Balancing Equations tutorial, the student is prompted to answer how many atoms comprise the reactant and then the product. It took me one try to discern the difference between the reactant (which is the beginning part of the equation) and the product, which is the second part of the equation, and it also took that first try for me to remember basic algebra rules that anything inside the parentheses is multiplied by the number outside the parentheses. The computer pointed out that the hydrogen and oxygen in the equation were not balanced (through no mistake of my own), and so it took it upon itself to add a 4 in front of the H2O molecule to balance the product with the reactant.

Week 7: Molecular Weight

Alkali Earth metal of the week: Magnesium

Magnesium is an alkali Earth metal with an atomic number of 12 and an atomic weight of 24.3050, which is abbreviated by the letters Mg. Magnesium is the fourth most abundant element on Earth, comprising a whopping 13% of Earth’ mass. Magnesium is easily built in supernova stars and is highly water soluble, which makes it the third most common element dissolved in seawater. Magnesium is the 11^th most common element in the human body, where it manipulates DNA, RNA, and ATP. Mg is crucial the function of living cells. It is also found in chlorophyll and is used medicinally as laxatives, antacid, and many conditions where calming nerves or blood vessel spasms is required.

Avogadro’s hypothesis

Avogadro’s hypothesis was that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules. He also made a distinction between atoms and molecules and said that atoms of the same element could combine, which contradicted scientist John Dalton’s beliefs. Although these statements are widely accepted by the scientific community now, they were not taken seriously when Avogadro made these findings because his work was in an obscure publication and also contradicted the opinions of John Dalton, who was a well-respected scientist of Avogadro’s era. Shortly after Stanislao Cannizaro explained Avogadro’s principles in “Sketch of a Course of Chemical Philosophy,” Avogadro finally received the acclaim his hypotheses deserved. Avogadro’s hypothesis led future scientists to determine Avogadro’s number, which was based on Avogadro’s basic hypothesis.

What is a mole?

It was show that a Gram Molecular Weight of gas at standard temperature and pressure occupies 22.4 liters of volume. A mole is the number of molecules contained in 22.4 liters of a gas at standard temperature and pressure. The benefit of the “mole” concept is that it allows the scientist to relate the weight of the material to the number of molecules in that weight, which is a ridiculously large amount that could not be counted under a microscope or any easy quantitative measure. Avogadro’s number- which expresses this ridiculously large amount- is 6.0221367 x 10 exp23- and is the number of molecules in 22.4 liters of gas at standard temperature and pressure.

Week 6: Electrochemistry & Alchemy

Halogen of the Week: Iodine

I chose Iodine as my Halogen of the Week because of the recent buzz over the supplement Iodine Potassium which is said to protect the thyroid against radiation.  This is because Iodine is required to synthesize thyroid hormones which contain Iodine. As a by-product of nuclear fission, the radioactive isotope iodine-131 concentrates in the thyroid alongside the healthy form of Iodine. If a person is somewhat deficient in Iodine, these radioactive isotopes will collect even more in the thyroid and can easily cause cancer. Iodine deficiency is a cause of intellectual disability in about 2 billion of the world’s population. Television is second (j/k). Iodine has a chemical symbol of I, an atomic number of 53 and an atomic weight of 126.90447. Its high atomic number makes it relatively rare on Earth. Elemental iodine vapor is purple in color. Iodine compounds are primarily used in nutrition but have also been used industrially and in making contrast materials for x-rays. Iodine can be found in the ocean and is highly water soluble. It is the heaviest element used for biological functions by lifeforms.

Alchemy- science, magic, art, or all three?

Although alchemy produces what appears to be magical results, alchemy is primarily a science that was later adopted by esoteric and metaphysical traditions including Hermeticism to describe turning internal yet metaphoric lead into spiritual and emotional gold. Part of the main practice of alchemical science is turning base metals like lead and mercury into gold and silver, This appears to be magic, but is based on scientific principles having to do with these elements having similar atomic numbers that can be tweaked through chemical processes to become other elements with similar atomic numbers. The origin of how the word “magic” got ascribed to alchemy was through early Ayurvedic alchemists  called “Maghas,” who would heal diseases through the use of herbs and metals. Occultists and metaphysicians who explored internal alchemy formulated various diagrams that both bore a resemblance to art and magic. In what could be deemed as “high” forms of any practice involving the alchemy of science, art, or magic, the ultimate goal is to take the practitioner, patient, or audience into some higher, lighter, more rarefied state than when they started.

Week 5: Chemistry of Color and Nutrition

My Inert Gas of the Week

My inert gas of the week is Neon, because how did nature go wrong in making an element that provides day-glow ‘OPEN’ signs for restaurants and made Las Vegas a glimmer in the Luxor pyramidal eye of capitalistic neon pseudo-god who blinks at you, beckoning you to come and waste your money on slot machines? Actually, neon is considered rare on Earth in comparison to its abundant presence around the universe, which makes you wonder if some of those gorgeous rainbow-colored nebulas have neon gas, which is a noble gas. Neon- which is found in trace amounts in the air- is extracted from air for commercial purposes. Neon is a Noble gas with 10 protons and 10 neutrons and is abbreviated “Ne.” I once knew a meth head who invented the name of a fake God named “Neon Ray.” Makes you wonder….

Colors in the Kitchen

When I actually had a kitchen, I remember making these beautiful kale salads our of purple and green kale, purple beets, red cherry tomatoes, orange carrots, light green cucumber, rich green broccoli, white almonds, yellow bell pepper, and brown lentils. I was a raw food health freak and true believer in the rainbow salad which made me feel like I had just eaten the super-charged food of the Gods. I also had what I call a healthy obsession with tomatoes in my food, everything from eggs, to soups, to salads, which was pretty much the main stay of my diet. Who could blame me? Tomatoes have anti-oxidant lycopene which protects against a variety of cancers, half of which I’ve probably had in my family. I wear a lot of crystals too, and supposedly Herkimer diamond protects against radiation and the diseases caused by it, but it also increase my intuiton and contact with higher guidance, and like the guidance of angel in my head the other day (versus schizophrenic delusions that tell you to jump off a building), I got the message, “buy strawberries and spinach.” It certainly didn’t sound like bad advice, so I did. I checked out the health properties of spinach and found out that they it is considered by Chinese medicine to be sweet, cool, and moistening, I also found out that it has more protein than most vegetables, can help with vision weakness (amongst other things which I have) and has anti-oxidant, digestive, diuretic, laxative, lymph-cleansing and tonic properties. I know I need digestive support and tonifying. Spinach is rich in beta-carotene, vitamins B6, C, K, folic acid, calcium, iron, potassium, sulfur, and chlorophyll. Strawberries possess a few things that I realize my body wants: they have a moistening quality on the lungs and can therefore help a dry cough and sore throat, which I have recently been battling. They are rich in vitamins B, C, E, and iron, and have a blood-purifying effect. I have been told in the clinic that I have blood heat, so I imagine a cooling fruit with a blood purifying effect would be just what the Chinese doctor ordered!

The Importance of Color in Minerals

I found it interesting that any element could be responsible for any color, but that copper usually produces green and blue. Copper ore is responsible for making malachite green, and also for making malachite gem elixir toxic. Water that is soaked in malachite can be applied externally but not internally as copper taken in sufficient quantities is toxic. It sure does make a lovely green however. Atomic bonds are what absorb or emit various wavelengths of light that can appear as different colors, so bonds of different elements are responsible for producing different crystals colors. The color is not necessarily elementary to the color of the elements that compose it, but the wavelengths of light that the atomic bonds of the elements absorb or emit. Material reality gets eerie when you think of it to that micro-degree.

Week 3 Molecular Structure and Bonding Quiz

Identify three elements with a single electron in their outer orbital.

1. The Hydrogen atom- the first element on the Periodic Table- only has one electron, which means it also only has one electron is its outer orbital, which is a 1s orbital.

2. The Helium atom has two electrons, which means that it has one electron in the 1s orbital and one electron in the outer 2s orbital.

3. The Lithium atom has three electrons, which means that it has one electron in the 1s orbital, one electron in the 2s orbital, and one electron in the outer 2p orbital.

Why do you think some chemical bonds are stronger than others?

Whether an ionic bond or a covalent bond is stronger is often dependent on the elements that form the molecular bond. Some elements bond more strongly than others. However, an ionic bond can at times be stronger than a covalent bond because in ionic bonds, electrons are traded, forming two ions- one with a positive charge and the other a negative charged- that are strongly attracted to each other. Covalent bonds merely share an electron and are tricked into thinking they have a full valence shell.

A polar bond is stronger than a non-polar bond because because electrons are shared unequally. The more electrognegative atom has a high electron affinity, pulling the shared electron and adjacent atom closer to it, creating a stronger bond.

In what ways do you think “Neptune’s Medicine’s Chest” might be useful in the future?

If it was discovered that there is a fungus or seaweed in the ocean, that say, cures cancer or fibromyalgia, and synchronistically- at the same time this fungus were to make a persuasive movement of macrobiotic enthusiasts flee to the Mediterranean shores to an ocean side healing center- one could potentially throw up the proverbial finger to the pharmaceutical companies once and for all and do yoga on the beach in shea butter organic sunscreen mixed with special compounds from the ocean that were terrific for your skin and happily munch on fish and seaweed salad drinking alcholol free margaritas, dancing in drum circles, farting cancer-free farts forever til the day they die, but not of cancer from nuclear fall-out.

Week 4: Green Chemistry

Catalyst of the Week

Chlorine free radicals are known catalysts that break down ozone in the atmosphere. These radicals are formed when UV radiation contacts chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). A positive catalyst increases the rate of a chemical reaction by lowering the activation energy of the reaction.  A negative catalyst decreases the rate of a chemical reaction by making it less likely to occur. Chlorine free radicals- although having a negative effect on the environment, are considered a positive catalyst because they speed up the rate at which ozone breaks down.

Green Chemistry as a Social Movement

I am super pleased about the concept of major American companies becoming more green-friendly- even if their motivation is to avoid lawsuits, stay within new regulations, and meet consumer demands. It’s like a bad baby- even if his motivation to be well behaved is to avoid punishment- mom is still glad he’s behaving. The human race has been accused by some of being like a virus, and I think a large part of the accusation comes from the fact that we feed off our host the Earth, while being an unhealthy presence on her surface, much like a virus that feeds off a host by making her sick. Now I could go into the genetic mutations to human D.N.A. responsible for a kind of emotional entropy that pollutes the inner geography of the human experience, but to keep this topic to chemistry, I think the accusation of humanity being like a virus comes largely from the toxic chemicals we have produced that are responsible for destroying much of this beautiful planet.

When you think of how big the Earth is, it seems like quite the opposite of a grand accomplishment to have successfully destroyed much of the atmosphere and land masses on this planet (most notably the rainforests), most of which happened as a result of the Industrial Revolution, which was not that long ago. To think how we have polluted the planet just since the 1900s is mind-boggling. If only we had known about Green Chemistry and foreseen the effects of our toxic pollutants on the Earth before we destroyed our atmosphere, we would have no need for a Green Chemistry movement because we would have been in accordance with the Earth the whole time. My personal glee as a result of this movement derives from a gratitude that there are affordable shampoos, conditioners, and lipsticks now available that don’t possess xeno-estrogens which mimic estrogrens in the body and have caused a lot of female reproductive problems we have seen in recent and current generations.

Atom Economy

Barry Trost developed the concept of the atom economy, which is an exploration of the efficiency of a reaction by calculating the mass of reactants before and after the experiment. It was a term coined to bring awareness to the amount of side-products of a reaction that often end up as toxic, unwanted, and never used. Because of this, Atom Economy spawns a necessary look at the principles of Green Chemistry in how to lessen the negative effect/amount of these side-products using principles that minimize waste products. For example, a new method of making Ibuprofen was found that significantly improved the atom economy of its production. In the initial way of making Ibuprofen, only about 40% of the mass of its initial components was saved in the final product, and the other 60% was waste. That 60% waste amounted to about 35 million pounds. A new way of making Ibuprofen was found that increased the atom economy to 77%, meaning only 23% of the final mass was waste.

WEEK 3: BONDING

 MY TRANSITIONAL METAL  OF THE WEEK: IRON

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. In mass terms, Iron is the most abundant element forming planet Earth as a whole. Much of the Earth's outer and inner core is composed of iron. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Iron's significant presence in the composition of rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production resulting from the fusion in high-mass stars, where the production of nickel-56 (which decays to iron) is the last nuclear fusion reaction that is exothermic. This allows radioactive nickel to become the last element to be produced before the collapse of a supernova causes the scattering of this precursor radionuclide of iron into space. Elemental iron can be found in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments. Iron is reactive to oxygen and water, causing rust on its otherwise pure silvery-gray sheen.

Iron plays an important role in biology, forming complexes with molecular oxygen in hemoglobin and myoglobin; these two compounds are common oxygen transport proteins in vertebrates. Iron is also the metal used at the active site of many important redox enzymes dealing with cellular respiration and oxidation and reduction in plants and animals.

Pure iron is soft (softer than aluminum), but significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities from the smelting process, such as carbon. A small proportion of carbon produces steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron.

NEPTUNE’S MEDICINE CHEST

I was kind of floored by the article “Neptune’s Medicine Chest,” particularly because I was naïve to the ways of scientific discovery and couldn’t fathom how someone could figure out than an obscure ocean fungus could have cancer-curing qualities. Little did I know the intense scrutiny and collection process whereby Fenical collects many different plants and fungi in the ocean and isolates the chemicals of these living materials and tests them all against every kind of bacteria, cancer, and fungi they have in lab. I also find it amazing that within the ecosystem of Earth, though malignant pathogens occur in nature, if one searches hard enough, s/he can also find in nature the antidote to that pathogen. I was glad to hear that the ocean still has living organisms capable of healing people because I was very saddened by pictures in which plastic particles in a sample of average ocean water out-numbered the amount of plankton. That might not sound like it has any bearing on us, except for if you eat shrimp, because shrimp eat plastic particles thinking it’s plankton. Seaweed might have cancer-helping properties, but I bet you shrimp has cancer-causing properties. I still eat it anyway.

REVIEW OF THE LINK: http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=55

This link re-iterates the small miracle of a harmless compound formed from two dangerous elements that most people don’t have the first clue are dangerous! Sodium produces flames when it gets wet, and chlorine is a poisonous gas used as a weapon in World War 1, but when you add these two elements together, you get sodium chloride otherwise known as common table salt!

This site also gives a simple but information-packed look at the properties of ionic and covalent bonds. Ionic bonds occur when one atom completely transfers one of its electrons to another atom and then these oppositely charged ions electrostatically attract each other to form solids. Ionic bonds are typically formed between metals and non-metals, dissolve easily in water, have high melting temperatures, and conduct electricity well. Covalent bonds, on the other hand, most commonly occur between two non-metals when a non-metal atom attracts an electron from another non-metal atom in the atoms mutual attempt to fill up their valence shells. Covalent bonds form true molecules that are not positively or negatively charged, hence they don’t tend to attract each other and form gases and liquids where these molecules move about freely. This link provides solid info of different types of covalent bonds, Lewis Dot structures, and dipoles.

WEEK 2: PERIODIC TABLE AND ATOMIC STRUCTURES

MY ELEMENT OF THE WEEK

I was interested in researching Calcium because the strength and health of our bones depend on its presence, and a chiropractic x-ray showed me my bones are thinning. This is of particular concern at this time because there is a radioactive isotope called Strontium-90- which was released from the Fukushima nuclear melt-down whose pollution has crossed into Northern California- whose intrusive malignancy will actually replace Calcium in the bones due to the similarity of Calcium and Strontium’s chemical family. Strontium 90 then bombards the nearby tissues and organs with beta rays.

When nations test atomic bombs, strontium-90 gets into the atmosphere and begins to float around the earth. Gradually it falls to the ground. Since cows eat the grass from the fields, the strontium-90 gets into milk and other dairy products. It’s pretty much a lousy time to be a dairy or meat consumer, but that beef sure tastes good doesn’t it?

Calcium has an atomic number 20, an atomic mass of 40.078 amu, and is abbreviated by the letters Ca. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal that is soft for a metal (though harder than lead, can be cut strenuously with a knife). In mass terms, it is the fifth-most-abundant element in the Earth's crust. Calcium is also the fifth-most-abundant dissolved ion in seawater by both molarity and mass, after sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfate. Calcium is essential for living organisms, particularly in cell physiology, where movement of the calcium ion Ca2+ into and out of the cytoplasm functions as a signal for many cellular processes. Calcium is the most abundant metal by mass in many animals and is a substantial material used in mineralization of bones and shells. By mass, Calcium is also the fifth-most-abundant element in the human body, where it is a common cellular ionic messenger and a structural component of bone. Out of the human body's solid particles after cremation, about a third of the total "mineral" mass remaining is the approximately one kilogram of calcium that makes up the average skeleton (the remainder being mostly phosphorus and oxygen).

OZONE FINDINGS

Most people think of danger when they think of ozone because of the attention in recent years to the hole in the ozone layer, which lets in harmful UV rays from the sun. The hole in the upper atmospheric ozone layer over Australia sky-rocketed Aussie cases of skin cancer, with the harmful UV rays strongest from 10am-3pm. The Australian Cancer counsel encourages Aussie beach goers to wear shirts, hat, sunglasses, and regularly apply sunscreen.

While upper atmospheric ozone keeps harmful UV rays from reaching the Earth’s surface, lower atmospheric ozone is an air pollutant that harms the respiratory systems of animals and burns sensitive plants. Ozone layer concentrations have substantially risen as a result of pollution from the Industrial Revolution, which is a particular concern because

upper tropospheric ozone acts as a greenhouse gas, absorbing some of the infrared energy emitted by the earth and heating up the planet.

Ozone also has many beneficial applications, with less attention given to ozone generators and ozone therapy for medical use. Ozone generators attack odors at their source, removing odors and sanitizing the entire treatment area. Ozone therapy has been used by many medical professionals and people privy to its many healing applications. Though this is not the thing I take joy in revealing, for personal testimonial sake, I personally had 100% success treating cervical HPV from the use of an ozone machine. Nine out of ten diseases, including the common cold and the flu, are caused by water or airborne bacteria and viruses. Ozone kills microorganisms. The sterilization action of ozone is by "direct kill attack" and oxidation of the biological material. The rate of bacteria killed by Ozone is 3500 times faster than with chlorine. Virus destruction with ozone is instantaneous, safe and foolproof, as ozone is nature's own purifier.

Ozone Therapy has proven beneficial effects such as:

* increasing oxygen delivery to cells, tissues, and organs

* increasing blood circulation throughout the body

* detoxification

* boosting the immune system

*sterilizing and healing external wounds (many of which would otherwise not ever heal)

* gangrene

* Cancer

* Lyme Disease

* AIDS

* Diabetes

* Stroke

* Depression

* Chronic Fatigue

* Lupus

* Fibromyalgia

http://www.oxygenhealingtherapies.com/What_is_Ozone.html

WEBSITE REVIEW: www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/atoms/elements.html

Because chemistry can be such a dry subject that’s hard to visualize without pictures when talking about positions, shapes or orbitals, electrons etc., it was nice that this website included animations which looked like electronic billiard balls akin to a video game animation of molecules and atoms that float by the viewing lense of the cyber Petri dish. The website made it very easy to distinguish between what comprises an element, a molecule compound and a mixture with color-coded graphic representations that instantly showed you in a concrete what you were dealing with so that you don’t have to just “imagine” what the components of a mixture, compound, etc. are. Now if they can just figure out a way to turn Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle into a computer program to figure out either where those particles are on the screen or where they’re going next (but not both of course), the revolution in science cyber geekdom will have reached ultimate pinnacle post Nintendo heights of epic cyborg proportion.

Chemistry Week 1

What do you feel we can change to help gain effective control of the pharmaceutical industry?

I think that a full-on counter-movement is needed to combat the control of the pharmaceutical industries. Unfortunately, a counter-movement would probably not be funded to the same massive extent as are the pharmaceutical companies, so there would be less financial incentive for the people involved. However, I think homepaths, naturopaths, acupuncturists, herbalists, and other alternative health practitioners could support a counter-movement in educating the public about the malpractices of the pharmaceutical industry along with warnings about certain drugs. These alternative medicine practitioners could hire someone with a petition, the article we read, and harmful side-effects or misuses of certain pharmaceutical drugs to set up stands outside of co-ops with a discount coupon for the first visit to the doctor who hired them. There could even be generous coupons for herbal supplements inside the store if people sign the petition. To attract people on the questionable meds, the stand could say in bold letters, “Take Zyprexa? Take (fill in the blank) or other pharmaceutical meds? This could save your life!” This would give the people who take these meds a curiosity about what is going in their bodies, and the pamphlets could direct people to a website that gives them an informative list of pharmaceutical malpractices and the drugs in question. They would be directed to a petition that would eventually be sent to congress and fought for by a lobbyist that would curb the amount of financial support pharma companies are allowed to spend on marketing. Perhaps the bill could include that doctors would be required to give their patient in-depth information about the prescribed drug, including all potential side-effects and what it has been approved for by the FDA. I think there should be incentive involved to send the informative website along with the petition to other people. So for instance, for every 20 people someone sends the website and petition to, they get $10 off their next acupuncture or homeopathic appointment with participating doctors. This could stimulate more regular clients for the alternative doctors, so it may actually work given most peoples’ financial motivations.

What do you understand by the expression “carbon neutral?”

Carbon neutral means bringing one’s carbon dioxide footprint to zero by reducing energy use activities that emit carbon dioxide (like driving a car), and then making up for the unavoidable amounts of carbon dioxide emitted by planting trees of donating money to CarbonFund.org, which can also reinvest funds toward renewable energy projects. Carbon neutrality is a positive way to curb the effects of global warming, promote conservation, and lead the way towards a more sustainable society.

What features of the Periodic Table did you discover?

The periodic table is a well-organized table of alkali metal, alkali earth metals, transition metals, lanthanide series, actinide series, poor metals, nonmetals, and noble gases. Noble gases are odorless, colorless, and chemically stable. Each element has a number on the top of its box that denotes its number of protons, which also equates to its number of electrons. To find the number of neutrons in an element, one need only take the atomic mass of the element (which is located in the bottom of the box) and subtract the amount of protons (which is found in the upper left-hand part of the box). The names of the element are located below a one to three letter abbreviation of the element. The color version of the periodic table has an aesthetically pleasing quality to it. I found it interesting that without exception, the man-made elements were all radioactive. All the actinides- many of which are artificially made- are all radioactive. They also had pretty quixotic names, like Plutonium, Americium, Einsteinium, etc.