Science and Inventions

The Hippopotamus or Hippo is the Greek name, which means the river horse. Hippo is one of the largest herbivorous mammals on earth. The hippopotamus has a big bold enormous trunk, very large mouth, huge teeth and short legs.

The hippopotamus has three strong senses, sighting, smelling and hearing.

The hippo lives in the rivers and swamps in west and east Africa, most of the hippopotamus live in Zambia and Tanzania.

Despite its short legs, it can run with a speed that can reach 30 Km per hour, it can also swim very fast. The hippopotamus spend the day in the water or the mud to keep its body cool.

Although the hippopotamus is an herbivorous animal, but it is considered one of the most aggressive animals, it can run down a human easily.

The hippopotamus live in groups that consists of a number of females young calves and few adult males, the group is lead by the strongest male.

When fighting each other, the hippopotamus open his mouth widely in order to scare its rival.

The lions, crocodiles and hyenas are the greatest enemies for the hippopotamus as they hunt the small hippopotamus.

The hippopotamus is endangered because it is hunted for its meat and its teeth which is made from ivory.

The hippopotamus kills people in Africa more than the insects and snakes. But actually they just attack humans when they feel they are threatened.

Printing is putting the words and images on a paper using a device. That device have changed over the years, the device has changed over the years.

The year 3500 B.C. was the start as the Mesopotamia (it includes the north of Syria, a part of Iraq and south Turkey) developed cylinder seals starting the first way of printing.

Woodblock printing started as way to print texts and images in the beginnings of the 3rd century in China and East Asia.

By the beginning of the 4th century, the Roman Egypt started using the woodblock printing on cloth. Later in the 9th and 10th centuries, the block printing on textiles were developed by the Arabic Egypt, it changed from woodblock printing to lead block, tin block and clay block. It was mainly used for religious uses.

In the year 1040, China started a new technique in printing, as they started the movable-type printing. The movable-type printing is the system that gave flexibility to block printing, it is using movable metal pieces.

By the 12th century, Bi Sheng (990-1051)the Chinese inventor produced the copper movable blocks which was used later to print paper money.

The Korean made the first metal published book by the year 1377.

By the beginning of the 14th century, the Block printing arrived to Europe, and was used for religious printings as well.

A hundred years later, Europe was still printing the religious images but on papers as papers now were available.

By the middle of the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468) the German blacksmith, and printer, produced the mass production movable type printing. He started using an alloy of lead, tin and antimony, that alloy is still used till today.

In the year 1843, Richard March Hoe (1812-1886) the American inventor, made a breakthrough in the printing field, he invented the rotary printing press. The rotary printing press which uses cylinders to print on continuous rolls of papers.

Then William Bullock (1813-1867) the American inventor invented rotary drum printing, which was a great progress in the world of printing industry as it is more effecient and more faster than the previous ways.

The offset press was invented by Robert Barclay in the year 1875, then it was developed in the year 1903 by Ira Washington Rubel.

In the year 1953, the first printer to be used with the computer was invented  by Remington-Rand (1927-1955) the American business machines manufacturer.

Salt is a white, pink or grey crystalline mineral which a small amount of it is necessary for human and it is harmful in large amounts, salt is a compound of two elements sodium and chloride and each of them has an important role for human’s health. Salt is available in the seas in its natural form.

Salt has been used as a food preserver generally and as a meat preserver especially thousands of years ago as there were salted birds and fish in the tombs of Ancient Egyptians.

Scientists have discovered that the people of Cucuteni has been boiling the salted water from a spring in order to get salt in the year 6050 B.C., in Romania.

The Chinese as well have been gathering salt from the surface of a lake in the year 6000 B.C..

The Egyptians were bartering the salted fish with some products from the Phoenicians in the year 2800 B.C.. In the year 800 B.C. the Ancient Greece and Ancient Romans were trading salt for wine. Salt has been used as a currency, the Latin word salarium (means salary) meant the money paid to soldiers, it was in the form of salt.

Mahatma Gandhi the famous Indian leader, was able to protest on the English colonizer through extracting salt directly from the sea, which was against the English rules.The salt March was one of the causes of the Indian independence.

The unrefined salts that are extracted directly from seas are used in cosmetics and bath salts.

The refining of salt (table salt) is purifying, improving of sea salt, and recrystallize the salt. The manufacture of table salt also involve adding iodine, iron and fluoride which are available in the unrefined salt but not in the required amounts for the human health.

Silver is a metal that has been valued long ago. Silver is a shinning grey metal. Silver is used as a part of coins, mirrors, jewelry, tableware, utensils, in medical uses and as electric conductors.

There are signs that proves that there was silver mines in Anatolia (Turkey now) about 4000 years B.C.

After more than 1000 years the Chaldeans found silver mines when they concord Babylon. They extracted silver from lead, as there was only silver-lead ore.

It was used only as jewelry till the Minoan (Crete now) and the Mycenaean (Greece), they started using the silver in making utensils and tableware.

About 700 years B. C. Silver has been used in coins in Lydia (Turkey now). It was an alloy of gold and silver.

By the year 500 B.C. the silver was a main part of the economic of the Greek and Romans. They also figured out that the silver is an antibiotic that can fight bacteria, so they used it to preserve their food and drinks.

Through the 15th, 16th, and 18th centuries, silver mines have been discovered in Peru, Bolivia and Mexico.

In the 19th century the silver was used as a treatment for burns and wounds. The sailors used the silver coins to preserve their water and wine through their journeys.

The World War II, caused a great use of silver, as there was a shortage of copper. Silver was used in air-crafts, electrical conductors, and as a reflector in searchlights.

Glass is a non-crystalline solid substance, the glass is a fragile and transparent material.

We can find natural glass as quartz after the lightning hits the sand. Artificial glass is made mainly from the silica which is a chemical compound of silicon and oxygen, it reaches to 70% to 74% of the glass manufactured. Also there are different materials that is added to form a different kind of glass.

7000 years ago the Ancient Egyptians used glass, as there were different objects made from glass in the tombs of the Pharaohs. They were adding cobalt, manganese or copper to the sand to have colored glass. Later, after about 4000 years they started making molds to shape the glass.

The Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians also used glass, that was about 5500 years ago.

The manufacturing of glass was a very long and difficult process, the Phoenicians were the first to use blowpipe about 50 years before Birth Christ. The blowpipe is a hollow tube, the molten glass is fixed at the end of the tube and the molten glass is shaped to many shape.

The idea of the industry of glass was transferred to Greece and by the 1st century the Romans became the center of glass industry, and they made the finest samples from glass. The Romans were the first to use the glass to cover the windows instead of the animal hide, wood or cloth.

The glass was used as lenses for the first time, when Both Pliny and Seneca at the beginning of the 1st century, used a glass globe filled with water as a magnifier.

Mirror made from glass coated with metal was first made by the Phoenician in the first century.

By the 10th century, Ibn Sahl (940-1000) the Persian physician and mathematician, calculated the shape of lenses.

The refracting telescopes were the first form of telescopes, they appeared first in Netherlands in the year 1608, it was made by Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen. Galileo improved it in 1609.

Recently the glass has been used in several industries, as the Cd’s used in the computer, the ceramic glass and a lot of other uses.

Photosynthesis is the process in which the living organism that contain chlorophyll can change the carbon dioxide with the presence of water and sun light to produce food in the form of sugar. The photosynthesis is a process that is performed in algae, some types of bacteria and most important plants. The photosynthesis products are food and oxygen.

In the first half of the 17 century, Dr. Jan Baptisma Helmont (1579-1644) the Flemish Chemist and physician, was the first to search how the plant makes its food. He made an experiment to test the volume of the plant, he weighed the soil, and the plant. After the growth of the plant he remeasured the soil and the plant and assumed that the source of food in the plant is only water.

In the year 1772, Joseph Priestly (1733-1804) the English natural philosopher and chemist was the first to produce the benefits of the photosynthesis process. He was able to reach that conclusion when he proved that the plant can restore the air lost by the burning of a candle. He put a candle then a mouse in a closed jar and found that the candle burnt out quickly, then he proved that the plant can help the mouse to be active again.

In the year 1778, Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799) the Dutch bilogist and chemist repeated the same experiment of Joseph Priestly. He was able to prove the role of sun light in the photosynthesis process.

In the year 1796, Jean Senebier (1742-1809) the Swiss pastor and botanist,  proved the importance of chlorophyll in the photosynthesis process along with the other factors sunlight, water and carbon dioxide and that sugar is produced and oxygen is released.

C. B. van Niel (1897-1985) was a Dutch-American microbiologist, he studied the purple sulfur bacteria and green bacteria and reached the chemistry of photosynthesis. He showed that the plant use the hydrogen and reduces

In the year 1939, Robert Hill (1899-1991) a British plant biochemist proved that oxygen is evolved in the process of light reactions in the beginning of the photosynthesis process.

The virus is a biological infectious agent that reproduce inside any type of the living cells, the virus force the cell to produce thousands of copies. The virus consist of genes, molecules and protein coat. There are several types of viruses, some hit the plants, some hit the animals. Virus spread from a host to another by many ways that differ according to the virus.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) the famous French chemist and microbiologist, was the first to predict that there is a pathogen that is so small to be seen by the microscope. Then in the year 1884 Charles Chamberland (1851-1908) the French microbiologist invented a filter that was able to keep the bacteria as its pores were smaller than the bacteria. The filter was called Chamberland-Pasteur filter

In the year 1892, The Russian biologist Dmitry Ivanovsky (1864-1920) used Chamberland-Pasteur filter to study the tobacco mosaic virus.

In the year 1898, Martinus Beijerinck (1851-1931) the Dutch microbiologist, was able to assure that there is another source of infection other than the bacteria, he reached the first plant virus and called it contagium vivum fluidum.

Friedrich Loeffler (1852-1915) and Paul Frosch (1860-1928) the German bacteriologists, were able to discover the first animal virus Aphthovirus.

In the beginnings of the twentieth century, Frederick Twort (1877-1950) the English bacteriologist, discovered the virus that infect bacteria (bacteriophages). Félix d’Herelle (1873-1949) the French-Canadian microbiologist reached to the fact that when viruses added to bacteria, an area of dead bacteria is produced.

In the early years of the 20th century, scientists were able to produce viruses on animal tissues. As Ross Granville Harrison (1870 – 1959) the American biologist grew viruses in lymph in 1906. In the year 1913, the three scientists  E. Steinhardt, C. Israeli, and R. A. Lambert  reached for growing them on guinea pig corneal tissue. In 1928, H. B. Maitland and M. C. Maitland grew viruses on chicken kidneys. In the year 1931, Ernest William Goodpasture (1886-1960) an American pathologist and physician grew influenza and other viruses in fertilized chickens’ eggs. In the year 1949, John F. Enders (1897-1985), Thomas Weller (1915-2008), and Frederick Robbins (1916-2003) grew polio virus in cultured human embryo cells, and this later paved the way to Jonas Salk to reach the polio vaccine.

Starting from the second half of the 20th century  thousands of types of viruses were discovered. In 1963 Baruch Blumberg (1925-2011) the American doctor discovered the hepatitis B virus, in 1981 the AIDS was discovered,  then SARS was discovered in 2003.

There has been many trials to reach fabrics that can clean itself, the University of California, Davis researchers developed such cotton fabrics that can get rid of pesticides by breaking down the toxic chemicals and get rid of bacteria by killing it.

Some researchers used titanium dioxide, that is able to absorb ultraviolet light and oxidize the organic material which lead to cleaned fabrics.

Mingce Long of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Deyong Wu of the Hubei University for Nationalities in Hubei, China, have reached to a new fabric that will clean itself by exposing the clothes to sunlight.

Their fabric uses a coating made from a compound of titanium dioxide, the white material used in everything from white paint to foods to sunscreen lotions. Titanium dioxide breaks down dirt and kills microbes when exposed to some types of light. It already has found uses in self-cleaning windows, kitchen and bathroom tiles, odor-free socks and other products. Self-cleaning cotton fabrics have been made in the past, the authors note, but they self-clean thoroughly only when exposed to ultraviolet rays. So they set out to develop a new cotton fabric that cleans itself when exposed to ordinary sunlight.

Their report describes cotton fabric coated with nanoparticles made from a compound of titanium dioxide and nitrogen. They show that fabric coated with the material removes an orange dye stain when exposed to sunlight. Further dispersing nanoparticles composed of silver and iodine accelerates the discoloration process. The coating remains intact after washing and drying.

Plastic is synthetic or semi-synthetic materials derived from the petroleum or national gas. Plastic may be shaped to millions of shapes when it is still soft and keep that shape when hardened. Plastic is used in the manufacturing of acrylics, polyesters, silicones, polyurethanes, and halogenated plastics.

Plastic has succeeded to replace a lot of materials such as glass, rubber, wood, and metals in a lot of uses.

In the year 1839, Eduard Simon the German pharmacist had discovered polystyrene by distilling an oily material from the Sweetgum tree, he noticed that it was thickened after few days.

In the year 1862, Alexander Parkes (1813-1890) the English inventor was able to produce the parkesine. The parkesine is made from cellulose in its organic form.

In the year 1869, Daniel Spill (1832-1887) the English inventor and Parkes assistant, was able to invent xylonite.

In the year 1870, John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920) the American inventor, came with the celluloid. He used the cellulose with alcoholized camphor.

In the year 1872, Eugen Baumann (1846-1896) the German chemist, invented polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

In the year 1899, the phenol-formaldehyde resins was invented by Arthur Smith.

The American inventor Leo Baekeland (1863-1944) was able to create the bakelite by combining formaldehyde and phenol in the year 1907. Bakelite was a great success as it was cheaper, and stronger and they were able to shape to thousands of shapes.

The American chemist Wallace Carothers (1896-1937) was able to create nylon in the year 1939, Nylon was the first synthetic fiber.

Then different kinds of plastic were invented successively. Also appeared recently the disadvantages of the plastic as they don’t decompose. The breakthrough of recycling started and solved many problems that will help in keeping Earth green.

Global trading has been a part of human life since people began to travel across continents and oceans but in the last century it became even more integral in terms of the world economy.

The invention of the aeroplane was a major turning point for man’s development and as soon as commercial planes were flying the potential for trade utilising air freight was realised.

Since the 1930’s people have been transporting goods overseas using aeroplanes and today the air freight industry is worth billions of dollars. Read the rest of this entry »