A Butterfly and Biotechnology

Let it be any disease, ranging from a fever (which is the symptom of many diseases) to HIV, diagnosis at an early stage is very important for giving specific treatment.Whenever I go to a doctor, he asks me things like, stomach pain, fever, body pain, head ache, running nose, throat pain etc., then, he checks pulse, then he uses his stethoscope, he then gives all the possible antibiotics! Yes, really, this happens in most cases. Then, if my problem is not fixing up in a week, he'll ask me to take a blood test, this, that, and, all! Nothing wrong in this, because he can't ask everyone coming to him to take blood test at the very first sitting, then, no one will visit him back saying he sucks out blood all the time! But, it is okay to have a blood test after a week, but, not after a month! Diagnosing a disease after it had reached a severe stage is comparatively less significant than diagnosing at an early stage. So, how to diagnose? Antigen - Antibody! Antigen and Antibody ...

Hi, My semester exams are over :) :) My first three exams were good. But, the last three.. I don't feel that they were good  :( :( My  Microbio exam  and  BIBT  exams were good. After that even my unit operations paper was good. But, this mathematics... :( :( Maths is my weakness :( :( I make lots of careless mistakes :( In maths this time I had Probability and statistics, mm.. I'm worried a lot about the results. Then other papers were, Chemical and bio thermodynamics ; Instrumental methods of analysis. Let's have a glance at the questions which I found different or can say difficult. Topic: Instrumental Methods of Analysis: Question 1: What information can be obtained by DTA that cannot be obtained by TGA? Know the basics about DTA and TGA : Answer is : DTA gives information  such as Glass transition temperature, crystallization, sublimation which can't be obtained from TGA curve. Question2: Advantages of Raman Spec...

DTA : Differential Thermal Analysis: In this technique, Sample (material of our interest) and a reference material (must be inert) are supplied with heat. When there is a thermal transition (i.e., a physical or a chemical change that causes emission or absoption of heat) in the sample, thermal energy is added to either the sample or the reference to maintain both reference and sample at same temperature. This change of temperature is plotted against the programmed temperature. This can give details such as - Whether the transition is exothermic or endothermic. We can get details such as Glass transition temperature, crystallization, sublimation from the DTA curve. TGA - Thermo Gravimetric Analysis: In TGA, the sample is heated under controlled conditions and the loss of weight by the sample is measured. A TGA curve is plotted with weight in Y- axis and temperature in X-axis. It is generally used to determine the characteristics, strength of materials and their deg...

Hello! Here I go with my practical experience :) I'm doing my university practical examination this week. Completed 2 out of 4 practicals :) My mood got spoiled in my lab because of the moody chart!  But, successfully, did the viva voce  good for the 2 exams :) I shared some of my viva voce questions with answers as it might help someone searching for some answers (as I do every time, the day before exam) Chemical Engineering laboratory: I was given with a question : " Draw Moody chart for fluid flow through non circular pipe" with some specifications of pipe diameter. I got shocked, as I don't know what's a Moody chart! :( :( Non circular pipe?!!! Still again a great confusion! But, I managed to guess what was that non circular pipe! It is nothing but, "Annulus". We use to say " Fluid flow through annulus" , so, I got little confused with the twisted question! Then, the moody chart.. I didn't bother about that. I did the expe...

I got interest with this aluminium :) I ran for half a day for finding this Aluminium sulphate container in my department. Let me explain the lovely experiment with Aluminium and alizarine :) ( Don't continue reading if your not interested in biotech or chemicals, this is a damn boring post) Lowermost detection limit of Aluminium-Alizarine complex.  Aluminium Can :) :) :D :P An experiment, we did in our IMA (Instrumental Methods of Analysis). A sooper dooper experiment which I loved. This is because, me and one of my friend did it together while all others were doing record works. Mam explained me the procedure, I explained my friend the procedure and we did the experiment. I feel happy most times, when I'm provided with the responsibility. :) :D :P Initially, I found  very difficult to understand the principle behind the experiment, but, mam made it clear by explaining twice :) The principle is very simple as follows: Principle: Alizarine red dye and alumini...

I always love the way my mam teaches me. Today we did "Estimation of Sulphate ions by nephlometry". Mam started with a question "Why to estimate sulphate ion?". The question is so simple. But., as usual most members of the class blinked. Here we go and get to know why? : Estimation of sulphate ions is important for two  reasons: 1) Sulphate ions causes SCALING in boilers, fermenters etc., 2) Must be in a limited amount in drinking water. Notes:  Aim: To determine the amount of sulphate ions present in the given sample. Principle:  Sulphates occur in water naturally as a result of leaching from gypsum and other common minerals. In addition, sulphate may be added to water by waste water treatment plant. The presence of sulphate is limited to 250ppm. Sulphate ions are precipitated as various sulphate crystal in acid medium. Light scattered by the solution is proportional to the concentration of sulphate ions which is measured in a nephlo turbidity meter. ...

This may not be a new thing to you, but to me. Turbidity in natural water is due to the presence of finely divided suspended particles of clay, sand or by microscopic organisms. Turbidity is expressed in ppm (parts per million). The standard unit of turbidity is that produced by one part of finely divided silica  in million parts of distilled water. The permissible turbidity limit in water is 5-10 NTU ( Nephelo Turbidity Units). We did an experiment in our " instrumental methods of analysis lab" Let me explain what we did. Estimation of turbidity:  Aim:   To estimate the turbidity of the given solution. Reagents:  Stock Turbidity Solution. Reagent A : 5 g of hydrazine sulphate is dissolved in 400 ml of distilled water. Reagent B : 50 g of tetramethyl hexamine is dissolved in 400 ml of distilled water. The reagents were mixed and made upto 1000ml with distilled water ( 4000 NTU ) Procedure:  We took samples from the stock and prepared solutio...