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20/01/2024

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28/09/2022

kaolin, also called china clay, soft white clay that is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of china and porcelain and is widely used in the making of paper, rubber, paint, and many other products. Kaolin is named after the hill in China (Kao-ling) from which it was mined for centuries. Samples of kaolin were first sent to Europe by a French Jesuit missionary around 1700 as examples of the materials used by the Chinese in the manufacture of porcelain.

In its natural state kaolin is a white, soft powder consisting principally of the mineral kaolinite, which, under the electron microscope, is seen to consist of roughly hexagonal, platy crystals ranging in size from about 0.1 micrometre to 10 micrometres or even larger. These crystals may take vermicular and booklike forms, and occasionally macroscopic forms approaching millimetre size are found. Kaolin as found in nature usually contains varying amounts of other minerals such as muscovite, quartz, feldspar, and anatase. In addition, crude kaolin is frequently stained yellow by iron hydroxide pigments. It is often necessary to bleach the clay chemically to remove the iron pigment and to wash it with water to remove the other minerals in order to prepare kaolin for commercial use.

When kaolin is mixed with water in the range of 20 to 35 percent, it becomes plastic (i.e., it can be molded under pressure), and the shape is retained after the pressure is removed. With larger percentages of water, the kaolin forms a slurry, or watery suspension. The amount of water required to achieve plasticity and viscosity varies with the size of the kaolinite particles and also with certain chemicals that may be present in the kaolin. Kaolin has been mined in France, England, Saxony (Germany), Bohemia (Czech Republic), and in the United States, where the best-known deposits are in the southeastern states.

Approximately 40 percent of the kaolin produced is used in the filling and coating of paper. In filling, the kaolin is mixed with the cellulose fibre and forms an integral part of the paper sheet to give it body, colour, opacity, and printability. In coating, the kaolin is plated along with an adhesive on the paper’s surface to give gloss, colour, high opacity, and greater printability. Kaolin used for coating is prepared so that most of the kaolinite particles are less than two micrometres in diameter.

Kaolin is used extensively in the ceramic industry, where its high fusion temperature and white burning characteristics makes it particularly suitable for the manufacture of whiteware (china), porcelain, and refractories. The absence of any iron, alkalies, or alkaline earths in the molecular structure of kaolinite confers upon it these desirable ceramic properties. In the manufacture of whiteware the kaolin is usually mixed with approximately equal amounts of silica and feldspar and a somewhat smaller amount of a plastic light-burning clay known as ball clay. These components are necessary to obtain the proper properties of plasticity, shrinkage, vitrification, etc., for forming and firing the ware. Kaolin is generally used alone in the manufacture of refractories.

Substantial tonnages of kaolin are used for filling rubber to improve its mechanical strength and resistance to abrasion. For this purpose, the clay used must be extremely pure kaolinite and exceedingly fine grained. Kaolin is also used as an extender and flattening agent in paints. It is frequently used in adhesives for paper to control the pe*******on into the paper. Kaolin is an important ingredient in ink, organic plastics, some cosmetics, and many other products where its very fine particle size, whiteness, chemical inertness, and absorption properties give it particular value.

Among the mineral resources in Nigeria, West Africa that can be found in commercial quantity, Kaolin is one of them, it is found in the following listed Nigerian states; Adamawa, Borno, Abia, Delta, Ekiti, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, and Plateau State, there has been a rough calculation on the kaolin mineral deposit reserve in the country which amounts to about 2 billion metric tonnes.

We can help you get kaolin for you personal or commercial consumption

23/10/2018

10 Greatest Scientific Discoveries and Inventions

Scientific Discoveries and Inventions of 21st Century

For the past centuries, there have been countless of developments and advancements in the world. Scientists and researchers have continued to discover new things and expand our understanding and knowledge of the natural phenomena happening around us.

In the 21st century, there are thousands of scientific breakthroughs. These have helped in improving our way of living while some are the key to greater innovation in the future.

Detection of Gravitational Waves

Scientists considered this as the greatest discovery of the 21st century. Let us go back to the time when Albert Einstein first predicted in his theory of relativity that time travel will be possible. Now, it has been proven by the recent findings. The LIGO project based in the United States has detected gravitational waves that could allow scientists to develop a time machine and travel to the earliest and darkest parts of the universe. This was the first time that the witnessed the “ripples in the fabric of space-time.”
mars - 10 Greatest Scientific Discoveries and Inventions of 21st Century
Evidence of Water on Mars

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration confirmed last September 2015 that there is evidence proving the existence of liquid water in Mars. Using the imaging spectrometer of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), scientists detected hydrated salts in different locations on Mars. During the warm season, the hydrated salts darken and flow down steep. However, they fade in cooler seasons. The detection of hydrated salts means that water plays a vital role in their formation.

31/08/2018

I'm getting increasingly concerned that Tesla will go under and set back the electric car industry a decade or more. At the beginning of the last century, electric, steam and gas all competed for the automotive industry, resulting in far more advancements in gas cars than electric over the decades. Thankfully, no one has brought back steam.

There are some recent breakthroughs with gas cars that actually could make them more efficient than many electrics, and they are already far more convenient to use. I have skin in this game because I have a Jaguar iPace on order (the company's first electric) and I sure don't want to be left holding a car I can't drive.

A couple of weeks ago I addressed The Weird Mistakes Killing Tesla, but in looking at the electric car market in general, it is possible that Tesla is, at least partially, the canary in a coal mine.

I'll explain why electric cars may not make it and close with my product of the week: the Dell XPS 15 -- my favorite Dell laptop and arguably the best laptop the company makes.

Why Gas Won the First Time Around

If you go back and look at the early gas, electric and steam cars, they were pretty similar in terms of creature comforts. Of the three, the gas car was the most complex and difficult to maintain. (You needed to be a plumber to maintain steam, and an electrician to maintain an electric car.)

The steam car took a while to start -- you had to build up steam -- and had a tendency to catch fire. The electric car took a long time to charge and lacked range, but you just turned a switch and off you went. The gas car had reliability problems due its complexity, but you could just fire it up and go. (Granted, a lot of people broke their arms trying to crank-start some of the cars.) Range, instant start and convenient refueling won.

Fast-Forward to Today

Given that steam isn't making a comeback, the competition is electric vs. gas cars. As before, both are very easy to start -- just turn the key and go. Electrics remain far less complex (at least with regard to the engine) and as a result, are potentially far more reliable. They're more like a rolling appliance than a typical car. Also, they put out far less pollution, though in areas where electricity is either oil- or coal-sourced, it's not as much as you'd think. With electricity far more common now, you can charge an electric car in your own garage.

However, electric cars lack range, and charging stations aren't as common as gas stations. Electric cars work best in cities, where there is lots of slow traffic, but charging them is a nightmare. There are no chargers on the street, and parking structures lack chargers. Should you run out of electricity, there is no equivalent to the two gallon gas can to get you running.

Basically, if you run out of power, you will need to be trailered or towed to someplace that has a charger, and high-powered fast chargers are still really hard to find (easier if you drive a Tesla, thanks to their superchargers).

This creates some Catch 22-like problems. For instance, electric cars suck on long trips because they take so long to charge -- but, particularly for Teslas, chargers are easier to come by than in cities, where they work better but where accessing available chargers often is very inconvenient.

Electric cars generally are easier to repair and more reliable, but few people know how to repair them, making any critical issue away from the dealer more problematic. You can get government subsidies and drive in HOV lanes with one person in an electric car, but both expire over time, so they aren't permanent benefits.

Further, there is still only one electric car company at scale -- Tesla -- and it is a negative news magnet at the moment. For instance, last month Luxembourg suggested, based on a very questionable test, that the Tesla S brakes are not trustworthy. It appeared to be less a test than a gambit to p**s off Elon Musk, but it did draw negative ink. (Tesla really needs to fund marketing.)

Speaking of Tesla, the firm is at high risk of going under, which -- given its status -- potentially could cripple the electric car market. Finally, gas engines have been getting improvements that could make them nearly as green as electrics, particularly in areas with coal- or oil-fired generators.

Fixing Electric Cars: All About Priorities

It is kind of annoying how often technology companies seem to treat a list of critical priorities in an emerging market as if they could pick and choose the ones they want. The biggest priority to fix is charging in cities. This is where the greatest need for electrics is for emissions, noise abatement and traffic -- and where gas cars are the least efficient.

Moving to wireless charging in parking places with chargebacks to the city could make parking meters obsolete and enable additional city revenue (upcharge on the electricity).

WiTricity and Qualcomm have systems in existence today that cities could install and mandate on electric cars.

This would eliminate the charging problem and flip the electrics from a disadvantage in terms of fuel into an advantage. Your car always would be charged and ready to go, regardless of whether you parked it on the curb or in a parking structure. You'd never have to plug it in.

Supercapacitor hybrid batteries provide the promise of near instant charging, the ability to actually road race an electric car, and the potential for a much lighter much and more efficient energy source.

We actually have supercapacitor hybrid batteries in market, but they are used to start heavy equipment in cold weather. Supercapacitors can be charged in seconds, they can be used to charge the lithium ion batteries in cars while you drive, and -- at least on paper -- they should allow you to charge up a car in less time than it would take to refuel one.

Granted, the amount of current you'd be moving is blow-up-a-building big, but that could be addressed by using robotic arms and having them deploy to the center of the car, so they are never near a human.

Finally, we need the equivalent of an electric gas can, so that when an electric car runs out of current it quickly can be given another 2-40 miles of range so it can drive to a charging station. This also should be used for Formula E so that we don't see the poor drivers pushing their race cars the mile or so back to the pits (which increases rather than reduces our electric range anxiety).

The fundamental problems that caused electric cars the fail the first time -- lack of capacity and charging time -- remain their biggest problems today. If electrics are to win this time, these problems must get top priority.

Wrapping Up

For a time, I was the lead battery analyst in the U.S. One of the problems that we are dealing with currently is that we went decades without advancing battery technology significantly. Much of the advancement has been in the last 20 years.

Gas, however, has had near constant advancement for the entire century. The result is that battery power is massively behind, but always one or two breakthroughs from breaking out.

A big current concern is that if Tesla fails, so does its charging network. One of its biggest mistakes was making its superchargers cost centers rather than profit centers so they could be spun out or sold at some point. (It likely still could that, but the superchargers would need to be adapted to also charge non-Tesla cars, particularly if Tesla failed).

So, while electrics certainly are better than they were a century ago, so are gas cars. If gas cars get much better, electrics once again will become redundant, and given that I'm buying one, I'd rather that didn't happen. Just saying...

20/04/2018

Dogs could be more similar to humans than we thought
Date:
April 19, 2018
Source:
BioMed Central
Summary:
Dog and human gut microbiomes have more similar genes and responses to diet than we previously thought, according to a new study

Dr Luis Pedro Coelho and colleagues from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, in collaboration with Nestlé Research, evaluated the gut microbiome of two dog breeds and found that the gene content of the dogs microbiome showed many similarities to the human gut microbiome, and was more similar to humans than the microbiome of pigs or mice.

Dr Luis Pedro Coelho, corresponding author of the study, commented: "We found many similarities between the gene content of the human and dog gut microbiomes. The results of this comparison suggest that we are more similar to man's best friend than we originally thought."

The researchers found that changes in the amount of protein and carbohydrates in the diet had a similar effect on the microbiota of dogs and humans, independent of the dog's breed or s*x. The microbiomes of overweight or obese dogs were found to be more responsive to a high protein diet compared to microbiomes of lean dogs; this is consistent with the idea that healthy microbiomes are more resilient.

Dr Luis Pedro Coelho, commented: "These findings suggest that dogs could be a better model for nutrition studies than pigs or mice and we could potentially use data from dogs to study the impact of diet on gut microbiota in humans, and humans could be a good model to study the nutrition of dogs.

"Many people who have pets consider them as part of the family and like humans, dogs have a growing obesity problem. Therefore, it is important to study the implications of different diets."

The researchers investigated how diet interacted with the dog gut microbiome with a randomized controlled trial using a sample of 64 dogs, half of which were beagles and half were retrievers, with equal numbers of lean and overweight dogs. The dogs were all fed the same base diet of commercially available dog food for four weeks then they were randomized into two groups; one group consumed a high protein, low carb diet and the other group consumed a high carb, low protein diet for four weeks. A total of 129 dog stool samples were collected at four and eight weeks. The researchers then extracted DNA from these samples to create the dog gut microbiome gene catalogue containing 1,247,405 genes. The dog gut gene catalogue was compared to existing gut microbiome gene catalogues from humans, mice and pigs to assess the similarities in gene content and how the gut microbiome responds to changes in diet.

The authors caution that while humans and dogs host very similar microbes, they are not exactly the same microbes, but very closely related strains of the same species.

20/04/2018

Male contraceptive compound stops s***m without affecting hormones: Study in monkeys
In preclinical tests, researchers have shown how a new compound can immobilize s***m temporarily without side effects
Date:
April 19, 2018
Source:
University of North Carolina Health Care
Summary:
A new study details how a compound called EP055 binds to s***m proteins to significantly slow the overall mobility of the s***m without affecting hormones, making EP055 a potential 'male pill' without side effects.

"Simply put, the compound turns-off the s***m's ability to swim, significantly limiting fertilization capabilities," said lead investigator Michael O'Rand, PhD, retired professor of cell biology and physiology in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and president/CEO of Eppin Pharma, Inc. "This makes EP055 an ideal candidate for non-hormonal male contraception."

Currently, condoms and surgical vasectomy are the only safe forms of birth control currently available for men. There are hormonal drugs in clinical trials that target the production of s***m, but these affect the natural hormones in men much like female contraceptives affect hormones in women.

During the study, thirty hours following a high-dose intravenous infusion of EP055 in male rhesus macaques, O'Rand and researchers in the Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, found no indication of normal s***m motility. Further, no physical side effects were observed.

"At 18 days post-infusion, all macaques showed signs of complete recovery, suggesting that the EP055 compound is indeed reversible," said study co-investigator Mary Zelinski, PhD, research associate professor at the ONPRC at OHSU and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine.

O'Rand and Zelinski indicate that more work is needed before EP055 becomes available for human use. They and their teams have begun to test a pill form of the compound and will eventually conduct a mating trial of EP055's effectiveness against pregnancy.

20/04/2018

We think we're the first advanced earthlings -- but how do we really know?
Date:
April 16, 2018
Source:
University of Rochester
Summary:
Imagine if, many millions of years ago, dinosaurs drove cars through cities of mile-high buildings. A preposterous idea, right? In a compelling thought experiment, scientists wonder how we would truly know if there were a past civilization so advanced that it left little or no trace of its impact on the planet.

It's a compelling thought experiment, and one that Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, and Gavin Schmidt, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, take up in a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

"Gavin and I have not seen any evidence of another industrial civilization," Frank explains. But by looking at the deep past in the right way, a new set of questions about civilizations and the planet appear: What geological footprints do civilizations leave? Is it possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record once it disappears from the face of its host planet? "These questions make us think about the future and the past in a much different way, including how any planetary-scale civilization might rise and fall."

In what they deem the "Silurian Hypothesis," Frank and Schmidt define a civilization by its energy use. Human beings are just entering a new geological era that many researchers refer to as the Anthropocene, the period in which human activity strongly influences the climate and environment. In the Anthropocene, fossil fuels have become central to the geological footprint humans will leave behind on Earth. By looking at the Anthropocene's imprint, Schmidt and Frank examine what kinds of clues future scientists might detect to determine that human beings existed. In doing so, they also lay out evidence of what might be left behind if industrial civilizations like ours existed millions of years in the past.

Human beings began burning fossil fuels more than 300 years ago, marking the beginnings of industrialization. The researchers note that the emission of fossil fuels into the atmosphere has already changed the carbon cycle in a way that is recorded in carbon isotope records. Other ways human beings might leave behind a geological footprint include:

Global warming, from the release of carbon dioxide and perturbations to the nitrogen cycle from fertilizers
Agriculture, through greatly increased erosion and sedimentation rates
Plastics, synthetic pollutants, and even things such as steroids, which will be geochemically detectable for millions, and perhaps even billions, of years
Nuclear war, if it happened, which would leave behind unusual radioactive isotopes
"As an industrial civilization, we're driving changes in the isotopic abundances because we're burning carbon," Frank says. "But burning fossil fuels may actually shut us down as a civilization. What imprints would this or other kinds of industrial activity from a long dead civilization leave over tens of millions of years?"

The questions raised by Frank and Schmidt are part of a broader effort to address climate change from an astrobiological perspective, and a new way of thinking about life and civilizations across the universe. Looking at the rise and fall of civilizations in terms of their planetary impacts can also affect how researchers approach future explorations of other planets.

"We know early Mars and, perhaps, early Venus were more habitable than they are now, and conceivably we will one day drill through the geological sediments there, too," Schmidt says. "This helps us think about what we should be looking for."

Schmidt points to an irony, however: if a civilization is able to find a more sustainable way to produce energy without harming its host planet, it will leave behind less evidence that it was there.

"You want to have a nice, large-scale civilization that does wonderful things but that doesn't push the planet into domains that are dangerous for itself, the civilization," Frank says. "We need to figure out a way of producing and using energy that doesn't put us at risk."

That said, the earth will be just fine, Frank says. It's more a question of whether humans will be.

Can we create a version of civilization that doesn't push the earth into a domain that's dangerous for us as a species?

"The point is not to 'save the earth,'" says Frank. "No matter what we do to the planet, we're just creating niches for the next cycle of evolution. But, if we continue on this trajectory of using fossil fuels and ignoring the climate change it drives, we human beings may not be part of Earth's ongoing evolution."

20/04/2018

Dinosaurs ended -- and originated -- with a bang!
Date:
April 16, 2018
Source:
University of Bristol
Summary:
It is commonly understood that the dinosaurs disappeared with a bang -- wiped out by a great meteorite impact on the Earth 66 million years ago. But their origins have been less understood. In a new study, scientists show that the key expansion of dinosaurs was also triggered by a crisis -- a mass extinction that happened 232 million years ago.

It is commonly understood that the dinosaurs disappeared with a bang -- wiped out by a great meteorite impact on the Earth 66 million years ago.

But their origins have been less understood. In a new study, scientists from MUSE -- Museum of Science, Trento, Italy, Universities of Ferrara and Padova, Italy and the University of Bristol show that the key expansion of dinosaurs was also triggered by a crisis -- a mass extinction that happened 232 million years ago.

In the new paper, published today in Nature Communications, evidence is provided to match the two events -- the mass extinction, called the Carnian Pluvial Episode, and the initial diversification of dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs had originated much earlier, at the beginning of the Triassic Period, some 245 million years ago, but they remained very rare until the shock events in the Carnian 13 million years later.

The new study shows just when dinosaurs took over by using detailed evidence from rock sequences in the Dolomites, in north Italy -- here the dinosaurs are detected from their footprints.

First there were no dinosaur tracks, and then there were many. This marks the moment of their explosion, and the rock successions in the Dolomites are well dated. Comparison with rock successions in Argentina and Brazil, here the first extensive skeletons of dinosaurs occur, show the explosion happened at the same time there as well.

Lead author Dr Massimo Bernardi, Curator at MUSE and Research associate at Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said: "We were excited to see that the footprints and skeletons told the same story. We had been studying the footprints in the Dolomites for some time, and it's amazing how clear cut the change from 'no dinosaurs' to 'all dinosaurs' was."

The point of explosion of dinosaurs matches the end of the Carnian Pluvial Episode, a time when climates shuttled from dry to humid and back to dry again.

It was long suspected that this event had caused upheavals among life on land and in the sea, but the details were not clear. Then, in 2015, dating of rock sections and measurement of oxygen and carbon values showed just what had happened.

There were massive eruptions in western Canada, represented today by the great Wrangellia basalts -- these drove bursts of global warming, acid rain, and killing on land and in the oceans.

Co-author Piero Gianolla, from the University of Ferrara, added: "We had detected evidence for the climate change in the Dolomites. There were four pulses of warming and climate perturbation, all within a million years or so. This must have led to repeated extinctions."

Professor Mike Benton, also a co-author, from the University of Bristol, said: "The discovery of the existence of a link between the first diversification of dinosaurs and a global mass extinction is important.

"The extinction didn't just clear the way for the age of the dinosaurs, but also for the origins of many modern groups, including lizards, crocodiles, turtles, and mammals -- key land animals today."

Science Practical Research Team

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