What I learned...

The first blog I visited was Jen's, whose topic focuses on the the combustion of alkali metals in water. I learned that all reactions are rather violent, and increasingly so as one progresses down the alkali column of the Periodic Table. What causes the reaction is that an alkali metal reacts with water to produce and alkali hydroxide and hydrogen gas, and in the course of the reaction an intense amount of heat is formed and released. This heat combusts with the hydrogen gas which results in the combustion of the entire alkali metal. All interesting stuff.

The next blog I visited was Sandra's, who is writing on farming and using organic and chemicals methods as fertilizers, insect repellents and other farm-stuff. She writes about organic farming versus farming using man-made chemicals. She pointed out that organic farming is not as safe and non-hazardous as we are often lead to believe. Massive quantities of natural chemicals can be dangerous as shown in insect repelling rotenone which has been linked to Parkinson's Disease. While chemical treatments for plants are very effective, insects will eventually develop immunity to these chemicals. More int'restin' stuff.

The final blog I visited was Rick's which was on combustion engines. It was very interesting reading about the process of how a combustion engine works and powers a car, which is called the Otto cycle. What I thought was very interesting was that ethanol, which is often mixed with gasoline, produces a more efficient and cleaner reaction.