5 Inventions that shape the way we live.

5.The Compass

Originally invented in China between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century, the first compasses where made of suspend-able pieces of magnetised iron ore. The freely suspended iron ore would always point to the magnetic poles helping people to navigate and pin point there location. 

4.The Telephone.

In 1831 Michael Faraday came up with the basic principles in communicating with telephones but in 1861, Johann Reis a German inventor who built a system that converted sound into a series of electrical impulses at different frequencies then converted the electrical impulses back,creating sound. Around 1876 Alexander Bell experimented with the idea which is now known as the telephone. Alexander started his telephone company called Bell Telephone Company and developed mobile technology in 1924 manipulating it until cells would be put in mobile phones around 1983, creating a steady communication link between people using them.

3.The Internet.

The internet is simply a Huge global networking system connecting thousand even millions of smaller networks together. The internet model was formed in 1973 American computer scientist, Vinton Cerf. The design of the internet was complete in 1973 and published in 1974. People using the internet peaked to over 25 million by 1996. The internet has truly revolutionised the world, allowing us to bring a endless vault of knowledge straight to our front door.

2.The Light Bulb.

The inventor of the first electrical light was a English man called Humphry Davy, whilst the man credited for inventing the light bulb is Thomas Edison. In 1987 Edison created a bulb with a carbon filament contained in a oxygen free glass bulb that would not expire for over 1,500 hours. William David Coolidge was the man who mastered the design to the light bulb by changing the carbon filament to a tungsten filament, the bulb would last much longer.

1.Penicillin

Discovered by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928. Alexander said he came across the mould when a Petri dish had been left unattended nearby a open window. Growth of some sort had formed on the open dish which just happened to be penicillin. Our understanding of the mould grew significantly and is vastly used around the world to help fight off negative bacteria that affects our body. 

Healthy foods and drinks that turn out to be not so healthy.

Fat Free Foods.

Fat Free products can be deemed as being healthy for you but this doesn't mean to say they are. The fat extracted from fat free products is replaced with a load of sugar to help improve the flavour. So your intake of calories when eating these "fat free foods" stays the same if not becomes higher as does the levels of sugar in your body. 

Dried Fruit.

When fruit is dried out to keep for a longer period of time it looses a lot of valuable vitamins and minerals. The dried fruit is seasoned with sugar to hide the original bland taste of the fruit. Dehydrated fruit does not provide your body with the vitamins and minerals it needs whilst at the same time increasing your sugar levels. Better off sticking to a fresh piece of fruit.

Granola.

This cereal filled with oats, nuts, honey and rice will increase your diet with a load of sugars and Trans fats. Large portions of Granola over a period of time is not good for your health and can increase the risk of you having heart disease or a stroke.

Diet Drinks.

Instead of sugar, diet drinks are filled with artificial sweeteners which can mislead people into believing that diet drinks can help you loose weight and should prevent diseases like diabetes. But this is not the case. Artificial sweeteners triggers the body to release insulin which can lead to weight gain rather than weight lose. Diet drinks are also very acidic and can cause irreversible damage to the enamel which protects your teeth from harmful chemical and high temperatures. A study published in 2008 followed 9,514 people around for 9 years who drank diet drinks. The study showed that people who drink artificial sweetened drinks have 36% more risk of becoming diabetic.

Health/Energy Bars.

Thought to be the perfect workout snack some health/energy bars are good for us while a lot of them aren't. Some contain very high sugar levels along side saturated fats which can clog up arteries. Specifically meal replacement bars contain these high levels and are best to be avoided.

Energy Drinks.

Energy drinks such as Monster, Red Bull and RockStar contain certain herbs and vitamins that can cause long term side affects on your body which aren't fully understood yet.The most common ingredient found in these drinks is caffeine, too much of it can cause heart palpitations and can create a irregular heart beat. Some people can even become tired after consuming too much energy juice due to the body constantly producing energy. High sugar levels are also found in these drinks increasing the risk of diabetes. So long as energy drinks are used responsibly these side affects are most likely to be avoided. I know of two older men who had a bet on with each other that one of them couldn't drink 6 large cans of Monster in under 1 hour. The man who accepted the challenge had drunk 4 cans of this energy juice in about 30 minutes and began to complain that his heart beat was racing uncontrollably and that he thought he was going to die. I watched him do this first hand advising him with other people not to go ahead with this. He went to a local chemists/ Drug store to see if there was anything he could take or do to slow down the rate of his heart. Unfortunately for him there was nothing and he had to deal with what he had just put in his body. Luckily enough the effects died down and he regained full control of his body. This stuff in my opinion should be totally avoided and has to be taken very seriously.

Frozen Foods.

Food can be frozen to help increase the products life span. During the freezing process foods loose a large amount of vitamins and minerals. So if you are on a strict diet of frozen fruit and veg it is suggested that you also take vitamin supplements along side your meals. It is usually frozen fruit and veg which cause the most problems in our diets. Many frozen meals also have small amounts of calories which can lead to unhealthy snacking and may cause difficulties in controlling your weight size. If you use frozen foods it is recommended that you should avoid low calorie frozen meals or if you do choose to buy them make sure that they are low in sodium (salt). High amounts of salt in your diet can cause your body to hold extra water it doesn't need causing high blood pressure which may lead to heart disease or a stroke.

Fruit Juice.

I'm sure if you were to go into a shop and pick up some juice labelled 100% Fresh you would assume it was good for you. Tropicana for example is a huge leader in producing orange juice. How can every single bottle they produce be fresh? Well hears the secret. After the oranges have been squeezed dry the fruit juice left over is stored in massive holding tanks where the oxygen is removed from the juice to increase the time it can be held for. After a period of time the juice left in the tank starts to taste very bland so "flavour packs" are added to the mixture. Flavour packs are made from orange essence and oils and are made by flavour and fragrance companies, the same companies who make perfume for Doir and Calvin Klein. The flavour packs are added to the tanks to enhanace the flavour of the juice making it seem "fresh". You would be better off just eating a bit of fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Fruit juice can contain just as much or sometimes more sugar and calories than fizzy/soft drinks. The large amounts of sugars out way the small amounts of vitamins and minerals our body receives when we drink fresh juice.

The Veil Nebula.

Western Veil Nebula

A massive cloud made of super heated gas and dust found in the constellation of Cygnus located around 1,500 light years away from Earth. A supernova remnant between 5,000 and 8,000 years old. Made up mostly of Sulphur, Hydrogen and oxygen the image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope but was first discovered by William Herschel on the 5th of September 1784. The veil nebula is so large that it has been broken down into three separate visual component parts, the western veil, the eastern veil and Pickering's Triangle all together make up to be one of the brightest features in the sky .

Eastern Veil Nebula

Pickering's Triangle

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille - The French Astronomer

Nicolas was born on the 29th of December 1713 in Rumigny, France. He attended a school in Mantes-sur-Seine in France and later was to become a member of the French Abbey. Nicolas always had a strong attraction towards science and astronomy so he set out in 1739 to remeasure the French arc of the meridian which was the length of France from one point to another. This of coarse was a huge accomplishment at the time therefore Nicolas was rewarded to attend the Royal Academy of Sciences and was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the Mazarin College at the University of Paris. He published a number of popular textbooks at the time but set out on a adventure in 1750 to the western cape of South Africa where he was helped by others to construct a observatory on the flattened top of a mountain. After two years of studying day and night Nicolas catalogued over 10,000 stars,42 nebulae and introduced 14 new constellations. In 1754 

Nicolas was elected as foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and was also a dedicated member of the Academies of Saint Petersburg and Berlin, the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Gottingen. In 1762 Nicolas died of natural causes and was buried in the vaults of the Mazarin College. It is said that he made more observations and calculations than all astronomers of his time put together. There is even a crater on the Moon named after him named La Caille.

The Red Spider Nebula.

NGC 6573 located 5,000 light years away from earth found in the constellation of Sagittarius. A White Dwarf Star sits in the centre of the Nebula releasing strong winds at over 300 kilometres per second, forming shock waves over 100 billion kilometres high. The White Dwarf Star emits gas and energy from either side of it poles, this along side the stars core releasing strong winds forms the shape of the Nebula. The Star is said to be between 250,000K 500,000K putting it among the hottest White Dwarf Stars known.
NGC6573 (The Red Spider Nebula) was captured by the New Technology Telescope at La Silla Observatory situated on the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert.

Beta Pictoris

Found 63.4 light years away from our solar system Beta Pictoris is a massive Star similar to our own Sun. Estimated to be around 15 million years of age located in the constellation of Pictor, shining about 8 times the luminosity of our sun and is roughly twice its size. Beta Pictoris is thought to have formed due to the sudden collapse of a huge gas cloud, roughly 15 million years later the planet now stands at roughly 1.8 solar masses detailed observations revealed that a debris disk made up of gas and dust is orbiting around the Star. There is enough evidence to suggest that planet formation may be taking place within the disk whilst it has been confirmed that a planet within the debris disk named Beta Pictoris B does orbit around the star. Beta Pictoris B itself is a massive planet, around 2 twice the size of Jupiter and spins 100 times faster than Earth at speeds over 1,700 KMPH. A day on the planet Beta Pictoris B would only last 8 hours.  

Some of the worlds largest man made structures.

5. Burj Khalifa. 

The Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper located in Dubai recorded as the tallest building in the world since 2010. Construction of the building started on the 6th of January 2004 and was complete on the 30th of December 2009, open to the public on the 4th of January 2010. The building consists of 211 levels, 58 elevators and a overall floor area of around 3,331,100sq cubic feet. The skyscraper stands 829.8 meters in height and is estimated to cost around 1.5 billion dollars. 

4. The Great Wall Of China. 

The great wall of China over 2,000 years old, built across the northern border of China around 221BC to help protect the Chinese empires from oncoming raids and attacks. Starting with only a few wall fortifications made up of stone, earth and wood to further be joined together with most of the wall being built between 1368 and 1644. The wall was constructed throughout many dynasties reaching a total length of 13,170 miles.

3. Boeing Everett Facility.

The largest building in the world by a measure of volume. Opened around 1945 as a air-plane assembly factory producing the Boeing model aircraft on 98.3 acres of land with a volume around
13,400,000 meters cubed.

2. Atlantis PQ.

The Atlantis Platform is the deepest moored floating oil and gas production facility in the world. BP owns 56 % of the Atlantis Platform whilst the other 44% is owned by BHB Billiton. The platform stays afloat in water depths around 7,900ft deep. Weighing over 58,000 tons the platform can hold up to 200,000 barrels of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas a day.

1. Tuatona Mine 

The Gold mine is located in Carltonville, South Africa. The shaft was blown away in 1957 and mining began in 1962. It is one of three gold mines found on the west wits gold field owned by AngloGold Ashanti. The deepest of the three shafts is western deep number 3 shaft, also known as the tuatona mine. At 2.4 miles deep, the tuatona mine is the world deepest mining facility. The lift that takes workers from the bottom back to the top travels around 36 mph, including trips along horizontal tracks with trolleys, it is estimated to take around 1 hour for workers to get back out.