Enzymes are catalysts. Most are proteins. Enzymes bind temporarily to one or more of the reactants of the reaction they catalyze.

In doing so, they lower the amount of activation energy needed and thus speed up the reaction.

Like all catalysts, enzymes take part in the reaction - that is how they provide an alternative reaction pathway.

But they do not undergo permanent changes and so remain unchanged at the end of the reaction.

Hologram Basics

Holograms are images capable of recording 3D information on a flat piece of film by using the interference of light, typically laser light.

While a picture captures one image of a scene, a hologram can capture thousands of images from a scene. This is what you are seeing when you look at a 3D scene: as you “look around” the object, you see many different images of the object, each from a different point of view.

Because a hologram can capture more than just one image, it is capable of replaying the many different points of view, giving you the “look around” effect of 3D. A hologram can also use these many different captured images to create motion, as well as 3D.

Self-Cleaning Glass uses the forces of nature to maintain its clear appearance without leaving unsightly streaks. In a dual-action process organic dirt is broken down by daylight and is then washed away by rain, thus making it environmentally friendly and very easy to maintain.

The benefits of self-cleaning glass are numerous. If you clean your own windows you will save time and energy as the coating on self-cleaning glass will eventually break down even the heaviest deposits of organic dirt; if you currently employ a window cleaner, you’ll save money to spend on things you really enjoy. Self-Cleaning Glass can also be combined with a range of different products to offer many additional benefits (such as thermal, solar and noise control).

Nanotechnology has been labelled as either a great saviour or a great danger for society. On the one hand nanotechnology has been proposed as beneficial for technology, the environment and human health, while on the other hand as one of the greatest dangers to the modern world. What is the reality of nanotechnology?

On the one hand nanotechnology has been proposed as an answer for new computing technologies, new ways of cleaning the environment and new methods for improving people’s health…

On the other hand nanotechnology has been described as one of the greatest dangers to the modern world, as dangerous as thalidomide, which will turn the world into “grey-goo”. Some reports have even described nanotechnology as one of the top ten things most likely to end the human race.

”Grey Goo” Not just science fiction; this is science fantasy. Self-replicating nanobots are imaginary devices which turn everything around them into exact copies of themselves. If let loose, they will be able to convert all matter around them into copies of themselves, so creating a seething grey goo of self-replicating nanobots. An idea introduced in a booki by Eric Drexler and popularized by Prince Charles among others, but remains completely imaginary.

”Green Goo” Grey goo’s environmantal cousin and equally imaginary. Where as grey goo involves nano-sized, self-replicating machines, green goo involves nano-sized, self-replicating, biological machines which may behave in inpredictable and uncontrollable ways.

What is ‘nanotechnology’?

It is the science of the very, very small. Virtually any science that involves understanding the world at the atomic level. Manipulating material on the scale of atoms and molecules. ‘Precision chemistry’, a ‘bottom-up’ approach that starts with atoms and builds them up into the compnants that you need, rather than whittling small componants form larger objects.

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced.

About Nanotechnology… Science working across the boundaries of the traditional academic areas such as physics, chemistry and biology. Derived from the word ‘nano’ meaning ‘dwarf’ in Greek Investigating lots of new properties of materials which the have at such small sizes. These properties can be used in all sorts of ways, designing materials to possess added strength or heat resistance, which can then be used to improve on old industries such as medicine, energy storage and computing. Not just man-made -  there are natural nanoscale machines inside every cell in our body, converting the food you eat into energy, or reading your DNA. Engineering at the molecular level on scales of a billionth of a metre.

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