Nuclear Navy and It's Influence on Society Essay

Nuclear Navy and It's Influence on Society - Essay Example Today, more than 15% of the world's electricity comes from nuclear power, more than 150 nuclear-powered naval vessels have been built, and a few radioisotope rockets have been produced. As of 2005, nuclear power provided 6.3% of the world's energy and 15% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for 56.5% of nuclear generated electricity. As of 2007, the IAEA reported there are 439'nuclear power reactors in operation in the world operating in 31'countries. The United States produces the most nuclear energy, with nuclear power providing 19% of the electricity it consumes, while France produces the highest percentage of its electrical energy from nuclear reactors-78% as of 2006. In the European Union as a whole, nuclear energy provides 30% of the electricity. In comparison, France has a large number of these plants, with 16 multi-unit stations in current use. "Fission reactions involve the breakup of the nucleus of high-mass atoms and yield an energy release which is more than a million fold greater than that obtained from chemical reactions involving the burning of a fuel. Successful control of the nuclear fission reactions utilizes this intensive source of energy"( Nuclear Power). Enrico Fermi, in 1934 conducted the nuclear fission reaction successfully by bombarding Uranium nucleus ( U235) with fast moving neutrons. Otto Hahn, German chemist in 1938, along with Fritz Strassmann, Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch conducted the same experiments and they found out the chain reaction which causes the liberation of additional neutrons when U235 bombarded with neutrons. The liberated neutrons collide with other uranium nuclei and the process repeated as a chain. In each collision of the neutron with the nucleus, large amount of energy liberated which is multiplied through the chain reaction. The problem the scientists faced was how to con trol the chain reaction and thereby control the energy liberated. In 1942, in United States, Enrico Fermi and Szilard made the first man made nuclear reactor Chicago Pile -1 which was a part of the famous Manhattan Project. After the World War 2 the researches on nuclear energy increased and most of them were aimed to use for military purpose. Electricity was generated from a reactor for the first time in 1951. In 1952 President Truman ordered for aggressive research on solar energy instead of nuclear energy. But in 1953 President Eisenhower set the US on a course of strong government support for international use of nuclear power through his famous statement of "Atoms for Peace". Calder Hall nuclear power station in England was the first nuclear power station to Nuclear '. on Society 3 produce electricity commercially. The Shipping port Atomic Power Station in Shipping port, Pennsylvania was the first commercial reactor in the USA and was opened in 1957. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover U.S. Navy was one of the first organizations to develop nuclear power for the purpose of propelling submarines and aircraft carriers. It has a good record in nuclear safety, perhaps because of the stern demands of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who was the driving force behind nuclear marine propulsion as well as the Shipping port Reactor. "Admiral, Hyman Rickover, the Father of the

Biomolecular techniques (bitter taste perception of Research Paper

Biomolecular techniques (bitter taste perception of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) - Research Paper Example al, sensitivity to PTC seems to be inherited via Mendelian traits constituting two alleles: T for the taster and the nontaster- t; however in reality it is a complicated inheritance aspect. Today it is known that the sensitivity to PTC is mediated by a gene identified the TAS2R38 or PTC gene that encodes a receptor for bitter taste ( coupled receptor heteromeric G-protein) that is located on the tongue’s surface cells. The analysis focused on determining the presence or absence of the PTC gene amongst a group of 108 students. The results were compared to European and Sub-Saharan cohorts. It was found that he resulted closely matched to those of the European results (ABRF 96: Biomolecular Techniques. An International Symposium Sponsored by The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities, 1996). There have been additional PTC gene studies in humans around the world which have shown that exist two main alleles, the taster and nontaster. However, five other uncommon alleles that have an effect on the taster phenotype have been revealed. These varying gene code forms for proteins differ in their being able to bind to PTC and other bitter compounds. The two main PTC gene alleles differ from each other by three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as shown in the figure 1. SNPs are representative of the simplest genetic variation type found in individuals. SNP in a genome refers to an exact location where diverse groups of people have differing nucleotides. If more than 1% percent of any given population possess different base thin a specific location, then that location is termed as an SNP. If a population has less than 1% possessing a different base, then it is termed as a mutation (Arimoto, 2005). The common allele for nontaster (also referred to as haplotype) has a position 145 G nucleotide (G145), position 785 T nucleotide (T785) and position 886 A nucleotide (A886). The nontaster allele generates polypeptides with isoleucine, valine and alanine at these