如何自製除臭劑與芳香劑....?

(原文記錄於 Jan-4-2010)

Nathan: 對了~Alex兄~最近咱家旅館煙癮重的客人變多了~加上天氣冷又潮濕~那整個煙味都附著在房間很難消去~如果我想節省成本自個兒去化工行調配芳香劑~你能給點建議嗎?

Alex: 這個問題大致上可以分成三個部分來回答:
(1). 自製除臭劑
(2). 自製芳香劑
(3). 自製香精(精油,香水)
我認為自行製作的最大好處不是在省錢, 而是在純天然和安全.早期化工製備的除臭劑多含 Aluminum powder, 芳香劑則多含 paraben 類的化合物這些東西在人體內累積到一定劑量後就是 neurotoxic. 對人體有害! (Paraben: 是對基苯類的芳香烃化合物)
以下簡單說明一下替代品與如何自行製作:
(1). 除臭劑部分: 可以用 Baking Soda (NaHCO3 碳酸氫鈉) 又叫蘇打粉來代替, 它就是最好的除臭劑. 所有的衣服毛巾床單等等在洗滌之前先在蘇打粉溶液中浸泡半小時以上, 蘇打粉溶液濃度自行斟酌使用. 地毯清潔洗液也可加入蘇打粉 , 也可以用不織布作成囊袋, 內裝填蘇打粉與極少許的活性碳粉成自製的除臭包放置在有潮濕霉味菸味等異味處吸臭與吸濕, 等到粉末結成塊狀後, 先分離掉活性碳顆粒, 剩餘蘇打粉部分再拿去洗衣服用, 可保不浪費!
(2). 芳香劑部分: 將市售的精油混入70%的酒精中 (比例自行斟酌, 精油比例越高越香濃而已) 倒入噴瓶, 看你用哪種精油就是哪種香味! 如果連市售香精油部分都不 trust 的話, 就自己來萃取提煉, 這樣就要繼續往下看第三點.
(3). 自製香精部分: 這個技術英文叫作 Fragrant Potpourri, 網上有很多資料你可以自行參考. 這裡我教你一個最簡單的方法, 連不懂化學的白癡都學得會. 基本上就是酒精萃取, 再加上洋菜膠作為固體基質, 作好後(像果凍)可以放置到床底桌腳等暗處讓其慢慢恢發, 等到乾掉後再加水重新熬煮(就是重複使用洋菜膠之意).

以芸香科植物的香精提煉為例: 去收集柚子皮與橘子皮與檸檬皮等等, 越多越好! 材料混合比例: 含香精的植物果皮 (或花卉) 30 克, 95% 酒精 100 cc, 市售洋菜粉 (Agarose Powder) 4 克, 水 300 cc

製作步驟:
(A) 先將植物果皮部分切成塊或絲, 泡在 95% 酒精中放置一夜後, 丟掉果皮等固體, 僅留液體等待下一步驟
(B) 將 Agarose Powder 倒入水中開始加熱熬煮至 Agarose Powder 完全溶解呈透明狀
(C) 此時倒入 A 步驟的酒精萃取液並完全攪拌混勻, 酒精成分就藉由高溫讓其揮發掉
(D) 然後分批倒進布丁盒中, 靜置冷卻到凝固即可完成 (Agarose 乾掉後可以 re-use)

白人, 黑人, 黃人 ..... 我們真的都是一家人!!

(原文記錄於 Feb-10-2010)

從 DNA Sequence 上來看, 地球上所有的人類都是同一個品種. 五官體態等外型上的差異, 純粹是長期的環境適應(包括地形與氣候)與後天營養調適所累積的結果. 遺傳的影響只在兩代之間, 但地理氣候與後天營養卻能逐漸累積變異最後大幅改變人種的外貌. 首先地理環境與氣候型態就決定了生存在該環境人類的生活型態, 像是覓食能力, 食物種類, 勞動條件, 疾病種類, 生存競爭, 與擇偶標準等等, 而這些條件加總起來, 就是當地特有的基因選汰函數 (selection function), 會決定哪些適應較佳的外表基因可以有更多的 copy number 遺傳下去! 遺傳的目的其實是在確保子代與親代之間的不變, 我們都誤以為要挑一個外型佳的配偶來改變我們下一代的外型, 其實真正能型塑我們外表的是地理氣候與後天營養, 只是這種型塑要經過幾百年至少五代之後才看得出來! 眼睛大小, 鼻軟骨翹度, 膚色深淺, 毛髮分佈與濃密度, 角皮質組成與厚度(膚質), 嘴巴裂度, 耳盤彎度等等, 這些全部是長期累積的環境適應結果! 所以千百年下來住在同一個地理位置的民族, 大家彼此之間拿到的外表基因其實都差不多, 這就是所謂的民族風貌長相印痕, 互相婚配之後的下一代有些眼睛大ㄧ些有些小ㄧ些, 或其他五官上的小差異等等, 大部分是胚胎發育時的營養條件所造成! 所以不要對什麼歹竹出好筍的現象感到奇怪, 因為只要社會整體衛生與營養條件都上升, 子代ㄧ般都會發育的比上一代好!

The Brainwave

The β-brainwave (13~38 Hz) dominates our consciousness when awake. θ-brainwave (4~7 Hz) reflects our subconsciousness & dreaming. δ-brainwave (0.5~3 Hz) reflects our unconsciousness. The α-brainwave (8~12 Hz) plays a role of bridging our sub- & consciousness to develop our Extra Sensory Perception & Psychokinesis. The α-brainwave will be largely decreased when we are eye-opened and getting older. Meditation can help us to convert our β-brainwave to α-brainwave.
Simply saying, slow down the biorhythms of your brain.

GFAJ-1 Strain

The most recent and biggest news to the academic community has came from NASA these days. They just announced the evidences of new life form and claimed the GFAJ-1 strain can live under the environment without Phosphorus but using Arsenic instead. To me they still haven't shown the direct evidence that Arsenic directly replaced the P in phosphodiester bond of DNA backbone, ATP and other molecules.
Not only for lacking of direct evidence (eventhough the isotope labelling showed the radioactivity came with nucleic acid fraction together, it could still be interpreted as a contamination), it is also still arguable about the stability of As-O bond. From chemical viewpoint, the As-O bond is very unstable and much weaker than P-O bond. Really don't know how does this tiny creature work with Arsenic.

The strongest superacid in the Earth

Fluoroantimonic acid (the mixture of HF and SbF5) is the strongest known superacid (much stronger than Aqua Regia), which can almost protonate all known organic compounds. If mixing it with water then it will cause explosion immediately.

Movies "Wall Street I & II"

Alex: Just finished watching two movies, the "Wall Street I" and "Wall Street II (Money Never Sleeps)". Ironically the actor's lines of "Wall Street I" is even still very true today especially in the aftermath of "Financial Tsunami". Those who invented and designed varied financial products and derivatives are all graduated from excellent schools such as the department of mathematics of MIT etc. Wrongly using their intelligence and gradually become extremely selfish and greedy opportunists after soaked into the dye-vat of wall street. I oppose Communism but I do prefer the role that Martin Sheen played in "Wall Street I" and the words he said in the end.
Alex: Gordon Gekko said "Greedy is good". Moral Hazard is turning the nation into evil empire.

Mario: Greed is never satisfied, and that is why... greed is bad!

New method in developing biomarkers for early diagnosis of diseases

Combinatory Chemistry is becoming a powerful tool in developing new theraputic & diagnostic agents. Similar to the inhibitory RNA aptamer against botulinum neurotoxin that I screened, the "peptoids library (artificially synthetic molecules)" has been recently screened to identify the potential candidates that stimulate more IgG binding in patietns than that in healthy person. Simply saying, you can inject the same peptoid into a "normal:diseased" pair of animals/human. If the immune system of the tested animals/human triggered an equal amount of IgG against the injected peptoid in both healthy and diseased group then this peptoid is useless. Therefore you can discard it and try the next peptoid candidate. You just keep repeating this process till you can find a peptoid candidate that trigger the immune system of diseased animal/human to produce at least three-fold higher levels of IgG than that in healthy animal/human. Thus this peptoid candidate becomes an useful biomarker to be used in early diagnosis of disease onset in other potential patients. Under this concept the identification of antigens of diseases become non-revelant. You don't even need to know the antigens of the immune response first. This new method can be applied in the early diagnosis of many neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease and so on.