Earth materials in technology The National – The National

GEOSCIENCEMichael Uglo

By MICHAEL JOHN UGLOWELCOME all to our sixth lecture on the sciences of the earth.The sciences of the earth also involve living things of all sorts that contribute to the formation of the earth and its earth structures through geologic time.Hence working smarter in this time we call the technology age, we have to make greater use of what is available rather than letting it to the earth to allow the earths natural processes to take place through the lithification processes whereby once-living matter and non-living matter such as silts, shells, sediments and bones are turned into rocks.Materials in the living world are a major source of materials and resources that can be used applications to do with biogeotechnology or geobiotechnology in both the commutative and associative as well in their applications.For instance, in the biology of evolutionary applications, it is the huge area of biotechnology and genetic engineering that are a resource on the earth. Natural selection and genetic drift result in the species and populations of organisms and biodiversity seen on the planet earth both in the past for extinct life and in the present.

As a link, people have been doing artificial selections of organisms for so many years to contain the favourable characters of the organisms. There were cross-breedings done in plants to produce hybrid plants that produce good yields as well as producing plants that are drought-resistant and plants that can thrive in lengthy wet seasons and water-logged areas.Cross-breeding is also done in the rice plant as an example, to come up with the hybrid rice to grow in the dry ground instead of only water-logged areas and wetlands.The natural immunity to counter cancer is no longer effective. Cancers have evolved to decimate populations of organisms. Microbes such as bacteria, fungi and viruses have evolved to outpace the available effective drugs for their treatment. Soon microbes will become resistant to all the effective available drugs because they are continually evolving.In the field of agriculture, pests and weeds have become resistant to available pesticides and weedicides. The trend is continuing and the industry is going through a chemical treadmill to treat resistant weeds and pests.

Hence, understanding the evolutionary genetics at the molecular level in the nucleotides of the DNA and RNA is vital. Knowing how the genes programme the enzymes and proteins to produce parts of plants, animals and microbes will result in the understanding of the first-hand information on how the nitrogen bases and genes programme the synthesis of the organic polymers. This will also help in the understanding of the basis of genetic mutations and protein alterations to find a cure for cancer as well as the effective diagnosis of the problems arising in medicine, agriculture as well as in botany and other fields.For instance, in engineering an evolutionary computer-algorithm results in solving very complex and multi-faceted engineering problems. The algorithms programmed by man are not so multi-dimensional like the evolutionary algorithm in superiority.Materials found naturally on the earth are the rocks, soil, minerals and water. There are also metals and precious stones that are found on the earth such as gold, silver and gemstones. Other important materials are diamonds which are allotropes of carbon just like graphite and the fullerenes Buckminster as a resource base for carbon nanotubes.These materials become very important resources for life, agriculture, industry and technology.Specific areas have various resources of those earth materials. The rocks become a resource for construction work such as in buildings and roads. Materials such as sandstone, mud, soil, granite, limestone and marble are very important for civil works and engineering construction. For instance, marble can be quarried and cut at site for construction like a local resource.Caliche is a soft limestone material that can be used as a resource. It is found at the site of limestone bedrock as well as calcium carbonate soils. Caliche are collected and squashed to be mixed with cement for making building structures as well as structural walls.The rammed earth that is 30 per cent mud and 70 per cent sand is also made to be used for buildings and other structures in civil constructions and engineering. Like caliche, their porosity is very important for holding water and creating chemical bonds with the additives like the cement which are to be used as the structures of walls which adds the compression.

The caliche and rammed earth structures as well as stone products can be used as finishing characteristics of constructions. They can become good heat radiators or thermal bodies in winter. These structures can also be used for providing cool environments in summer. Further, these materials are fire-proof.At the sites of the clay soil, brick plants can be located to make and supply bricks for constructions. Bricks are made by conditioning and heating the clay or it is baked for uses such as structural tiles, roof tiles, pavers and floor tiles.The caliche block, rammed earth and stone with brick structures become very useful for structural constructions such as structural walls, road constructions as well as buildings.Soils are always tested in laboratories to see their structures for construction work. Some soils are not so suitable for constructions, especially soils with very high expansibility factor.s And example opf such soils is bentonite. AAll rocks and soil resources are good to use locally because these reduces the cost of transport. The material cost will come down because of the low transport costs. Also, non-renewable resources are to be used whereby the ecology of the site must not be affected with more extractions. They have to be used sustainably.My Prayer for PNG today is: I will proclaim to all your people, the wonders you have done for me. You are indeed a God of goodness, you draw me gently to your heartNext week: Physical events

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Earth materials in technology The National - The National