How Instant Photographs Work!

In 1947, the first instant camera was built. What was so special about it was the fact that the film developed itself in only a few minutes. This was a major achievement considering that it used to be fairly complicated and time consuming to develop film. Even though it seems to be magic that makes the pictures appear, it actually is a fairly simple process.
There are not too many differences between a regular camera film and an instant camera film, thus, I will commence with explaining photography in general.
Usually, film consists of a plastic base coated with a silver compound. When light hits the film it causes a chemical reaction that forms silver atoms. The pattern created by the silver compound that has reacted with very much, very little or no light at all shows the image taken. Colour film is very similar, the only difference is that it has three layers, one sensitive to blue light, one sensitive to green light and one sensitive to red light. When the film is exposed to light, each layer reacts with its specific colour. Again, the pattern created by the reaction shows the picture taken.
While the chemicals needed to develop normal film have to be added one by one, the instant camera has all the required chemicals in the film itself.
Underneath each colour layer, there is a developer layer containing the dye chemicals for the specific colour. These light sensitive and developer layers lie in between a black base layer and the image layer, the timing layer and the acid layer. The different layers are components of a chain reaction waiting to be set in motion. The component triggering the chain reaction is called reagent layer and is a mixture of opacifiers that block light, alkali that neutralizes acid, white pigment and some more elements. It is located in between the image layer and the light sensitive layer. When a picture is taken, the film is exposed to light for a short period of time and then pressed through a pair of rollers that releases the reagent layer through pressure. The reagent chemicals change the particles exposed to light into metallic silver and dissolve the dye that make the colours of the photo appear. At the same time the reagent chemicals also move upward and activate the layers on top. Once all processes are completed, the light blocking chemical clears up and the picture will slowly appear.

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http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/instant-film.htm

A little proof!

As the article I posted a few weeks ago seems to be a little unrealistic at some points - yes, I am aware of that and I realised it myself - I thought it would be useful to describe a few things that are possible today.

I recently read an article from the webpage I fucking love science that describes how scientists grew a functioning heart using stem cell and organ-on-a-chip technology.
The research was carried out to learn more about a rare and untreatable heart disease. This disease, called Barth syndrome, is caused by a single gene (TAZ) that lies on the X-chromosome and thus appears mostly in boys.
Throughout the research, scientists took skin cells of two Barth syndrome patients and converted them into stem cells that carry the mutation. The cells were tricked into joining and forming a human heart, that even contracted as a real heart would - even though less strong. When this experiment succeeded, they even were able to cure the disease.
Modelling up the disease from a single skin cell to a real heart disease is a major achievement. It helped them to understand the illness and how it affects the body.
With regard to biological warfare I can say that, once again, dual-use dilemma appears. Even though it is absolutely magnificent that scientists came closer to finding a cure to a rare heart disease, the simple fact that they were able to create said disease using a single cell is frightening.

Another very interesting article I read on I fucking love science concerns sperm created from skin cells. What was even more interesting is that I found someone already using this article for his stem cell CAJ. As this is not the first time that I found someone else blogging about a topic that is linked to mine, I thought I'd give the link in case someone is interested.
In order to find a cure to infertility in men, or at least provide other possibilities than adoption to couples that wish to have a baby but can't because of infertility, scientists generated sperm precursors from skin cells.
These cells were taken from three infertile men and two fertile men, which served as a control group. Said cells were then turned into stem cells and transplanted into the testines of mice. It was found that the cells turned into sperm precursor cells, but not into mature sperm cells. Scientists suspect that this is due to the differences between humans and mice. While the cells of the fertile men were more likely to turn into precursor stem cells, the simple fact that the cells of the infertile men converted at all is a huge achievement.
It has to be noticed, however, that the artificial cells caused cancer in the mice which means that this research carries a certain risk. Future research might be carried out on animals that are closer to humans.
This corresponds perfectly to the possibilities described in one of my earlier posts. Using this research, it might be possible to create sperm traces of a politician on clothing and thus creating "evidence" for an affair the politician actually never had.

These are only two examples of reality and how it corresponds to my CAJ. Research is a good thing, but what I personally am really afraid of is its high potential of misuse. The further research and knowledge progresses, the higher becomes the risk of it being misused.

Abstract for "When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection"

The aim of this research is to provide a short mathematical analysis of an outbreak of zombie infection and some mathematical models for a possible reaction to the unlikely outbreak of said infection. While the author himself concedes that it is a fairly unrealistic model if used with zombies, these models can be used to provide useful information for real threats like BSE, swine flu or other diseases. It aims to show how mathematical models can be adjusted to numerous variations of factors that would complicate a fight against zombies. The methods used are several scenarios that demonstrate possible outcomes under the following circumstances: Basic Model, Model with Latent Infection, Model with Quarantine, Model with Treatment and Impulsive Eradiction. The author based his research on a species of zombies common in popular-culture movies, slow, stupid and cannibalistic. His scenarios either end with the eradiction of zombies or the eradiction of humankind, and as the model called Impulsive Eradiction proves to be the most efficient one (it leads to the eradiction of zombies within 10 days) the author concludes that, in order to survive a zombie outbreak, humans have to hit hard and hit often to exterminate zombies once and for all.