Review: The analysis of inorganic bodies

The analysis of inorganic bodies by Jöns Jacob Berzelius

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

...to gratify the desire of many of Berzelius acquaintance, and because he was him­self convinced, that a treatise of this kind, short though it be, could not fail to be interesting, coming from a philosopher who has so much contributed to give perfection not only to analysis, but also to chemistry in general; for there are few branches of science that he has not elucidated by his researches, or extended by his labours. And though his countryman Scheel has rendered himself illustrious by showing what genius, combating against fate, could effect with small means, Berzelius has displayed in its full extent, the example of what genius can effect under favourable circumstances.
When none of this s are to be had, lit­tle glass re­torts, which may I self-blown with the least fusible glass, may I used: these lit­tle re­torts can be em­ployed when the ex­am­i­na­tion is made at a mod­er­ate heat, sucff as that from the spirit lamp.

The retort is now balanced, and the substance for analysis is then placed in it, either entire or in powder, according to circumstances, and is weighed. In this way the loss is avoided, which would necessarily take place if the powder were weighed first and then placed in the retort. The neck of the retort is next adapted to the receiver, and a tube of caoutchouc is used for this purpose, without jointure, such as is obtained by cutting the necks of common caoutchouc bottles...

Just remember, a glass in the lab have the name...Berzelius.



View all my reviews

Review: Elements of Agricultural Chemistry

Elements of Agricultural Chemistry by Thomas Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



World Cat:
The major object of this work is to expose the main principles and fundamentals of agricultural chemistry which will be useful for an ordinary farmer. The book avoids unnecessary technicalities and it is kept as simple as possible for the general reader.
For me: perfect receipt book for organic food. Agri­cul­tural in­quiries are li­able to pe­cu­liar fal­lac­ies due to the per­turb­ing in­flu­ence of cli­mate, sea­son, and many other causes, the in­di­vid­ual ef­fects of which can only be elim­i­nated with dif­fi­culty, and much error has been in­tro­duced, by hastily generalizing from sin­gle ex­per­i­ments, in place of await­ing the re­sults of re­peated tri­als. Hence it is that the progress of sci­en­tific agri­cul­ture must nec­es­sar­ily be slow and grad­ual, and is not likely to be marked by any great or star­tling dis­cov­er­ies. Now that the re­la­tions of sci­ence to prac­tice are bet­ter un­der­stood, the ex­trav­a­gant ex­pec­ta­tions at one time en­ter­tained have been aban­doned, and, as a nec­es­sary con­se­quence, the in­ter­est in agri­cul­tural chem­istry has again in­creased, and the con­vic­tion daily gains ground that no one who wishes to farm with suc­cess, can af­ford to be with­out some knowl­edge of the sci­en­tific prin­ci­ples of his art.



View all my reviews

Review: Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration.

Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration. by Sir Humphry Davy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



In 1798, Humphry Davy was appointed laboratory superintendent of the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, UK. this was an establishment founded on the belief that the recently discovered gases might have curative applications. Here he set to work on his monumental text on the history, chemistry, physiology and recreational use of nitrous oxide - published in 1800 when he was just 21 years old. Curiously, given the purpose of the Pneumatic Institute, the use of this gas in therapy is barely mentioned: a couple of accounts of its use on paralyzed patients, and that's about the extent. It is at the end of this book that he makes his oft-repeated statement about the possible use of nitrous oxide in surgery: 'As nitrous oxide.appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place.
Spotting medical potential



View all my reviews

Quantum teleportation between atomic ensembles demonstrated for first time

Quantum teleportation between atomic ensembles demonstrated for first time:

'via Blog this'

"Teleportation between two photons has been demonstrated earlier (first in 1997)," coauthor Chao-Yang Lu, of the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and the Department of Modern Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, told Phys.org. "The problem with the photon is that it always keeps traveling. You have to keep it to do useful quantum information processing tasks (in which case we call it a 'keeper'). Compared to the trapped ion experiment, an advantage of the atomic ensembles is that they have a much higher success rate."
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-quantum-teleportation-atomic-ensembles.html#jCp
Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

Tech Tags: business nanotechnology nano law gold valence

Iatrochemistry

by Valentin Chirosca

If you are not a socialist person, all socialist lessons about chemistry start appealing at scholastic "we know from Leucippus and Democritus that if you cut a pepper in the pieces the last piece is atomos ".

 With the work of Leucippus and Democritus ancient Greek philosophy reaches its zenith when the initial question of Thales after the true nature of matter culminated 180 years later in the subtle concept of atoms, which bears an amazing resemblance to the twentieth century's view of chemistry. For this reason, Leucippus and Democritus have undoubtedly deserved the first price for the best guess in antiquity, as far as natural science is concerned. Unfortunately their contemporaries did not share their views with the same enthusiasm. 

Forget the late invention of paper for European space, where is alchemy? Paracelsus split alchemy on iatrochemistry and magic.

"The familiar medical roots ‘-iatry, -iatrics, iatro-,’ and their variants traditionally have traced their etymology to the Attic Greek word for physician, ‘iatros’. This paper traces the etymology of ‘iatros’ itself. Proceeding stepwise through time, the article demonstrates the evolution and borrowing of the word from its immediate Archaic Greek predecessor, the ‘iatār’, and further back to its earliest Greek form in the Linear B inscriptions. Beyond the Greek, it is then demonstrated how the Linear B was a direct borrowing from the non-Greek Linear A, an earlier language of the Ancient Mediterranean. From there, the article examines the likely cognate forms in the even earlier Hittite, Egyptian, and Akkadian languages to the East. Ultimately the origin of the ‘iatros’, of our English root ‘-iatry’, is traced to the earliest recorded language, Sumerian, and the Sumerian word for physician, the ‘IA.ZU’."
by Elliott B. Martin, MD 

"Iatrochemistry (or chemiatry) is a branch of both chemistry and medicine. Having its roots in alchemy, iatrochemistry seeks to provide chemical solutions to diseasesand medical ailments.

This area of science has fallen out of use since the rise of modern medical practices. However, iatrochemistry was popular between 1525 and 1660, especially in Flanders. Its most notable leader was Paracelsus, an important Swiss alchemist of the 16th century. Iatrochemists believed that physical health was dependent on a specific balance of bodily fluids.

Alchemists used plant products and arsenic to treat diseases. The medical chemistry of the 16th and 17th centuries gained the name iatrochemistry, coming from the Greek word for physician."

Wikipedia

The term is coined as Chymistry (1661) – the subject of the material principles of mixed bodies (Boyle)  the "father of modern chemistry".^[13] In his book, The Skeptical Chymist, Boyle attacked Paracelsus and the natural philosophy of Aristotle, which was taught at universities. However, Boyle's biographers, in their emphasis that he laid the foundations of modern chemistry, neglect how steadily he clung to the scholastic sciences and to alchemy, in theory, practice and doctrine.^[14] The decline of alchemy continued in the 18th century with the birth of modern chemistry, which provided a more precise and reliable framework within a new view of the universe based on rational materialism.

Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

Tech Tags: business nanotechnology nano law gold valence

Industrial age.

English: Pres. U.S. Grant (between 1870 and 1880) Français : Le président américain Ulysses Grant (Photo prise entre 1870 and 1880) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No More Industrial Revolutions?
By THOMAS B. EDSALL
The American economy is running on empty. That’s the hypothesis put forward by Robert J. Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University. Let’s assume for a moment that he’s right. The political consequences would be enormous.
The author express here "dark age " feelings common if you are familiar with e-book subject.
 While the mass market print book is threatened, the long tail of the print book market is more alive than ever. While the mass market print book is indeed threatened, for once the threat is not from political or religious extremists. Instead, it is from the ebook. There is some confusion about what a book is.
Economy is indeed threatened. It is from the e-Economy.
The picture painted in the article above is very one-sided. Tracing the rise and fall of various one-time imperial powers, from Portugal and Spain to France and England, Kennedy shows how the cost, mostly military, of maintaining and defending their trade routes and colonies around the world eventually produced unsustainable debt and eventually caused these empires to fall.
This is clearly part of what is happening to the United States. Our struggle to maintain our military and political dominance of the world -- two wars in a decade and another on the way -- it is an important contributor to the decline of our productivity and our increasing debt burden.
In the long run it will be hard for the US to maintain it's "superpower" status as it attempts to compete economically with countries that do not have the huge military overhead that we do. Our military budget is larger than that of the next the next 20 countries combined.

Paul Kennedy's book may be 25 years old, but what it said about the future fate of the United States shows that some predictions can be quite accurate, especially if they are ignored.

Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

Tech Tags: business nanotechnology nano law gold valence

Related articles

• Thomas Edsall's Productivity Fears
• Was that it?
• In the Twilight of Empire
• Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

FOLIA ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARICA dixit...

Galego: Pteromalidae en Valverde, Vilarromarís, Oroso cf. Pteromalidae (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Valentin Chirosca
Erythromalus rufiventris (WALKER, 1835) – Romania, [Alba county,] Munții Cugirului, Rîu Mare, 5.VIII.1913, 2 females, leg. BÍRÓ, HNHM; Romania, [Harghita county,] Munții Giurgiului, Praid, 1.VII.1995, 1 female, leg. PODLUSSÁNY, HNHM; Romania, [Alba county,] Muntii Cugirului, Sugag, 20.VII.1993, 1 female, leg. ROZNER, HNHM. – Its biology is unknown.
New species for Romania.
New records of Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) for the fauna of Romania and the Carpathian Basin, Z. LÁSZLÓ
kingdom Animalia - animals »  phylum Arthropoda - arthropods »  class Insecta - insects »  order Hymenoptera - bees, ants and wasps »  family Pteromalidae
Identifiers
urn:lsid:ubio.org:namebank:9644495
Catalogue of Life accepted name
Erythromalus rufiventris (Walker, 1835)
Synonyms
Pteromalus empoclus Walker, 1839
Pteromalus rufiventris Walker, 1835
Pteromalidae is one of the largest families of Chalcidoidea, with circa 570 valid genera and 2900 species. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. Important morphological characters include a usually 13-segmented antenna; parapsidal sutures distinct, but often incomplete; propodeum usually well developed. Pteromalids have been considered the most difficult Chalcidoidea to identify; morphologically they are exceedingly diverse, and thus no combination of taxonomic characters is reliable for identification.

Most Pteromalidae are primary parasitoids, but hyperparasitic species are common. Most species are ectoparasitic, but endoparasitic species are common also. Solitary and gregarious species and races are common. Generally, this family has a wide host range. Most species are gregarious ectoparasitoids of larvae and pupae of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, but a number of species attack larvae and pupae of Diptera as well. Some are predaceous on eggs of Coccidae. There are no phytophagous species. Considerable importance has been placed on pteromalids for biological control of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and synanthropic Diptera. A few species have also been used for the biological control of Coccidae. Checklist of UK Recorded Pteromalidae
The Pteromalinae show diverse behavior, and contain species reared from nay kinds of insects and other arthropods. Some examples are Rhopalicus parasitizing Scolytidae; Anisopteromalus and Dinarmus parasitizing Bruchidae; Pseudocatolaccus parasitizing Cecidomyiidae; Muscidifurax and Nasonia parasitizing Muscidae and Calliphoridae; Gomicobia parasitizing Scolytidae; Trichomalopis and Dibrachys parasitizing Thomisidae (Araneae) and Aphidiidae (Hymenoptera); Arachnopteromalus dasys Gordh attacking the egg sac of Uloboridae (Araneae). Diverse behavior is also shown within a closely related group of species and subspecies, the Muscidifurax. Although taxonomic differentiation of this genus into its 5 identified species is difficult, relying heavily on male genitalia, behaviorally there are great differences shown in courtship, gregarious or solitary oviposition, size, unisexual and bisexual reproduction, etc.
Life Cycle

Pteromalids usually have short life cycles, averaging circa 3 weeks from egg to adult at room temperature. There was a minimum of 10 days recorded for Habrocytus cerealellae and Nasonia vitripennis. The females of many species require 1-2 days longer for development than do the males. The incubation of the egg requires from less than 1 day to 3 days, the larval stage 4-10 days and the pupal stage 4-14 days. A notable exception is E. ovivora, in which the egg, larval, and pupal stages take 7 days, 20 days and circa 11 months, respectively (Clausen 1940/1962).

The availability of suitable host stages influences the number of generations per year. Most species produce generation after generation as long as hosts are available, but some species are limited to a fixed number. E. ovivora has only one generation per year which corresponds to the host cycle. Pirene graminea and Stenomalus micans have two generations, as do their respective hosts. However, Aplastomorpha calandrae (Cotton 1923) and H. cerealellae are able to produce several generations to each one of the host. In these species there is no need for synchronization of the cycles of parasitoid and host, for they attack insects infesting stored grains which have all stages present continuously. Trineptis klugii has circa 6 generations each year on one brood of the host.

Most species that hibernate do so in the mature larval stage within the host cocoon, puparium or cell. But, Eupteromalus nidulans is found in the hibernation webs of the satin and brown-tail moths. E. ovivora, Rhopalicus suspensus Ratz., and Merisus febriculosus Gir. pass the winter in the pupal stage, while Dibrachoides dynastes and Pseudocatolaccus asphondyiiae Masi persist through the winter as adults. Other may pass winter as either mature larvae or adults.

A number of Pteromalidae are able to undergo long periods of inactivity as either larvae or adults when conditions are unfavorable. The relation of food to reproduction in Spintherus and Peridesmia was already noted, and it was shown that phasic castration in females may continue for a long time. This is one way of maintaining a species during periods of adverse conditions; another is larval diapause, such as is found in H. medicaginis Gahan and Nasonia vitripennis. In the former individuals have been observed to pass almost two years in the larval stage, as compared to the normal two weeks. Nasonia vitripennis may even pass several years in dipterous puparia when conditions are unfavorable (Clausen 1940/1962).

Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

Tech Tags: business nanotechnology nano law gold valence

Related articles

• Arthropods
• Dozens of New Parasitic Wasp Species Found
• Interview: Using the Internet to Identify Millions of New Species
• FoLiA-tools 0.9.0.8

Review: The Engineering of Chemical Reactions

The Engineering of Chemical Reactions by Lanny D. Schmidt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



by Valentin Chirosca
"Perhaps the central idea to come from Minnesota is the notion of modeling in chemical engineering. This is the belief that the way to understand a complex process is to construct the simplest description that will allow one to solve the problem at hand. Sometimes a single equation gives this insight in a back-of-the-envelope calculation, and sometimes a complete simulation on a supercomputer is necessary. The chemical engineer must be prepared to deal with problems at whatever level of sophistication is required. We want to show students how to do simple calculations by capturing the essential principles without getting lost in details. At the same time, it is necessary to understand the complex problem with sufficient clarity that the further steps in sophistication can be undertaken with confidence. A modeling approach also reveals the underlying beauty and unity of dealing with the engineering of chemical reactions."
Modelling is the best way to understand processes, if you design a process first fix the mass balances and after that energy balances using the simplest way: chemical calculations.



View all my reviews

Review: Chemical Reaction Engineering

Chemical Reaction Engineering by Octave Levenspiel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

byRobert Ashe AM Technology

Small chemical reactors offer a number of benefits compared to large reactors, such as better heat transfer and mixing. While small batch vessels are impractical at the industrial scale, continuous flow reactors can provide the benefits of small physical size without the practical difficulties of multiple vessels. This article considers the four basic needs of flow reactors (volumetric capacity, heat transfer, plug flow and mixing) ...

While as few as three tanks in series have been employed by some users, a substantial improvement in plug flow (in terms of residence time distribution) is observed by using ten stages

by Valentin Chirosca

We a working to save your time and money. Just how useful is a half century old textbook. Excellent resource for first look informing customers.

Pace is leisurely, and where needed, time is taken to consider why certain assumptions are made,...to develop new ways of thinking and new intuitions.

View all my reviews

Review: The Sceptical Chymist

The Sceptical Chymist by Robert Boyle

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



by Valentin Chirosca
That the Vulgar Principles were lesse General and comprehensive, or lesse considerately Deduc’d from Chymical Operations, than was believ’d; it was not uneasie for me both to Take notice of divers Phænomena, overlook’d by prepossest Persons, that seem’d not to suite so well with the Hermetical Doctrine; and, to devise some Experiments likely to furnish me with Objections against it, not known to many, that having practis’d Chymistry longer perchance then I have yet liv’d, may have far more Experience, Than I, of particular processes.
Robert Boyle
Boyle was an advocate of corpuscularism, a form of atomism that was slowly displacing Aristotelian and Paracelsian views of the world. Instead of defining physical reality and analyzing change in terms of Aristotelian substance and form and the classical four elements of earth, air, fire, and water—or the three Paracelsian elements of salt, sulfur, and mercury—corpuscularism discussed reality and change in terms of particles and their motion. Boyle believed that chemical experiments could demonstrate the truth of the corpuscularian philosophy. In this context he defined elements in [b:Sceptical Chymist|6800855|The Sceptical Chymist|Robert Boyle|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|7007102] (1661) as "certain primitive and simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies; which not being made of any other bodies, or of one another, are the ingredients of which all those called perfectly mixt bodies are immediately compounded, and into which they are ultimately resolved."
He was probably referring to the uniform corpuscles—which were as yet unobserved—out of which corpuscular aggregates were formed, not using elements as Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and others used the term in the 18th century to refer to different substances that could not be broken down further by chemical methods. In his experiments Boyle made many important observations, including that of the weight gain by metals when they are heated to become calxes. He interpreted this phenomenon as caused by fiery particles that were able to pass through the walls of glass vessels.

Boyle’s theories of material change did nothing to eliminate the possibility of the transmutation of base metals to gold that was at the heart of alchemy. Indeed he practiced alchemy until the end of his life, believed that he had witnessed transmutation, and successfully lobbied Parliament to repeal England’s ban on transmutation.





View all my reviews

Related articles

• Irish tweets to reach the edge of space - Robert Boyle style
• What does the Higgs boson look like?
• New research from last week 40/2012

Review: Optimization Theory for Large Systems

Optimization Theory for Large Systems by Leon S. Lasdon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The text contains 523 pages, and is at a graduate level. This book was awarded honorable mention in the 1970 Lanchester Prize competition for the year's best publication in Operations Research. A Japanese Edition appeared in early 1973, and Russian and Romanian translations appeared in 1976. A reprint by Dover Publications Inc., Mineola, N.Y., appeared in 2002.
Dantzig wrote in the 1991 history book, "it is interesting to note that the original problem that started my research is still outstanding -- namely the problem of planning or scheduling dynamically over time, particularly planning dynamically under uncertainty. If such a problem could be successfully solved it could eventually through better planning contribute to the well-being and stability of the world."

...The nature of that original problem is also detailed in the book. Dantzig's contributions, he explained, grew out of his experience in the Pentagon during World War II, when he had become an expert on programming -- planning methods done with desk calculators. In 1946, as mathematical adviser to the U.S. Air Force Comptroller, he was challenged by his Pentagon colleagues to see what he could do to mechanize the planning process, "to more rapidly compute a time-staged deployment, training and logistical supply program." In those pre-electronic computer days, mechanization meant using analog devices or punch-card machines. ("Program" at that time was a military term that referred not to the instruction used by a computer to solve problems, which were then called "codes," but rather to plans or proposed schedules for training, logistical supply, or deployment of combat units. The somewhat confusing name "linear programming," Dantzig explained in the book, is based on this military definition of "program.")

The large-scale "activity analysis" model he developed, Dantzig said, would be described today as a time-staged dynamic linear program with a staircase matrix structure. In those days, he explained, "There was no objective function" [italics his]. Lacking the power of electronic computers, practical planners at the time had no way to implement such a concept. In fact, summarizing his contributions to linear programming, Dantzig listed the substitution of an explicit objective function for a set of ad hoc rules, along with two others -- the recognition that practical planning relations could be reformulated as a system of linear inequalities and the invention of the simplex method.

As viewed by his colleagues, the list of Dantzig's professional accomplishments extends beyond linear programming and the simplex method to decomposition theory, sensitivity analysis, complementary pivot methods, large-scale optimization, nonlinear programming, and programming under uncertainty. His research in linear programming (and the related areas of nonlinear optimization, integer programming, and optimization under uncertainty) has had a fundamental impact on the consequential development of operations research as a discipline. Inasmuch as operations research is defined by the use of analytic tools to improve decision-making, operations research as a discipline could not exist without the use of formal optimization models as mental constructs, and the actual solution of models in a practical setting.

Dantzig is so well known to the optimization community that in 1991, when the editors of the SIAM Journal on Optimization decided to dedicate the first issue to him, they needed very few words: "The first issue of the SIAM Journal on Optimization is dedicated to George Dantzig who has been so influential in the development of optimization."
...and I suppose to all of us, one of the most startling developments of all time has been the penetration of the computer into almost every phase of human activity. Before a computer can be intelligently used, a model must be formulated and good algorithms developed. To build a model, however, requires the axiomatization of a subject matter field. In time this axiomatization gives rise to a whole new mathematical discipline which is then studied for its own sake. Thus, with each new penetration of the computer, a new science is born.
Operational Research.




View all my reviews

Review: The Shield of Achilles

The Shield of Achilles by Philip Bobbitt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Bobbitt the historian tells us the story of the modern state, while Bobbitt the expert in strategic planning links this story to changes in military technology which in turn were bound to change military strategy. So we learn how military requirements produced new kinds of state: the “princely state” (1494 – 1648), the “kingly state” that merged into the “territorial state” (1648 – 1776), the “state-nation” (1776 – 1914), and the “nation-state” in what Bobbitt calls the “Long War” (1914 – 1990). How far this analysis is valid and persuasive is a matter for historians to debate. What is interesting in the present context is Bobbitt’s conclusion: just as the state-nation had to be replaced by the nation-state, so the nation-state, in the 21st century, will be superseded by what Bobbitt calls the “market-state”. It does not matter whether Bobbitt likes or recommends this market-state (he does). Whether we like it or not, this new type of state is what history will bring about.
If you want a really fast introduction to the book’s entire argument, ponder those plates for five minutes, then leap to Bobbitt’s summary of three scenarios on pp. 721-2, and then vault to the climax of the argument on pp. 773-5.

`

xxi Opening lines: “We are at a moment in world affairs when the essential ideas that govern statecraft must change . . . owing to advances in international telecommunications, rapid computation, and weapons of mass destruction.”
This book “is principally concerned with the relationship between strategy and legal order.”
xxvi “A great epochal war has just ended. The various competing systems of the contemporary nation-state (fascism, communism, parliamentarianism) that fought that war all took their legitimacy from the promise to better the material welfare of their citizens. The market-state offers a different covenant: It will maximize the opportunity of its people.”



View all my reviews

Related articles

• Ekphrastic Origins: The Shield of Achilles
• FROM READERS: 'Blade Runner' offers...

Nixtamalization

English: Corn before being treated with lime, and after boiling 15 minutes in lime (, 1 pound of corn for 1 tablespoon of lime, boil 15 minutes, let soak for a few hours, then wash). These are then ground for tortilla flour. (Here the hulls have not been yet removed, but should be after treatment). Español: Maíz, crudo (izq), y maíz, después de hervir por 15 minutos en agua y cal , 1 libra de maíz y 1 Cda de cal en agua, cocinar 15 minutos, dejar por unas horas, y lavarlo bin). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Homemade Nixtamal (Corn Masa) (makes about 1-1/4 lbs. of dough) •1/2 lb. dried corn (about 1-1/2 cups) •1 cup wood ash (make sure the ash does not contain potentially toxic impurities, i.e., construction waste, etc.) or 2 Tbs. pickling lime (calcium hydroxide) •2 quarts water     Rinse the corn well with cold water, then put it in a large, heavy pot (it will expand by three or four while cooking). In another pot, combine the wood ash or lime with the water and bring it to a simmer. If using ash, put the hot ash-water through a fine strainer, a dish towel or several layers of paper towels to remove the ash. Pour the strained ash-water or the lime-water over the corn.     Bring the corn to a simmer; the skin of the kernels will turn bright yellow from the alkali in the water. Simmer the corn until the skin begins to loosen from the kernels - this can take anywhere from 1/2 hour to 2 or 3 hours, depending on the corn. Turn the heat off and cover the pot with a lid. Leave the corn sitting in the liquid for 8 hours or overnight; it will continue to soften.     Drain the corn and rinse it in several changes of cold water to remove all traces of the cooking liquid. As you rinse the corn, rub it between your hands to remove the skin from the kernels. Some people also remove the “eye” of the corn, the tough pedicel at the top of the kernel, especially if they are trying to make a very smooth masa suitable for tortillas (it’s all right if tamale masa is fairly coarse).     The cleaned kernels can be ground at this point to make a wet nixtamal to use immediately or freeze. The kernels may also be spread on a screen to dry and store for later use.     If making masa, grind the kernels in several small batches in a food processor. The dough should be fairly homogenous, but will be a little coarse, good for tamales and hot chocolate, but not so great for tortillas. For fine nixtamal suitable for tortillas, you will need to grind the corn with a good quality corn mill or a metate (a traditional grinding stone).   Note: Fresh masa can also be made using dried white hominy, (hominy is corn that has already been nixtamilized) available from the Spanish section in the supermarket. Though you won’t need to remove the skin from the kernels, you may want to cook them in ash or lime-water anyway (see the recipe above) just to imbue them with the distinctive flavor the alkaline solution creates. Whether you use ash/lime-water or plain water, simply cook the hominy until it is tender (about an hour) then rinse it well in cool water and proceed as above.

Patent: Patent application title: Quick Corn Nixtamalization Process

Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

Tech Tags: business nanotechnology nano law gold valence

Related articles

• Local Corn
• Navajo Corn, by Rachael E.
• Masa Class
• Homemade Corn Tortillas
• Field Roast-Mole Vegan Tamales