S282: TMA-1

Time for the first TMA. As I flip through the pages, metaphorically as its actually delivered in PDF,my first though is it looks pretty long. Its got 5 questions, which doesn't sound that much, but it is. For instance the first question, has sub parts a), b) and c). Then part a) has sub-sub parts i) and ii), b) has i), ii) and iii) as does c). So that is 8 questions to be answered for 18 marks, in the first question alone, and a number of them are in the "explain why" category requiring more than just a number.

Question 1 (18 marks) is about black body and other radiation features such as peak wavelengths. Some calculation required, with a dose of explanation. .

Question 2 (25 marks) requires you to look at a photograph of the sun taken through a number of different filters and interpret the data. 4 sub questions, and 10 sub sub questions. Its about temperatures and emissions.

Question 3 (35 marks) you need to look at a sequence of photographs and do some work based on the images of what I think is a coronal mass ejection. This one requires calculation and a drawing to illustrate some features on the sun.

Question 4 (4 marks) is an exercise in using the planisphere to predict various starts rising and setting. You have to explain how you worked it out too.

Question 5 (18 marks) is about forward planning. TMA-2 requires one of two possible experiments to be done and this question leads you through explaining how you are going to run these experiments and when you are going to do it etc. Hopefully it is easy marks but is clearly designed to get you in the groove to run the experiment so there are no surprises.

Anyway - that's the first one down, and posted. Hope for the best!

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S320: Book 2 - Infectious Agents

On to book two. This looks at all things infectious. The work done in S204 is a good grounding for this, and there is some new information for me, but quite a bit is revision.
It looks at various infective agents (as the title implies)

• Bateria -types of bateria such as gram positive/negative. What makes them virulent, and what sort of infections they produce and a bit about combating them.
  
• Viruses -similar stuff to bacteria. It considers the various types of virus and how they work and what they do to you.
• Prions are next, and apart from a history and some general comments about BSE and so on there isn't a huge amount ot say about them.
• Then on to protoctist, what use to be protozoa and are also known as protoists. Basically mostly single cells eukaryotic cells that can infect.
• Fungi are next, considering things like thrush and athletes foot.
• Finally the bigger parasites, such as tapeworms and roundworms and the flukes.

So this book basically considers the range of things that cause infection and disease, with one or two rather yucky photographs included.

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