HA experiments: What did we learn?

We had a live webchat at 9pm on Monday 3rd April looking back at the Hydroxyl Apatite project. Main findings Sophia What do we think we've learned from the experiments then? TBH, I feel like I know less about HA and nappies now than I thought I did before! Iona We found HA again on …

Nappy Washing Survey – Provisional Results

Summary 3 washing/drying practices were associated with fewer reported smells (p<0.05). Higher temperature washes, hot tumble drying, more nappies in wash Hot tumble drying seems to help our respondents avoid rough nappies (p<0.05). Eco washes were associated with rough nappies. (p<0.05). A huge thank you to Emily Griffiths for designing the questionnaire and doing the …

Shirley Technologies Results

Summary In our previous experiments, we got five nappies tested in a lab, and found that two of them were 20% by weight hydroxl apatite (HA), so we decided to get a few more nappies tested. This time around the nappies contained 1-5% minerals after the ash test. Some of this was Hydroxyl apatite, and …

Results from Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)

Summary Hydroxyapatite (HA) build up was confirmed on the real world nappy samples (same nappies as Shirley Technologies tested last year). Zinc was also found evenly distributed across Nappy D A laboratory method was developed to create HA mineral build up artificially. They used several solutions – all were water with different amounts of calcium …

pH Test Results

Summary Most of the things we tested were around ph 6 or 7 (i.e. Neutral). We found a general trend for nappies to become more alkaline (pH greater than 7), the longer they were in the dry pail. We know that alkaline conditions promote the formation of Hydroxl Apatite (HA), so perhaps HA is forming …

Do you want to work for Parenting Science Gang?

Are you bright, switched on, a fan of science projects that work with the public without patronising them, not repulsed by small children and up for working on a project that pushes the envelope of citizen science and what it can do? Parenting Science Gang is an innovative user-led citizen science project, funded by the …

Apatite for Destruction experiment summary

This is a summary of the experiments we've been doing. We'll get the results of most of them on Saturday (18th Feb) at the results event in Cardiff.  Making hydroxyl apatite (HA) in the lab   The people in Cardiff (Cardiff Catalysis Institute, our partners in this project) have been trying to make HA on pieces …

HA solubility – email chat with Prof Brian Darvell

Brian Darvell is Honorary Professor at the Birmingham University School of Dentistry. He has been involved in research and teaching in Dental Materials Science since 1969.  His work has covered many areas, but his greatest interest (which started as his post-doc study in 1975) is the solubility of calcium phosphates, and especially that of hydroxyapatite. He …

Laughing babies: A live chat with Caspar Addyman

Dr Caspar Addyman is a developmental psychologist, specialising in learning and laughter in babies! He is at Goldsmiths University in London. He studies the way babies make sense of the world, and why babies laugh so much. He works on The Baby Laughter Project, collecting videos and field reports from people about what makes babies laugh. …

How bacteria and HA interact: A Live chat with Elaine Berry and Greg Siragusa

In this live chat we spoke to Elaine Berry and Greg Siragusa about their work using hydroxl apatite to concentrate bacteria.  Elaine is a Research Microbiologist at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. Greg is a Senior Principal Scientist at Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories. In 1997 they wrote a paper about using hydroxyl apatite to concentrate …