WATER:In its purest form, it's odorless, nearly colorless and tasteless. It's in your

body, the food you eat and the beverages you drink. You use it to clean yourself, your clothes, your dishes, your car and everything else around you. You can travel on it or jump in it to cool off on hot summer days. Many of the products that you use every day contain it or were manufactured using it. All forms of life need it, and if they don't get enough of it, they die. Political disputes have centered around it. In some places, it's treasured and incredibly difficult to get. In others, it's incredibly easy to get and then squandered. What substance is more necessary to our existence than any other? Water.

At its most basic, water is a molecule with one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, bonded together by shared electrons. It is a V-shaped polar molecule, which means that it's charged positively near the hydrogen atoms and negatively near the oxygen atom. Water molecules are naturally attracted and stick to each other because of this polarity, forming a hydrogen bond. This hydrogen bond is the reason behind many of water's special properties, such as the fact that it's denser in its liquid state than in its solid state (ice floats on water).

Water is the only substance that occurs naturally as a solid (ice), a liquid and a gas (water vapor). It covers about 70 percent of the Earth for a total of approximately 332.5 million cubic miles (1,386 million cubic kilometers]. Only 3 percent of the world's water supply is freshwater, and 77 percent of that is frozen. Of the 23 percent that is not frozen, only a half a percent is available to supply every plant, animal and person on Earth with all the water they need to survive.

GLUCOSE:Moorish writings (in the 1100s) revealed that glocuse or grape sugar has

existed. In the year 1747, a pharmacist from Germany named Andreas Marggraf was able to isolate the glucose found in raisins. However, Marggraf called it as ‘eine Art Zucke’. In 1811, sugar syrup was produced by Constantine Kirchoff with the use of isolated glucose.It was only in 1838 when the term ‘glucose’ was introduced and this was done by Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas. The word was derived from a Greek word glycos that means sweet.

Glucose (C6H12O6) is important to the human body because it is an excellent source of energy. Even animals and plants need glucose. It is vital that a person monitors glucose in order to avoid a condition called diabetes. Glucose interacts with the endocrine and digestive systems. To ensure optimal health, the blood sugar levels must be regulated at all times.

What foods contain glucose?Almost all foods contain glucose like processed sweets, potatoes, grain,

pasta, and rice. These foods contain carbohydrates which are converted into

glucose once it reaches the digestive system. Enzymes and bile are able to break down sugar and starch into glucose. Glucose is absorbed in the small intestines and is delivered into the bloodstream. When this happens, a person will have enough energy to perform the daily activities.

Benefits and risks of glucoseGlucose has benefits as well as potential risks. Without glucose, a person

will feel weak because of lack of energy. It is also aids in cellular respiration. It can be said that humans need glucose but it is equally significant that you regulate its levels in the body.

A blood glucose test can measure the blood glucose and determine if a person has diabetes.In the food industry, glucose is widely used in the production of table syrups, jellies, jams, chewing gums, and candies. In comparison to sucrose, glucose is not that sweet. Grapes and other fruits also contain glucose. Beans, rice, and bleached flour also has glucose content.

It is really hard to find foods that do not have glucose. To make sure that you remain healthy, you have to monitor the sugar content of the foods you’re eating. Instead of buying un-natural sugar types, it is better to natural sugars contained in fruits and other healthy foods.

Carbohydrate-rich foods contain glucose. However, digestion has to take place so that the body can start using the energy sources. For the glucose to enter the cells, insulin is needed. If you are fatigued and weak, it could be that the glucose stays in the blood because there isn’t enough insulin. This usually happens among individuals with Type 1 diabetes.

Glucose is also called dextrose which gives the body enough energy.

AMMONIA:Ammonia has been known to mankind since ancient times. Historians

believe Romans named the ammonium chloride that was collected around the temple of Ammon, situated in Libya, as ‘sal ammoniacus’ or Salt of Ammon due to the approximity of the important temple. In 8th – 15th Century, Muslim alchemists used this compound and named it nushadir (which was ammonium chloride). In addition, Arab chemists were also familiar with ammonia, which was originally mentioned by Jabir ibn Hayyan. However, it wasn’t until the 13th century that this chemical was described by the European chemists, namely Albertus Magnus. In the Middle Ages, fermented urine (containing ammonia) was commonly added to vegetable dyes to alter their colour. Basilius Valentinus, in the 15 th century, demonstrated for the first time that ammonia could be generated from sal-ammoniac (ammonium chloride) in the presence of an alkali.

1774-1785- Later, a new method to obtain ammonia was developed through distillation of cow horns and hooves, generating ammonium carbonate, which was followed by a neutralization reaction with hydrochloric acid to produce ammonia. This product was commonly called ‘spririt of hartshorn’. Finally, in 1774, Joseph Priestley isolated gaseous ammonia, which he called ‘alkaline air’, but only 11 years later, in 1785, its composition was determined by Claude Louis Berthollet.

1909-1931- however, industrial uses of this compound would have to wait until 1909 for Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch to develop the first large-scale process to synthesize ammonia capturing the nitrogen in the air. In 1918, Haber won a Nobel Prize for the development of this process and a few years later, in 1931, Bosch, won the same accolade for perfecting a more economic and effective process. This process was first used during WWI by the Germans, after the Allied Forces

blocked the supply of nitrates from Chile. They converted many fertilizer manufacturing plants to produce explosives using this compound.

1909-Present Day- When the war was over, BASF built a high-pressure reactor in Ludwigshafen in 1921, which is still the largest production site for this company. Since then, ammonia production has been steadily increasing, and recently, BASF announced a 30% increase in the production of ammonium carbonate at their Ludwigshafen plant. This is designed to supply increasing demand for high quality food additives.

METHANE:Methane is a simple chemical molecule, having the formula CH4. It is the

the principal component of natural gas. Complete combustion of methane in the presence of oxygen produces carbon dioxide and water. The relative abundance

of the alkane hydrocarbon methane makes it a widely used fuel, but, being a gas at typical ambient temperatures, methane is challenging to transport. Consequently, dedicated pipelines are often constructed for its long distance movement.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas produced both naturally and through human activities. It was first discovered by Alessandro Volta in 1776 who noticed bubbles rising from a pond and found that these bubbles could be ignited with a naked flame. Methane has a relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere, most molecules having been destroyed within 10 years of their release. However, the concentration of methane actually affects its own atmospheric lifetime. The primary mechanism for its destruction is by reaction with hydroxyl radicals (OH-), the greater the concentration of methane the more the reductive power of the atmosphere (the supply of hydroxyl radicals) is reduced. If this feedback is included, then the true atmospheric lifetime of methane extends to about 12 years.

Methane is synthesized commercially by the distillation of bituminous coal and by heating a mixture of carbon and hydrogen. It can be produced in the laboratory by heating sodium acetate with sodium hydroxide and by the reaction of aluminum carbide (Al4C3) with water.

In the chemical industry, methane is a raw material for the manufacture of methanol (CH3OH), formaldehyde (CH2O), nitromethane (CH3NO2), chloroform (CH3Cl), carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), and some freons (compounds containing carbon and fluorine, and perhaps chlorine and hydrogen). The reactions of methane with chlorine and fluorine are triggered by light. When exposed to bright visible light, mixtures of methane with chlorine or fluorine react explosively.

PROPANE:In 1910, a Pittsburgh motor car owner walked into chemist Dr. Walter

Snelling's office, complaining that the gallon of gasoline he had purchased was half a gallon by the time he got home. He thought the government should look into why consumers were being cheated because the gasoline was evaporating at a rapid and expensive rate. Dr. Snelling took up the challenge and discovered the evaporating gases were propane, butane and other hydrocarbons. Using coils from an old hot water heater and other miscellaneous pieces of laboratory equipment he could find, Dr. Snelling built a still that could separate the gasoline into its liquid and gaseous components.

By 1912, propane gas was cooking food in the home. The first car powered by propane ran in 1913, and 1915 were using propane in torches to cut through metal. Propane was marketed for flame cutting and cooking applications by 1920.In 1927, the total sales of propane in the U. S. were more than one million gallons, and after World War II the propane gas annual sales increased to more than 15 billion gallons. By the 1930s, the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) established and proposed a set of recommendations to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). In 1932, the first pamphlet of standards (No. 58) was adopted for publication. When Dr. Snelling sold his propane patent to Frank

Phillips, the founder of Phillips Petroleum Company, his price was $50,000. Today, propane gas is an $8 billion industry in the United States alone and it is still growing.

OCTANE:The name "octane" comes from the following fact: When you take crude oil

and "crack" it in a refinery, you end up getting hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. These different chain lengths can then be separated from each other and blended to form different fuels. For example, you may have heard of methane, propane and butane. All three of them are hydrocarbons. Methane has just a single carbon atom. Propane has three carbon atoms chained together. Butane has four carbon atoms chained together. Pentane has five, hexane has six, heptane has seven and octane has eight carbons chained together.

It turns out that heptane handles compression very poorly. Compress it just a little and it ignites spontaneously. Octane handles compression very well -- you can compress it a lot and nothing happens. Eighty-seven-octane gasoline is gasoline that contains 87-percent octane and 13-percent heptane (or some other combination of fuels that has the same performance of the 87/13 combination of octane/heptane). It spontaneously ignites at a given compression level, and can only be used in engines that do not exceed that compression ratio.

During WWI, it was discovered that you can add a chemical called tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline and significantly improve its octane rating above the octane/heptane combination. Cheaper grades of gasoline could be made usable by adding TEL. This led to the widespread use of "ethyl" or "leaded" gasoline. Unfortunately, the side effects of adding lead to gasoline are:

Lead clogs a catalytic converter and renders it inoperable within minutes.

The Earth became covered in a thin layer of lead, and lead is toxic to many living things (including humans).

When lead was banned, gasoline got more expensive because refineries could not boost the octane ratings of cheaper grades any more. Airplanes are still allowed to use leaded gasoline (known as AvGas), and octane ratings of 100 or more are commonly used in super-high-performance piston airplane engines. In the case of AvGas, 100 is the gasoline's performance rating, not the percentage of

actual octane in the gas. The addition of TEL boosts the compression level of the gasoline -- it doesn't add more octane.