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A Newcomer to Cheesemaking
I recently received my first Mozzarella Kit - delivered straight to my door!
I'm a newcomer to cheesemaking, and Jeri - this blog's author and cheesemaker extraordinaire - was kind enough to let me share my experience with you. She thought it might be neat to have a newbie - cheesemaker's point of view. The following is an account of my first-ever attempt at cheesemaking.
I received my kit as a gift, and if there are any readers out there wondering whether or not this would make a good gift, wonder no more. My cheesemaking adventure was a blast, the cheese is incredibly fresh and delicious - and I made it! But moreover, this kit has made me a stronger person. I'll explain...
I set out to document my experience - planning to photograph my steps along the way, not really taking into consideration that I'd be stirring and stretching, separating my curds from my whey. Cheesemaking is almost a sport. I was only able to visually document some of my adventure, and where I was not, I improvised... (The website, www.cheesemaking.com is a wealth of information - everything you ever wanted to know and didn't even know you wanted to know about cheesemaking. This article is just a newcomer's point of view, so refer to the site for expert advice.)
First off, it's such great packaging! I love the colorful box, and was happy to discover that it opened easily and it can be reused... so smart.
I examined the contents, skimmed though the booklet...
I put my favorite vintage apron on. I was getting excited. I gathered my equipment. Actually, all I needed was: my new mozzarella kit, a gallon of milk, a large stainless steel pot, a slotted spoon, a colander, a knife, and a bowl! (rubber gloves optional.) That's it?! Before now, I had envisioned cheesemaking a little something like this:
|(photo courtesy of Port Washington Summer Theatre-Aunt Eller in "Oklahoma")
Or is she making butter? OK. I'm going to be upfront about this. I don't spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen. And- no fault of the kit's - I was about halfway through my first attempt at cheesemaking when I realized something wasn't quite right - I wasn't achieving the coagulatory results I had hoped for. I retraced my steps - several times. I even did what any self-respecting cheesemaker would do: I went on Facebook. My post went something like this:
HELP! Any cheesemaking friends out there? My curds are not separating from my whey. Why? I know there's a cheese queen, but is there a god of cheese?
(I later looked in my Greek Myth Dictionary and found out it's Aristaeus: God of cheesemaking, "dairy skills," and bee-keeping, among other things.)
Anyhow, back to Facebook, I didn't get many responses to my post.
Mostly just: You're cooking??
So I sent Jeri an email and she was kind enough to reply instantly. She sent me this in return:
"I think it might be a good idea for me to help you. Jeri."
Wait. Had Jeri somehow become aware of my domestic limitations? Right then, I'm not sure if it was my pride, my competitive nature, but something in me shifted. I was now determined more than ever to prove that I was a fully capable domestic woman - I could be a cheesemaker if I wanted to be a cheesemaker. I told myself I would not go to bed that night without a beautiful, shiny ball of mozzarella.
I called in the troops. I called my mother. And after getting my man friend involved:
(This is him giving the instruction booklet a dramatic reading - he's an actor, and everything he reads sounds impressive.)
...after several run-throughs, we (he) realized that I was using only a half-gallon bottle of milk while the directions called for a full gallon.
I wish not to discuss this any further.
(I've since learned that New England Cheesemaking Supply Company has a Facebook page as well as a ton of helpful tips in the help section of their website - there's a Beginners Help section and even a Curds Help section, among others... and it was in the Mozzarella Help section that I figured out what my problem was. Because I used only a half-gallon of milk, the teaspoon and a half of citric acid was too much - it was too acidic, I probably could have saved the batch had I gone to the website. However, pets love failed batches.)
So I headed back to the market .....
(Again, this photo is from my first attempt)
I bought two half-gallon bottles this time. 1+1 = 1 ....gallon. I was prepared.
I won't lie, I was a little nervous now. My milk-measurement malfunction had really thrown me for a loop. I wanted so badly to prove to myself that I could do this.
I proceeded onward.
And to my surprise, the second time around had me feeling like an old pro. It really is a simple recipe if you just follow the directions. And that's what I did, I followed the directions: I dissolved ¼ of a rennet tablet into ¼ cup of water and set it aside:
I mixed 1 ½ teaspoons of citric acid into 1 cup of cool water and added it to the gallon of milk I had poured into my pot, stirring and checking the temperature:
When it reached 90 degrees (it took only a few minutes), I took the pot off the burner and slowly stirred in the rennet solution I had set aside earlier. I covered the pot and waited 5 minutes:
(This photo, you may notice, is from my first debacled attempt - hence, the one bottle of milk and the laptop opened to Facebook.)
After 5 minutes or so, I checked my progress. There was a clear separation between my curds and my whey! SUCCESS! So, I sliced the curd in half with a knife long enough to reach the bottom of the pot. (My curd actually wasn't as solid I as expected it might be, didn't look as pretty as the picture in the book, but the batch came out perfect, so I guess it was okay!)
I then put the pot back on the stove, heated it up to 105 degrees while I slowly moved the curds around with my spoon. After it reached 105 degrees, I took it off the burner and continued stirring for a bit, (2 - 5 minutes. More time makes a firmer cheese.) At this point, I opted to go the microwave route. (I will try the water bath method next time - can't wait, actually.) (All the steps are right there in the booklet and easy to follow.) Then, with my slotted spoon, I scooped my curds out of the pot and into a microwavable bowl:
(I never realized how beautiful curds were.)
After microwaving the curds for about a minute and a half, I added about a half teaspoon of salt and I stretched them and stretched them until them became it. I was (and still am) so proud of my shiny, misshapen beauty:
I then gave it an ice bath. I wrapped what we didn't eat in plastic wrap (I forgot to mention, as I was stretching the curds into mozzarella we sampled quite a bit - incredibly, incredibly delicious, both warm and cold) and I placed it in an airtight container where it will stay fresh for up to two weeks in the fridge!
I'm already looking forward to making the remaining batches - 28 to be exact - each kit contains 30 batches! There are some great recipes in the instruction booklet that I look forward to trying. And now, I can't wait to peruse the website some more. I've become one of Jeri's devoted blog followers, and I've become a fan of The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company on Facebook.
Making this batch of mozzarella felt to me a little like making my first batch of cupcakes as a kid, or my first batch of biscuits in 7th grade HomeEc class (I was the only one who accidentally used baking soda instead of baking powder). But I did it; I made CHEESE! Yes, I had a mild setback; my friend bailed me out at one point, but I'd like to think I would have eventually figured it out - and even if I hadn't, asking for help isn't such a bad thing. Here's a photo of the salad we had for dinner that night complete with chunks of my homemade mozzarella:
Now, I look forward to giving gifts of cheese during the holidays, to making Caprese salad with my own fresh mozzarella at our next dinner party; and what a fun activity this will be with my nieces and nephews in the kitchen. They will be so impressed with Auntie's newly acquired skill set.
I noticed on the website that there are other kits too - one that makes Farmhouse Cheddar and Parmesan; and a Fresh French Goat Cheese Kit! I'd like to try that one next. Maybe I'll have Jeri help me this time... you know, so we can take some better pictures.


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I made some fabric buckets the other night using Ashley's great tutorial. They are a great solution for the Hot Wheels cars in every cranny of my house.
They took me about a half hour to make, and I made one with interfacing and one without…I like the interfaced one better.
Thanks for all the Christmas Lane Quilt love…to answer questions…no I didn't use a pattern, yes I will probably make a pattern (it will be awhile though), and yes her finger is feeling better (and thanks for asking!).

subset: commoncrawl


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Over the years we have discovered that our current strategy of sharing the latest breaking news along with mobile reviews and commentary is missing one key element: complete interaction with you, our fans. We want you to be a part of the fun, and not just reading our articles all day. Sure, we always encourage […]
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News Archive
UNC researchers track a gene's crucial role in orchestrating the placement of neurons in the developing brain. Their findings help unravel some of the mysteries of Joubert syndrome and other neurological disorders.
Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 16:14
Scientists at Indiana University and international collaborators have found a way to link two hormones into a single molecule, producing a more effective therapy with fewer side effects for potential use as treatment for obesity and related medical conditions.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 10:57
Tumor cells circulating in a patient's bloodstream can yield a great deal of information on how a tumor is responding to treatment and what drugs might be more effective against it. But first, these rare cells have to be captured and isolated from the many other cells found in a blood sample.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - 15:00
Many devoted pet owners are happy to spend thousands on operations for their cats and dogs – and these procedures could help teach scientists about human diseases, too.
Monday, November 12, 2012 - 17:25
Researchers use the electric potential of a guinea pig's inner ear to harvest enough energy to run a tiny sensor.
Monday, November 12, 2012 - 12:29
The brain holds in mind what has just been seen by synchronizing brain waves in a working memory circuit, an animal study supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests. The more in-sync such electrical signals of neurons were in two key hubs of the circuit, the more those cells held the short-term memory of a just-seen object.
Friday, November 9, 2012 - 12:23
Biologists are well-known for using lab rats in experiments, but a few may now have the chance to work with rats in a unique way.
A team of engineers has set up a system that lets lab rats control a human-shaped avatar in a virtual environment, while humans control a rat-size robot inside the rat's cage. The result? A six-foot human and a six-inch rat get to interact with each other remotely, and they get to each get to see either a virtual avatar or a robot that's close to their own size.
Friday, November 2, 2012 - 14:02
For mice, the Goliath of lung cancer has a vanquisher in the form of a tiny David.
In a study published in the November issue of Cancer Research, Yale biology researchers Frank J. Slack and Andrea Kasinski revealed that short strands of microRNA, non-coding RNA inhibiting protein translation, were successful in both preventing and curing lung adenocarcinoma in mice. The research is the first to propose that, in a clinical trial using mice, microRNA can be used as a therapeutic to suppress the activation and expression of oncogenic, or cancer-causing, proteins.
Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 15:52
Among the smaller but still important casualties of Hurricane Sandy were thousands of laboratory rodents, genetically altered for use in the study of heart disease, cancer and mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia, that drowned in basement rooms at a New York University research center in Kips Bay.
Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 15:51
Primates' brains see the world through triangular grids, according to a new study published online Sunday in the journal Nature.
Scientists at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have identified grid cells, neurons that fire in repeating triangular patterns as the eyes explore visual scenes, in the brains of rhesus monkeys.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - 10:02
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have created the first true mouse model of typhoid infection. The development promises to advance the study of typhoid and the creation of new vaccines against the infection, which remains a major health threat in developing countries. The paper was published today in the online edition of the journal Cell.
Friday, October 26, 2012 - 10:55
The three rats snoozing in Cage 57 don't know it, but they could someday help save thousands of human lives.
Friday, October 26, 2012 - 09:49
Oregon Health & Science University's development of a new gene therapy method to prevent certain inherited diseases has reached a significant milestone. Researchers at the university's Oregon National Primate Research Center and the OHSU Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology have successfully demonstrated their procedure in human cells. It's believed that this research, along with other efforts, will pave the way for future clinical trials in human subjects.
Friday, October 26, 2012 - 09:40
An African mouse's ability to regenerate body parts may have implications for medical treatment in humans, according to a recent study by UF researchers.
Friday, October 19, 2012 - 15:50
A quintessential English gentleman educated at Eton and a Japanese orthopedic surgeon. Not the most likely of traveling companions, you might think. But very soon the two of them will be journeying to Stockholm to collect the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, for research carried out on different continents, using different animal species and decades apart, yet intimately linked. The work of both men is elegant and beautiful and has one of the features that characterizes the truly revolutionary in biology -- as soon as you understand it, it seems so self-evident that it's hard to believe no one had ever thought of it or done it before.
Friday, October 19, 2012 - 15:49
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have shown for the first time in an animal model that vitamin C actively protects against osteoporosis, a disease affecting large numbers of elderly women and men in which bones become brittle and can fracture.
Thursday, October 11, 2012 - 13:51
Recent studies have linked caffeine consumption to a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, and a new University of Illinois study may be able to explain how this happens. "We have discovered a novel signal that activates the brain-based inflammation associated with neurodegenerative diseases, and caffeine appears to block its activity. This discovery may eventually lead to drugs that could reverse or inhibit mild cognitive impairment," said Gregory Freund, a professor in the U of I's College of Medicine and a member of the U of I's Division of Nutritional Sciences.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 15:12
Two Americans shared this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for deciphering the communication system that the human body uses to sense the outside world and send messages to cells — for example, speeding the heart when danger approaches. The understanding is aiding the development of new drugs.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 13:00
John B. Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan have won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for finding that cells of an adult organism—once thought be terminally locked into their developed state—can start anew. The discoveries, awarded the prize this morning (October 8) by The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, have ignited research in areas ranging from cloning to cancer treatment.
Monday, October 8, 2012 - 12:49
Researchers claim to have successfully transformed stem cells into viable mouse oocytes that produced healthy, fertile pups.
Monday, October 8, 2012 - 09:48


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Eat your heart out William Hung.
While reading Biden's part it is important that you imagine it to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner (click the photo to see a larger version).
On a positive note its nice to see Obama putting his on his heart for something.
A big thanks to a Facebook pal who helped to partly inspire this piece (for privacy concerns I wont name the friend, they know who they are).


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Can this charger charge several devices at the same time?
I am wondering if I can plug it in my car and at the same time charge my IPhone and IPad?
- Asked by Oscar A from Indio
Just Wireless Car Charger for iOS Devices
Product No Longer Available
1 Answer from the Community
Best Answer:
this charger is a hardwired charger and charges one device at a time. This charger has a lot of power and can charge any 30 pin IPod, IPhone, or IPad.
- Answered by Isaac D from Brooklyn


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Originally published on Mon November 26, 2012 4:04 pm
The sex scandals of Gen. David Petraeus and Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair have triggered public conversations about ethics, national security and leadership. These high-profile cases of infidelity have also prompted private conversations about the challenges of military marriage.


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I have a confession. I've never had the pleasure of eating Blue Bell's Banana Pudding ice cream. I'm not sure why. After all, I love banana pudding and I love ice cream.
As you probably know, Blue Bell doesn't sell its ice cream north of the Mason-Dixon line (though you can find a few flavors at Hill Country here in New York), and when I go home I get caught up on eating my old favorites—Cookies 'N Cream and Buttered Pecan, which leaves me little time to experiment. That or whenever I'm home it's not around as it's only in stores for three months out the year.
That said, I've been craving it as there's something very appealing about a banana pudding ice cream.
Whenever I hear about the release of their seasonal flavors, I get a little sad that I won't get to try them. And since their banana pudding ice cream is now available, I decided that even if I couldn't buy it at the store, I could at least try to make a batch at home.
I usually make my ice cream with just cream and half and half, and don't bother making a custard with eggs. (After all, it's called ice cream not ice custard.) But I wanted this ice cream to be yellow and the best way I knew how to do that naturally was to make it with bright yellow egg yolks.
Sadly, the egg yolks didn't make the ice cream yellow, but it did turn out a lovely shade of off white. But more importantly, I am now a convert for making a custard as the ice cream stayed creamy even after a spell the freezer, and was so rich that I didn't have to eat a whole mess to feel satisfied.
I ended up straining my bananas as the first batch of ice cream I made turned an icky shade of gray, which I suspected was from banana pulp (that and I had to leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of days before freezing because I was too busy to sit and wait for my dang ice cream machine to do its magic.) But just to be safe, I also added some lemon juice, which not only kept the ice cream a pretty color (if not bright yellow) but also brightened up the flavor.
I'm kind of nuts about ingredients these days, so I toyed with using a certain grocery store's organic vanilla wafers, but as soon as I opened the box and took a bite, I knew that there was no substitution for the proper cookie for a banana pudding—Nabisco's Nilla Wafers. The organic one was just too thick and crisp and I had a feeling it would never soften and blend into the banana pudding ice cream, as a Nilla Wafer is wont to do.
So how is it? Well, I love it, but not having Blue Bell's version of banana pudding ice cream, I shared some of mine with a friend who has eaten the stuff from Brenham. He took a bite, smiled and declared it very, very good. And that's just the answer I needed to hear.
Banana pudding ice cream
1 cup of cream
2 cups of half and half
3 egg yolks (save the whites for something else as we won't be making a meringue)
3/4 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 bananas cut into slices
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups of Nilla Wafers roughly crushed (make sure they're not crumbs but nice chunks).
Cook the cream and half and half on medium heat until warm, do not let it come to a boil.
Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla. Add to this 1/2 a cup of the warm and cream and half and half, and then stir the egg mixture and banana slices back into the remaining cream and half and half in the pot.
Heat this on medium low for five minutes or until it gets slightly thick. Do not let it come to a boil. You'll know it's ready when it coats the back of your spoon.
Stir in the nutmeg and lemon juice, turn off the heat, and just let the whole thing rest for about 45 minutes.
Remove the banana slices, chill overnight or for at least four hours and then freeze according to your ice-cream maker's instructions. About five minutes before the ice cream is finished being whipped around, add the Nilla Wafers.
Can serve with reserved banana slices. Makes one quart.


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Part of what makes a cruise with us so rewarding is the way we augment traditional shipboard activities with bridge instruction and other enhancements. We also offer an excellent lecture series on select voyages. Lecturers provide insight and perspectives far beyond what you would read in the average guidebook. Many of our speakers have first-hand knowledge of these locales, and most come from the foreign service and leading universities, or perhaps from the world of the arts or journalism.
Terry Breen is passionate about traveling, and shares her love and expertise of Alaska and Latin America through riveting narratives covering local ecology, geography, history and culture. Voted the most popular and personable lecturer ever to board a Regent Seven Seas Cruises' ship, she imparts her in-depth knowledge of the people and places of these regions in lively presentations. Learn more about Terry Breen and Regent Seven Seas Cruises' Special Program on Alaska.
Terry Bishop is passionate about worldwide history, exploration and discovery. He is an experienced presenter, aiming always to inform and entertain, incorporating humor and song in his presentations. Mr. Bishop's expertise is in the overseas battles of the British forces. He has led explorations through battle sites from The Little Big Horn to The Zulu Wars.
Hugh M. Neighbour served the United States as a naval officer and a diplomat in South America, Europe, Australia and the South Pacific. Mr. Neighbour was awarded the Secretary of State's Career Achievement Award, as well as a number of awards during his 38-year tenure with the Department of State. He imparts a fresh perspective on the enthralling history, culture, architecture and current events of the fascinating ports we'll visit.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, John Tabbutt-McCarthy is fluent in four languages and specializes in the history of ocean liners, constitutional monarchies and the European continent. He is one of the top-rated speakers in our program. A life-long traveler, Mr. Tabbutt-McCarthy spent his childhood and adolescence traveling between Europe and the United States.
Lori Verderame, Ph.D. is the author of more than 30 books on the topics of fine arts and antiques. She is an internationally syndicated weekly columnist, as well as the star antiques appraiser on Discovery channel's hit TV show, Auction Kings. Dr. Verderame not only lectures about her experiences, but also provides audiences with insider tips about fine art and antiques using a humorous, straightforward approach.
Donald J. Behnke, Ph.D. has been a life-long student and patron of the arts, having begun piano and voice studies at age five. He taught in the graduate schools of DePaul University in Chicago and Long Island University. Dr. Behnke is currently the music critic for the Green Valley News and Sun in Arizona where he reviews Arizona Opera and the Tucson Symphony.
Andrew Johnson is a former international corporate executive and author of the author of "Under Latin Skies." He is an expert in the international travel industry and now shares his observations on cultural diversity and European culture as a lecturer. Mr. Johnson is principal of The Strategic Option, a consultancy that delivers change, cultural understanding and both executive and individual transformation.
Your onshore experiences are complemented by fascinating onboard lectures by historian and bestselling National Geographic author, Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts. A humanities scholar, Dr. Isbouts has devoted research to the Renaissance of Florence and 19th century Europe.
Join Joe Snyder, former diplomat for the U.S. State Department, and an expert in the history, politics and economics of Asia.
Enjoy lectures by historian, anthropologist and former consultant to the United States Peace Corps, Dr. Kathleen Wulf. Discover new perspectives on the social and political structures, as well as the art and architecture of the region.
Explore the amazing wildlife and natural environment of the ports we'll be visiting and the seas we'll be sailing through with naturalist Michael Scott, OBE. His talks will help you made the very best of your time at sea and ashore. And when we're sailing, he will be on hand to help look for seabirds and whales.
Paula Smith studied history and anthropology at London University and was awarded a Research Fellowship in Medieval English History. Her current project is a book entitled "A History of the Mediterranean Peoples." Ms. Smith has contributed to a considerable number of newspapers and magazines, including articles on "Finding the Northwest Passage," "The Vikings in Newfoundland," and "Great Explorers of the World."
Gerald M. Pinciss is Professor Emeritus of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was a Leopold Schepp Fellow at Dartmouth College and received his PhD at Columbia with a William Bayard Cutting dissertation fellowship. At Hunter he served both as Chairman of the English Department and as the director of grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of several books on Shakespeare and the drama of the English Renaissance, including Literary Creations and Forbidden Matter, as well as co-author of Explorations in the Arts and Shakespeare's World. His most recent study, Why Shakespeare, was published in April, 2005. Professor Pinciss has been an enrichment lecturer on cruise ships for the past 15 years.
Lewis W. Falb is a retired college professor and academic administrator. He served as Senior Director of the Division of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities at New York University's School of Continuing Education. Before that he was Associate Dean of the Adult Division of the New School for Social Research as well as its Director of Programs in Humanities and Theater. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Paris, and after earning his doctorate at Yale, he taught courses in French and Comparative Literature at Yale, Vassar, and Boston University.
He is the author of several books on French and American theater as well as publications on the life and work of Sarah Bernhardt. Professor Falb has been a guest speaker on cultural history at Sotheby's in New York and an enrichment lecturer on cruise ships for the past 15 years.


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Gretchen is a creative theme that offers a plethora of styling options. Transform this theme into a clean minimal look or create your own color schemes in minutes using the admin features. This theme includes XML data to edit with ease.
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Version 1.0 released – 7.2.12Theme released version 1.0
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Contact us today with your specific needs: 1-800-645-9475.
Bayform Asset Purchase
In March 2008, Hygrade purchased selected operating assets of Saint Gobain's Bayform Division.
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Dec 13, 2006
The NXT Step Book
By the way, the cover and title (pictured) aren't official yet, and may be subject to change.
13 comments:
- Maniac said...
Wow you guys, I'm totally impressed. And to think that this has gone on for a few weeks without us knowing. You'll get no rest now you realize, we want more! Tell us more, what bots will be featured, what languages will be covered (anything about third party languages in those "additional theory chapters", or is this mostly a hardware book?)
Jonathan, way cool, still in FLL and soon to be a published author. Very cool:-)
- Dec 13, 2006, 5:29:00 AM
- Brian Davis said...
Well, which do you want... us to tell you about what we intend to put in the book, or for us to actually, you know, *write* the book, so you can eventually get it? ;-).
Brian Davis
- Dec 13, 2006, 5:52:00 AM
- Jim Kelly said...
I'm writing a chapter on my famous (infamous) Bacon Sensor... the demand for information has just overwhelmed me, so I've decided to go public...
On a serious note, I'm pretty happy to be contributing to a book with these 12 folks (Fay Rhodes is Rick's wife and no slouch when it comes to NXT design and programming - plus she designed the working cover you see). The book will automatically have an international appeal since 4 of our number are NOT from the USA! And, yes, we're pretty happy about our young contributor, Jonathan.
- Dec 13, 2006, 6:13:00 AM
- Maniac said...
Well, as Ii mentioned, some information about the different third party languages. I've seen lots of info the individual languages, but no comparison between them. If any of the authors where to simply draw a diagram, or do an excel spread sheet that compared the different languages, their strengths and weaknesses, what age level they work for or what type of programing environment they would best be used in. that kind of thing.
- Dec 13, 2006, 7:02:00 AM
- Tony Naggs said...
Hi Maniac
I think a comparison of the programming languages and environments is a good idea.
However I am not sure how much detail we can, or should, include in this book. It is quite hard to do the subject justice, as many of the projects are very young and they are updating features quite quickly. This is likely to be the case for a while yet: the firmware source has just been released and the ability to modify this is going to give a big boost to some of the projects.
I think it is too early to write much about them in a book. Especially as the book may still be in print in 5 years time.
I hope to have time to experiment with some of the programming environments in the next month or so. I will certainly be reporting back to The NXT Step on what I learn.
Tony N
- Dec 13, 2006, 12:09:00 PM
- Matthias Paul Scholz said...
Hi Maniac,
Maybe discussion of some of the existing programming environments will go beyond the scope of this very book.
Yet, the other book of mine to see light in spring (I've announced it some days ago) will include samples on programming a handful of robots with five or six different environments each, thus illustrating advantages and drawbacks of them.
- Dec 13, 2006, 6:37:00 PM
This book sounds very exciting.
One section that would be very interesting is an analysis of the best FLL robots that you've seen in action, and how the teams put the robot together and programmed it. That would be pretty cool. I love reviewing videos of FLL teams robots and figuring out how they got things to work.
Redoing the basic work that Ferrari et al have done in Building Robots with Lego Mindstorms, except with the new sensors, the new motor and NXT, and with a lot more lift arms, would be very cool. I'm currently working on adapting ULK for the NXT--similar work could be done for other instructive robots.
I think that you are right not to put in too much information that will change quickly. There is so much info on the web, and it competes with books. Your book should be a long term, well written, definitive guide to Lego NXT.
- Dec 14, 2006, 11:35:00 AM
this is vair vair cool when will it be released. I am desprate as i only got building instructions that 2 wheeled thing.
- Dec 28, 2006, 9:14:00 PM
Is there a graphics person on your team? Would he or you be interested in some help? I'm a controls engineer that designs and programs custom robotic workcells for factory production lines, and my main hobby is 3D and 2D graphics. In addition to design and programming the systems my company produces, I do the sales proposal concept design, using 3D apps to produce presentation graphics of what my company proposes to build. My secondary hobby is Mindstorm and Technics legos. I have both the RIS1.0 and the new NXT.
- Jan 10, 2007, 9:49:00 AM
- Jim Kelly said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- Jan 10, 2007, 10:12:00 AM
- Jim Kelly said...
We appreciate the offer, but we actually have a handful of the team working on the CAD instructions. Thank you for asking, though...
If you're good with 3D development, you might want to consider creating your own instructional material, either for a book or for digital download for other readers. CAD instructions are popular and you'll find a fan base if you can put out some good material.
- Jan 10, 2007, 10:13:00 AM
Hey i'm new to robotics its always been somthing that intrest me so i thought that the nxt would ba good way to get started i was just wondering if this book will b good for beginners or if its out of my league
- Jan 11, 2007, 2:53:00 AM
- Jim Kelly said...
It will have a variety of different projects, from easy to moderate, but I do not believe there will be anything in it beyond a beginner's ability - all building and programming instructions will be included, so if you follow along with the book, you shouldn't have a problem. Thanks!
- Jan 11, 2007, 2:57:00 AM


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There are four function rooms ranging from 25 to 115m² and with capacity for up to 80 people, featuring natural daylight, full air conditioning and free wireless internet.
Situated in the north of the city in the Auerberg district, the Galerie Design Hotel Bonn is a superbly styled hotel. Based on a concept by international designer Sheikh Raschid Al Khalifa, it has become a synthesis of the arts. Furnished with exclusive design objects and details, it provides a highly unusual setting for business and private guests and for events. The hotel is also an ideal base for exploring the many sights in and around Bonn.
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Remember that Walden's Title IV Code is 025042.
Dr. Gary Griffith, School of Information Systems and Technology, shares tips on how to protect yourself online.
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Dr. James Savard, School of Management, explains the importance of business continuity in homeland security preparedness
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Being part of a global community that stands up for humanity isn't everyone's mission, but for one Ph.D. in Psychology student, it's her destiny.
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Walden doctoral graduate Dr. Nancy Runton is excited to walk across the stage at the July 12 commencement ceremony and be publically acknowledged as Dr. Runton.
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Former U.S. Marine Eric Barton uses his Walden education and his desire to support his country's defense infrastructure to run a successful contracting company and help people in need around the world.
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We have a great event in the diary at Tres Health & Well-being, Chelsea that will help you look and feel your best!
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BALTIMORE, Md. -- Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels announced Wednesday that the Blue Jays have been accepted by the Big Ten Conference as a sport affiliate member and will begin play in the ...
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Bellator 80 headliner Joe Warren no longer flirting with featherweight, eyes tourney slot
Pat Curran taught Joe Warren he wasn't a featherweight.
Following a brutal knockout loss to Curran that stripped him of his belt, Warren (7-3 MMA, 5-2 BFC), who fights Owen Evinger (7-3 MMA, 0-2 BFC) on Friday at Bellator 80, said his priority is fighting as a bantamweight.
Retirement, though, is not an option.
"I know there are a lot of people out there that are saying I'm done, and hey, everyone's entitled to their opinion," Warren told MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com). "If anyone doesn't believe in me, I invite them to sit in front of their TV on Friday night and watch me pummel the s--- out of this guy. I'll change their perspective real fast."
Bellator 80 takes place at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. Warren vs. Evinger headlines the MTV2-televised main card, which follows Spike.com prelims.
Warren's brash confidence is one of his defining features. He isn't one to shy away from big challenges or big proclamations. He entered the sport of MMA in 2009 with no amateur experience and immediately fought top-tier competition overseas. He went 2-1 before signing with Bellator, where he won the promotion's Season 2 featherweight tournament and then the title.
But the fighter acknowledges he's in new territory.
"I've never been in a situation where I've lost twice in a row," he said. "It's not something that's normal for me. Nothing has happened to me from my last two losses other than me just getting better from them. Those defeats were very upsetting for me, and they bruised my ego, but bruises heal, and they're all healed up now."Bellator 80 headliner Joe Warren no longer flirting with featherweight, eyes tourney slot | MMAjunkie.comEight months after he stepped into the cage against Curran, his conviction has only grown stronger. But he hasn't lost his sense of humor about the steep odds he ran at headlong.
"I swear to God I thought [Curran] looked small when we were weighing in, but then when I shook his hand inside the cage I was like, 'Who is this guy?'" he said with a laugh.
The competitor in Warren ultimately believes he can turn around his career. Despite recent setbacks, he plans to compete in the Season 8 bantamweight tournament and hopes to get a shot at current champ Eduardo Dantas.
"I believe that my last two fights were freak occurrences," he said. "I've always fought the best, and I feel like what happened in my fight against Vila could have happened to anyone. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know it sounds bad, but it's the truth. I got hit with a punch that I probably wouldn't get hit with a thousand other times.
"Against Pat Curran, what am I supposed to say. I fought a huge, talented featherweight, and I got caught with a big knee. I don't think I was out of shape or outclassed. I just feel like it was Vila and Curran's nights.
"I'm just really confident and excited now that I'm at a weight class where I'm comfortable. I'm going to have to cut some weight to get down to 135 pounds for this fight against Evinger, so I feel really good. I feel a lot more competitive at this weight. I'm going to be big and strong for all of these fights."


text: Before I met Tardeusz, I was only told he painted. But when I got to his (one extremely large) warehouse, I learnt he also sculpts large metal pieces and he pretty much built his entire house himself, the room, the bathroom, the kitchen, all out of reused materials. One all-rounded polish man he is.


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Can't get free delivery from amazon for sales less than £25 to Ireland so the cost was working out to about 19 euro for me so went with the cheaper option [/quote]
If you ordered the Poo one as well would that qualify you for the free postage Pip.[/quote]
Nope . still under the total and i'm not bothered on the Pooh one .[/quote]
You could read it to the baby.


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I like that idea.
Not that they would do this however Taker, Punk... 2 out of 3 falls. This way it could be tied 1 fall a piece and Taker win to keep the streak alive but Punk then goes down as the only man to gain a pinfall/submission on Taker at Wrestlemania.


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Narrow your search
A survey suggests that many worry something bad will happen at a trade show -- with 66 percent afraid their partner could cheat.
Rumor suggests there might be a few more jobs around. Which means some companies may be turning to virtual career fairs. These present difficult cultural and sartorial questions.
A survey by a Webcasting and virtual events company suggests that Houston tops the list of cities that execs would avoid for a conference or trade show. Los Angeles was second.


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Ken® Doll as the Cowardly Lion™ from The Wizard of Oz™
Coming to you directly from the forest in the land of Oz™ is Ken® doll as the Cowardly Lion™. He's wearing a fleecy lion suit and his body is fully poseable. You can even make him hold his tail when he's afraid, just as he does in the movie. He comes with a crown and a badge of courage. Ken as the Cowardly Lion will surely bring back wonderful memories of this very special character.
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Production doll may vary from the photo shown above. Mattel reserves the right to modify the fashion/fabrics, sculpt, hair color/style, and accessories. Doll cannot stand alone as shown.


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In nature, uranium atoms exist as uranium-238 (99.284%), uranium-235 (0.711%), and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0058%). Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years, making them useful in dating the age of the Earth (see uranium-thorium dating, uranium-lead dating and uranium-uranium dating).
Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium-235 has the distinction of being the only naturally occurring fissile isotope. Uranium-238 is both fissionable by fast neutrons, and fertile (capable of being transmuted to fissile plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor). An artificial fissile isotope, uranium-233, can be produced from natural thorium and is also important in nuclear technology. While uranium-238 has a small probability to fission spontaneously or when bombarded with fast neutrons, the much higher probability of uranium-235 and to a lesser degree uranium-233 to fission when bombarded with slow neutrons generates the heat in nuclear reactors used as a source of power, and provides the fissile material for nuclear weapons. Both uses rely on the ability of uranium to produce a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Depleted uranium (uranium-238) is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armor plating.
Uranium is used as a colorant in uranium glass, producing orange-red to lemon yellow hues. It was also used for tinting and shading in early photography. The 1789 discovery of uranium in the mineral pitchblende is credited to Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who named the new element after the planet Uranus. Eugène-Melchior Péligot was the first person to isolate the metal, and its radioactive properties were uncovered in 1896 by Antoine Becquerel. Research by Enrico Fermi and others starting in 1934 led to its use as a fuel in the nuclear power industry and in Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon used in war. An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used enriched uranium and uranium-derived plutonium. The security of those weapons and their fissile material following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 is a concern for public health and safety.
When refined, uranium is a silvery white, weakly radioactive metal, which is slightly softer than steel, strongly electropositive and a poor electrical conductor. It is malleable, ductile, and slightly paramagnetic. Uranium metal has very high density, being approximately 70% denser than lead, but slightly less dense than gold.
Uranium metal reacts with almost all nonmetallic elements and their compounds, with reactivity increasing with temperature. Hydrochloric and nitric acids dissolve uranium, but nonoxidizing acids attack the element very slowly. When finely divided, it can react with cold water; in air, uranium metal becomes coated with a dark layer of uranium oxide. Uranium in ores is extracted chemically and converted into uranium dioxide or other chemical forms usable in industry.
Uranium was the first element that was found to be fissile. Upon bombardment with slow neutrons, its uranium-235 isotope will most of the time divide into two smaller nuclei, releasing nuclear binding energy and more neutrons. If these neutrons are absorbed by other uranium-235 nuclei, a nuclear chain reaction occurs and, if there is nothing to absorb some neutrons and slow the reaction, the reaction is explosive. As little as 15 lb (7 kg) of uranium-235 can be used to make an atomic bomb. The first atomic bomb worked by this principle (nuclear fission).
The major application of uranium in the military sector is in high-density penetrators. This ammunition consists of depleted uranium (DU) alloyed with 1–2% other elements. At high impact speed, the density, hardness, and flammability of the projectile enable destruction of heavily armored targets. Tank armor and the removable armor on combat vehicles are also hardened with depleted uranium (DU) plates. The use of DU became a contentious political-environmental issue after the use of DU munitions by the US, UK and other countries during wars in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans raised questions of uranium compounds left in the soil (see Gulf War Syndrome).
Depleted uranium is also used as a shielding material in some containers used to store and transport radioactive materials. Other uses of DU include counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as ballast for missile re-entry vehicles and as a shielding material. Due to its high density, this material is found in inertial guidance devices and in gyroscopic compasses. DU is preferred over similarly dense metals due to its ability to be easily machined and cast as well as its relatively low cost. Counter to popular belief, the main risk of exposure to DU is chemical poisoning by uranium oxide rather than radioactivity (uranium being only a weak alpha emitter).
During the later stages of World War II, the entire Cold War, and to a lesser extent afterwards, uranium has been used as the fissile explosive material to produce nuclear weapons. Two major types of fission bombs were built: a relatively simple device that uses uranium-235 and a more complicated mechanism that uses uranium-238-derived plutonium-239. Later, a much more complicated and far more powerful fusion bomb that uses a plutonium-based device in a uranium casing to cause a mixture of tritium and deuterium to undergo nuclear fusion was built.
The main use of uranium in the civilian sector is to fuel commercial nuclear power plants; by the time it is completely fissioned, one kilogram of uranium-235 can theoretically produce about 20 trillion joules of energy (2 joules); as much electricity as 1500 tonnes of coal.
Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel that is typically enriched to around 3% uranium-235. The CANDU reactor is the only commercial reactor capable of using unenriched uranium fuel. Fuel used for United States Navy reactors is typically highly enriched in uranium-235 (the exact values are classified). In a breeder reactor, uranium-238 can also be converted into plutonium through the following reaction: 238U (n, gamma) → 239U -(beta) → 239Np -(beta) → 239Pu.
Prior to the discovery of radiation, uranium was primarily used in small amounts for yellow glass and pottery glazes (such as uranium glass and in Fiestaware).
After Marie Curie discovered radium in uranium ore, a huge industry developed to mine uranium so as to extract the radium, which was used to make glow-in-the-dark paints for clock and aircraft dials. This left a prodigious quantity of uranium as a 'waste product', since it takes three metric tons of uranium to extract one gram of radium. This 'waste product' was diverted to the glazing industry, making uranium glazes very inexpensive and abundant. In addition to the pottery glazes, uranium tile glazes accounted for the bulk of the use, including common bathroom and kitchen tiles which can be colored green, yellow, mauve, black, blue, red and other colors with uranium.
Uranium was also used in photographic chemicals (esp. uranium nitrate as a toner), in lamp filaments, to improve the appearance of dentures, and in the leather and wood industries for stains and dyes. Uranium salts are mordants of silk or wool. Uranyl acetate and uranyl formate are used as electron-dense "stains" in transmission electron microscopy, to increase the contrast of biological specimens in ultrathin sections and in negative staining of viruses, isolated cell organelles and macromolecules.
The discovery of the radioactivity of uranium ushered in additional scientific and practical uses of the element. The long half-life of the isotope uranium-238 (4.51 years) makes it well-suited for use in estimating the age of the earliest igneous rocks and for other types of radiometric dating (including uranium-thorium dating and uranium-lead dating). Uranium metal is used for X-ray targets in the making of high-energy X-rays.
The discovery of the element is credited to the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. While he was working in his experimental laboratory in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound (likely sodium diuranate) by dissolving pitchblende in nitric acid and neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. Klaproth mistakenly assumed the yellow substance was the oxide of a yet-undiscovered element and heated it with charcoal to obtain a black powder, which he thought was the newly discovered metal itself (in fact, that powder was an oxide of uranium). He named the newly discovered element after the planet Uranus, which had been discovered eight years earlier by William Herschel.
In 1841, Eugène-Melchior Péligot, who was Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Central School of Arts and Manufactures) in Paris, isolated the first sample of uranium metal by heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium. Uranium was not seen as being particularly dangerous during much of the 19th century, leading to the development of various uses for the element. One such use for the oxide was the aforementioned but no longer secret coloring of pottery and glass.
Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896. Becquerel made the discovery in Paris by leaving a sample of a uranium salt on top of an unexposed photographic plate in a drawer and noting that the plate had become 'fogged'. He determined that a form of invisible light or rays emitted by uranium had exposed the plate.
A team led by Enrico Fermi in 1934 observed that bombarding uranium with neutrons produces the emission of beta rays (electrons or positrons; see beta particle). The fission products were at first mistaken for new elements of atomic numbers 93 and 94, which the Dean of the Faculty of Rome, Orso Mario Corbino, christened ausonium and hesperium, respectively. The experiments leading to the discovery of uranium's ability to fission (break apart) into lighter elements and release binding energy were conducted by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Hahn's laboratory in Berlin. Lise Meitner and her nephew, physicist Otto Robert Frisch, published the physical explanation in February 1939 and named the process 'nuclear fission'. Soon after, Fermi hypothesized that the fission of uranium might release enough neutrons to sustain a fission reaction. Confirmation of this hypothesis came in 1939, and later work found that on average about 2 1/2 neutrons are released by each fission of the rare uranium isotope uranium-235. Further work found that the far more common uranium-238 isotope can be transmuted into plutonium, which, like uranium-235, is also fissionable by thermal neutrons.
On 2 December 1942, another team led by Enrico Fermi was able to initiate the first artificial nuclear chain reaction, Chicago Pile-1. Working in a lab below the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, the team created the conditions needed for such a reaction by piling together 400 tons (360 tonnes) of graphite, 58 tons (53 tonnes) of uranium oxide, and six tons (five and a half tonnes) of uranium metal. Later researchers found that such a chain reaction could either be controlled to produce usable energy or could be allowed to go out of control to produce an explosion more violent than anything possible using chemical explosives.
Two major types of atomic bomb were developed in the Manhattan Project during World War II: a plutonium-based device (see Trinity test and 'Fat Man') whose plutonium was derived from uranium-238, and a uranium-based device (codenamed 'Little Boy') whose fissile material was highly enriched uranium. The uranium-based Little Boy device became the first nuclear weapon used in war when it was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Exploding with a yield equivalent to 12,500 tonnes of TNT, the blast and thermal wave of the bomb destroyed nearly 50,000 buildings and killed approximately 75,000 people (see Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
Experimental Breeder Reactor I at the Idaho National Laboratory(INL) near Arco, Idaho became the first functioning artificial nuclear reactor on 20 December 1951. Initially, four 150-watt light bulbs were lit by the reactor, but improvements eventually enabled it to power the whole facility (later, the whole town of Arco became the first in the world to have all its electricity come from nuclear power). The world's first commercial scale nuclear power station, Obninsk in the Soviet Union, began generation with its reactor AM-1 on 27 June 1954. Other early nuclear power plants were Calder Hall in England which began generation on 17 October 1956 and the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania which began on 26 May 1958. Nuclear power was used for the first time for propulsion by a submarine, the USS Nautilus, in 1954.
During the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, huge stockpiles of uranium were amassed and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons were created using enriched uranium and plutonium made from uranium.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, an estimated 600 tons (540 tonnes) of highly enriched weapons grade uranium (enough to make 40,000 nuclear warheads) have been stored in often inadequately guarded facilities in the Russian Federation and several other former Soviet states. Police in Asia, Europe, and South America on at least 16 occasions from 1993 to 2005 have intercepted shipments of smuggled bomb-grade uranium or plutonium, most of which was from ex-Soviet sources. From 1993 to 2005 the Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program, operated by the federal government of the United States, spent approximately US $550 million to help safeguard uranium and plutonium stockpiles in Russia. The improvements made provided repairs and security enhancements at research and storage facilities. Scientific American reported in February 2006 that some of the facilities had been protected only by chain link fences which were in severe states of disrepair. According to an interview from the article, one facility had been storing samples of enriched (weapons grade) uranium in a broom closet prior to the improvement project; another had been keeping track of its stock of nuclear warheads using index cards kept in a shoe box.
Above-ground nuclear tests by the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s and by France into the 1970s and 1980s spread a significant amount of fallout from uranium daughter isotopes around the world. Additional fallout and pollution occurred from several nuclear accidents.
The Windscale fire at the Sellafield nuclear plant in 1957 spread iodine-131, a short lived radioactive isotope, over much of Northern England.
In 1979, the Three Mile Island accident released a small amount of iodine-131. The amounts released by the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island power plant were minimal, and an environmental survey only found trace amounts in a few field mice dwelling nearby. As I-131 has a half life of slightly more than eight days, any danger posed by the radioactive material has long since passed for both of these incidents.
However, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was a complete core breach meltdown and partial detonation of the reactor, which ejected iodine-131 and strontium-90 over a large area of Europe. The 28 year half-life of strontium-90 means that only recently has some of the surrounding countryside around the reactor been deemed safe enough to be habitable. Since this is less than one half life after the accident, more than half the original release of strontium-90 will still be present. Many other radio active elements with half lives of many thousands of years were also released so use of the term "safe" is curious.
Uranium is a naturally occurring element that can be found in low levels within all rock, soil, and water. Uranium is also the highest-numbered element to be found naturally in significant quantities on earth and is always found combined with other elements. Along with all elements having atomic weights higher than that of iron, it is only naturally formed in supernova explosions. The decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium-40 in the Earth's mantle is thought to be the main source of heat that keeps the outer core liquid and drives mantle convection, which in turn drives plate tectonics.
Its average concentration in the Earth's crust is (depending on the reference) 2 to 4 parts per million, or about 40 times as abundant as silver. The Earth's crust from the surface to 25 km (15 mi) down is calculated to contain 1017 kg (2 lb) of uranium while the oceans may contain 1013 kg (2 lb). The concentration of uranium in soil ranges from 0.7 to 11 parts per million (up to 15 parts per million in farmland soil due to use of phosphate fertilizers), and 3 parts per billion of sea water is composed of the element.
It is more plentiful than antimony, tin, cadmium, mercury, or silver, and it is about as abundant as arsenic or molybdenum. It is found in hundreds of minerals including uraninite (the most common uranium ore), autunite, uranophane, torbernite, and coffinite. Significant concentrations of uranium occur in some substances such as phosphate rock deposits, and minerals such as lignite, and monazite sands in uranium-rich ores (it is recovered commercially from these sources with as little as 0.1% uranium).
Some organisms, such as the lichen Trapelia involuta or microorganisms such as the bacterium Citrobacter, can absorb concentrations of uranium that are up to 300 times higher than in their environment. Citrobacter species absorb uranyl ions when given glycerol phosphate (or other similar organic phosphates). After one day, one gram of bacteria will encrust themselves with nine grams of uranyl phosphate crystals; this creates the possibility that these organisms could be used in bioremediation to decontaminate uranium-polluted water.
Plants absorb some uranium from the soil they are rooted in. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in plants range from 5 to 60 parts per billion, and ash from burnt wood can have concentrations up to 4 parts per million. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in food plants are typically lower with one to two micrograms per day ingested through the food people eat.
Uranium ore is mined in several ways: by open pit, underground, in-situ leaching, and borehole mining (see uranium mining). Low-grade uranium ore typically contains 0.1 to 0.25% of actual uranium oxides, so extensive measures must be employed to extract the metal from its ore. High-grade ores found in Athabasca Basin deposits in Saskatchewan, Canada can contain up to 70% uranium oxides, and therefore must be diluted with waste rock prior to milling, as the undilute stockpiled ore could become critical and start a nuclear reaction. Uranium ore is crushed and rendered into a fine powder and then leached with either an acid or alkali. The leachate is then subjected to one of several sequences of precipitation, solvent extraction, and ion exchange. The resulting mixture, called yellowcake, contains at least 75% uranium oxides. Yellowcake is then calcined to remove impurities from the milling process prior to refining and conversion.
Commercial-grade uranium can be produced through the reduction of uranium halides with alkali or alkaline earth metals. Uranium metal can also be made through electrolysis of or , dissolved in a molten calcium chloride and sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. Very pure uranium can be produced through the thermal decomposition of uranium halides on a hot filament.
Current economic uranium resources will last for over 100 years at current consumption rates, while it is expected there is twice that amount awaiting discovery. With reprocessing and recycling, the reserves are good for thousands of years.. It is estimated that 5.5 million tonnes of uranium ore reserves are economically viable, while 35 million tonnes are classed as mineral resources (reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction). An additional 4.6 billion tonnes of uranium are estimated to be in sea water (Japanese scientists in the 1980s showed that extraction of uranium from sea water using ion exchangers was feasible).
Exploration for uranium is continuing to increase with US$200 million being spent world wide in 2005, a 54% increase on the previous year..This trend has continued through 2006, when expenditure on exploration rocketed to total over $774 million, an increase of over 250% compared to 2004. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency said exploration figures for 2007 would likely match those for 2006.
Australia has 40% of the world's uranium ore reserves and the world's largest single uranium deposit, located at the Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia. Almost all of the uranium production is exported, under strict International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards against use in nuclear weapons.
In 2005, seventeen countries produced concentrated uranium oxides, with Canada (27.9% of world production) and Australia (22.8%) being the largest producers and Kazakhstan (10.5%), Russia (8.0%), Namibia (7.5%), Niger (7.4%), Uzbekistan (5.5%), the United States (2.5%), Ukraine (1.9%) and China (1.7%) also producing significant amounts. Kazakhstan continues to increase production and may become the world's largest producer of uranium by the year 2009 with an expected production of 12 826 tonnes, compared to Canada with 11 100 tonnes and Australia with 9 430 tonnes. The ultimate supply of uranium is believed to be very large and sufficient for at least the next 85 years although some studies indicate underinvestment in the late twentieth century may produce supply problems in the 21st century.
Some claim that production of uranium will peak similar to peak oil. Kenneth S. Deffeyes and Ian D. MacGregor point out that uranium deposits seem to be log-normal distributed. There is a 300-fold increase in the amount of uranium recoverable for each tenfold decrease in ore grade. In other words, there is very little high grade ore and proportionately much more low grade ore.
Calcined uranium yellowcake as produced in many large mills contains a distribution of uranium oxidation species in various forms ranging from most oxidized to least oxidized. Particles with short residence times in a calciner will generally be less oxidized than particles that have long retention times or are recovered in the stack scrubber. While uranium content is referred to for content, to do so is inaccurate and dates to the days of the Manhattan project when was used as an analytical chemistry reporting standard.
Phase relationships in the uranium-oxygen system are highly complex. The most important oxidation states of uranium are uranium(IV) and uranium(VI), and their two corresponding oxides are, respectively, uranium dioxide and uranium trioxide (). Other uranium oxides such as uranium monoxide (UO), diuranium pentoxide and uranium peroxide are also known to exist.
The most common forms of uranium oxide are triuranium octaoxide and the aforementioned . Both oxide forms are solids that have low solubility in water and are relatively stable over a wide range of environmental conditions. Triuranium octaoxide is (depending on conditions) the most stable compound of uranium and is the form most commonly found in nature. Uranium dioxide is the form in which uranium is most commonly used as a nuclear reactor fuel. At ambient temperatures, will gradually convert to . Because of their stability, uranium oxides are generally considered the preferred chemical form for storage or disposal.
The interactions of carbonate anions with uranium(VI) cause the Pourbaix diagram to change greatly when the medium is changed from water to a carbonate containing solution. It is interesting to note that while the vast majority of carbonates are insoluble in water (students are often taught that all carbonates other than those of alkali metals are insoluble in water), uranium carbonates are often soluble in water. This is due to the fact that a U(VI) cation is able to bind two terminal oxides and three or more carbonates to form anionic complexes.
The uranium fraction diagrams in the presence of carbonate illustrate this further: it may be seen that when the pH of a uranium(VI) solution is increased that the uranium is converted to a hydrated uranium oxide hydroxide and then at high pHs to an anionic hydroxide complex.
On addition of carbonate to the system the uranium is converted to a series of carbonate complexes when the pH is increased, one important overall effect of these reactions is to increase the solubility of the uranium in the range pH 6 to 8. This is important when considering the long term stability of used uranium dioxide nuclear fuels.
Uranium carbides and uranium nitrides are both relatively inert semimetallic compounds that are minimally soluble in acids, react with water, and can ignite in air to form . Carbides of uranium include uranium monocarbide (UC), uranium dicarbide and diuranium tricarbide (). Both UC and are formed by adding carbon to molten uranium or by exposing the metal to carbon monoxide at high temperatures. Stable below 1800 °C, is prepared by subjecting a heated mixture of UC and to mechanical stress. Uranium nitrides obtained by direct exposure of the metal to nitrogen include uranium mononitride (UN), uranium dinitride and diuranium trinitride ().
All uranium fluorides are created using uranium tetrafluoride (); itself is prepared by hydrofluorination of uranium dioxide. Reduction of with hydrogen at 1000 °C produces uranium trifluoride (). Under the right conditions of temperature and pressure, the reaction of solid with gaseous uranium hexafluoride can form the intermediate fluorides of , , and .
At room temperatures, has a high vapor pressure, making it useful in the gaseous diffusion process to separate highly valuable uranium-235 from the far more common uranium-238 isotope. This compound can be prepared from uranium dioxide and uranium hydride by the following process:
The resulting white solid is highly reactive (by fluorination), easily sublimes (emitting a nearly perfect gas vapor), and is the most volatile compound of uranium known to exist.
One method of preparing uranium tetrachloride is to directly combine chlorine with either uranium metal or uranium hydride. The reduction of by hydrogen produces uranium trichloride while the higher chlorides of uranium are prepared by reaction with additional chlorine. All uranium chlorides react with water and air.
Bromides and iodides of uranium are formed by direct reaction of, respectively, bromine and iodine with uranium or by adding to those element's acids. Known examples include: , , , and . Uranium oxyhalides are water-soluble and include , , , and . Stability of the oxyhalides decrease as the atomic weight of the component halide increases.
Uranium-238 is an α emitter, decaying through the 18-member uranium natural decay series into lead-206. The decay series of uranium-235 (also called actino-uranium) has 15 members that ends in lead-207. The constant rates of decay in these series makes comparison of the ratios of parent to daughter elements useful in radiometric dating. Uranium-234 decays to lead-206 through a series of short-lived intermediaries. Uranium-233 is made from thorium-232 by neutron bombardment; its decay series ends with thallium-205.
The isotope uranium-235 is important for both nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons because it is the only isotope existing in nature to any appreciable extent that is fissile, that is, can be broken apart by thermal neutrons. The isotope uranium-238 is also important because it absorbs neutrons to produce a radioactive isotope that subsequently decays to the isotope plutonium-239, which also is fissile.
Enrichment of uranium ore through isotope separation to concentrate the fissionable uranium-235 is needed for use in nuclear weapons and most nuclear power plants with the exception of gas cooled reactors and pressurised heavy water reactors. A majority of neutrons released by a fissioning atom of uranium-235 must impact other uranium-235 atoms to sustain the nuclear chain reaction needed for these applications. The concentration and amount of uranium-235 needed to achieve this is called a 'critical mass.'
To be considered 'enriched', the uranium-235 fraction has to be increased to significantly greater than its concentration in naturally occurring uranium. Enriched uranium typically has a uranium-235 concentration of between 3 and 5%. The process produces huge quantities of uranium that is depleted of uranium-235 and with a correspondingly increased fraction of uranium-238, called depleted uranium or 'DU'. To be considered 'depleted', the uranium-235 isotope concentration has to have been decreased to significantly less than its natural concentration. Typically the amount of uranium-235 left in depleted uranium is 0.2% to 0.3%. As the price of uranium has risen since 2001, some enrichment tailings containing more than 0.35% uranium-235 are being considered for re-enrichment, driving the price of these depleted uranium hexafluoride stores above $130 per kilogram in July, 2007 from just $5 in 2001.
The gas centrifuge process, where gaseous uranium hexafluoride is separated by the difference in molecular weight between 235UF6 and 238UF6 using high-speed centrifuges, has become the cheapest and leading enrichment process (lighter concentrates in the center of the centrifuge). The gaseous diffusion process was the previous leading method for enrichment and the one used in the Manhattan Project. In this process, uranium hexafluoride is repeatedly diffused through a silver-zinc membrane, and the different isotopes of uranium are separated by diffusion rate (uranium 238 is heavier and thus diffuses slightly slower than uranium-235). The molecular laser isotope separation method employs a laser beam of precise energy to sever the bond between uranium-235 and fluorine. This leaves uranium-238 bonded to fluorine and allows uranium-235 metal to precipitate from the solution. Another method is called liquid thermal diffusion.
Almost all uranium that is ingested is excreted during digestion, but up to 5% is absorbed by the body when the soluble uranyl ion is ingested while only 0.5% is absorbed when insoluble forms of uranium, such as its oxide, are ingested. However, soluble uranium compounds tend to quickly pass through the body whereas insoluble uranium compounds, especially when ingested via dust into the lungs, pose a more serious exposure hazard. After entering the bloodstream, the absorbed uranium tends to bioaccumulate and stay for many years in bone tissue because of uranium's affinity for phosphates. Uranium is not absorbed through the skin, and alpha particles released by uranium cannot penetrate the skin.