Profile
Philip Denniff
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About Me:
Local history, walking, gardening and general science. Doing hands on science experiments with kids.
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I like to walk for 6 to 12 miles in the countryside two to three times a week. At the moment I am getting the allotment ready to plant runner beans. In a couple of months it will be time for sun warmed strawberries and raspberries – whats not to like. I have just finished transcribed the local Victorian pharmacist prescription book (http://www.hoap.co.uk/who/bpdb.pdf).
Here are a few to try Potato powered calculator, penny bridge (how many pennies can you balance on a bridge made of single sheet of paper), balloon blow up (using chemistry to blow up a balloon), can a toilet paper tube support your weight?, brush robots, Film canister rockets, measuring lung capacity, slime, reaction times, turn milk into plastic. http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/ https://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html
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Have you ever wondered why you take some medicines are once a day and others three times a day after food . That it part of the work I do. What I want to know is how long drugs take to get into the blood stream and how long they last and remain active in the body.
In particular I am looking to find ways to measure drug levels in the blood of children. Usually blood samples are taken from a vein with a needle. I take a drop of blood from a finger prick and dry it onto a piece of blotting paper or cotton bud, hence the name dried blood sample. The method is so simple you could do it at home. Think about it, no need to visit the doctors surgery or hospital clinic to have a blood sample taken. It would be ideal for remote locations such as sub-Saharan Africa or even space (and yes NASA has shown an interest). -
My Typical Day:
I may go to work each morning and put on a white lab coat but days are never the same, its always something different. I take a long time designing my experiments because a bad experiment will lead to the wrong answer. Each of my experiments must answer a specific question.
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I spend a lot of time designing experiments to see how robust the dried blood sample method is. Effectively I am designing experiments to see if I can break the method. I try and find out what could go wrong and look for ways to prevent it going wrong. What I want is a method that can be used at home by anyone without the need special training. Also testing to see that the method gives the correct answer is important.