Answer the questions

1. What do ceramics deal with?

2. Which are the typical ceramic products?

3. What is the basis of most commercial ceramic products?

4. Which ceramic products exist in a natural state?

5. How can ceramic products be classified?

6. What is the main ingredient of most ceramic products?

7. What is mica used for?

8. Around what is now an extensive technology developing?

9. What are the main properties of oxides?

10. Why is graphite widespread use in rocket building?

11. Why are ferrites finding application in computer systems?

12. What are cerments?

WHAT IS ECOLOGY?

A few years ago, the average person would not have had the slightest idea of this term. Today, the word is on everyone's lips. The man in the street usually associated it with the effect of pollution and our efforts to clean it up. According to the definition of a biologist, on the other hand, ecology is the study of plants, and animals in relation to their environment. A community of plants and animals within a particular habitat is called ecosystem. Every plant or animal of an ecosystem has a definite role to play to maintain an overall balance in the system. This role is referred to as ecological niche. Man-made pollution frequently alters the environment in which a community of organisms lives and upsets its delicate balance. It is of significance that pollution produces numerous adverse effects in addition to disturbing ecosystem.

Homo sapiens, of course, is a part of the world ecosystem. In primitive societies based on hunting and food gathering, he fitted in quite well, he ate roots and berries or trapped animals for food. He began to seriously disturb the balance of nature only after he started to practice farming on a large scale and keep a sizeable herds of grass-eating animals. In recent years, it is the growth of giant cities accompanied by industrial development on a huge scale that has begun to introduce enormous amounts of noxious wastes into the environment. Our transportation devices are likewise serious offenders in this regard as are the numerous new synthetic materials such as plastics that soil and water bacteria cannot degrade.