Self-paced
P1
Organic chemist Larry Koskan's inspiration arrived in the mid-1980s, when he read a report by marine biologists describing how oyster shells grow. ██ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ █ ███████ █████████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████
Intro Topic ·
Discovery about oysters
Koskan inspired by oyster’s production of chemical.
P2
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Background ·
Acrylate
Acrylates used to clean industrial equipment.
Discovery ·
Aspartate
Aspartate produced by oysters achieves similar function.
Benefit ·
Biodegradable
P3
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Benefit and functions ·
Acrylate cheap, versatile, detergent, disposable products
Acrylate benefits include being cheap and versatile. Uses include detergent and disposable products.
Problem ·
Acrylate last forever, too much
Acrylate lasts forever and there’s too much in landfills.
P4
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Attempted solution ·
Aspartate replacement for acrylate
Koskan and others tried to commercialize aspartate.
Failure ·
Too expensive
It was too expensive to produce at scale, so others stopped.
Successful solution ·
Aspartate successful in niche applications
Koskan successfully used aspartate in niche applications.
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
25.
It can most reasonably be ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ █████████████ ██ █ ███████████ ███ █████████████
a
was a result ██ █████ █████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████ █ ███ ███ ████████ ████████
The companies’ decision not to use polyaspartate didn’t relate to harmful consequences to human health. It related to the cost of polyaspartate.
b
was not primarily █ ██████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ █████ ███ ███████
(B) is the opposite of what motivated the companies. They were considering the cost of polyaspartate in deciding not to use it.
c
was not due ██ █ ██████ ████████ ██████ ████ █████████████ ██ ███████████
d
was a result ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ████ █████ █████████████ ██ ████
The companies were motivated by the high cost of polyaspartate. We don’t know that this high cost is related to the scarcity of the raw material.
e
was due to ███ ██████ ████ █████████ █████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████████ █████████████
The companies were motivated by the high cost of polyaspartate. We don’t know that the companies believed consumers would not trust polyaspartate-containing products.