Current Events 12/6/11

Earthlike Planet Found Orbiting at Right Distance for Life 

Article by Ker Than 

On National Geographic News 

I found this article very exciting because it is breaking news. NASA announced that an earthlike planet had been found. But it isn't just a normal planet; This planet is in the middle of the habitable zone of a solar system. The habitable zone of a solar system is the area in which any planets within that distance, could possibly sustain life. This new, earthlike planet is called Kepler-22B. This is exciting news because there are only two other known planets found that are in a habitable zone (not including earth). Both of them are at the very edge and have cooler stars, meaning they probably don't have life. NASA said that Kepler-22B is 2.4 times bigger than the size of earth. They are desperately trying to find out the mass of Kepler-22B. The mass of a planet can determine if it is a rocky world or a water world. NASA is planning to use a new high tech instrument in the Spanish Canary Islands to find out the mass of Kepler-22B. This new mass-measuring telescope is called HARPS North. It measures the planets doppler velocity very accurately.  

I think this article the most interesting of all the articles I read for current events. It's amazing how with new technology we are able to see things hundreds of light years away. I chose this article because I had looked one day before and I did not see it. Today I looked and saw it found out it was a breaking news article. This article also looked fascinating from the title. I know this article is valid because it is on National Geographic, which is a trusted website. This article was also on Reuters, the NY Times and MSNBC as breaking news, which are all major news corporations. I found it inspiring how somewhere, trillions of light years, there might be other living things. These living things are probably completely different and probably will appear to us as being weird and odd if we ever see them.  

This is a sketch of Keppler-22B

Komodo Dragon

KOMODO DRAGON 

On the outside he might look like a scaly oversized lizard. But on the inside he is one of the most deadly creatures on this planet. The komodo dragon is known for killing it's prey in one bite. It's not the teeth, it's not the power of the jaw, it's the bacteria. The mouth of a komodo dragon is one of the most bacteria-filled places on this planet. When the komodo dragon bites another animal and that animal runs away, it will most likely die within a few days. After the komodo dragon bites its prey, the open vulnerable wound gets filled with bacteria from the komodo dragon. Over a few hours, it gets infected. In a few days it will die if left untreated. 

A komodo dragon 

A national geographic vide on Komodo dragons.

"Zombie" Ants Bite at High Noon, Then Die 

By Ker Than 

On National Geographic 

This was a very creepy article. This article is about how a fungus parasite can take control over an ants brain. This fungus only lives in the forests of Thailand. For these "zombified" ants to survive they need to be in conditions of 95 percent humidity and temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees celsius. I will explain the "zombification" process of these ants. 

The spore of the fungus goes on to the head of an ant. Then it slowly grows. In this stage it is technically half fungi half ant. After nine days the ant becomes fully "zombified" and the fungus takes over the nervous system. For the next few days the ant will seem to have very random and insignificant behavior. After a few days the fungus tells the ant to clamp down on a leaf. The fungus cells in the ant cause fibers to detach. This causes the ants jaws to be virtually unlockable. After this stage the fungus then kills the ant using poison. According to the research, they tend to commonly kill the ant at high noon. Why this time, is still unclear. The spores of the fungus spread down off the head and on the leaf, for other ants to "find"....

I chose this article because it was very similar to my other current event about a cyclops shark. I know this article is valid because it is on national geographic which is a widely used website to find out about current events. Also this article is on livescience.com. I found this article interesting because I thought it was creepy how fungi could take control of an animals brain. While I was reading this article I was wondering if this fungi could take control of other animal brains. I was also wondering if it could take control of us! Something that I wish to hear more information about is why they tend to kill at high noon. I think this is a well written because it goes into depth about how and why this mysterious fungus takes control of Thai ants.   

Current Events 11/22/11

Giant, Dinosaur-Age Islands Found in Deep Sea? 

by Richard Lovett 

on National Geographic 

I read a mind-blowing article about how some scientist have found a dinosaur-age island. This "island" is actually two microcontinents. These two microcontinents are 1,000 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia and is about the size of West Virginia.   Scientists think that these micro-continents actually were part of India and Australia when they were connected to Gondwana. Gondwana was a super continent during the time of the dinosaurs. Something interesting that scientists and researchers found on these microcontinents was that it was not covered in basalt rock. Basalt rock is what is usually found on the seabed, instead they found granite, gneiss, and sandstone. All three of these are found on land, not in water. In the chunks of these materials they pulled up, they found several fossils in them. They found a few fossil fragments of bivalves. Bivalves are mollusks, this was important to researchers because they know bivalves live in shallow water not deep water, or land. These findings are some of the little evidence of Gondwana's existence. Gondwana's breaking apart is still a big mystery.  

I chose this article because in Humanities we have been talking about prehistoric times and I thought it would be a cool mix of science and humanities. I know this article is valid because it is on National Geographic which is a trusted website. It was also on digg.com, which I have read good articles on before. I found it very interesting how big land masses or microcontinents can be completely submerged over time. It is also kind of frightening because  our modern day continents might experience this. I am also intrigued by the fact that the we know so little about stuff like Godwana despite our fancy and complex technology that we have. Personally I think it is fascinating how fossils can tell us about something so long ago. Fossils can help us also make inferences. For example, they said that they found bivalves. This tells them that maybe these microcontinents had shallow waters.

Current Events 11/15/11

"Lost" Fortresses of Sahara Revealed by Satellites 

By James Owen 

On National Geographic News 

This very intriguing article is about how we have been able to take more satellite pictures of a super advanced ancient African tribe called the Garamantes. They were around the time 1 A.D. to about 500 A.D and lived in the Sahara Desert in Libya. This tribe had walled farms, towns, and villages. They also had a very intricate irrigation system that would be able to make desert areas, like the Sahara Desert, have green oases in the desert. Since it was hard to grow crops in the Sahara Desert they used these irrigation systems to be able to grow more and wider range of crops and plants. They had a very good writing system and metallurgy. They were also very advanced in architecture and engineering and were able to build bigger walls and buildings. Even though we think we know a lot about them we actually don't. We have no idea how they suddenly disappeared. Scientists think that they ran out of water supply and all of them died. 

I chose this article because from the title it looked very interesting since it was about a very mysterious civilization. I know this article is valid because it is from a very trusted website. Also it was on other websites like the "Heritage Daily" and other news corporation websites.  It is fascinating how ancient civilizations can be very advanced in technology for certain reasons. I thought it was intriguing how they used the irrigation systems to grow grass in desert areas to use for crops. They built underground canals so the water would not evaporate since they were in a desert. It must have been difficult to build this because it took an estimated 77,000 man-years to build this. This proves how smart civilizations can come up with very odd ways to do stuff that is hard to do, like plant crops in a desert. It was difficult to discover these sites because the researchers ran out of money, the sites were in the middle of the Sahara Desert and the war in Libya stopped the researchers for a while.

Current Events 11/7/11

Cyclops Shark Joins Ranks of Cryptic Creatures 

By Stephanie Pappas

On Scientific American 

In this very unique article I found out a lot of interesting and wild facts. This article is about how a fisherman on the coast of California found a shark in it's mother's womb. But this was no ordinary baby. Instead of having two eyes it had one big eye in the middle of it's head.This find was proven authentic because shark researchers examined the shark and was able to prove its authenticity. Other scientific finds like this have been found like a girl that had no nose and one eye in the middle and also a cat that had a similar condition. In the article the author also talked about other acclaimed finds like a kraken's lair and yeti hair and tracks. Over time a lot of finds have been proven a hoax, but some finds that have been proven may be behind the old myths and tales.

I chose this article because the title popped out and made me very interested, you usually do not here about cycloptic sharks. Scientific American is atrusted website. I also know this article is valid because the same story was also on National Geographic. I think this article proves that many myths and legends about creatures could be actually based on a real abnormal creature. This proves that even though these myths and legends are exaggerated, they might actually have a scientific side to them. A good example of this is the rare giant squid. These very rare squids might of attacked a ship and caused people to tell the story of a giant man-eating squid. I learned quite a lot from this article. I found this article very interesting and different. I thought it was kind of creepy that animals could actually have one eye and other deformed body parts. I learned that all of these myth and legends from all over different places and time, could possibly be true. 

Current Events 11/1/11

WHY ANTS NEVER LOSE THEIR WAY 

By Meera Dolasia 

On DOGO News 

In this interesting article it talked about how recent research shows fascinating facts about ants. A Brazilian Scientist named Jandira Oliveira, has done some more research about ants with a group of other scientists. They found out that ants have a small magnet in their antenna. They think the magnet is basically like a built in GPS system. The "GPS" works by tracking magnetic minerals in the soil and also using the magnetic field in the north pole. In the article the author also talked about how some species of ants in deserts navigate their way around by looking at the position of the sun. 

I chose this article because it is very similar to what we are talking about in class. This article talks about how ants use this GPS technique to find food and navigate, and we are talking about survival instincts in class. This article is reliable and valid because they talk about it on National Geographic. Also DOGO News is a trusted website. I learned a few new things about ants from this article. I learned about the magnet technique and I also learned that desert ants use the sun to navigate, which I found very intriguing.

DIRT THE MOVIE

DIRT THE MOVIE REFLECTION

In class we watched a very interesting documentary about soil. The movie talked about how soil is essential to us and how we recently have been wasting and destroying it. Soil is essential to us because soil provides us with nutrients to grow plants. Plants produce oxygen and oxygen is one of the necessities of life. If there were no soil there would probably be no life on Earth. For a long time we have been relying on plants and trees to get food. So even if there is a steady oxygen supply we would still die out because of starvation. Soil also provides us with a layer that is easy to live on. In other words, underneath soil is mostly rock, and sand and plants cannot grow on these materials only. Soil also provides us with water and nutrients. If there were no soil we would not have anything to drink. Our bodies need certain nutrients that the soil provides us. Humans also have been using soil to build shelters. Since there is so much soil it is easy to dig out and build a small structure out of it. Now only poor people usually build their houses out of dirt or clay.

The movie also talked about how we have not been using dirt properly. When we mine we want to get valuable resources like coal and metals. But most miners throw away all of the soil. This is dangerous for several reasons. The first reason is that all of the dirt and soil they dug up is thrown away while you could use it for farming. A second reason is that since you dug up all of that dirt without replacing it, it could have an impact on the local ecosystem. Overuse of fertilizer over many years can actually harm certain plants, the air, and creatures. Farmers use a method in which airplanes spray fertilizers over a crop field. Usually this is too much fertilizer. The movie also talked about how we can help the environment. We can help by protesting and also start forming organizations that build dirt shelters for the poor. We can also use dirt in poor countries for other ingenious reasons like using it to fill in gaps in roads, building bases for falling trees, and making walls around farms to keep animals out or locked in a certain area. 

Current events

The Search For Aliens Is About To Get More Intense 

By Meera Dolasia 

On DOGO news 

This is a very fascinating article about how many astronomers, scientists, and space research organizations have gathered together to make a design of the biggest telescope on earth. This project will cost a total of 1.5 Billion USD. Even though the construction has not started yet, it is planed to be up and running by 2020. Many scientists from around the world have began designing complex instruments that will help us give a clearer picture. The purpose of this telescope is to be able to see even farther into the universe and pick up more radio waves from space. The telescope will be built in the middle of the Atacama desert in Chile. 

I chose this article because I thought it was very intriguing that scientists will be building a gigantic telescope that can look even farther into space. I know this article is valid because it is on a reliable website and also it is on BBC news so I know it is a true and valid story. This article proves that technology has not only helped us in everyday life, but even when we are exploring the farthest edges of space itself. What caught my attention in this article is that it costs a lot of money, 1.5 Billion USD. This makes me wonder, who is funding their project?

Current events

PORTUGAL BUILDS THE CITY OF THE FUTURE

By Meera Dolasia 

Article on DOGO

I read a very interesting article about how Portugal is designing a city in which a super computer called the Urban Operating system, is running the city. The Urban OS will run the critical functions of the city. For example if there is a fire the Urban OS will alert the firemen and guide the fire trucks to where they need to go. They will place sensors around the city to monitor traffic control, water, electricity, heat systems and tons more. They are testing this in a 4,000 acres area near Porto in Northern Portugal.  That is not all citizens can program their smart phones to interact with sensors to do functions from a mobile location like turning on their house lights.

I chose this article because I think it was very unique because you usually do not read about these type of articles. I know this article is valid because it is by DOGO news, which is a trusted site, and it was also on some other news companies like BBC. This article proves that many strong nations, like Portugal, are putting in their time, money, and research to advance human technology. This is not similar to the topic we are studying, but is still considered science.  

Current events 10/4/11

The Amazing Tail Behind Winter's Bionic Tail 

By Kavi Dolasia for DOGO News   

written on 10/03/11 

I read this article and I thought it was a very fascinating article. This article is about a dolphin named Winter. Winter is no ordinary dolphin, he lost his tail and now has a prosthetic one. On a winter morning a fisherman headed out to sea on the Florida coasts in the year 2005. He saw a buoy bobbing and decided to check it out. As he got closer he heard struggling noises and found a dolphin trapped in a net. He immediately took his knife and set the dolphin free. It had one problem though; the net had been tied hard around his tail and he had lost blood supply to his tail and could not move it. The fisherman called an organization called the Hubb-Sea World Research Institute. They had to amputate the tail of the dolphin. The dolphin tried to swim with a stump for a tail and started to swing it side to side. The institute was worried that this would hurt the dolphin's spine. They had almost lost all hope when a prosthetic company called and offered to give it a prosthetic tail. They decided to name him Winter because they found him on a winter morning.Up to this day Winter is the main attraction in an aquarium. Winter has inspired many people that lost their limbs as well. Winter has been in several movies for the past five years. 

I chose this article because I had heard about winter many times but never read an article about him. I think this article is reliable because it is by DOGO News which is one of the most popular sites for reliable articles. I felt very inspired by this article because it made me think and feel the pain of those who have lost limbs. It also makes me feel sorry for them. This is somewhat related to what we are talking about because we have recently been talking about living organisms. This is similar because we learned about the characteristics of life and this event is kind of like respond to change. Winter could not survive underwater if it was not for his prosthetic limb.  I still think that winter is very vulnerable because his prosthetic tail is more fragile and weak than his real tail. I myself have seen winter on a field trip since I lived in Florida.

Blog Post 3

Global Warming Silver Lining? 

By Richard. A . Lovett 

National Geographic News 

Written on Sept. 23 2011 

This article "Global warming silver lining?" is about how recent research shows that global warming may have some good effects on the arctic. Recently climate models have been showing that global warming increases the amount of annual rainfall. According to Timothy Garret, an atmospheric scientist, one of the best ways to get rid of pollutants in the air is rainfall. He explained that rainfall can carry the pollutants out of the air and onto the land. Pollutants have less effect on the environment if they are on land than if they are in the air. They think this method might be effective especially in the arctic since it receives so much of the pollutants from global warming. 

I chose this article because I think this is currently a very controversial argument and most think global warming is bad. This article shows that Global warming is not 100% bad and actually does some good for the environment. The title "Global Warming Silver Lining" is what caught my attention because it is bold and exotic. I learned in this article that things that are bad are not always completely bad and unhealthy. I can tell this article is valid because it is from National Geographic a website that is trustable. One good thing about this article is that the writer presented both sides of the argument. It is fair reporting so the reader can make his own judgements. One positive thing about this research is that it can affect scientific knowledge because we can use this information to look at global warming in a more positive way. However, this rainfall method does not apply to carbon monoxide. How can we study carbon monoxide which scientists seem to think affects global warming more than pollutants.

Current Events 9/20/11

Fanged Frog 

By:Rachel Kaufman 

National Geographic News 

Published on August 16 2011 

For my current science events report I picked an article called "Fanged Frog" on National Geographic 

News. Fanged Frog is an article about the discovery of nine new species of frogs on Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia. According to scientists these are not actually fangs but are bony jaw protrusions. The purpose of the "fangs" are not known yet but scientists think that they might help the frogs catch fast-swimming prey in ponds, lakes, and rivers. 

I chose this article because I thought it was unique and interesting. It is unique that these frogs have fang like jaw protrusions. This article caught my attention because of the title "Fanged Frog". I think this is kind of related to what we are talking about in science which is animal adaptations and how they survive. For example, these frogs probably grew "fangs" to help it catch more prey. I know this news article is valid because it is from a trusted website, National Geographic.com. I decided to look further into this article so I went to a website called The American Naturalist. I found out that there was also fanged frogs found in the Philippines. The ones in Indonesia have higher diversity. Scientists think this is so because there are less frogs which means there is less competition.

Science Current Events

Science Current Events: Nuclear Explosion France Sept. 2011

France nuclear: Marcoule site explosion kills one 

 BBC Europe 

Written on 12th of September 2011 

On the 12th of September 2011 a blast at the Marcoule Nuclear Site in France, killed one worker and seriously injured another. Officials said that the worker who died was killed from the initial blast not from radiation. The explosion was caused by a fire that started in a nuclear waste storage site. The fire started by a furnace in the nuclear waste storage site. According to the interior ministry spokesman there was no radiation leak of any kind. 

The author of this article decided not to put his opinion into his article. I think the author was trying to be respectful to everyone's opinions. I chose this article because nuclear energy is a very controversial argument. Many people disagree with having nuclear energy and think that we should shut down all nuclear power plants as soon and as safely possible. They think we should find a safer alternative energy. I found this article very interesting because there have been many nuclear explosions over the past few years and yet we are building more and more plants. I believe we should find an alternative energy that is safer and is not radioactive and/or very explosive. Nuclear energy started in the 1950's and since then we have been using it to supply our homes with energy. We have been building more and more nuclear power plants over the years and the more we build the more likely we are to have more accidents that end up killing innocent workers and civilians. This article reinforced my opinion about banning nuclear energy. I checked for validity of this BBC article and it is valid because CNN wrote a very similar article and both are major news corporations. 

  

Bibliography: 

 BBC Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14883521

CNN Article: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-12/world/france.nuclear_1_nuclear-waste-nuclear-site-nuclear-facilities?_s=PM:WORLD

My Goals for Science 7

Here are some of my goals and things I want to do/accomplish for seventh grade science this year. 

• Learn many new things in science class. I will do this by paying attention in class.
• Try my hardest on all assignments.
• Get good grades on my projects, by working hard.
• I would like to dissect something, like dissecting a frog
• I want to learn  something related to roller coaster physics, like building a model roller coaster. Of all of the science subtopics I find physics the most interesting because I think it is the subtopic in science that is used the most in every day situations.
• I wish I could do a chemistry experiment, like combining chemicals to see what happens.
• It would be fun to study biology, such as marine biology
• I want to go on a field trip, like going to the Tesla museum.
• It would be interesting to do many different projects, like researching an animal.
• I want to have fun!!!!!!

My Scientific Summer

My Summer
By Tyler Monestel

Over this past summer I went to a few amusement parks in Orlando, Florida. While I was in the amusement parks I went on several roller coasters and many thrill rides. Some of my favorites were Test Track, Manta Ray, and Mission: Space. Manta Ray is a unique roller coaster in which you are lying down facing the ground. Manta Ray has a top speed of 56 mph (90 kph) and a height of 140 feet (43 meters). Mission: Space is a centrifugal motion simulator in Disney Epcot, which exposes riders of forces up to 2.5 G-Forces. Test Track is an automobile evaluation simulator that reaches a top speed of 65mph (105 kph).

Roller Coaster Science

Roller Coaster science is mostly based on physics. Roller Coaster science is the study of how roller coasters work and function. There are a few physics of motion that affect roller coasters. The first is Kinetic and Potential Energy. Kinetic Energy is the energy the car has when moving. The faster the car is moving the more kinetic energy it has. Potential energy is how much energy the car has stored as it is moving up the chain lift hill. Acceleration is how great the train changes in speed. Deceleration is how great the train decreases in speed. I experienced this on Test Track because the car made a lot of quick starts and stops. G-Force is the force of earths gravitational pull exerted in one person. One G-Force is the normal amount of G-Forces exerted on a person. When you are riding Mission: Space 2.5 G-Forces is exerted on you. It makes you feel like you are being thrust up into the air, even though you are only spinning around in circles. The fastest of all of the roller coasters I rode was Test Track, so it has the most kinetic energy.

Lesson

Kinetic and Potential Energy

When going up hill it has potential energy. When going down it has kinetic.

Potential                         Kinetic

At the top of a hill it has a lot of potential energy and little, kinetic vice versa on a bottom of a hill

                              Little Kinetic
                              A lot of Potential

                                                                                                    Little Potential

                                                                                                    A lot of Kinetic

Acceleration

Acceleration is how great the train changes in speed. Zero acceleration occurs at the top of a hill. Centripetal acceleration is a result of resistance to change in direction.

G-Forces
The force of earth’s gravitational pull exerted on a person.