Plasticity Lab

In science class we learned about the property of plasticity that is most prominent in the Earth's Mantle. To simulate plasticity we mixed water with corn starch. This new mixture which had the property of plasticity was liquid in appearance however force is applied to it, it acts like a solid. When pushed our fingers in fast the mixture acted more solidified. On the contrary when we pushed our hands in slowly the mixture acted moire like a liquid. Not unlike the Earth"s Mantle, the mixture had the property of plasticity. I think this activity was educational and enjoyable. It was a hands on activity which I enjoyed very much. I hope there will be more activities like this one in the future.

October Sky

    In school I watched an inspirational movie known as October sky. The synopsis is that the main character homer witnesses a Russian space craft orbit the Earth. He is then inspired to build rockets, a pursuit he follows until the end.It had many of the character education traits we are learning about. Respect- Homer respected his fathers ideals and way of life though they both have different goals in mind. Responsibility-Homer took his fathers job at the coal mine when he was injured in order to insure that his family would keep all its belongings. Caring-in order to allow his brother to go to college on a football scholarship which he will have to stay in school to validate Homer took his fathers job in the coal mine instead of allowing his brother to work in the coal mine. Along with the character education traits that were so prevalent in the film October sky also had many connections to earth science. One such connections is that Homer's father was a coal miner. Coal mines are located underground.

Duchene muscular distrophy

Duchene muscular distrophy is a disease weakens muscles. The symptoms for this disorder can be identified at young age, around the age of three unusual walking and running patterns can be identified as Duchene muscular distrophy. Also there are general weaknesses hips, pelvis, thighs and shoulders. There is no known cure for the disease however by undergoing physical therapy the subject can remain fit. Most children identified with the disease die before they reach their thirties. This disease is not that common as only 1 in 3600 inherit the disorder. I believe that those with this disorder are very unfortunate as they will no be able to engadge in normal physical activty as a "normal" human can.

Information found here http://darknightxv1.blogspot.com/

Color Blindness

Color blindness is a genetic disordor that occurs in 8% of men and .5% of women in the U.S. The symptom of color blindness is that the subject will not be able to see all shades of color. Color blindness can not kill the subject and therefore the mortality rate is zero. Inherited color blindness cannot be treated except by wearing special glasses, however if a cataract is causing the disorder surgery can treat the problem.The male population is more vulnerable to the disease because the trait that causes the disordor is carried on the X chromosome and unlike females, males only have one X chromosone, therefore if a female has an X chromosone withe the trait and one without the trait the female will be a carrier of the trait however they will not be affected. On the other hand if a males single X chromosone has the trait the male will definately have the disease. In order to understand the principles of color blindness and develop new treatments you would need to understand the limits of each individuals color blindness.

Information found here and here

How to extract D.N.A. from a strawberry

D.N.A. is a molecule that contains a genetic code in the cells of plants and animals. Extracting D.N.A from a strwberry is a multi-step process. In order to extract the D.N.A. you need a heavy duty ziplock bag a fresh strawberry, a cheesecloth, a funnel, a testube, a wooden coffee stirer, a hundred mL beaker, some cold rubbing alchohol, (100mL of shampoo(without conditioner) and 900 mL of water)this is your extraction buffer. You start the procedure by placing the strawberry in a ziploc bag which you then smash for 2 minutes. Then you add 10mL of your extraction buffer to the ziploc bag then smash it again for one minute. Filter your solution in your ziploc bag through the cheesecloth then pour it into a testube so it is 1/8 full. Finally slowly pour the cold rubbing alchohol into the testube. You should see the D.N.A. foam out at the top. An explanation for this is that the soap breaks down the cell membranes in a cell. Then the alchohol percipitates th D.N.A making it visible.

Information found here.

Infamous Iraqi prison is now humane

          A prison once known as Abu Gharib was the site where tens of thousands of Iraqis were thrown into jail tortured, abused and executed without a trial. That was however the time when Saddam Hussein ruled. Now it is called the Baghdad Central Prison. The new jail has water fountains, a freshly planted garden and a gym. Prisoners were tortured in the prison first by Saddam Hussein then by U.S. troops. Because of the scandal by U.S. troops General Janis Karpinski was demoted to the rank of sergeant. Though there was trouble in the past, the Iraqi government is going to great lengths to change the image that the prison has. There will be a tour for journalists sometime in the near future. CNN was already told that rooms have been renewed and renovated. I believe that this is a great improvement in the Iraqi justice system. Now that Saddam Hussein is gone places of torture like Abu Gharib will no longer exist.

Information was found here

Making a roller coaster

       My Science class was learning about physics and Newtons laws so we did a little project. The project was to create a roller coaster for a website you would make about the roller coaster. The class was first separated into groups, each one would make their own roller coaster. You needed to collect Omega money, a currency used to buy the supplies needed for the roller coaster in order to create it successfully. After the roller coaster was built you needed to test it make sure it worked by dropping a marble at the top and watch it as it rolls down. If the marble can't get down adjustments need to be made to the coaster. After the roller coaster is finished each individual student needed to make a website for the roller coaster. The website must include information on the rates and services, testimonials, and the way physics make the roller coaster work. The student was also allowed to add extras to their website such as music. I think that this project was very fun. My favorite part was making the roller coaster. I felt that the project was a good way to get away from normal classroom exercises. Although my roller coaster wasn't very good it was also fun to create a website for it. I hope their will be more projects like this in the future.

Ancient whales gave birth on land.

          After analyzing the fossil of a pregnant whale found in the Pakistani dessert scientists believe primitive whales gave birth on land. Paleontologists were initially stunned at the mixture of adult and fetal bones. The fetus in the mother had fully grown teeth which shows that it would have been ready to fend for itself shortly. The head position of the fetus gave a lot of information. Land mammals are born head first while marine mammals are born tale first. It was a lot safer for animals and dinosaurs to be born on land in prehistoric times because newborns risk drowning, getting lost and being eaten by a predator which the seas where full of. Though you would still have to hide on land it is a lot safer. Paleontologists know that the first whale ancestor was a furry quadrupedal omnivore 50 million years ago and evolved into a fully marine animal 45 million years ago. 

 I believe that this is a new insight into the history of ancient marine animals. I believe that this is a revolutionary find and that it will help scientists better understand evolutionary processes. I also believe that if the evolution of one species is understood then the evolution of all its nearby relative could be understood as well. If more fossils of the same sort were to be discovered more information would be provided to how whales evolved to marine animals. This may be one of the most important fossils ever found.

N.J. school report card results show high failure rates for middle schoolers

Middle school this year who took a much harder state test this year students saw their test scores fall dramatically. Above 40% of 5th and 6th graders failed the language arts section of the test and almost a quarter of them failed the math section. 7th graders who were thought to have taken a much harder test than previous years had lower numbers of failures. The large failure rate for 5th and 6th graders is linked to last years "cut scores" scores a student needs to prove his academic level. If the cut score had not been lowered it would be likely that the grades for 6th and 7th graders would have increased while the grades for 5th graders would have declined slightly. Education commissioner Lucille Davy has stated "the change in scores is part of a conscious effort to identify middle school students who may need a little more help preparing for high school. I believe that it is each individual district's responsibility to prepare middle school students for high school not the state's. I also believe the test may not accurately tell you whether or not additional help is needed. One example of this is when a student guesses the answers correct on the test, since most of a state test is multiple choice this is probable.

Information was found here.

Coffee CRAZY

           A new study suggests that people who drink seven cups of coffee a day are 3 times more likely to hallucinate and hear imaginary voices than those who drink 1 cup of coffee or less. The study included 200 test subjects those who drank an equivalent of 7 cups of coffee were much more likely to hallucinate than those who drank much less. The research does not show however that cause of this effects is the caffeine in the coffee. Caffeine is craved for its ability to quickly raise alertness and boost energy, though the drug has been researched many times the effects apparently ranged from easing pain and headaches to causing cancer. It is possible that the caffeine caused sensory disturbance by amplifying the physiological effects of stress. It also caused increased production of stress related hormone called cortisol. Hallucination is usually linked to traumatic events such as abuse. The study noted that heavy intake of caffeine can cause jitteriness and other adverse effects. A much higher dose may cause more heavy effects such as hallucination. The study may be unable to prove the effects of caffeine as certain psychotic conditions such as psychotic depression could distort the effects of drugs.

            I believe that this study is important because it will make the public more aware of caffeine's effects. It may be possible however that hallucination would be caused for different reasons for different individuals. Though it is an important study it feels to me that it is a wild goose chase. This is because it will take much more research and a much more close examination of coffee ingredients in order to find the accurate effects of coffee.

                                                                          Information was found here

Barrack Obama's inauguration

On January 21, 2009 president Barrack Obama officially took office at the 44th presidential inauguration along with his vice president Joe Biden. This is a historical event because Barrack Obama is the first ever African American president. During the inauguration Mr. Obama swore in on the bible Abraham Lincoln used during his inauguration. The ceremony took place in the three square- kilometer area of the capital which was turned into a very secure zone. One million people watched the inauguration from the national mall while hundreds of thousands more stood in Pennsylvania avenue to watch the inaugural parade.

President Obama and his wife attended a morning worship service, a tradition that began with president Franklin D Roosevelt. After which they went to the inauguration and they proceded to a luncheon in the statuary hall along with about 200 guests. The menu at the luncheon would be "inspired" by the tastes of Mr.Lincoln. At around eight o clock PM Mr. and Mrs. Obama attended 10 official inaugural balls. The Obamas returned to the White house at around 3:00 AM.

Information for this paragraph was taken from here.

The historical event was bigger than any other presidential inauguration in the last 28 years. Early numbers from Nielson Media Research say 29.2% of households watched the inauguration while online viewing broke video traffic records for CNN.com, FoxNews.com, MSNBC.com. Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1981 had 37.4 households viwing his inauguration. Major news networks got 17,000,000 views from noon to 12:30 PM. It is estimated the inauguration had around 35 million viewers in total.

Information for this paragraph was taken from here.
I believe this is very big news. It is a record breaking event. I feel Mr.Obama will be a great president. I also believe Mr.Biden will be a great vice-president. Obama's presidency may inspire many others of different races to run for presidency as well. I believe he was the best candidate who ever ran for presidency of the United States.

A bizzarre new raptor is found in Argentina

  Scientists have found a giant bipedal dinosaur in Argentina officially named  Austroraptor cabazi. This discovery has took palentologists by suprise as the fossils indicate that it is one of the largest raptors ever to have  lived and was the only raptor ever found with short arms. It stands 16.5 feet tall and is  21 feet long. The raptors bones are incomplete containing the fossil remnants of its head neck back and foot bones it was completely missing  an abdomen. It has a long head. Scientists were able to generate a computer digram of what its skelletal system would have looked like by using the raptors closest relatives. The fossil was extracted from rocks in the patagonia region along with the fossils of turtle and fish. Scientists officialy state that this is the largest raptor ever found in South America by far. Most raptors found in South America were the size of small crows and turtles. Unlike other dinosaurs found in this region which had the ability to fly Austroraptor was to big and heavy to fly. 

     I think that this is one of the most important discoveries ever made in South America. It was a revolutionary find that shows how evolution in South America worked. I think that it might also be related in some way to the pterodactyl which also has a long head. The find proves that not all evolutionary paths have to come from one species. Perhaps more fossil finds will reveal even more.