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.

Pictures Of Symbyosis

My science class was assigned a project. This project was to take a picture of a symbiotic relationship in our township. Symbiosis is a relationship between two living things.There are three types of symbiosis. The first type of symbiosis is mutualism. In mutualism both organisms benefit from their reletionship. One example of mutualism is a honey bee and a flower. While the bee gets the nectar that it needs the flower gets pollenated. Another type of symbiobis is commensalism. Commensalism is where one organism benefits while the other is unharmed. An example of commensalism is a tree with a vine hanging from it. The vine gets something to leen on while the tree does not get or lose anything it needs. The last form of symbiosis is parasatism. Parasatism is when one organism benefits and the other one is unharmed. An example of parasatism is a dog with a flea in its fur The flea gets nutrients from the dogs blood which causes the dog to lose blood.

I got a picture of a tree with weeds on its roots. This is an example of parasatism becauses the tree loses some of its water because the weeds which  damage its roots then absorb the water the tree loses for itself. It is also possible that this is an example of commensalism because the trees roots might have been cut before the weeds grew in allowing the weeds to gain the water it needed without harming the tree. I think this project was an excellent idea because instead of doing normal homework we got to experiment with technology and see how beautiful nature is.

Boom Blox!!

School as many people know it is where you have to go in order to learn, it is also known as the most boring place in the world. However that is not the case at my science class or atleast the boring part isn't. In science class we played the wii. It was for "educational" purposes. The game we played was called Boom Blox. The point of the game is basically to complete all the various objectives and mini games. You start by doing training which gets you used to the various mini games and controls. After that you start completing objectives which usually involves making boxes explode, disappear and break. This game has a lot to do with competition in the enviorment. I know this because the class had to answer questions on a worksheet while we were playing the game. The game relates to competition because you have to be quick thinker in order to get the highest score possible. Animals in the wild have to do the same thing because they have to think quickly in order to get the most nutrients and to remain safe. I believe that this was a good oppurtunity to learn in a fun way. It gets rid of the repetitive nature in school that most people don't like. It is much more fun and cretive to do then to take notes and tests.