Fw: Pigs are Actually Smart

    In the "Three Little Pigs", a classic short story, one of the pigs is actually smart enough to make a house out of brick, so that the Big Bad Wolf cannot blow his house down. Recent studies show that while pigs cannot do that, they still are pretty smart animals.
    In experiments, they found that a pig can quickly learn about mirrors and how they work to find food by scoping out their surroundings. The scientists do not know yet if the pigs know that the eyes in the mirror are their own, and whether  or not the pigs should be put into a group of animals that are intelligent like dolphins and apes. Also, researchers learned that pigs are excellent in memory of where they put their food, and where they stashed it. Lets say that there were two pigs together. One of them is following the other to the food stash. The first pig will realize this and make a false move that will confuse the follower pig. That is cool, considering that it is a pig. Pigs are also one of the fastest animal to learn circus-like tricks. Furthermore, it is hard for the pig to unlearn and forget. The studies are interesting because the pig is not really related to humans like apes, they are more related to hippos and whales. The heart of the pig is like ours, the teeth are like ours, and they even metabolize drugs like us. The young pigs learn quickly about mirrors, but at first are fascinated. Then compared to more experienced pigs, the new pigs were not as good and got frustrated.
    Even though it takes some getting used to for the pigs, they are actually very intelligent animals and could be classified with primates, dolphins, and other creatures of higher learning.

**NC

Babies Crying To Native Language

              

             Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg in Germany, and her colleagues say that only days after birth, newborn babies can already recognize changes of pitch and tone. Language speakers can do these things while speaking to indicate emotions, such as anger or sadness. When this is performed around infants, they can sometimes start to let out a cry on certain changes. This has been recorded on German and French babies, and scientists were able to identify 1,254. This signifies that the language learning process begins only days after birth. Wermke also said that mothers in France and Germany act differently, reacting at a different speed to crying, which affects their ability to tell emotions in voice apart.

            I found this article interesting because I think it's remarkable that a baby can begin learning language in a mere couple of days. It is important because this could possibly lead to a treatment of children who have trouble learning their native language. This relates to the instincts of animals, whether they are natural or learned, because knowing local language is an instinct. This is important towards future developments of treatments of language disability.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49195/title/Newborn_babies_may_cry_in_their_mother_tongues

*** This Email was sent by a student, JM,  at Bedminster Elementary School Group 2.

DREAMIN'

                               Dream Interpretation                              11/10/09

            The article that was in the New York Times was about how different people view dreams and why they happen. Scientists say that dreams are too vivid and rich to not have a purpose in the mind. Dr. Hobson said that dreams are a warm-up for when the conscience mind awakes. He said that dreams anticipate sights, sounds, and the other senses.  Dreaming is a totally different state of consciousness that is constantly happening even when people are awake. When people are awake the dreaming is regressed and is almost unnoticeable. When people remember what their dream was about it often shows that they reflect real hopes or things that are stressful. Studies have shown that when a dream about a disliked person was always about stress and when a dream had a friend it had a positive significance.  Dream interpretation is very complicated and people are still trying to figure out how to not only remember their dreams, but also find out what they mean.

           

            The article I picked was about blind people and if it is possible for them to see images during the day. The article claimed that people who went blind before they turned five could not see images in their dreams. It said that their dreams contain no visions at all. Instead their other senses play a much bigger part in their dreams such as touch and smell. The article also said that in blind people's dreams they tend to have difficulty in transportation. I found this very interesting because that is their biggest fear. When blind people go out in the day their biggest concern is getting home safely and in their dreams, the same thing happens.

            This article was interesting to me because I find the topic of dreaming very fascinating. In dreaming many things can happen like telekinesis and other super powers. Dreaming is like a completely different world where nothing is the same. This leads me to topics like telekinesis and other supernatural powers. Those topics interest me because it would be amazing to have a host of these abilities and eventually it may be possible.

~DW

What clown? I was talking with my mom...

Are cellphones too much of a distraction?

      Talking on the phone distracts you from what's going on around you.  This article from the New York Times shows how much people miss when talking on the phone. Researchers at Western Washington decided to do a study on this. They first had to get a distraction to distract pedestrians walking around the city. They chose a very bright, noticeable, and out of the ordinary clown riding around a square in the city on a unicycle. This part was played by a student named Dustin Randall. After the pedestrians crossed the square, the researchers asked them if they saw any thing strange. After they asked the pedestrians if they saw a clown on a unicycle. Here were the results:

The question asked by researcher	People walking with a friend	People talking on phone
Did you see anything unusual?	60% mentioned the clown	8% mentioned the clown
Did you see the unicycling clown?	71% saw clown	25% saw clown

1 in 3 people listening to music or walking alone mentioned the clown.

The conclusion of this experiment shows that more people not talking on a phone, but rather walking with friend see the flashy distraction or clown. And many people in the city are talking on the phone while walking. This is a safety hazard because if there was a fire or dangerous hazard these people wouldn't notice it. Not only is this not safe for pedestrians but also drivers that talk on the phone. If they don't notice what is going on around them then they can get in an accident and risk not only their life but someone else's too. This is why it is important to not be blocked out of events going around us.

            Even though this article does not have much to do with Mr. Hazen's Science class, it relates with everyday lives. Whenever I go in to New York City I always see pedestrians talking on their phone while working to work or for something else. Also everyone has seen someone talk with Bluetooth in their car. Most people use Bluetooth everyday as an average thing in their life. Although they probably never realized how dangerous it can be.  I chose this article in the first place because it is something I can relate to rather than an article with many scientific terms that I don't understand. I find this written piece very interesting. In addition the results are amazing how that many people don't notice a bright and colorful clown.

MS

Is there water on the moon?

     

        On Friday, October 9th NASA launched two spacecrafts to crash into a crater on the moon in search of water.  There were two steps involved in this process. First, the two ton rocket crashed into a dark and cold crater near the moons south pole.  The second spacecraft followed the rocket and tried to collect data that flew up from the debris of the crash to detect if there was water in the moon.  The trailing craft also recorded a video of the explosion.  Although the explosion did not create a huge splash of water NASA was able to collect the data they needed.  Overall, it is not yet definite if the moon contains ice but we are getting closer and closer to the answer everyday.

          This article is very appealing because it's interesting that there could be stuff out there that we would never know about.  I also wonder if life could survive on the moon.  Last year in class we did many things relating to space such as recording the moon phase each day (full, Crescent).


Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hteb-7iejA&feature=fvw 
MS

A Dinosaur Footprint?

On October 6, an article was published saying dinosaur footprints that were made about 150 million years ago were discovered in France. The actual discovery was in April by a science society that specials in geology and paleontology. Paleontology is the study of fossils, and geology is the study of a science that deals with history of the earth and life, and is usually discovered in rocks. The footprints are 1.5 to 2 meters wide. The scientists believe they belong to a Sauropod. The most well known sauropod is the diplodocus, which has a long neck and tail, and weighed about 30 to 40 tons. The footprints were discovered during soil erosion when wood unloading operations were taking place. The footprints were made into a mold of calcified mud, and then once that was dried, it was covered with another layer of the mud. The mud has dried now, and it’s an excellent way to preserve the footprint. Scientists want to find more footprints, so they will find out more about why the dinosaurs were in that region. They think they might have been looking for food, but they want more information to make a correct explanation.

This article was interesting because these footprints could lead scientists to discover more evidence about why the dinosaurs were there, and what they were doing. This could enhance our knowledge because with study we would have a better idea of what the dinosaurs were like because they don't exist today, and we can only rely on fossils and evidence from people before our time, so finding information ourselves will make the dinosaurs more clear. I thought this article was very interesting and I can’t wait to find out more about the footprints in future discoveries.

This video on MSNBC that explained the discovery.

Video Link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33199191#33199191

Article Link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33191774/ns/technology_and_science-science/

KM

Marie Curie

This article was about the life of a French woman of science.

Marie Curie was born in the mid 1800's and had always had an interest in science. When she was 24 she went to the Sorbonne to learn more about her specific interest in radium. Throughout her whole life she experimented with radium which is an almost pure white metal that is extremely radioactive. This means that it is very dangerous and she helped make it possible for people to study the metal and all of its properties. By separating radium particles it would be easy for the scientists to further study this metal.

In 1903 she won the Nobel Prize for physics because of all the work she contributed by looking at radium. In 1911 she actually won another Nobel Prize in chemistry because of her further work having to do with radioactivity. She had her own radioactive safe lab and was known for working in it until the year she died in 1922.

This subject has to do with many things that our class is doing in science. First of all we were talking about the Nobel Prize winner for physics and chemistry and I thought that it was interesting that there was actually a female winner for both of those categories. Another thing I found interesting about this topic is that she did all of her work on a metal which is what we just had a test on and it's on the periodic table. I also think that this topic has to do with the atomic theory because she was working with very radioactive substances and that is what we are about to learn about. Finally radium is an element and this topic just goes to show that elements have so much to do with the real world we live in.

DW