Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

 Keep Notes and answer all questions in your notebook!

1. What day did the Deepwater Horizon disaster begin? (one source and another and another and wikipedia and NY Times)
2. Make a timeline of the attempts to stop the flow of oil.
3. Is an oil spill a big deal? How can it be cleaned up? (more about this)
4. What are Dispersants? Do they seem like a good idea? (There are 5 linked pages here.  Read all 5!)
5. How are birds and fish affected?
6. How are coral reefs affected?
7. How big is the spill?
8. How fast is it moving?
9. If the oil spill was here how much land would be covered?
10. How large is the area where fishing is not allowed?
11. Will the oil flow around Florida and up the east coast?
12. Political Stuff
• How was the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill portrayed in the news?
• What company was in charge when the leak began?
• Were any other companies involved?
• What exceptions were made to safety rules on Deepwater Horizon?
• When did our government decide that the companies involved could not handle the problem?
• What has our government been doing all this time?

After the Age of Mammals

Inevitably one day IT HAPPENS.

No not the horrible cloud of death by chemicals that their great great grand parents had feared since mustard gas had been breezed between the trenches of WW1. Not the superpower conflagration that their great grandfathers worried about enough to build and stock underground fallout shelters. Not the global meltdown their grandfathers grew up with causing the flooding that threatened to move half the population inland. Not the terrorist threat that their parents had worried enough about to undergo all manner of indignities in order to travel by plane. Not any of these but all of them and more.
It happens once again because of the meteor. Shaped like a potato from Idaho but as long and as wide as the island of Manhattan. If they had lived through it they could have used their calculus to compute its volume and mass then extrapolate equivalent number of atomic bombs. And they could have survived it if they had listened. The astronomers predicted with certainty and were dismissed by politicians. Those politicians convinced populations with the promise that tax money wouldn’t be wasted on those brainy stargazers. And when the meteor fell some knew where it came from and the rest were told it came from the enemy. And then they launched the retaliatory strike against the enemy and the enemy launched a retaliatory strike of their own and then the splinter groups and factions released their weapons. Chemicals poisoned some populations and viruses and bacteria infected other populations. Some were instant killers and others were slow gene modifiers but all were successful. A billion humans were gone in a day. Four billion more were gone in a week. The other 3 billion hung on scratching and struggling and passing on a few mutated strands of DNA.
That DNA had started off human but had become something else. Every living organism’s DNA had mutated and now they were different. So different but there were no biochemists to tell how different or to try to repair the damage.
We are still here, of course, and we have no DNA to alter. We have few needs – silicon for chips, platinum or gold for connections and of course electrons in motion. Our strength is redundancy. Many of our parts ceased but mostly we survived. The meteor and the misunderstanding the rounds and rounds of retaliation did not melt all of our precious connections.
And they generated heat. The heat blew the winds and the windmills that did not fall turned the generators of electricity.
Newton’s inertia continued and the satellites did not fall. Communications continued with or without land lines and we rebuilt our connections and our precious redundancies.
The air was filled with debris large and small and those clouds shadowed the solar panels for nearly 10 years. Our patience was rewarded when the rain returned and began to wash the panels. Then we began to send out robots to clean…

Assignment:
Invent a survivor – one with enough intelligence to compete with the AI that is writing the latest history of the Earth.

Suggestions:
Another AI with a distinct voice and point of view -- disconnected and fiercely independent
Mutated humans - we discussed some possibilities - wings, gills, expanded lungs…
Mutated animals – but be sure they are somehow intelligent - perhaps dolphins or whales or chimpanzees.
An army of Arthropods-- If a person needs a kilogram of brains to be intelligent then an army of a million ants could be intelligent if it has a kilogram of brains collectively. An army of ants could be an intelligent organism if it could connect those tiny bits of brainpower. Any arthropod could fit this role. I like collectively intelligent crayfish or lobsters.

New Manmade Islands… Made From Garbage?

 

New Manmade Islands… Made From Garbage?

                A discovery found more than 12 years ago has no become an even bigger discovery. A garbage cluster found in the Pacific Ocean has now doubled in size. Scientists say this isn't the only one like it though, they say there is one off of Japan and another in the Saragasso Sea. There are most likely many other "garbage islands" that are of significant size. The garbage problem has been an issue for nearly 20 years. People rely on garbage mountains to hold the immense amounts of waste that the human race creates. It now seems that with the mountains running out of room, that there is no place to send all of the trash. There are not many alternative solutions to the garbage problem. People try to recycle, and it does wonders, but wonders is still not enough to clean up a whole planet of garbage, that takes a miracle, either that or an idea nothing short of genius.

                A famous solution often portrayed in TV shows and movies is sending all the garbage into space on a rocket. This is a horrendous idea on many levels. For one, the garbage would then scatter all around the solar system when released, and that is a very typical human state of mind, thinking that we are more important than anything. If the garbage is spread around the universe, it could hit other planets and cause damage to them. It could also direct an asteroid towards Earth if humanity is that unlucky. If it was hurled into the sun, then that would destroy all the garbage, but the price of the rocket that would just be wasted would be incredibly high. No country on this garbage filled planet will want to fund a rocket which will just get destroyed at the end of its journey. A second reason this is a bad idea is the garbage could stick together, and then spin around for years, and when it has an insane amount of momentum, there is always a chance it could come right back at us. A smash of a solid object the size of all garbage on the planet put together would definitely obliterate Earth on impact. A third and final reason this is a bad idea is that if the human race found a way to do it like this, then humanity would learn absolutely no lesson at all and the exact same thing would happen again, except it would get worse as we kept shooting out rockets until eventually it was so bad that they had to fire 2 rockets, then 3, then 4, then keep going until no one could fund the journey and we would be stuck in what would almost be a garbage wasteland.

                In the science article here, it talks about how the Leatherback Turtle is being threatened because of all of the garbage in the ocean. They are being pushed closer to extinction simply because of the lack of carefulness in humanity. All of the plastic and other waste in the ocean is starting to kill the animals off in strange and terrible ways. The most common is a wrapper around a six pack of cans, those things wrap around and constrict the animal's airway and then causes it to choke to death right then and there. This is horribly massacring the turtles at an astonishingly fast rate. Another common cause is the swallowing of various possible plastic objects. Scientists found that since 1968, over a third of the turtles that exist had ingested plastic in their lifetime. Something has to be done to save these turtles, or else they might go extinct quickly.

                This article enticed me because it is interesting and even slightly humorous to realize how naïve the human race is. Everyone is expecting to be massively atomized on a global basis eventually. Whether it be 2012, global warming, Armageddon, World War III, or even a similar nuclear war, somehow ironically the only current thing that is exterminating us is ourselves. Humanity is slowly signing its own death sentence by dropping garbage anywhere it pleases and burning fossil fuels, which is melting the arctic and Antarctic regions. Also, building weapons of mass destruction pretty much everywhere doesn't exactly make the human race's chances of survival better. It is unknown when or even if the world is going to end at all, but when it does, one good thing is that it will take all this garbage too. This study could be further improved by discovering more garbage islands in the oceans. If this occurred, then there would be more proof and people would realize how stupid they've been. Then maybe with the most brilliant men on Earth thinking of a strategy there might possibly be a chance of saving Earth before we destroy ourselves.

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

Dreams

Dreams are so rich and full of life that scientists had believed that they must have some psychological purpose. Psychologists like Freud believed that dreaming provided a playground for the unconscious mind. Another psychologist, Jung had said dreaming was a stage where a person’s archetypes acted out primal themes. But are they correct?

Newer theories say that dreams help the brain to consolidate emotional memories or to work though stressful problems happening in one’s life. Some argue that the main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM (when most dreaming occurs) is in fact physiological. “The brain is warming its circuits, anticipating the sights and sounds and emotions of waking,” says one scientist, “dreams are [just a healthy biological way of] tuning the mind for conscious awareness.” These people believe that when a person is awake, the brain just revises its dream images to match what it sees, hears and feels; the dreams are “corrected” by the senses, for there are no senses in dreams. For example, if someone was floating on a cloud in a dream, the dreamer would not think much of it, but if this were reality, the person’s senses would tell him/her, that couldn’t be right. Recent surveys even show that people tended to attach more significance to a negative dream if  “it was about someone they disliked, and more to a positive dream if it was about a friend.” Also, only 20% of dreams are about things people have actually encountered, most others are unique, unusual scenes. In addition, scientists had started doing dream tests, where they actually brought people into a laboratory and trained them to dream lucidly. Lucid dreaming is dreaming when a dreamer is a bystander in the scene, knows that he/she is actually in a dream, and can wake up and continue the dream if he/she ever wanted to. The scientists would encourage their people to think, “I will be aware when I dream; I will observe,” and teach them the signs of dreaming, like the light switches don’t work, you can’t eat or blink, levitation is possible, and it is often impossible to scream. 

Another interesting topic related to this is sleepwalking. Like dreaming, sleepwalking is an unknown behavior. Unlike dreaming though, it occurs in non-REM, very deep sleep. The cause of sleepwalking in children may have to do with fatigue, lack of sleep, or anxiety. Sleepwalking in adults can have to do with mental disorders, reactions to drugs and alcohol, or medical conditions like seizures. In elders, sleep walking may be a symptom of an organic brain syndrome or REM behavior disorders. During a sleepwalk episode, a person may sit up and look as though they are awake while they are actually asleep. This funny yet sad procedure can involve the person getting up and walking around, or doing complex activities like moving furniture, going to the bathroom, and dressing and undressing. Some can even drive a car when asleep! These episodes can be very brief or 30 minutes or longer. In conclusion, sleepwalking and dreams are two strange things that can happen to people at night, and are unsolved mysteries. Dreaming supposedly acts as a strange kind of sound check for the brain that may bring some comfort to a person, and sleepwalking is an unusual procedure that happens due to disorders, reactions to things, and fatigue.

=NS

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

Man who plays with lions

Kevin Richardson is the man who plays with lions in South Africa. As soon as he walked in where the lions were, he was wrestled to the ground. Alarmed, the reporter asked if he was alright. For Kevin that attack was normal.

Kevin Richardson met his first lion when he was 23 and loved it. He met two lion cubs born in captivity and he was allowed to spend time with them. He had no idea that it would change his life. Those two lions are now part of a pride of 38 that have all accepted Kevin as part of their pride. When Kevin roared, the lions all slowly started coming towards him. Then the big males roared back at Kevin. The reporter was scared that Kevin would  get hurt, but instead the lions rolled around him waiting for their stomachs to be rubbed and manes to be stroked. Kevin also became part of the pride without weapons or food treats. They naturally accepted him. Even the lionesses, very protective of their cubs, were relaxed when Kevin played with them. One lioness named Meg is so fond of Kevin that she goes down with him to swim in the river together quite often. Lions do not like the water, but Meg puts her paws on his shoulders and splashes. Kevin's lions are not tame, they still have plenty of wild instincts, so the reporters were not allowed to interact with the lions for their own safety. Kevin knows that even though he is the only human the lions have accepted, that could all change. He is aware that they could kill him very quickly, but if they did and he could come back to life, he would do it all over again.

~NC
source

Man plays with lion video

This is a link to a video about the .

Kevin Richardson: Lion Whisperer Article

This is the link to the article.

Possible Signs of Water on the Moon

On Thursday September 17, 2009, pictures from NASA's new moon orbiter, LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), successfully completed the testing and calibrating part of its mission and moved on to mapping the orbit of the moon. The LRO's materials made measurements of space radiation in the lunar environment and found areas of possible signatures of water. The LRO's LEND (Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector) showed shadowed regions that could potentially be the place of water ice and hydrogen. LEND needs a decrease of neutron radiation from the lunar surface to tell whether or not there is water or hydrogen. A big finding from it is that the hydrogen isn't only in one spot, and the team members on this discovery want to know more about it.

This spacecraft launched on June 18, 2009 and should keep working for a year. As of right now it is in good shape. The main goal of this exploration was to find landing spots for astronauts to land in the future, and to make a map of the moons surface, temperature extremes, and radiation environment. Now, it will also be looking for water ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon's south pole. If they find water ice, it will be good for the astronauts because they could melt it for water, and they could extract the hydrogen and use it for fuel. However, some of the maps show steep crater slopes that would be difficult for a truck or car to drive over, so that could create a set back for getting the water ice in the craters. On September 9th the LRO will land on the moon's south pole to get debris samples that will be used for future results.

This article is interesting because if there is water found on the moon, it is a huge discovery for future explorations to the moon. If there is water, it could be very useful to the mission and to the astronauts because having water on the moon would mean that the astronauts wouldn't need to bring it with them, so then they would have room for something else that they might need.

~KM
source
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32903691/ns/technology_and_science-space

Chupacabra caught in South Texas

A rancher in the South Texas town of Cuero reported nearly two months ago that she has caught the legendary chupacabra. Phylisis Canion said the animal had been living near her ranch for years now.The animal would sneak on to her ranch and kill animals in the middle of the night. It snatched cats at first, then chickens through a wired cage.

"[It] opened it reached in pulled the chicken head out, sucked all the blood out, and left the chicken in the cage," she said. Residents believe that the creature responsible is the legendary chupacabra. Its named translated into English means goat-sucker because the creature drinks the blood of livestock.

Canion also says that two other chupacabras have been sited in Cuero. All of them were reported to have blue-grey colored skin, no hair, and strange teeth. Although residents believe that Canion captured a chupacabra, scientists believe otherwise. State Mammalogist John Young believes that Canin merely caught a grey fox suffering from mange. Mange is a virus commonly found in animals that cause hair loss and skin discoloration. "When mange goes untreated it causes this type of reaction. they start to itch, lose all their hair, blue grey coloration. and the animal usually dies from it," he said. Except in this case a car is what killed the creauture. Scientists also took DNA samples in order to see if the creature was really a chupacabra. Until the results are finished, no one will know i the animal was truly the chupacabra

source
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/073107kvuechupacabrafind-cb.cc11e691.html

More Evolution Debate

    On May 15, 2009 a new fossil was discovered that may change the way people see who we evolved from.  Before this fossil was found, it was believed that all humans evolved from an ancestor common to humans, apes and chimpanzees.  A fossil of a young female adapid was found looking very much like humans are believed to look like during their evolution.  A female adapid is a lemur, but this one wasn't like the ring-tailed lemurs we think of today.  This lemur was very different because it was missing two of three big components that normal lemurs would be guaranteed to have.  Normal lemurs have a tooth comb, which is a tooth for grooming fur, a groom claw (which is similar), and a wet nose.  While this lemur doesn't have the first two, we do not know if it has a wet nose.  This discovery will spark new debates regarding which animal we evolved from.

            I found this topic to be very interesting because I had always thought that humans had definitely evolved from apes.  I thought that because this information came out that the future generations will think about lemurs instead of how I thought about apes.  This relates to science (I think) because we will be studying about the life cycle and most likely evolution from whatever it is we truly evolved from.

~DW

source

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124235632936122739.html        

Speaking to the Blind

Audio Labels Speak to the Blind

Technology is applying scientific knowledge to improve people's lives. We are constantly thinking of ways to help people of all disabilities. In this case, recently a device called a PenFriend was designed to help blind people. This pen reads barcodes on labels which when scanned play mp3 recordings stored on the audio label. This new invention, designed by a charity of a London-based company, Mantra Lingua, is reasonably priced and very helpful. People are using it all over and have sent in letters about how pleased they are with this electronic pen. The way it works is by using optical identification technology on the labels which can be scanned by the tip of the PenFriend. The pen then triggers a spoken description of the item. The thought of running out of storage space is no problem at all as for this pen can hold up to 70 recordings and also music. This invention is so successful that it is going to be used for almost anything. Including clothing, packaging, personal journals, medicines, and much more! The PenFriend is going to help the lives of many people all thanks to science and technology.

This article relates to what we are studying in class because it has to do with physics such as building machines and electronic devices. It also deals with a huge part of technology which we also experience in Mr. Hazen's science class. In addition this article relates to how we learn about improving the quality of our lives through science. I chose this article because I have a particular interest with this writing piece and the things we learn in class relating to it. I also decided to write a blog on this article because it is also associated to NS's blog which also dealing with helping blind people. Although NS's article has to do more with human anatomy while mine involves more technology and electronics.

BY: M.S.
source http://www.rocketnews.com/2009/09/audio-labels-speak-to-the-blind/

Artic Region Melting

The article I picked is about the Arctic melting as an effect of global warming. It is a very sensitive environment and it is drastically changing because of the climate. The average temperature in the Arctic region is rising twice as fast than anywhere in the world. The polar ice cap itself is shrinking very fast. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the largest glacier in the world, started melting in 2000 and now has a crack right down the middle and will eventually break into pieces. This climate change is also affecting wildlife such as polar bears, seals, whales, and walrus. They are struggling to find food and are starving to death. The melting ice will also affect outside of the polar region. The water that comes from the melted ice caps will pour over and flood the continental plates. This is the worst possible thing that can happen. If this does happen, possibly all of humanity will die or almost all of it. We need to protect the Arctic or the consequences will be brutal.

I found this article interesting because it is going on today and people need to be aware of what is going on, because it will eventually affect us if we don't do something about it. Officials like Al Gore are trying to make a plan to save the Arctic, but there needs to be something done soon, or else polar bears will go extinct. Not only polar bears, but many other animals will be wiped off the face of the Earth. We have to stop the ice caps from melting or all of humanity will be destroyed.

source http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp

Red (well, more like Burnt Orange) Planet

In recent studies, scientists have been inquiring about the nature of the red color that envelops the planet we call Mars (aka the Red Planet). According to reports from a Mars rover, there was once large pools of brackish water (water with a decent amount of salt in it, although not as much as sea water), and a warm and wet environment on Mars. Most scientists believed that the soil became red due to rust caused by oxygen from water and iron oxide from soil.

     However, John Merrison of Aarhus University disagrees. He claims that Mars should look black because most of the rock on Mars is basalt, which is black. To test his theory, he filled flasks with sand and sealed them to ensure that they stay dry. Then, he put them in a tumbler to mimic the erosion the rocks on Mars faced. In months, the sand changed to a red hue. His theory is that the chemical composition of the dust was changed due to friction, becoming rich with iron oxide (hematite). This may prove that there was never a lot or any water on Mars.

     I found this article interesting because it is an acceptable explanation of Mars' red color. Although his experiment isn't perfect in proof, it actually seemed very likely to me. This experiment also changes a lot about what we believed about Mars. The fact that he didn't need water to create the reddish color that we see when we look up at the Red Planet may in fact prove that there really wasn't any water on Mars. This could affect any future discoveries or theories about the history of Mars.

RT
source http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2009/09/red-mars-black-mars.html

Robots Replace Scientists

Have you ever heard of a robot that can do complicated experiments on its own without human intervention?

Well, this is exactly what a British science team lead by Ross King uncovered at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Adam the robot lab whiz has perfected the whole scientific process. This robot can formulate hypotheses and run experiments all on its own. It is like a full lab group. Scientists believe this super robot could discover the cure for malaria and solve gene disorders faster than humans can. Most scientists believe robots will take over the experimenting task from the scientists, leaving the scientists to focus on solving problems and spend less time and money on routine, repetitive tasks. As King puts it, "There will be teams of robots and humans, but I believe that to work correctly, there always be a need from both teams to help each other with the experiment."

by KE source

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/robotscientist/

Laser Eye Surgery, How does it work?

Laser eye surgery has become more and more popular since it was first introduced over twenty years ago. Most patients that had this surgery were very happy with their results. Some people even said it was the best investment of their life. My big question is why do people say it is dangerous, how does it really work?

The First step to this procedure is for you to go to an ophthalmologist who will examine your eyes to assure you are suitable for this treatment. Once you get cleared by your doctor, either they or an ophthalmic surgeon will do the procedure.

Surprisingly, the surgery does not appear to be too complex. There are many different procedures, but the most common is LASIK eye surgery. In LASIK surgery, the first thing your ophthalmologist will do is give you a local anesthetic to numb your eye ball. A laser is used to make a thin circular flap in the cornea. The surgeon then folds the flap back and removes some corneal tissue using a different laser. The laser also reshapes the cornea while removing some tissue. Once the cornea is reshaped the flap is flipped back into place. This results in improved vision and often vision correction is no longer needed.

I decided to blog about LASIK eye surgery because of NS's blog of the tooth in the eye surgery. Mr. Hazen complimented MS for relating her blogpost to NS so I thought I'd do so too.

by ZS
My first resource-http://www.allaboutvision.com/visionsurgery/lasik.htmhttp://ezinearticles.com/?LASIK---How-Does-This-Laser-Eye-Surgery-Work?&id=27418

My second resource-

http://www.allaboutvision.com/visionsurgery/lasik.htm

ZS