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