You job this week is to comb the internet for incredibly cool, and incredibly true science stuff.
You will then post a link (or links) to the incredibly cool thing, and then write a little bit about what makes it cool in your opinion.
I want no repeats, so be careful to read what others have posted before you. We want to end up with a class worth of cool science things.
Posts
29 comments:
Sorry I really wanna be the first comment soooooo eaither 2 nite or in like 5 minutes i will post my blog assingment!!!
The Chemistry of Sleeplessness:
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20080917/Note2.asp
The article was about how your dopamine and other parts of your brain react when you don't get a lot of sleep. They explain what happens when 15 people do get a good night sleep and when they don't get a good night sleep by testing their ability and memory to pay attention both times.
This article is about a new protein found in Aequorea jellyfish that helps scientists see the transportation system that moves protein from place to place, the locations of specific proteins, and the mechanisms used by the cells to send messages back and forth. I thought this article was cool because it is about a discovery that comes from jellyfish. This discovery also helps people learn new things about cells which means the discovery is useful.
sorry...
here's the link!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/science/14gree.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
Plastic-munching microbes
Oct. 8, 2008
Microbes may soon help make it easier to recycle your soda bottle, helping to create new demand for what has historically been a low-quality recycled material.
After guzzling down a pint of water, soda or a sports drink, most people toss the empty bottle in the recycle bin without a second thought. After all, if it's getting recycled, something useful will come from it again, right?
Not necessarily. The type of plastic most bottles are made of — called PET, or polyethylene terephthalate — is usually recycled into only a low-quality plastic that can’t be reused to package food or beverages. In other words, the soda bottle you recycle today isn't going to become another soda bottle any time soon.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,425305,00.html
Mr. Pingping is 2.5ft tall and is 20 years old. This is amazing because midgets or little people don't live very long. Mr. Pingping is from Mongolia and this article tells about his recent visit to New York City, where he met the worlds tallest woman,Svetlana Pankratova from Russia.
Science daily article: Personal Music Players: Scientists Warn Of Health Risks From Exposure To Noise.
Article body:
The scientific opinion shows that 5-10% of personal music player listeners risk permanent hearing loss, if they listen to a personal music player for more than one hour per day each week at high volume settings for at least 5 years. The European Commission had asked the independent scientific committee to examine this issue, given the widespread use of personal music players and the surge in the number of young people exposed to such noise. Scientists confirm that there is cause for concern and the European Commission will now examine with Member States and stakeholders, possible measures that could be taken to better protect children and adolescents from exposure to noise from personal music players and other similar devices.
EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, said, "I am concerned that so many young people, in particular, who are frequent users of personal music players and mobile phones at high acoustic levels, may be unknowingly damaging their hearing irrevocably. The scientific findings indicate a clear risk and we need to react rapidly. Most importantly we need to raise consumer awareness and put this information in the public domain. We need also to look again at the controls in place, in the light of this scientific advice, to make sure they are fully effective and keep pace with new technology."
The current rules
A European safety standard already exists restricting the noise level of personal music players to 100 dB, but there is increased concern over hearing damage from excessive exposure to such sources. Such damage can be prevented to a large extent by measures such as reducing the noise exposure levels and duration. The EU Scientific Committee opinion highlights that users of personal music players - if they listen for only 5 hours per week at high volume control settings (exceeding 89 decibels) would exceed the current limits in place for noise allowed in the workplace. Users listening for longer periods risk permanent hearing loss after 5 years. This approximates to 5-10% of the listeners, which may be between 2.5 and 10 million people in the EU.
What will the Commission do now?
The European Commission asked for the scientific study, because of increasing concerns over threats to hearing, particularly for adolescents and children from leisure activities such as the use of personal music players. Based on this scientific evidence, the Commission is organising a conference in early 2009 in Brussels to evaluate the findings of the Scientific Committee with Member States, industry, consumers and other stakeholders and to discuss the way forward. The seminar will address precautions that users can take, as well as technical solutions to minimise hearing damage and the need for further regulations or revisions of existing safety standards to protect consumers.
What consumers can do?
Personal music player users can already take certain very practical precautions, such as checking their device to see if a maximum volume can be set so as to keep the volume lower, or they can lower the volume manually, and they can take care not to use the personal music player for prolonged periods in the interest of their hearing.
Background
It is well recognised that long-term exposure to excessive sound can harm hearing. To protect workers, limits have been set for the levels of noise allowed in the workplace. Environmental sounds to which the general public is exposed - such as noise from traffic, construction, aircrafts or from the neighbourhood - can be very irritating but are in most cases not loud enough to harm hearing.
In the last few years, leisure noise has become a significant threat to hearing because it can reach very high volumes and because an increasing proportion of the population is exposed to it, particularly young people. There has been increasing concern about exposure from the new generation of personal music players which can reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality. Risk for hearing damage depends on sound level and exposure time.
In recent years sales of personal music players have soared, in particular those of MP3 players. Overall, in the EU, it is estimated that roughly 50 to 100 million people may be listening to portable music players on a daily basis. In the last four years, estimated units sales range between 184-246 million for all portable audio devices and range between 124-165 million for MP3 players. Across the EU, many millions of people use personal music players daily and, if they use them inappropriately, they put themselves at risk of hearing damage.
The text of the opinion can be found here.
The layman's version of the opinion can be found here.
My remarks: I found this article interesting because I never knew that listening to personal music at high volume could give permanent hearing damage after 5 years of doing it repeatidly, if you listen to it and high volume at least an hour a day, seven days a week for 5 years. I for one am used to loud noises; they don't really bother me that much. Ear piercing noises don't bother me because I'm used to them and I can hear well. But This article told me something new about hearing. Since I have the opposite of sensitive hearing, this was an interesting article.
http://www.ripleys.com/gallery.php
Malaysian woman threw back a baby shark after she discovered it had legs with webbed feet. The baby shark was about a meter long and would have made a great lunch for her family, but according to Chinese belief, eating fish with unusual features could bring bad luck or disaster, so they decided not to chance it. She did manage to get a picture before returning it to the fishery. Scientists say the animal must have come from northern waters because only North Sulawesi or South African waters have fish with legs.
In celebration of the four day festival, 100 Years of Friends of Children, Vienna broke the record for the tallest Lego tower. The previous record was held by Legoland in Windsor, England. The record breaker won by just 18 centimeters. Hundreds of kids worked on it, but the 29.48 meter-tall structure had to be finished with a crane. Believe It or Not!
Review by Milky Milk
Title: The Tiniest Serpent
Author: Unknown
The link:
http://sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20080903/Note2.asp
There has been a new species of snakes discovered by Mr. Blair Hedges that are called Leptotyphlops carlae, named after his wife Carla Ann Hass. Hedges discovered this snake on the Caribbean island of Barbados. I think this article was cool because the snake is only 100 millimeters long! That’s shorter than 4 inches! That was so weird to me. Also, even though his wife is a snake lover it is odd to name a snake after your wife. I took interest in this article because of the size of the snake and also my cousin has a pet snake that’s also small. I think this will impress her that there’s a very tiny snake in this world. This article caught my because of this picture…
This same man, Blair, discovered a tiny frog no bigger than a dime and the smallest known lizard. Here’s another picture of a species he’s discovered …
This article was about how a girl in India was born with EIGHT limbs. Who survived through birth, and is still living now. Her name is Lakshmi, named after a goddess in India, which also has eight limbs. Community members in India, around this baby were both shocked, and excited that this baby girl shared the same physical appearance as Lakshmi, and Indian goddess. This lead to people coming to visit this girl, and praying to her, as if the goddess had come back to live, in her new form. The reason why this girl had extra limbs is that she was supposed to have a twin, but something went wrong at birth, causing the girl to gain extra limbs. Lakshmi got a surgery to remove her extra limbs, and also give her a kidney, and fix her lungs. After all of this… miraculously, she still lives today in India with her family.
I think this article is really cool, because it’s interesting to think that someone was actually born with eight limbs. But, it is even more interesting to know that after all of the surgeries needed to keep the baby alive, she survived it all. It’s inspiring to hear that someone who seems to have so many obstacles in their way, is able to overcome it all. Also, it’s cool because it’s really coincidental that there is a goddess that has eight limbs just like the baby. And some people believe that the girl is actually the goddess or a sign from the goddess, which is very spiritual to think about.
LINK=
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/06/19/eight.limbed.girl/index.html?iref=newssearch
This article is about a study authorized by Ernest Hartmann at the Tufts University and Newton Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass. They took 11 men and 33 women between the ages of 22-70 living in the US who have been recoding there dreams for two years around 9/11. The scientists looked at the 10 dreams before 9/11 and the 10 after 9/11. They saw that the dreams after 9/11 were more intense than before. They did find that no one in their study had dreams about planes crashing or anything connected to 9/11. In conclusion, the scientists found that everyone in their study, were directly affected by 9/11.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080201085736.htm
Hi PVC Scientists! You have read about some really cool stuff here. Great new blog Mr Ardito - I should take a leaf out of your (note)book and ask my students for some more reflective and demanding feedback. Great expectations sometimes yields great results. I hope you can work with us on our new ning - http://techno7.ning.com
best regards, Britt Gow
In space the first vegetables were potatoes and I think that’s awesome because potatoes are the best fruit ever, my opinion, and space is pretty cool to.
oh I forgot the link is the Piere Van Cortland Middle School Daily planner2008-2009 page 29
If we could live in space that would be the coolest thing, I have always thought about living in space it would look cool, you could be able to look at all the stares. What planet would you want to live on I would live on Uranus ha-ha!!!! I just thought it would be cool to live in space
www.inbox.com
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2344838.html
Cat grows wings!
This cat has become a cat "angel" says Granny Feng of China. Scientists say that the "wings" that this tom cat grew are actully a result of a rare skin disease. Granny Feng said that the "wings" started growing after the cat was sexually harrased.
Article: Ancient Chinese Salad Plant Transformed into New Cancer-Killing Compound
Science daily article
Article body: The new compound puts a novel twist on the common anti-malarial drug artemisinin, which is derived from the sweet wormwood plant (Artemisia annua L). Sweet wormwood has been used in herbal Chinese medicine for at least 2,000 years, and is eaten in salads in some Asian countries.
The scientists attached a chemical homing device to artemisinin that targets the drug selectively to cancer cells, sparing healthy cells. The results were published online Oct. 5 in the journal Cancer Letters.
"The compound is like a special agent planting a bomb inside the cell," said Tomikazu Sasaki, chemistry professor at UW and senior author of the study.
In the study, the UW researchers tested their artemisinin-based compound on human leukemia cells. It was highly selective at killing the cancer cells. The researchers also have preliminary results showing that the compound is similarly selective and effective for human breast and prostate cancer cells, and that it effectively and safely kills breast cancer in rats, Sasaki said.
Cancer drug designers are faced with the unique challenge that cancer cells develop from our own normal cells, meaning that most ways to poison cancer cells also kill healthy cells. Most available chemotherapies are very toxic, destroying one normal cell for every five to 10 cancer cells killed, Sasaki said. This is why chemotherapy's side effects are so devastating, he said.
"Side effects are a major limitation to current chemotherapies," Sasaki said. "Some patients even die from them."
The compound Sasaki and his colleagues developed kills 12,000 cancer cells for every healthy cell, meaning it could be turned into a drug with minimal side effects. A cancer drug with low side effects would be more effective than currently available drugs, since it could be safely taken in higher amounts.
The artemisinin compound takes advantage of cancer cell's high iron levels. Artemisinin is highly toxic in the presence of iron, but harmless otherwise. Cancer cells need a lot of iron to maintain the rapid division necessary for tumor growth.
Since too much free-floating iron is toxic, when cells need iron they construct a special protein signal on their surfaces. The body's machinery then delivers iron, shielded with a protein package, to these signals proteins. The cell then swallows this bundle of iron and proteins.
Artemisinin alone is fairly effective at killing cancer cells. It kills approximately 100 cancer cells for every healthy cell, about ten times better than current chemotherapies. To improve those odds, the researchers added a small chemical tag to artemisinin that sticks to the "iron needed here" protein signal. The cancer cell, unaware of the toxic compound lurking on its surface, waits for the protein machinery to deliver iron molecules and engulfs everything -- iron, proteins and toxic compound.
Once inside the cell, the iron reacts with artemisinin to release poisonous molecules called free radicals. When enough of these free radicals accumulate, the cell dies.
"The compound is like a little bomb-carrying monkey riding on the back of a Trojan horse," said Henry Lai, UW bioengineering professor and co-author of the study.
The compound is so selective for cancer cells partly due to their rapid multiplication, which requires high amounts of iron, and partly because cancer cells are not as good as healthy cells at cleaning up free-floating iron.
"Cancer cells get sloppy at maintaining free iron, so they are more sensitive to artemisinin," Sasaki said.
Cancer cells are already under significant stress from their high iron contents and other imbalances, Sasaki said. Artemisinin tips them over the edge. The compound's modus operandi also means it should be general for almost any cancer, the researchers said.
"Most currently available drugs are targeted to specific cancers," Lai said. "This compound works on a general property of cancer cells, their high iron content."
The compound is currently being licensed by the University of Washington to Artemisia Biomedical Inc., a company Lai, Sasaki and Narendra Singh, UW associate professor of bioengineering, founded in Newcastle, Wash. for development and commercialization. Human trials are at least several years away. Artemisinin is readily available, Sasaki said, and he hopes their compound can eventually be cheaply manufactured to help cancer patients in developing countries.
My remarks: I think it’s really REALLY amazing that we have found a cure for cancer finally; that’s why I thought this article was REALLY cool. AMAZING! We are really in need of a cure for cancer around the world, and over here. We really need it a lot. People really need a cure for cancer.
-railroadfan
Trains rock!
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/20/conjoined.twins.ap/
This article is about twins, who were conjoined when they were born, and have now had multiple surgeries to detach them from each other. They have just survived their 3rd surgery and the doctors think that they will only need one more surgery to be detached.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/UK/09/15/siamese.facts/index.html
This article is about the first Siamese twins, and other famous Siamese twins. It talks about Eng and Cheng Bunker, the most famous Siamese twins, and how accomplished they had become. It just shows that anyone can do great things.
The hight of different dragons and humans are very different because a dragons body structure is very different. The avrage humans hight is five feet, the avarage hight for a chinse lung dragon (which has no wings)avrages at 15 feet which is three times bigger than people. The european dragon also stands at 15 feet (which has wings). Then the Wyvern stands at 20 feet. I think the artical is really cool because that dragons (real or not) are so much larger and higher on the food chain than us.
to find the artical look in the book Dragonology printed by candlewick press and Dr.Drakes adventure lays inside.
Link: http://listverse.com/bizarre/top-10-bizarre-traditions/
First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood. This concoction caused any necrotised flesh to fall off. Then her toenails were cut back as far as possible to prevent ingrowth and subsequent infections. To prepare her for what was to come next the girl’s feet were delicately massaged. Silk or cotton bandages, ten feet long and two inches wide, were prepared by soaking in the same blood and herb mix as before. Each of the toes were then broken and wrapped in the wet bandages, which would constrict when drying, and pulled tightly downwards toward the heel. There may have been deep cuts made in the sole to facilitate this.
I like this article because it shows how people were treated in China. And also it is discussing how they made woman feet look like that.
Lunar Golf
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/science/space/14qna.html?ref=science
This article is about an astronaut that hit two golf balls on the moon. The astronaut said that the ball would have gone thirty yards away if he was on earth, but he was on the moon and it went two hundred yards away. The astronaut did this looking for a way to demonstrate the lack of the moon’s atmosphere. I thought this article is really cool because two hundred yard is six times the amount it would go on earth.
Top-secret Warplanes of Area 51
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2006-10/top-secret-warplanes-area-51
This article is about six unmarked 737's flying around to nowhere. In April San Diego was hit by rumbling shock that wasn't a earthquake. It was actually ruled out by the media of a sonic boom which convinced to think it was a earthquake.IN the Farnborough International Airshow in southeastern England, Frank Cappuccio the avuncular vice president of Lockheed Martin´s secretive Skunk Works division. Then two minutes into the show , a gray, cockpit-less airplane that nobody has seen before-it looks like a B-2 bomber´s chick-soars over a backdrop of stony, barren hills and mountains.
All these events are linked. They are the visible signs of an invisible, parallel world within a universe of aerospace and defense: : the classified, or black, world of secret military programs. THOSE unmarked 737s were ferrying employees to the flight-test center near Groom Lake, Nevada, known to the public as Area 51. The gary airplane is Polecat, a next-gen. stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
I liked it because it is saying that there are newer and better airplanes( 737's ) that can help our troops out there.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/081003-noisier-oceans.html
Pollution Makes Oceans Noisier
by Andrea Thompson
This article is about how increasing levels of carbon dioxide are making ocean waters warmer and more acidic. The higher acidity causes sound waves to make louder nioses that can affect animals.
"Return of the Lost Limbs"
Emily Sohn
http://sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20071107/Note3.asp
THis article is about how some reptiles and amphibians can regrow limbs and how we might be able to harness that power and be able to regrow limbs. Im agine, you get into a crash and you have to get your leg amputated. If we are able to understand this ablity, you could get your limb back. That would be SICK!!!!!!!
REALLY KULE ARTICLE
I read an article about something washed up on a beach in Montauk, N.Y. It's called the "Montauk Monster". The media think it's an experiment from Plum Island, a turtle without a shell and even an alien. But most experts believe its a mutated raccoon.
I think this article is cool because the photo of this thing is really freaky and cool. In my opinion it looks like a mutated pig but can also look like a dog or wolf with a beak. You decide what it looks like to you.
http://zoology.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_the_montauk_monster
Article title: Farms Sprout in Cities PURPLEMONKEY
By: Jennifer Cutraro
Link: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/37197/title/FOR_KIDS_Farms_sprout_in_cities
When I say “farm” you will probably be picturing vast open hills in the heart of the countryside with rolling cornstalk fields and scarecrows. Well, according to this article, that will all be a thing of the past. Years from now, when someone says “farm”, chances are the mental image it creates will be of looming skyscrapers in some of the world’s most populated cities. It might sound far from reality, but scientists are thinking future farms will be grown indoors thousands of feet above ground in bustling cities!
I found many other articles touching upon the brilliant future that is to come, but this one stood out among the pack. I found this article amazing because it mentioned how the enormous farm transition is already in progress! The cool thing is that future farms are going to be the exact opposite of the ones that exist today. Never in all my life have I once pictured an indoor farm…
Plant Seeds Hitch Rides On Traveling Shoes Sometimes For Miles Reflection
I think that innocent bystanders can accidentally pick up seed and carry them up to over 3 miles without knowing it. Imagine one day you’re walking in to town and accidentally pick up a seed and end up planting it some ware and ten years later there’s a big tree. A lot of us have probably planted tons trees without even knowing it.
I foun this article in the science section of the New York Times from Tuesday the 14th of October.
http://householdhacker.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=225:spiderman-spiderman-doin-the-things-a-spider-can&catid=43:weird-science&Itemid=57
Scientist have harnessed the compound that is 10 times stronger than a gecko's
Scientists have been able to successfully replicate and strengthen the glue-like compound that are secreted from a gecko's feet (which allows it to climb vertical surfaces). This sticky substance is 10 times stronger than the substance the gecko creates in nature, and a square inch of this matter will be able to suspend a real life Spiderman. The way the glue works is that it uses carbon nano-tubes to replicate the tiny hairs found in the glue used to stick to surfaces.
It is an article about that geckos do not use suction cups but a glue like paste on their feet. Scientist can remake it 10times stronger
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