At Ten, Dark Energy "Most Profound Problem" in Physics

Since a long time ago, physicists thought that the law of gravity was making the universe expand to slow, "But ten years ago this month the Astronomical Journal accepted a paper for publication that revealed there is a dark side of the force. "
But a new study showed that instead of the universe expands slow, is going faster.
Scientists say that this is because of the dark energy, and this force repeals gravity. But this is not all, dark energy also is 74% of the universe... but maybe when more studies are done, the results can change: "This is game-changing science," Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago.
This is because they just stablished the phenomenon, but they still have to prove the cause.

What I think about this, is that is so cool that they found dark energy. I mean, it's not like is necessarly something bad, but in some movies and books they always talk about a dark side of things, and many times they don't think it is true, but things that are going on are coming closer to reality every time.
I also think that if this force is against the gravity law, then new things can be done, because if this is something that is stablished, then this discovery shows that not everything is as we think it can be and as we are used too, so it is really interesting to know about this, because it gets you to think about new ways of viewing things.

by: Marcela Murillo Trujano

Death Toll May Climb in China Earthquake Aftermath

This article is about a city in China that had a huge earthquake and there were many deaths. The death toll has been estimated to become more than 50,000. The earthquake happened last Monday at 2:28 pm local time and measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. As many as 20,000 deaths have already occured and another 40,000 people are missing and probably are dead. The defence minister has ordered 101 helicopters to airlift people from devastated areas. Many schools, hospitals, roads have been hit hard. Aftershocks are devastating as well, in a high school, more than 1,000 students and teachers are dead or missing and in a middle school, 900 children are trapped because of a buiding collapse. This is the worst earthquake to hit China since 1976 when an earthquake measuring 7.5 at the epicenter, more than 240,000 people lost their lives.

This is devastating news and I am sure that if the Chinese government would allow outside help, people would be found more quickly and survivors would also get the help they need now instead of later.

Good night, Sloth

Scientist Niels Rattenborg of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany, did an study with sluggish bears. He took some of this animals from their trees, so he could put a mini battery recorder for sloths in a lab.
The device allows monitoring of electrical impulses from the brain, but instead of keeping the animals in the lab, they put them outside, to know more about their lives.
What happened was that they sticked them in their hairs, and 3 days later they took the devices away and check all the results.
“I think this is the first to really do sleep in free-roaming animals — that’s what makes the paper interesting,” says evolutionary neuroscientist Paul Manger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. The approach holds promise since miniaturization and data retrieval technologies are improving so rapidly, he adds.
This is something that is really interesting, because you can check animals in a lab and know results about them, but when they are in their natural environment things change, so you can actually know how animals act when there are predators near to them.
Even though this helps, animals can feel different when they have something stick in their heads, but the study says that at first the sloths were stressed out because of the device but later they went back to normal and that they didn't sleep a lot, they just sleep 20% of the day, and that is what humans normally sleep.
One interesting thing that was found out with this study, was that while this animals were sleeping it seemed like they were chewing something, so maybe they were dreaming about eating leaves.

From this article I have different opinions.
First I think that for understanding the behavior of animals it's something good to do, because we will have more information about the way they act with other animals of their kind and to see how similar or different their behavior can be with other animals and even humans.
But another opinion that I have is not that good, because I think that animals can feel different when they have something stick in their heads, because they are not used to it so it's not normal to them, their mood can change, they can act weird or rare because of the device, it might seem like it doesn't affect them, but they don't know what is going on, and maybe this particular device don't hurt them but later they can be some that would damage them and I don't think this is a good thing to do , because you are interfering with their natural way of living, and animals have feellings too.

Marcela Murillo Trujano

Earthquake in China, horrible disaster!

This article is informing us about the earthquake that occurred in China this Monday, and the consequences of it:
It was a 7.9 magnitude earthquake, that killed thousands of people, and thousand are still missing! This has been the country’s worst earthquake in three decades! So far, 11,921 people have died!
The worst part of this disaster is that this earthquake hit the hardest in remote areas of china (not in the cities), and there is millions of people in this area with desperate need of help but this areas remain inaccessible to rescuers, due to the remoteness and difficulty of the mountainous terrain, this is a huge problem that is causing more and more deaths!
This quake, that lasted several minutes, has collapsed buildings in cities and towns across the province as well as cracking buildings in the capital city, where thousands of people have been spending the night out of doors in fear of aftershocks the people are terrified and don’t know what to do.
More than 26,000 have been injured and at least 9,400 remain trapped in such levelled buildings.
Rescuers and troops worked without stopping and have been saving thousand of lives.
"It's a nightmare. It's a tragedy," said Zhao Mu, a student in university.

My opinion:
I am glad I read this article about this because I did not know about all this tragedy that is happening in China, I think this is so sad and it is terrible, I think that the worst part of it is that people in cities are receiving so much help, (and it is very good that they are receiving it), but the parts that need more help and have been destroyed the most are the ones where the rescuers cant get access to, and people there should be so desperate, I cant imagine how they must feel to be in such a disaster and now one being there with the necessary equipment to help them now! In the article it said that this is a natural disaster with a huge magnitude and that something like this had not been seen in so long, I really think that all this huge and horrible disasters that are happening in the world are due to global warming, there have been so many natural disasters lately and if the global warming situation does not get better, I think we are going to have natural disasters like this earthquake in China and other places often, and we are going to see the consequences and suffer so much! I am really glad I read this article because now I am more aware of what is happening in the world and more aware that we need to change our way of living or the consequences will be HUGE!
Maria Rubio.

Human Aging Gene Found In Flies

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human aging.
Scientists have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies can now be used to study the effects aging has on DNA. This is something really important because it can help find out solutions for things like aging at cellular.
Scientists also made an experiment, they were studying a disease that helps understand normal aging. What happens is if one gene changes, it means that then people will age quickly.
This can be test in flies, but there are still not results for developing this genes in human bodies, but if it works it can be very helpful to know more about human beings and a new way of discovered and preventing diseases, and changes with humans.
Dr Robert Saunders from The Open University added: "This work shows for the first time that we can use the short-lived fruit fly to investigate the function of an important human aging gene. We have opened up the exciting possibility of using this model system to analyse the way that such genes work in a whole organism, not just in single cells.”
This gene is known as WRN.

I think that it is really interesting to see how animals can be so similar to human beings, because I think this is not the first time that some kind of cells or genes are find in humans and animals, and with this, there are more chances to get to know why or how diseases can be cured, without experimenting with humans, it can be try in animals, even though sometimes I think that shouldn't be done either because animals are alive too and they can suffer as humans can, but in animals like flies, I think it's ok because there are a lot of them and they reproduce fast, and testing in them, can save lives, and help in science to make new discoveries.

Marcela Murillo Trujano

Spider named after canadian singer

wow...-_-


This must be one of the gobstopping thing I have seen this week. A spider...named after a canadien singer. This particular article is related to the study of insects and so this is why i am posting it. Other from the name of this creature, I was interested to see what kind of spider it was. The article I read was more mesmerized that it was named after a famous singer than that they actually found a new species of spider. The article did not mention anything about, if it is poisenous or any such information. The only thing they were interested in was the singer. I was disappointed.. but it is an interesting thing to read about. I would research this spider and tell you all the information, but all the articles say the same thing. It is not really information on the spider, it is a biography of the singer. I may be over reacting, and the only reason they don't say anything is beacuse there is no information, but from now on, when i read an article, I hope is sticks to the point (as I have not done) instead of sidetracking.

Platypus genome reveals links between reptiles, mammals

Scientist still don’t know what to do about the duck billed platypus it is a mammal that lyes eggs. They are saying that they are understanding this animal a bit better now after this genome. A time of scientist form the universities of Ornithorhynchus is comparing the platypus with other mammals so they mite find something. They are saying that the platypus appears as an animal looks. Francis Collins, the director of the U.S.-based National Human Genome Research Institute said comparing the platypus and other animals will help us understand our self’s better. They found out that the platypus contains about the same number of protein-coding genes like other mammals they approximately 18,500 protein-coding genes and it shares about 80% of its genes with other mammals. But the scientist where interested in the deferents. With matching the platypus genes with other mammals they found out that it was the crossroads between early mammal-like reptiles and of the other mammals we see today. They did a genetic analyzing and found out that it had slimmer portion milk genes that is just one of its many slimmer genes. They found out that males can give venom through the hind legs and it is slimmer to reptiles but independently. It was published form the newspaper company journal Nature and people on the time came from United States, Australia, England, Germany, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and Spain.

I like this project:

Because they found out that the platypus is one of the few animals that are between reptiles and mammals. So they can now find more about the genes of it and of us because if they find out enough of the genes they can find out more about us humans that would revolve to a new area of understanding us humans.

Scientists Build Nano Hot Rods

This article is about university students making a way to mace microspic nanobots. They will be able to help people in their drugs and cleaning water from distant lands. A nanomachine is a small device that is less than one micron in size (one millionth of a meter). They hope that they will be able to help target the delivery of drugs in the system to the proper places. For example, if a patient has cancer the drugs would be directed to the cancer cells. The only problem is that the nanomachines aren't very fast. So more research needs to be done so that imporvements can be done to the machines. There has been money awarded to do more research on these tiny bots.

I find that this is a great idea because it could help people that are dying across the oceans and would just help with clean water. Also, it would help with drugs as well. If we gave trillions of these nanobots across the ocean it would be so helpful.

Quake Shakes Tokyo

Japan's capital was hit Thursday morning by a nearby 6.8-magnitude earthquake that injured two and left some 2,100 residents in the dark.
Japan was rocked by a series of earthquakes thursday about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Tokyo that injured two, cut off power to some 2,100 homes, and left the country on high alert for possible aftershocks. The largest quake hit at 1:45 a.m. local time in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Ibaraki Prefecture and measured 6.8 on the Ritcher Scale.
No major damage has been reported, and the two injuries are not believed to be serious. Highway officials lowered the speed limit as a precaution, although they had not detected any cracks in roads from the quake, which struck offshore at a depth of 25 miles (40 kilometers), according to the United States.
In mi opinion
I think that this is a very serious natural disaster that oviosly can't be controled, but what we can do is to send money or food to all this people that got homeless.

Skeletons found near Plains of Abraham

This article is about two nearly intact human skeletons discovered near the Plains of Abraham last winter date back to the 19th century or earlier.
Construction workers found the bones last February while breaking ground for new washroom facilities on the plains, a natural plateau outside Quebec city's fortified walls.
Archeologists confirm the remains belong to a teenaged boy and an older woman.
the bones of the teen ege boy are in perfect conditions, the team of archeologists hired by the National Battlefields Commission to investigate the bones.
It's the first time a burial site has been discovered on the plains. There are no official records of any burial grounds in the park, where British troops confronted the French in the 1759 Battle of Quebec.
mi opinion
in my opinion i think that is really cool thet is the first time they had find this kind of stuff in Quebec, and that they should keep searching about this because with this kinds of stuff we can learn more about the past and think more like our ancestors.

In the Plains of Abraham two skeletons were found by to drain pipes when they were digging into the ground. The skeletons were of a teenage boy and they think her mother. They think they were buried in the 19^th century which a long time ago was so they probably will not fined the killer. The construction workers found them why making a new washroom for the homeowner, the police think that they weren’t murdered but they died and got buried in two coffins, the construction head has never seen anything like this. What do I think of this? I think it is good that they found the bodies because maybe someone was looking for them or something else, but I think this story is kind of gross.

Ryan

Connections to an untethered future

The new Iphone from apple is a great new invention because it has all kinds of features like a phone and music, games, videos, internet, GPS system, text messages and a touch screen and more on it. But you can’t get this awesome apple feature for cheap, this cost 600$ dollars. They say that it changes how people monitor the world. The inventor of this Iphone is Marin Solijacic from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Why would you by this? It is better then carrying all those features around when you can carry it in one. Why would I buy one? Because they are really cool and a good piece of machinery too. What do I think of this? I think it is an awesome idea and apple is making tons of money off of it and there other things they are selling, so yes I think it is a good idea.

Ryan

Climate change claims caribou calves: study

Fewer caribou are being born and dieing in west Greenland because of warming. That what a US biologist said. Penn State biology professor Eric Post started to collect data in 1993 and found out that the timing of food and birth and don’t correspond any more and that roughly 75 per cent mange to get to adulthood. They are going to translate the publish meant in and it is going to get publish at 12, 2008 July. When the babies are born and they go look for food the plants are starting to grow and then most of them can’t grow next year again and scientists call this a "trophic mismatch." In the winter the caribou dig in the snow where they find lichens and then in spring they switch to grassing and growth of willows, sedges, and flowering tundra herbs. Now that the birth rate increases they go to the areas where there is plenty of food for them. But now they nodes that there plant that they eat are already peeking it doesn’t depend on day light it depends on heat and if it hotter they grow faster so the caribou don’t have nothing more to eat. There is some miss matches already with some Dutch brides and there food is caterpillar prey that’s the same thing like by the caribou. It is happing so often now that you could say that it is like a eye blink that some thing like that happens.

What I don’t like about this:

That Clemet change is killing more and more animals. That these miss matches are happening so fast that more things will change faster then we will expect. That will mean the caribou cloud die out ore the plant that they are eating rate now and that goes for almost every animal.

fish in problems, humans too!!!

We know everything that global warming is doing than include the oceans, we know that currents are changing, natural disasters are occurring, and in some time the ocean can cover almost all the land we live in, but did you know that thanks to global warming also most of the marine life in it can be in total danger?
Warmer oceans contain less oxygen, as the globe has warmed, this warm oceans have less and less oxygen, meaning that less and less sea animals that can live in their natural and healthy environment, meaning more and more sea animals dying!
This is a huge chain that started from the humans not taking care of the Earth and because of that, the global warming, then to the oceans, after, to the marine life in the oceans and then back again to the humans because if there is not enough fish, then the whole marine animals food chain will be messed up, allot of this sea species in danger, the millions of industries of fishing and selling fish will be in problems and this is a chain that goes on and on.

My opinion:
I think this is a very important article, and it really makes you think because it shows you the consequences of the human’s actions (not taking care of the environment), it shows you that because of the humans a problem was made, and that problem lead to another one and another one etc... I think if we don’t stop this, later it is going to be too late, and huge consequences will come! I thought this article was shocking because it reminded me of all the things that could happen if we don’t put a stop or come up with a solution! I thought this was a very interesting article and I liked it a lot!
Maria Rubio

BlackBerry shares rise on SAP partnership, product rumours

This article is about how the Blackberry new flip-phone is making stock prices for shares of the software company SAP at a record high level.rising 2.8 percent. The company RIM sais they were teaming up with SAP to promote a new wireless service through the Blackberry. There was a rise in in the market over this possible new version of the Blackberry. This new phone would expand markets for both companies.

My opinion is that this is a great idea because of the new flip phone will be very popular because lots of teenagers will want to buy this product even though it is designed more for business use.

Infinity M

The new Infinity M has 30 technologies. What is it? It is a car that was made by Infinity in 2007 I think. Some features, very comfortable, leather seats, very powerful it has 325 horse power v8 engine, they say in there test it goes really fast and can get you to places very quick ( if there are no cops out). Why did they name it the M, because it is a uniquely enigmatic feeling. What do I think of this? I think I would bye one so I could drive very fast and it is really good looking to.

Ryan

Next decade may be cooler, not warmer

In this article you read about the changes of temperature that are going to happen in the next decade in the planet. As we all know, Global Warming is a huge problem that we heard about every day, but according to recent studies that scientists have made, the next decade is going to be cooler, because "they believe is an impending change in the Gulf Stream, the conveyor belt that transports warm surface water from the tropical Atlantic to the northern Atlantic and returns cold water southwards at depth."
This is a good thing because it will make the temperatures cool down in places like North Atlantic and in North America and Europe, and the temperatures in the Pacific will stay stable.
But there are also bad news, because in the next 20 years alone, the global climate would warm by around 0.2°C per decade.
The main reason for this is that the oceans, the biggest store of heat, go through natural cycles of circulation.

What I think about the article is that we could still have some hopes on the planet not getting warmer that it is now, to know that maybe the things will change if we really try to make a difference so that all the animals, and natural places that are being in danger because of GW can be back to normal and things in the planet wouldn't be as bad as they are now.
So I think we can stil make a difference to stop all the changes that are happening with the temperature of the planet right now, so we can have a better way of life and live in better conditons.

by: Marcela Murillo Trujano

Life on Mars?

This article was about if there is life on Mars. It said that the Mariner landed on mars and scooped up some dirt and then did some research on it. The first test was a success but the second one showed traces of hydrogen peroxide in the dirt. Leading scientists to believe that there is no life on Mars. I think they could have done just a little more research on the dirt. I mean think about it, it would be the biggest discovery in the history of mankind actual artificial life on another planet. We could communicate with them learn their ways. Or we could make everyone’s worst fear come true, war with aliens. Life on Mars?

This article was about if there is life on Mars. It said that the Mariner landed on mars and scooped up some dirt and then did some research on it. The first test was a success but the second one showed traces of hydrogen peroxide in the dirt. Leading scientists to believe that there is no life on Mars. I think they could have done just a little more research on the dirt. I mean think about it, it would be the biggest discovery in the history of mankind actual artificial life on another planet. We could communicate with them learn their ways. Or we could make everyone’s worst fear come true, war with aliens. lol

Life on Mars?

This article was about if there is life on Mars. It said that the Mariner landed on mars and scooped up some dirt and then did some research on it. The first test was a success but the second one showed traces of hydrogen peroxide in the dirt. Leading scientists to believe that there is no life on Mars. I think they could have done just a little more research on the dirt. I mean think about it, it would be the biggest discovery in the history of mankind actual artificial life on another planet. We could communicate with them learn their ways. Or we could make everyone’s worst fear come true, war with aliens. Life on Mars?

This article was about if there is life on Mars. It said that the Mariner landed on mars and scooped up some dirt and then did some research on it. The first test was a success but the second one showed traces of hydrogen peroxide in the dirt. Leading scientists to believe that there is no life on Mars. I think they could have done just a little more research on the dirt. I mean think about it, it would be the biggest discovery in the history of mankind actual artificial life on another planet. We could communicate with them learn their ways. Or we could make everyone’s worst fear come true, war with aliens. lol

150-Year-Old Computer Brought to Life [Slideshow]

Designed nearly 150 years ago but never actually built until recently, the Difference Engine No. 2 designed by Charles Babbage (1791 to 1871) is a piece of Victorian technology meant to tussle with logarithms and trigonometry long before the first modern computer. Technophiles have a rare opportunity beginning May 10 to see one of these devices (only two exist) on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Babbage's automatic computing engine consists of 8,000 bronze, cast iron and steel parts, weighs five tons, and measures eleven feet (3.4 meters) long and seven feet (2.1 meters) high. Museum guest curator Doron Swade used Babbage's own plans to bring the engine to life. Babbage is also credited with inventing the cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge and heliograph ophthalmoscope as well as uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses and Greenwich time signals.

My Opinion

I think that It would be fairly impossible to make a 150 year old computer come back to life because its inside mechanism is so old that I think it would be mote impossible to fix it because of how old it is. But I still think its amazing as to how he made the computer come back to life.