Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Super power spiders
We have all seen spider webs – on the trails we walk on or in the corner of our bedrooms catching flies and other insects. Author Rachel Ehrenberg writes about the other known and possible uses of animal silk. The material insects use to spin webs or create cocoons is called silk.
Silk from insects like spider or silkworms is extremely strong and natural. Researchers are looking into ways to use natural silk for additional uses. Bulletproof vests and parachute cords are two possible ways. But the silk could also be used inside our body – to protect cells, like bone or nerve cells while they regrow and repair themselves.
Spider silk is so valuable that scientists are trying to find additional ways to produce it – like altering the DNA of a goad so that it produces silk proteins in it’s milk. I suppose that this would make it a lot easier to harvest than getting it from the spiders.
I think this is a really interesting topic – but I think I would be nervous to let them plant silk producing spider genes into my body no matter what the possible positives are!
Read the article and see what you think for yourself.
Discussion Questions:
1. Can you think of additional ways that strong and stretchy fibers could be used to help us on the outside of our body?
2. If the science was mastered – do you think you would use silk fibres to help your body from the inside? Say it could help repair a broken bone?
Monday, September 13, 2010
Blogging Assignment 2010
Please Note – Participation in this assignment occurs on two levels.
Level One: Each week, TWO designated students will be responsible for choosing a scientific issue currently covered in the media (a list will be provided indicating each students designated date). After reading the article, the student will create a summary of the information presented and create TWO thought-provoking questions for the rest of the class.
On the blog, you will find links to numerous media sources for scientific information. You can use these sources, or identify your own, for your respective article.
Due Date: Your summary and questions are due on the Sunday, at 8:00pm of your specified week (please consult the schedule for details).
Level Two: Once the designated student has read the article, summarized the information, and posted the two questions, each remaining student in the class will be responsible for responding to or commenting on the questions.
You MUST comment at minimum ONCE each week. However, bonus marks may be given if you discuss and respond more frequently.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Whales may round up squid for dinner
sperm whales usually feast for squid, but to catch these animlas the whales sometimes have to dive thousand of feet below the ocean surface.
the whales take turns doing the deep dives because is very difficult to dive that deep.
how do you think whales keep their breath that long?
Monday, February 1, 2010
What is a ipad?
QUESTION:
What do you think about the ipad?
When it's going to come out are you going to buy one ?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Dino-bite!
1) How do you think that this information about dinosaurs could help scientists?
2) Do you believe that there may have been other kinds of dinosaurs that held pockets of venom in their teeth?
Dino-bite!
They were trying to prove that, so they started examinating the teeth, in the upper jaw. The scienctists observed small pockets in the bone. These pockets probably held special glands that made venom (poison).
They also saw that their teeth were long and narrow. Burnham said that the long teeth were probably used for them to bite and hold their prey (an animal hunted pr caught for food).
By studying the shape and size of the teeth and jaw, the paleontologists were able to learn a lot about how Sinornithosaurs probably ate. Of course, there's no chance this turkey-size dinosaur ever ate a human, since dinosaurs and humans never lived on Earth at the same time. Thank God!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Earthquake has killed in Haiti
Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN Wednesday the death toll from the earthquake that rocked his country could be "well over 100,000."
The 7.0-magnitude (accourding to the Rechter Scale) quake struck Tuesday afternoon, and has left Port-au-Prince, the capital city, in dust.
The Haitian President René Préval told the Miami Herald, today (13th), he has been stepping over more than thousand dead bodies prettly much everywhere.
"We have to do an evaluation," Préval said, describing the scene as "unimaginable."
"All of the hospitals are full with people. It is a catastrophe,'' he said.
"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,'' he told the paper. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.''
Shattered communication systems in the Caribbean country made it impossible to immediately determine the number of dead bodies from the Tuesday afternoon quake, but an International Red Cross official estimated that three million people in the impoverished country of nine million may have been affected and could need emergency aid.
Question
1. What could be done to protect people from dying in these aggressive earthquake?
2. Which region do you thing suffer more of earthquake than other and why?
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered
Hok hok hok! (Hey, crowned eagle!)
Very good — you have already mastered half the basic vocabulary of the Campbell’s monkey, a fellow primate that lives in the forests of the Tai National Park in Ivory Coast. The adult males have six types of call, each with a specific meaning, but they can string two or more calls together into a message with a different meaning.
Having spent months recording the monkeys’ calls in response to both natural and artificial stimuli, a group led by Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland argues that the Campbell’s monkeys have a primitive form of syntax.
This is likely to be a controversial claim because despite extensive efforts to teach chimpanzees language, the subjects showed little or no ability to combine the sounds they learned into a sentence with a larger meaning. Syntax, basic to the structure of language, seemed be a uniquely human faculty.
Still, species like gibbons and whales make complex vocalizations in which the order of the sounds seems to have some effect on their meaning, though it is hard to say what.
“Krak” is a call that warns of leopards in the vicinity. The monkeys gave it in response to real leopards and to model leopards or leopard growls broadcast by the researchers. The monkeys can vary the call by adding the suffix “-oo”: “krak-oo” seems to be a general word for predator, but one given in a special context — when monkeys hear but do not see a predator, or when they hear the alarm calls of another species known as the Diana monkey.
The “boom-boom” call invites other monkeys to come toward the male making the sound. Two booms can be combined with a series of “krak-oos,” with a meaning entirely different to that of either of its components. “Boom boom krak-oo krak-oo krak-oo” is the monkey’s version of “Timber!” — it warns of falling trees.
There is yet another variation on this theme, Dr. Zuberbühler’s team reports. Into the “Timber!” call, the Campbell’s monkeys insert a series of up to seven “hok-oo” calls. The combined call indicates the presence of other monkey groups and is heard most often when the monkeys are on the edge of their home range.
The meaning of monkey calls was first worked out with vervet monkeys, which have distinct alarm calls for each of their three main predators: the martial eagle, leopards and snakes. But the vervets did not combine their alarm calls to generate new meanings, unlike human words that can be combined in an infinite number of different sentences.
If the Zuberbühler team’s observations are correct, the Campbell’s monkeys can both vary the meaning of specific calls by adding suffixes and combine calls to generate a different meaning. Their call system, the researchers write, “may be the most complex example of ‘proto-syntax’ in animal communication known to date.”
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Please Laugh
cholera epidemic in Kenya
colera is spreadig fast one of the things that is helping the virus to srpead is the rain because it makes the ground wet and then is all dirty so when peolpe walke the dirt goes with them and it might have the ionfection with it.
cholera is a diarrheal illness caused by a bacterial infection in the intestine.
people exposed to cholera germ scan get sick with hours and die within a day if the infection is not treated.
the best treatment is rehydration salts to restore fluids to the body. the best prevention is for people to wash their hands a lot.
what would you do if you lived in Kenya?
what would you do if you were a doctor in Kenya?
Monday, November 30, 2009
they found live in mars
Researchers at the Johnson Space Center used advanced electron microscopes that weren't available in 1996 to re examine the magnetite crystals on the meteorite.
The meteorite, called ALH84001, was blasted from the surface of Mars 16 million years ago, scientists say, and is thought to have landed on Earth 13,000 years ago. An American scientist found it in Antarctica in 1984.
The original study published in the journal Science in 1996grabbed headlines and sparked a debate among scientists as to the origin of the crystals of magnetite, an iron-bearing, magnetic mineral found in the meteorite.
The study suggested that some of the crystals were likely the result of biological processes because they looked so similar to those created by bacteria on Earth.
Other scientists argued that the magnetite crystals could be produced by chemical and physical processes, and even created similar crystals in the lab by heating carbonates.
In a new study the Johnson Space Center researchers examined the magnetite crystals from the meteorite known microfossil samples from Earth and other crystals created artificially in the lab using high-resolution scanning electron microscopes.
Proof is stronger
They found that the Martian crystals didn't resemble the ones created in the lab, and concluded that biology is still the best explanation for the Martian crystals.
We believe that the biogenic hypothesis is stronger now than when we first proposed it 13 years ago said everett gibson NASA senior scientist.
The evidence supporting the possibility of past life on Mars has been slowly building up during the past decade said David mcKay NASA chief scientist for exploration and astrobiology.
This evidence includes signs of past surface water. Signs of current water near or at the surface water derived deposits of clay minerals and carbonates in old terrain, and the recent release of methane into the Martian atmosphere a finding that may have several explanations including the presence of microbial life the main source of methane on Earth mckay said.
The NASA team published their research in the journal Geochimica ET Cosmochimica Act of The Geochemical Society and The Meteoritic Society.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
China and the U.S join the cause
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Mission specialists Randolph Bresnik and Michael Foreman put up new antennas, a monitor, set up a spectrometer and installed a wireless video system for spacewalkers with cameras.
The high-pitched beeps — emanating from a new Russian research chamber — triggered a series of smoke alarms, waking up the astronauts and disrupting spacewalk preparations.
As the astronauts carried out their work, Bresnik's wife, Rebecca, was due to give birth to their second child at any moment in Houston. They also have a three-year-old son, adopted from Ukraine.
However, the baby had yet to arrive by the time the spacewalk ended. It had been agreed that Mission Control would hold off on any news if the birth occurred during the spacewalk so that Bresnik would remain focused on his tasks.
Throughout the spacewalk, Foreman, a veteran spacewalker, had trouble hearing inside his helmet. Bresnik's voice was especially faint.
"I can't understand you," Foreman called out. Bresnik spoke louder. "Still can't," Foreman said. An astronaut inside the space station had to intercede.
Foreman also missed hearing some of the praise coming his way after accomplishing all the major chores.
One more spacewalk is planned on Monday. The shuttle will remain at the station until next Wednesday, with a return to Earth scheduled for Friday.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Big Cats
To address this critical situation, the National Geographic Society has launched the Big Cats Initiative, a comprehensive program that supports on-the-ground conservation projects, education, and economic incentive efforts and a global public-awareness campaign. “We no longer have the luxury of time when it comes to big cats,” says National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dereck Joubert. “They are in such a downward spiral that if we hesitate now, we will be responsible for extinctions across the globe. They need help to survive because they can't do something but we can change what's happening not only for them but for all the animals that are killed for nothing.
1) What would you do to help the animals ?
2) Why do you think it's important to help them ?
Sunday, November 8, 2009
10 ways to be green.
QUESTIONS:
What are some other ways that could help save the environment and help you being more green?
What are some things that Stanstead College should do to be more environmentally friendly?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Climate change begins at Home.
In the
A total of 626 million metric tons of carbon were produced by the homes in the
Based on this analysis of potential emissions weatherazing homes as well as properly maintaining heating and cooling systems could save more than 37 million metric tons of carbon.
People are busy, and when you gasp at your energy bill or at the gas pump you don't know what part of that bill is paying for something you want, like heating, cooling and transportation and what part of it is just waste.
People should be more concerned about this situation I think; the Climate Change should be a very big deal for everyone.
QUESTIONS:
1. What other things could we do to save the planet from a early Global Warming?
2. What do you think the school should do to help prevent Global Warming?
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Polar Bear Habitat Proposed for Alaska
The article is about polar bears and the possible extinction of them because of several reasons like melting ice (because of global warming), hunting, commercial activities and tourism. In America there are roughly 3,500 bears.
In the article they also talk about political problems and how that problems affect bears. They want to create a protected area for them in Alaska so they could be away from any danger and stop extinction.
They are planning to do this by June 30, 2010.
I think that making a protected area will be good for bears because then the place were they live will not be contaminated, but still if they are in the protected area they will not be protected from the global warming. I also think they should not take that much time to discus about political things when we don’t have that much time to safe the bears from extinction.
Questions!!
1. Give another idea to take care of the habitat of polar bears.
2. Can you think how can we protect bears from global warming?
Galaxy group most distant ever seen
This cluster maybe the farthest one we can see right now because our understaning of the universe is limited unless we have better technology. This cluster right now excisted when the galaxy was 3.5 billion years old. Individual galaxy was found and gamma-ray have been found farther away and is found by the Hubble Space Telescope (estimated about 13.1 billion years)
1)What do you think we can see when we have better technology?
2)If we have better technology and we have found another life form on one of the galaxy would we be friends with them or mortal enemy?
3) How can the Hubble Space Telescope still work even though it was launched in 1990?
Andrew Jean
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Chytrid
Chyteid is a deadly fungus that is killing frogs. Once the fungus arrives at a site (pond, lake, etc) it stays in the soil.
They did a survey at eight different sites in
Karen Lips, an associate professorof biology, and keven Smith and Jonathan Chase at
All species of frogs can get infected but terrestrial species fare better the frogs living in wet habitats where the fungus thrives.
"Differences in some of the frogs skin can make them more susceptible to Chyrid" says Karen Lips.
1) Do you think all the frogs will soon die off because of Chytrid?
2)Do you think it can be stopped?
Paul Miller
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Dollars and Sense of Closing Schools for H1N1:
I do feel afraid for the other aboriginals of Canada because some communities do not having running water for them to wash their hands properly.
There had been schools that have been closed in different parts of the world. If it takes to close schools down to avoid further spreading of this virus then they should close schools. In this article, they write that there are alot of germs in schools and if that is it ..then what is wrong with closing a school if it will protect us?Health Canada or the Government should put money to have sanitizers put in all schools if they think shutting down schools would cost too much money. It would be cheaper, I bet.
This article talks about money, on how much it would cost to closes schools down. I think that they should put money into prevention..on how to protect ourselves and to help protect others. Everyone has a role to play avoid this H1N1 from spreading.
Never mind the money that they would lose by closing schools and worry about putting money to help protect the people in this world.
Questions:
1)What harm will it be for the students if they do close down for schools for a few days?
2)Why is there a big concern for money when life is more important?