White House Issues Long-Delayed Science Guidelines

          White House Issues Long-Delayed Science Guidelines, by Kenneth Chang, explains the new government guidelines put forth by the Obama administration regarding governmental scientific research. The four page document covers scientists’ ability to share their findings publicly and how they administer and document research. This document arose from issues with inaccurate scientific knowledge being shared with the public under the Bush administration. For example, Dr. Grifo discovered that carbon dioxide emissions were a major cause of the rise in global temperatures. However, because the Bush administration did not want to take on the task of global warming with such a breakthrough in the cause, they censored his findings from the public. Even with this step forward in political-scientific openness, many are still cynical as to how much the government still has censorship over what findings are released. Dr. Grifo told the NYT that,  “I don’t like the ambiguities. I don’t like the discretion it gives to the agencies.” For now, this short, overdue document will have to do and perhaps serve as a stepping stone for what is to come.

          I thought this article was interesting and related to chemistry in that it emphasizes the importance of two major subjects we discussed earlier this year: the importance of being an informed citizen and the ability for scientists to share information with one another and the public.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/science/18research.html

CHANG, KENNETH. "White House Issues Long-Delayed Science Guidelines." New York Times 18 Dec. 2010: A13. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.

Posted for L. Connor

Female chimps play with ‘dolls’

            In this article, it discusses the gender preferences of a certain chimpanzee community. A group of scientists studying a certain chimp community within the Ugandan forest for 14 years has discovered the young females attraction to ‘dolls;’ whereas, young males showed little to no interest. In referring to dolls, the scientists meant sticks. The young female would often pick up sticks and carry them anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours cradling it and holding it in a maternal fashion.

             

           This article suggests that chimpanzees and humans alike may be innately drawn to ‘toys’ associated with one’s respective gender, revealing that it isn’t just society that pushes dolls on girls and trucks on boys. While, indeed society does influence major gender assignments, this study of the chimpanzees proves that females, especially as infants, have a natural inclination towards ‘dolls.’ 

            This article was well written and clear. It effectively communicated its point without extraneous information. It also clearly revealed the relationship between human and chimpanzee gender preferences. I chose this article because it was a clear example of nature v. nurture and whether girls are raised to like dolls or it’s their innate inclination.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/67892/title/Female_chimps_play_with_dolls

Bower, Bruce. "Female chimps play with 'dolls' Youngsters mimic mothering by cradling sticks." Science News 20 Dec. 2010. Google. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.

posted for A. Corbat

A Yale physics professor has come up with a new golf club that can help teach you how to fix your swing. The way the club helps you is by giving off sounds into the headphones of the golfer, the higher and louder the pitch the faster the swing. The professor from Yale has found that hearing a sound is more beneficial to the change of your swing than just getting told it by someone else. Self correction is the best way to learn something because you know what you need to change and you are the only one who can actually change it. Golf is a mixture of physical skills and physics, from the swing speed to the flex of the shaft. Robert Grober's Sonic Golf tool uses motion-detecting sensors. When a player swings the club, sensors located in the shaft send wireless signals to a small base station receiver placed a few feet away. The receiver contains a microprocessor and a sound card that unravels the signal from the sensors and converts it into an audio "soundscape" representing the various speeds of the club during the backswing and downswing. A slow swing produces soft, low-pitched notes; a fast swing produces loud, high-pitched tones. These are transmitted back to the player through a set of wireless headphones. The golfer can then adjust his or her motion to generate the sound of a perfect swing. This could seriously revolutionize golf as we know it.
The frustrating part of this article is that I don’t know when the club would be available for purchase because something like this could seriously help my golf game. Also, you are never really told statistics on how hearing your swing is actually more beneficial for your learning then hearing someone critique it. This makes the article a little less fulfilling for me and I wish that the article contained these few bits left out.
I picked this article because I enjoy playing the game of golf in my spare time. Something like this could really boost my game and I like to get any edge that I can over my opponents. Even though this product isn’t totally proven yet, but it still sounds like it could be a great and useful product down the road.


“Sonic Golf Club.” Science Daily. July 5, 2010. http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2005/0701-sonic_golf_club.htm.

Rooting For Swarm Intelligence in Plants

            In this article, Susan Milius discusses the recent findings of František Baluška from the University of Bonn in Germany. The main idea of the article that that roots may have swarm intelligence because of the various amounts information that proves they can work as a group. Swarm intelligence is mainly found in animals, and it is their ability to work together as a group to solve problems and make their living environment better. Honeybees are a usual example of an animal that uses swarm intelligence in order to find a new home.

             

          Baluška believes that roots could have swarm intelligence for many reasons. It is believed that root tips gather information individually, and then that information gets processed. When the roots are tangled with each other, the information gets shared. Therefore, when a problem exists, the roots can fix it together with cognitive intelligence instead of a lone root struggling to solve its own problem. “Applying the notion of swarm intelligence to plants, and not just to animals,” Krause (another scientist) says, “is interesting in the sense that swarm intelligence might provide a drive for group living in organismal life in general.”

Baluška believes the best evidence of swarm intelligence comes from the roots’ ability to bombard areas high in nutrients. Roots also swarm areas with water. Roots from the same plant compete with roots from other plants for these nutrients, and therefore it would make sense for roots to have root intelligence so the roots of the same plant could help each other.

 
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/67424/title/Rooting_for_swarm_intelligence_in_plants

posted for N. Carpenter

Thought for Food: Imagining Food Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption Review by Henry Palermo

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101209141134.htm

          According to a Carnegie Mellon study, imagining the food you crave is the best way to stay healthy during the holiday season. The study says that when you imagine eating a certain food you are more apt to avoid consuming it. The professors from CMU determined that people were eating less of the imagined food due to a mixture of neural machinery and the habituation that results from people’s thoughts. They came to this conclusion after testing people who had been thinking about a varied number of M&M’s (33, 30, and 3) and the people who were thinking about the 30 M&M’s seemed less apt When searching for an article I thought that this one was a good one to choose because people always seem to have concerns for how much weight they are going to gain over the holiday season, so I chose this in order to give a possible solution to people’s holiday eating habits.

          The biggest disappointment of the article for me was that although the tests they used for this experiment were described that was really the only proof presented to the reader. This lack of evidence led to my conclusion that although the experiment showed people had a tendency to not consumer M&M’s after thinking of the candy. I was more than skeptical about this experiment because I’ve recalled times where a food has been on my mind and I feel like I can’t settle until I stuff myself with that certain type of food. Other than that one flaw I didn’t really have any other conundrums from this article.

          I picked this article because during this time of year people become so concerned about how much they eat and I figured that giving a possible solution to this issue would be helpful to more than just our class but also the extended reach of the classroom. I thought that the article was very informative and came around at just the right time of year with the holidays around the corner. Even though I may have some reservations about the validity of this experiment I still thought that it was very interesting and was worth me looking into.

Using Waste, Swedish City Cuts its Fossil Fuel Use

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/science/earth/11fossil.html

          Kristianstad, a town in Sweden, vowed a decade ago to stop using fossil fuels. It was a big goal, but the city’s population of 80000 uses no gas or oil to heat houses during the winters. While the people have installed solar panels and wind turbines, it generates energy mostly from an assortment of ingredients, like potato peels, stale cookies, and pig intestines. An old plant takes these items and turns them into a form of methane called biogas. The gas is burned to create heat or electricity, and can be refined for use as car fuel. Over the past several years, European countries have relied more on renewable energy, mostly because of fossil fuels are expensive and overuse of fossil fuels leads to taxation. However, Kristianstad has reduced its fossil fuel use by a quarter. Biogas systems are rare in the United States, with only 151 biomass digesters that only use manure. These systems have been limited due to high costs and little financing. However, a number of companies are considering investment, and two California companies filed for permission to turn organic waste into biogas. The costs for the Swedish plants were substantial at first, but the payback has been significant due to the fact that biogas is less expensive to run and creates jobs for people. Kristianstad is now hoping that by 2020, local emissions will go down by 40 percent, which would eliminate emissions completely. They are also trying to build more biogas filling stations.

          I chose this article because fossil fuels are becoming harder to find and use, and using biogas may be a way of delaying or preventing the loss of fossil fuels. If biogas becomes more widely used, Kristianstad will become known as the town that first used biogas.

          Overall, this article was well written, but it had a few flaws. The explanation of “district heating” was confusing and unnecessary, as it was worded in a way that was unclear. I enjoyed this article and hope to learn more about biogas. This technology may become more widespread and useful in the future.

Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "Using Waste, Swedish City Cuts Its Fossil Fuel Use." NY Times 10 Dec. 2010. NY Times. 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. .

“This Is Your Brain on Metaphors”

            In his article “This Is Your Brain on Metaphors”, Robert Sapolsky explains the effect metaphors have on the brain and how they can twist our reality. He begins by explaining the basics of neurology: that electrical messages are carried throughout our brain and nervous system by particles called neurons. While the human has the same neurons as most other living organisms (same electrical properties, many of the same neurotransmitters, and the same protein channels that allow ions to flow in and out), we have billions more. Over the time we have evolved, our brains have increased in capacity and neuron count. However, we have not developed new “chambers” for storing and processing information, which is why, Sapolsky believes, we have a hard time differentiating between reality and ideals or metaphors. To explain his theory, Sapolsky concentrates on one “chamber” of the brain in particular; the insula. This area of the brain is responsible for processing both physical and psychic feeling. So if you were to smell hot sauce (and let’s say you don’t like hot sauce), then the insula would formulate a feeling of disgust. The same thing happens if you see hot sauce, taste hot sauce, or even think about hot sauce. When humans developed morals and ethics, those feelings were not put into a new “chamber” but instead were packed into the insula. So if one were to read a story about slavery in the 1700’s they would feel (in most cases) disgusted. Our feelings of disgust, pride, anger, etc. are therefore based solely on the part of the brain in which they are processed (the insula). The same can be said for pain, which we know is both physical and psychic from experience, and is processed by neurotransmitters called Substance P, located in the anterior cingulated (AC). The pain you feel when you are punched is directly related to the indirect pain you feel when you witness loved one being hurt. Sapolsky mentions numerous tests that have been conducted regarding this theory. For example, when subjects were made to hold a stack of heavy books and told to give their opinions on their peers, they judged without congenial interest. However, subjects the were given a cup of warm coffee to hold gave kind, friendly profiles of their peers. While these circumstances may not dictate our overall decisions and opinions, Sapolsky believes they do play a major role.

          This article presents a theory that can only be proven scientifically by neurologists who must have a comprehensive understanding of chemistry. Neurology is a theoretical/factual stem from chemistry in that the conclusions drawn from research in this field are often based on the chemical makeup of the human brain. While therapists and psychologists set the foreground into the study of the brain, only using chemistry and biology will neurologists be able to factually understand the most complex component to human anatomy and behavior; the brain.

          I enjoy learning about neurology because it explains how we come about our opinions, thoughts, and theories. Sapolsky also explained the linguistic aspect of the brain, which was composed of nuanced observations. He stated that humans have the ability to distinguish what we see/read from what is actually being said. One of his examples was of Russian composer Tchaikovsky and his music rendition of Napoleon being defeated outside of Moscow. While we can relate this jumble of noise to an event in history, we also understand that “Napoleon” relates not just to a man on a horse, but thousands of starved soldiers fighting in the cold, far from home (or more depending on how much one knows). I found these observations to be, although obvious, nonetheless, very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky

posted for L. Connors

“How Many Stars? Three Times as Many as we thought, Report Says”

          This Wednesday, scientists reported that the number of stars in the universe has been way under counted. They recently estimated there to be three times as many stars in the universe than people had previously thought.  The starts being under counted were a bunch of cool, dim dwarf stars in certain galaxies. “It’s very problematic,” said Pieter Van Dokkum, referring to the facts that this led to the misunderstanding of how galaxies formed and grew over the eons. Astronomers are not actually able to count the number of dwarf stars, which have masses less than a third of the sun in galaxies outside of the milky way. Instead, the astronomers counted the brighter sun-like stars and were able to assume that there were about 100 unseen dwarfs for each larger sun-like star.

          

            I chose this article because I found it to have a lot of interesting information. People don’t usually doubt astronomers and scientists but this article proves that they do make major mistake. They miscounted the number of stars by a huge number which I found to be both astounding and ridiculous.

             

            The author did a very nice job writing this article. Although I really enjoyed reading this, I found some of the information to be pointless. For instance, some of the specific statistics I did not think were needed. Also, I would of liked to know what led the scientists to discover the numerous undiscovered starts in the universe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/science/space/02star.html?ref=science

"Food Security Wanes as World Warms"

Claudia Nagy 12-2-10
Chem II Honors


Raloff, Janet. "Food Security Wanes as World Warms" ScienceNews. 12-1-10. 12-2-10



In this article Raloff explains that as global warming increases, food security rapidly declines. In recent years, it has been a universal goal for harmful green house gases to be reduced, however, since 2009, the number has only decreased by 1.3%, the equivalent of four days of emissions. As the temperature climbs, farmers have more difficulty adapting to the climate changes, resulting in food shortages, riots, and price increases by "five to ten fold." Russia, the world's 4th leading cereal producer sold 17 million metric tons throughout the world in 2009, yet this year will only be exporting 4 million metric tons. Such shortages are predicted to increase the cost of food imports by more than 11% than in 2009, and will affect low-income food-importing countries the most. Because of global temperature change, the prices of staple items will continue to rise, and the number of people who are malnourished will climb exponentially.
I chose this article because I recently read a New York Times article detailing how the FDA has recently decided to more closely monitor food safety, as thousands of people suffered from illnesses contracted from eating vitiated eggs, spinach, or meat products earlier this year, because the FDA has been spending more time regulating pharmaceuticals, neglecting the "Food" in "Food & Drug Administration." "Food Security Wanes as World Warms" is an important article to society because it adds another perspective as to how the food industry today is too big and too reliant on climates that have recently turned too capricious for farmers to handle. It is ironic, however that as food regulation and safety procedures are increased, the quantity of food to regulate is becoming more scarce.
Though the article is well written, it is plenary of some gratuitous facts. There are copious statistics, and predictions that seem to serve only as scare tactics to readers. The article neglects to include the numerous technological advancements from recent years that may help reduce green house gases in greater quantities than ever before, or how more countries are moving to sustainable energy than ever before. Including these details may have given readers a more optimistic view of a foreboding topic.

Florida Keys Declares Open Season on Invasive Lion Fish

     Lionfish have taken the East Coast by storm in the past few years. Lionfish pose a huge problem for fishermen because they virtually prey on the eggs of all fish. Also, the Lionfish can produce up to 30,000 eggs in 4 days and have no predators. The Florida Keys have taken action by hosting Lionfish killing tournaments with cash prizes to motivate citizens to kill Lionfish. It is also legal now to spear or harpoon any Lionfish. Lionfish are a huge threat to any community where fishing is a leading industry. They are also extremely poisonous. However, one good thing about them is that they make for good food which also gives people motivation to go out and kill some Lionfish.

      

     This is an issue that we must pay attention to because Lionfish are quickly moving up the East Coast. If action is not taken, the New York economy will be affected. It is important that people go out and hunt down these vicious animals before they start to wipe out other types of fish and harm the economy.

                

     This article was very well written and rich in information. I would’ve like if the author talked more about some hypothetical theories on how these fish which are not native to the East Coast got here. Last, I thought that this article was very informative and the attached video on the article was very nice because the reader gets to see a visual of the fish which are not as harmful as they look. 

Florida Keys Declares Open Season on Invasive Lion Fish- Nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/science/23lionfish.html?_r=1&ref=science

posted for D. Guglielmo

     

Visor Might Protect Troops From Blasts

            This article is about how adding a visor to the helmets that soldiers wear in Iraq can greatly decrease the risk of having a head trauma. What they are saying is that if you put a visor on the helmet that they now wear today is meant to stop bullets and not prevent major head trauma. What they are saying is that if you put a visor on the front of the helmet it would deflect most of the energy of the blast.

            This affects many people in general. The reason is that with this new technology that they have discovered it can affect the people in the armed forces in a huge way. If they find a way in which they can reduce the amount of head trauma cause by these blasts many veterans would not have serious head injuries. Also, if they succeed with this they can help a lot of other sports prevent major head injuries.

            I think that this article could have gone more in depth as to how the visor would be a great improvement to the helmet. What I liked though is how they describe how it can be used to prevent head injuries in other sports. Finally, I thought they just did an overall good job at making sure that the reader did not get lost throughout the article and stayed interested.

Ehrenberg, Rachel. Visor might protect troops from blasts. N.p.: n.p., 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. <http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/66322/title/Visor_might_protect__troops_from_blasts>.

Four Loko Drops Caffeine from Alcoholic Drink

     The manufacturers of Four Loko stated on Tuesday that they will remove caffeine from their products just as the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) was about to put a ban on the drink. This statement was made right before the FDA was going to make their own rule. The FDA insists that mixing alcohol and caffeine is unsafe and needs to be stopped. Senator Chuck Schumer has been pushing the Obama administration to bad beverages of this kind. The statement made by the company’s three co-founders said they were removing caffeine from the drinks because they were unsuccessful in dealing with all the political pressure from both state and federal levels. The three co-founders Chris Hunter, Jeff Wright and Jaisen Freeman all still say that they believe that mixing caffeine and alcohol is safe. Their statement however did not mention the recent incidents in which college students have been hospitalized after drinking the beverage. As a result of this four states, Washington, Michigan, Utah and Oklahoma have banned the beverages and many other states are considering the action. Four Loko comes in many different flavors including fruit punch and blue raspberry. A 23.5 ounce can costs $2.50 and has a 12 percent alcohol content equaling about 4 beers. Although there is very little medical knowledge proving how dangerous this drink is, public health advocates say the drinks can make people get really pumped up and not feel drunk and then next thing they know they will be dangling all over the place. The FDA claims that mixing caffeine and alcohol is lethal and should be outlawed.

     There is a lot of relevance to our society with this article. This drink can be very harmful to us high school students as well as its current hit at colleges. It can ruin people lives and kill them. Only imagine if what you decided to drink on the weekend ruined your life for ever… or ended it. This is a good article that informs people of the unsafe possibilities at hand.

     There were many strengths and weaknesses in this article. One, it was good at getting the point across and scaring people away from drinking these lethal beverages. The article had good reasoning to back up its point of view. However, one of its weaknesses is that it acknowledges that there is very little medical evidence proving that this drink is harmful. Many people that like Four Loko feel that you can get this drunk and sick from any alcoholic beverage and people are just using Four Loko as a scapegoat. Overall I felt that this was a good article that I learned a lot from.


Four Loko Drops Caffeine From Alcoholic Drink - FoxNews.com." FoxNews.com - Breaking News | Latest News | Current News. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. .

Metaphors on the Mind: Psychology

11/15/2010

In his article “This Is Your Brain on Metaphors”, Robert Sapolsky explains the effect metaphors have on the brain and how they can twist our reality. He begins by explaining the basics of neurology: that electrical messages are carried throughout our brain and nervous system by particles called neurons. While the human has the same neurons as most other living organisms (same electrical properties, many of the same neurotransmitters, and the same protein channels that allow ions to flow in and out), we have billions more. Over the time we have evolved, our brains have increased in capacity and neuron count. However, we have not developed new “chambers” for storing and processing information, which is why, Sapolsky believes, we have a hard time differentiating between reality and ideals or metaphors. To explain his theory, Sapolsky concentrates on one “chamber” of the brain in particular; the insula. This area of the brain is responsible for processing both physical and psychic feeling. So if you were to smell hot sauce (and let’s say you don’t like hot sauce), then the insula would formulate a feeling of disgust. The same thing happens if you see hot sauce, taste hot sauce, or even think about hot sauce. When humans developed morals and ethics, those feelings were not put into a new “chamber” but instead were packed into the insula. So if one were to read a story about slavery in the 1700’s they would feel (in most cases) disgusted. Our feelings of disgust, pride, anger, etc. are therefore based solely on the part of the brain in which they are processed (the insula). The same can be said for pain, which we know is both physical and psychic from experience, and is processed by neurotransmitters called Substance P, located in the anterior cingulated (AC). The pain you feel when you are punched is directly related to the indirect pain you feel when you witness loved one being hurt. Sapolsky mentions numerous tests that have been conducted regarding this theory. For example, when subjects were made to hold a stack of heavy books and told to give their opinions on their peers, they judged without congenial interest. However, subjects the were given a cup of warm coffee to hold gave kind, friendly profiles of their peers. While these circumstances may not dictate our overall decisions and opinions, Sapolsky believes they do play a major role.

This article presents a theory that can only be proven scientifically by neurologists who must have a comprehensive understanding of chemistry. Neurology is a theoretical/factual stem from chemistry in that the conclusions drawn from research in this field are often based on the chemical makeup of the human brain. While therapists and psychologists set the foreground into the study of the brain, only using chemistry and biology will neurologists be able to factually understand the most complex component to human anatomy and behavior; the brain.

I enjoy learning about neurology because it explains how we come about our opinions, thoughts, and theories. Sapolsky also explained the linguistic aspect of the brain, which was composed of nuanced observations. He stated that humans have the ability to distinguish what we see/read from what is actually being said. One of his examples was of Russian composer Tchaikovsky and his music rendition of Napoleon being defeated outside of Moscow. While we can relate this jumble of noise to an event in history, we also understand that “Napoleon” relates not just to a man on a horse, but thousands of starved soldiers fighting in the cold, far from home (or more depending on how much one knows). I found these observations to be, although obvious, nonetheless, very interesting.

Luke Connors

Link to article

“Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet”

     In the article from the New York Times, “Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet,” many topics are discussed that are growing in interest in the world today. Mainly, the article talks about how the advances in the technology in the field of movies and cinematography are helping advance the knowledge of biology by making it possible for animated representations of complex topics that we couldn’t really comprehend before. Building on decades of research, scientists and animators are now collaborating to work on how to sufficiently represent these biological secrets that have been explained so many times without people being able to fully grasp the topic. One scientist who has joined the field recently, Dr. Iwasa, mentioned that it wasn’t enough to merely think about how the molecule moved in words, but to actually see the molecule moving and forming would give her a whole new sense of knowledge. Another issue that animation is confronting is whether or not the explanations that we have come up with for many topics are even realistic and could actually be done. The animation clears all that up because everything you need to see is happening right there in front of your eyes and not in a lab on a Petri dish which cannot be seen by the naked eye.


     The article is significant because the animation can explain so many topics that were dubbed unreachable. The animation shows us whether every explanation or theory we have ever come up with as a race is plausible or even possible in the world we live in. the only thing that the animation can do is help us out. It will help us gain knowledge in every field of science because everything is easier when you’re seeing it visually rather than reading it out of a book or hearing it from someone else. Animation is going to revolutionize science the same way it did movies.

     I really liked how this article explained how science can be related to movies and how an advancement in the technology for both has helped the other. Also, I enjoyed learning about how animation is going to help our scientists and students at every school learn these topics so much easier. The article was a very informative and interesting.



Olsen, Erik, “Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet.” New York Times. 15 Nov 2010.

posted for Max Boyd

"Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet"

In the article from the New York Times, “Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet,” many topics are discussed that are growing in interest in the world today. Mainly, the article talks about how the advances in the technology in the field of movies and cinematography are helping advance the knowledge of biology by making it possible for animated representations of complex topics that we couldn’t really comprehend before. Building on decades of research, scientists and animators are now collaborating to work on how to sufficiently represent these biological secrets that have been explained so many times without people being able to fully grasp the topic. One scientist who has joined the field recently, Dr. Iwasa, mentioned that it wasn’t enough to merely think about how the molecule moved in words, but to actually see the molecule moving and forming would give her a whole new sense of knowledge. Another issue that animation is confronting is whether or not the explanations that we have come up with for many topics are even realistic and could actually be done. The animation clears all that up because everything you need to see is happening right there in front of your eyes and not in a lab on a Petri dish which cannot be seen by the naked eye.

The article is significant because the animation can explain so many topics that were dubbed unreachable. The animation shows us whether every explanation or theory we have ever come up with as a race is plausible or even possible in the world we live in. the only thing that the animation can do is help us out. It will help us gain knowledge in every field of science because everything is easier when you’re seeing it visually rather than reading it out of a book or hearing it from someone else. Animation is going to revolutionize science the same way it did movies.

I really liked how this article explained how science can be related to movies and how an advancement in the technology for both has helped the other. Also, I enjoyed learning about how animation is going to help our scientists and students at every school learn these topics so much easier. The article was a very informative and interesting.

Olsen, Erik, “Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet.” New York Times. 15 Nov 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/science/16animate.html?_r=1&ref=science

“Phenomenal Fabric: How Can a Cloth Clean up Toxic Waste?”

In “Phenomenal Fabric: How Can a Cloth Clean up Toxic Waste?”, the article discusses the ability of this new material and its various possible uses. This cloth is made up of activated carbon and is able to filter out and destroy toxic materials even of minute proportions. The cloth was invented at Abertay University. The reason the cloth is able to filter out such small toxic materials is that the cloth is composed of extremely reactive chemicals called hydroxyl radicals. Since the hydroxyl radicals are so reactive any toxic material that comes into contact with the cloth is immediately bonded with it. In addition to its extreme usefulness the material is cheap. It can be used in small amounts like in hospitals or even on an industrial scale like filtering chemicals in water. The high reactivity of the material allows it to filter out toxins in extremely low concentrations. It can remove pollutants from the air, gas, or liquid. Researchers explored other forms of activated carbon such as in a powder form but still found cloth to be the most effective. The cloth can essentially decompose of the toxins by first absorbing them into the surface where they then react with one layer and are eventually converted into smaller molecules sometimes carbon dioxide or water. The research on this cloth began in the 1980s to help create a material to protect soldiers from chemical attacks. This material can have endless uses and help create a safer and cleaner environment for all.

This article is significant due to the versatility of this new material. It can be applied to small-scale tasks at home or filtering entire water systems. In addition it can be used in hospitals or to protect soldiers, as the material was originally planned for. The article did an excellent job of explaining how the material works as well as explaining its possible potential. The material is so important because of its diversity.

I thoroughly enjoyed the article because it explained well how the material worked without going into too much detail. It clearly revealed the possible success and importance of this cloth. I enjoyed the article and was interested in how a cloth can be so complex.

Chand, Rashmi, Raul Molina, Ian Johnson, Anna Hans, and David H. Bremner. "Phenomenal Fabric: How Can a Cloth Clean Up Toxic Waste?." Science Daily. University of Abertay Dundee, 3 Nov. 2010. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. .
posted for A. Corbat

Alcohol 'Most Harmful Drug', According to Multicriteria Analysis-By Henry Palermo

A new analytical system that ranks drugs via certain criteria has placed alcohol as the most harmful drug, above heroin and crack. Professor David Nutt, of Imperial College in London, was the expert who developed this scale. The system that Nutt helped to develop was not easy to conceive, especially considering all the different ways that drugs can cause harm to both the people who use them and those who don’t. Nutt had tried a similar analysis earlier where he engaged experts, trying to have them score a drug for nine different areas of harm that included “the intrinsic harms of the drugs to social and healthcare costs.” After using that approach he came at the same issue with the thought of using multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). This system uses “ninc criteria that relate to the harms that a drug produces in the individual and seven to the harms to others both in the UK and overseas. These harms are clustered into five subgroups representing physical, psychological, and social harms.” The researchers explained that the scores out of 100 that drugs receive must be relative to one another, so the one that receives a score of 40 must be half as dangerous as the one that receives 80. Some of the other categories are drug-specific mortality, drug-related mortality, dependence, drug-specific impairment of mental function, and loss of relationships. The final score that alcohol received was a score of 72 with heroin and crack coming in second and third place with scores of 55 and 54 respectively. A lot of other drugs, such as cocaine and tobacco, received a score near one third that of alcohol’s. Nutt then goes on to describe that any sort of classification would have ranges for the different types of dangerous drugs. Nutt continues to proclaim that “Our findings lend support to previous work in the UK and the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have little relation to the evidence of harm.”

Overall I thought that this study and this article was very well done and explained its purpose very well. I was more than surprised when I came across that headline, and even more surprised at the nut graph, with what it said beginning the story. But I also have some reservations concerning this article. I wish I knew more about the type of classifications and the train of thought for some of these researchers because from a study I made up 10 out of 10 people would agree that crack and heroin are, if anything, just a little more harmful than alcohol. I guess it’s just been set in my mind that those hardcore drugs just have to be more lethal than alcohol. I mean, come on, alcohol is legal. Those are the reasons why I felt like this article was semi-foolish, but interesting nonetheless.

The biggest reason why I chose this article is because of all the commotion surrounding alcohol, especially in Bronxville. In a recent SFL meeting the main topic of discussion was the consumption of alcohol by students in the school. Of course the students brushed it off. “It’s just alcohol.” Seemed to be the thought of most students in the room, while the teachers showed a legitimate concern. This article made me think that maybe it’s a little bit more dangerous than just one beer.





ScienceDaily 1 November 2010. 2 November 2010 .

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101101162138.htm

At NASA, A Quiet Quest to Send a Humanoid Robot to the Moon

NASA originally planned to send humans back to the Moon for $150 billion, but it was deemed too expensive by the Obama administration, and Congress cancelled the program. Instead, for approximately $200 million and $250 million more for a rocket, NASA will be sending a humanoid robot to the Moon, and they plan to accomplish this within a thousand days. This plan is being called Project M, and the top half of the robot, Robonaut 2, exists already and is on a shuttle, Discovery, that will be launched Wednesday. It is headed for the International Space Station and will be the first humanoid robot in space. It will assist with housekeeping chores at the space station as NASA learns how robots and humans can work together. Project M will also be drawing from other planned NASA projects, such as engines using liquid oxygen and methane, a cheap and nontoxic fuel combination, and an automated landing system, that could avoid dangerous landings. Integrating these technologies is actually speeding up development of this robot. However, this NASA project will provide the answer to the question of what NASA will do when there is not enough money for space missions. When the project of sending people to the Moon was cancelled, the robot being sent to the Moon is a compromise between reducing costs and cutting edge science. A robot does not need food, air, and a return trip home. Most of the parts needed for the mission were bartered to cut costs even more. Project M is mostly being considered a technology demonstration and not a scientific mission. The robot’s potential on the Moon is far less than a human’s capability.

This article is important because the humanoid robot could become an important tool in space missions. Certain missions cannot be carried out by humans, and these robots could be used to complete certain dangerous or impossible tasks. It is also possible that the smaller budget and savings of this mission will help convince Congress to allow more funding for the more expensive NASA projects.

While this article is interesting, I felt that the article focused too much on the budget problems of NASA and not enough on the actual mission itself. I enjoyed learning about how NASA bartered for parts at Home Depot and other places, and I would have liked to have learned more about how they got all the rocket parts to work together. Overall, this article was very thought provoking and could be very important to space travel. In the future, a humanoid robot could work together with a human. The article raises these interesting questions: “What is the best way to spur advances in space technologies? And given the costs and dangers, how important is it to send people into space at all?” We do not yet have the answers to these questions.

Citation: Chang, Kenneth. "At NASA, A Quiet Quest To Send a Humanoid Robot to the Moon." NY Times 1 Nov. 2010: Print.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/science/space/02robot.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print

"Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways" by Emily Kimak

In the article "Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways," discusses the problems and solutions of major air pollution. A coal-fired power plan causes yellow smoke to pour from chimneys in Masontown, PA. It was decided that the plant's air emissions needed to be cleaned up. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky. But, while trying to clean the air, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north. So now instead of the air being polluted, the water is polluted. Power plants are the largest producer of toxic waste. “It’s like they decided to spare us having to breathe in these poisons, but now we have to drink them instead,” said Philip Coleman.

This article is important because we need to be informed about the pollution in our world. There are always ways people can help but no one can really control what the power plant is doing. Now that the air is clean, the water is polluted. It is drinking water which is both disgusting and unhealthy. This article can help people realize that littering and using too much gas just contributes to the major pollution like in the Monongahela River. I chose this article because I thought it was interesting how we are helping and hurting our environment at the same time.

This article was well written and interesting. I really liked the quotes and additional details about power plants the article went into. This article would have been better if specific examples of damage from the polluted river were given.

GNP’s glaciers: Going, going . . .

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64674/title/GNP%E2%80%99s_glaciers__Going%2C_going_._._._




This article details the dwindle of glaciers at Glacier Nation Park, Montana. The United States’ tenth national park once had over 150 named glaciers, but due to temperature and climate change that number has dropped to about 25. Additionally, scientists predict that within two decades there will no longer be glaciers at the National park. Scientists blame global warming which has quadrupled the annual number of “extremely hot days” from five days to nearly 20. The summer has also started earlier and ended later in recent years compared to those previous. There are about 20 fewer below freezing days, currently numbering at 170 a year. This means that spring thaws start three weeks earlier than they have in the previous hundred years. Within the past century there has been over a 3 degree increase of annual average temperature, double the warming increase worldwide. The climate change has also lead to flooding, erosion, and longer fires within the park.

This article is important to society because global climate change affects us all and has a plethora of negative impacts. The climate change creates less predictable, more sporadic, and more violent weather, resulting in deadly storms and other natural disasters that burden millions of people. Climate change also means the disappearance of natural landscapes such as the ice fields, or the extinction of those animals living in such environments. Global climate change also affects the populations of certain species, some of which can cause a great deal of harm when left to grow uncontrollably, such as jellyfish in Japan. I chose this article because I am concerned for the well being of the planet and would like to raise awareness to the fact that global climate change is happening, and happening much more quickly than previously anticipated.

The article is well written, clear, and informative. It explains the technical differences in temperatures, comparing current numbers to those of previous years, making points clear. However the article does not elaborate on the science that went into obtaining the figures or what the rate of climate change means for those currently inhabiting the planet, and those who will inhabit the planet for years to come.

BP oil: Gulf sediment at risk, oceanographer claims

            In this article, we learned about the long term effects that the Bp oil spill could have. What I really like about this article is how is presented is how they explain how different researchers from different Universities went to the gulf and did the research first hand. In the article it says, “In her recent month-long cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye identified areas of the seafloor hosting what looks to be substantial amounts of BP oil.” I liked this part of the article because you know that when she went down to the gulf she did her research. Another thing that I found very interesting is how you learn that a lot of the discharge is in the sediments. I found this very interesting because when this happened all you heard about was the oil that floated on the surface. By reading this article it really enhanced my perception of where a lot of the oil went. Finally, I thought it was amazing the new technology they developed. Before this was developed you were able to take about 10-12 measurements a day of the core. Now with this new technology you were able to take thousands of measurements in a day. I found this interesting because it really showed you how new technology helps us out in determining long-term problems.

            This article will affect us in a few ways. One is that the oil will allow for less oxygen to escape. Therefore it will effectively kill all the organisms that are living in the sediments. Another thing is that when storms pass over the areas that contain the oil it will tend to resuspend the oil. This means that every time there are a storm the beaches around the gulf will have oil wash ashore. Also, there could be sediment pollution. The only good thing about this is that the new technology that they developed would be able to map the area of the seafloor and locate these deposits fairly quickly. As a result, they will be able to clean up the floor and get rid of the oil fairly quickly.

I think that there are a couple of ways in which the review could be made better. One of these ways is that they how they came up with the percents. One scientist stated that 50% of the oil in the spill is now in the sediments. What I found disappointing is that they actually don’t tell you how they got this or what they used to get this number. I also didn’t like how they don’t explain how it could harm marine life well. They briefly touch upon that subject and that was about it.

Raloff, Janet. BP oil: Gulf sediment at risk, oceanographer claims. N.p.: n.p., 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2010.