Earth Science Project

In class we are learning about earth science. We are doing this by researching information on specific topics we chose and then posting a wiki on omegaearthscience.pbwiki.com. And my topic was about how earthquakes occur. So this is what I have learned and chose to share. So , have you ever heard of an earthquake? Well you and almost everyone else have had. But the thing is, no one really knows why they occur. Which is what I will be sharing with you. First off, what is an earthquake? An earthquake is the movement of the earth’s plates squeezing and bending rocks causing them to brake. This brake is what causes the crust to shake and make an earthquake. This is also basically how an earthquake occurs. If that sounds way to confusing you can compare the earth’s plates to a rubber band. When you put too much tension or pressure on the rubber band by pulling it apart, it snaps. The same thing happens with the earth’s crust. The reaction is caused by a release of energy and seismic waves that shake the earth. When an earthquake occurs it moves the earth’s layers across a crack in the earth’s crust called a fault or a release of energy will cause a new fault to be produced. Earthquakes can occur all over the world but the worst earthquakes happen on plate boundaries. The reason earthquakes are more likely to happen at faults is because faults are fractured land and are more fragile to earthquakes. As much as they are dangerous, they could be avoidable. And that is what i learned from this project. I actually thought that doing a wiki was a fun way to learn something differently than just normal ordinary notes.

www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/why.html
www.iris.edu/edu/onepagers/no2.pdf

Sea lion attack

In Perth, Australia, A sea lion leaped out of the water and attacked a 13-year-old girl, Ella Murphy, as she surfed behind a speedboat off Australia’s west coast, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The damage that Ella Murphy got when the sea lion attacked her on Friday, as she was being towed by a speedboat was a broken jaw and the loss of 3 teeth. A marine scientist said that the attack of the sea lion, which can grow to be 880 pounds in weight but usually stays away from humans, was bizarre and that the sea lion might have been trying to play with her. “ This thing just exploded in full-on, frontal attack,” family friend Chris Thomas told the newspaper. “It jumped out of the water and hit her head on.” Sydney Aquarium marine scientist Grant Williams said that he had never heard of such an attack before. Seal lions can be very territorial, but usually only attack humans when provoked. Murphy is in stable condition in a hospital after having surgery, the newspaper reported. I was also surprised as well as everyone else. Getting hit by a sea lion is like getting to meet the president. It is just so rare. I feel bad for her because of her injuries but I know that after she recovers she will be bragging about her accident. Because without the negatives, it is pretty cool to be attacked by a sea lion and live.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/15/sealion.attack.ap/index.html

Astronaut stuck in space

Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space — at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. She is going to come back a little (?) more later than she planned since she is stuck up in space. The reason she is stuck up there right now is because a hailstorm hit her on her way to space shuttle, Atlantis, damaging her fuel tank. This also affected NASA’s flight schedule for the year. Which also caused her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, to get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch. Now she will have to wait longer to go back to her favorite sushi restaurant in Boston. “We're doing things we can as best we can to make her happy, and perhaps launch some special items that will make her more comfortable for that extended period of time," said Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy manager of the space station program. "Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that one can do." Flight surgeon Dave Alexander said Williams' physical fitness, mental well-being and radiation exposure would be monitored carefully, but "right now, the predictions are Sunita can stay up for an extended period of time." During her longer stay in space, Williams is expected to break the U.S. record for continuous time in space. Her current crewmate, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will set that record when he returns to Earth on April 20 in a Russian Soyuz vehicle with 214 days in space. So at least she will benefit in a way. I feel really bad for Sunita. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be stuck in space, the middle of nowhere. I guess she is living through a nightmare right now.

Astronaut stuck in space

Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space — at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. She is going to come back a little (?) more later than she planned since she is stuck up in space. The reason she is stuck up there right now is because a hailstorm hit her on her way to space shuttle, Atlantis, damaging her fuel tank. This also affected NASA’s flight schedule for the year. Which also caused her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, to get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch. Now she will have to wait longer to go back to her favorite sushi restaurant in Boston. “We're doing things we can as best we can to make her happy, and perhaps launch some special items that will make her more comfortable for that extended period of time," said Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy manager of the space station program. "Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that one can do." Flight surgeon Dave Alexander said Williams' physical fitness, mental well-being and radiation exposure would be monitored carefully, but "right now, the predictions are Sunita can stay up for an extended period of time." During her longer stay in space, Williams is expected to break the U.S. record for continuous time in space. Her current crewmate, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will set that record when he returns to Earth on April 20 in a Russian Soyuz vehicle with 214 days in space. So at least she will benefit in a way. I feel really bad for Sunita. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be stuck in space, the middle of nowhere. I guess she is living through a nightmare right now.

Astronaut stuck in space

Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space — at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. She is going to come back a little (?) more later than she planned since she is stuck up in space. The reason she is stuck up there right now is because a hailstorm hit her on her way to space shuttle, Atlantis, damaging her fuel tank. This also affected NASA’s flight schedule for the year. Which also caused her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, to get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch. Now she will have to wait longer to go back to her favorite sushi restaurant in Boston. “We're doing things we can as best we can to make her happy, and perhaps launch some special items that will make her more comfortable for that extended period of time," said Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy manager of the space station program. "Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that one can do." Flight surgeon Dave Alexander said Williams' physical fitness, mental well-being and radiation exposure would be monitored carefully, but "right now, the predictions are Sunita can stay up for an extended period of time." During her longer stay in space, Williams is expected to break the U.S. record for continuous time in space. Her current crewmate, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will set that record when he returns to Earth on April 20 in a Russian Soyuz vehicle with 214 days in space. So at least she will benefit in a way. I feel really bad for Sunita. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be stuck in space, the middle of nowhere. I guess she is living through a nightmare right now.

Astronaut stuck in space

Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space — at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay. She is going to come back a little (?) more later than she planned since she is stuck up in space. The reason she is stuck up there right now is because a hailstorm hit her on her way to space shuttle, Atlantis, damaging her fuel tank. This also affected NASA’s flight schedule for the year. Which also caused her ticket home, space shuttle Endeavour, to get off the ground several weeks later than its originally scheduled June 28 launch. Now she will have to wait longer to go back to her favorite sushi restaurant in Boston. “We're doing things we can as best we can to make her happy, and perhaps launch some special items that will make her more comfortable for that extended period of time," said Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy manager of the space station program. "Aside from that, there's not a whole lot that one can do." Flight surgeon Dave Alexander said Williams' physical fitness, mental well-being and radiation exposure would be monitored carefully, but "right now, the predictions are Sunita can stay up for an extended period of time." During her longer stay in space, Williams is expected to break the U.S. record for continuous time in space. Her current crewmate, Michael Lopez-Alegria, will set that record when he returns to Earth on April 20 in a Russian Soyuz vehicle with 214 days in space. So at least she will benefit in a way. I feel really bad for Sunita. I can’t imagine how it would feel to be stuck in space, the middle of nowhere. I guess she is living through a nightmare right now.

Super Hero gentics project

In class, we were assigned a superhero project. The project had to do with genetics. In this project, we were assigned to pick a male and a female Marvel superhero, like Spiderman and Destiny. After that, we had to make them conceive a child that would be made from the traits we make. The project first started out with picking your two superheroes. After that you had to write down 15 traits with the first 5 already picked for you. (Hair color, eye color, Etc.) When you are finished with that, you find out the genotype of the superheroes by tossing a coin. You do this by heads being dominant and tails being recessive. Every time you flip the coin, you have to write the outcome down. Some things we had to keep in mind to help us were; complete one superhero before you begin the second one. If the allele is dominant for the first superhero and the second superhero possesses the same allele, then you are tossing to see if it was purebred or hybrid. If the allele is dominant in the first superhero and the second hero has the opposite allele, then the allele is recessive in the second superhero. If the first superhero is a hybrid and the second superhero has the opposite phenotype, then they are homozygous. Then we had to do these traits on punnet squares. After we did this step, we did the press release. In the press release we first had to write down answers to a couple questions on our superhero and mutations. After that we had to write a persuasive paragraph about why we should allow superheroes into society. Once we were done with that we had to write a trait sheet, which included the trait and the dominant and recessive outcomes. After that we had to do the most confusing step. This step was to toss a coin for each of the punnet squares to find out which outcome happened for each trait. If the punnet square was and odd number you tossed for blocks 3 and four. Heads meant that your offspring was in box one; tails meant it was in block 2. Then if it was an even punnet square, you tossed for blocks 3 and 4. Heads being 3, and tails being 4. When you find out which trait occurred you circle it on your trait sheet. After that I had to toss a coin 10 times to find out the ratio of my baby being a girl or a boy. Heads was a boy and tails was a girl. Then, I had to draw my baby based on the traits I got. And that was the whole project. I found this project to be very interesting and fun. I have to admit that I had some confusion problems but thankfully, my teacher helped me and gave up some of her time to do so. So I am very thankful to have a caring and understanding teacher like her. I also thought that this was the best science project of the year.

Designer Babies (genetics assessment.)

In class, we are taking a genetic assessment. My topic is on Designer Babies. Designer babies, also known as test tube babies, are babies that are born artificially. Did you know that even though people call them test tube babies even though they really aren’t born in test tubes. They are born through IVF (in-vitro fertilization) where the egg is taken out of the woman by a needle attached to an ultrasound and the sperm is taken out of the man. Then the egg and the sperm are put into a petri dish with warm water and nutrients until the egg gets fertilized. Then they inject the egg into the mother’s womb. After that the woman gets pregnant and gives birth to a child. Designer babies can benefit in many ways. First, it helps couples with infertility problems to conceive a child. (Infertility is when the woman can’t give birth through sexual intercourse.) So this helps couples not to be depressed and actually have a child. Secondly, it helps couples that don’t want to go through the process of getting a child. Thirdly, it could help the baby itself by fixing disorders before injected into womb. These healthy babies could also be used to help older siblings with harsh disease by giving the designer baby’s tissue to the sibling with disease. Fourthly, health care for designer babies cost less. Fifthly, it gives couples another choice instead of adoption. So I found designer babies very beneficial. So I am happy that they are out there. Designer baby opportunity can also be negative in a way because people started requesting they want their baby too have blue eyes, blond hair, big ears, etc. I think that using designer babies in the negative way is very wrong because God created the baby to be that way and it shouldn’t change. Also it sounds like you are ordering a “thing,” not a baby. Some informational websites where I got my information are:

http://www.bionetonline.org/English/Content/db_cont1.htm
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/crossrds_ca on this website you can type in designer baby and a lot of informational articles will come up

Ice cream as fertility aid? Experts skeptical

Women usually try to limit ice cream to their diet. But not any more. When doctors discovered that ice cream could aid fertility, many women have added it to their diet. A diet rich in ice cream and other high fat dairy foods may lower a risk of one type of infertility. It sounds too good to be true and probably is, some doctors say. Researchers found that women who ate two or more low fat dairy products a day were nearly as twice as likely to have trouble conceiving because of lack of ovulation than women who ate less than one serving of such foods a week. "The idea is not to go crazy and start to have ice cream three times a day," said the lead author, Dr. Jorge Chavarro, a research fellow at Harvard. "But it is certainly possible to have a healthy diet with low saturated fat intake by having one serving of high-fat dairy a day." The new research doesn't even apply to most cases of female infertility. Not ovulating is to blame only one-third of the time. I thought that this article was very interesting. I also found it hard to believe that ice cream could aid fertility. I wondered how they found that out. This article had to do with science because of the scientific research and the health part of this article.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/27/ice.cream.fertility.ap/index.html

Obese child can stay with mother

In London, England, 8-year-old Conner McCreaddie weighs an overwhelming amount of 200 pounds. Which is four times the amount of the healthy weight for his age. Ever since he was a little kid, his mother let him eat freely in food choice and food quantity. Now, everyday he is dieing more and more. (Diseases.) So social workers met with him and his mom to discuss his eating habits. After the meeting, his mom still refused to feed him healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables. His eating habits soon got so out of control that social workers and doctors started recommending putting a lock on the refrigerator. This attempt to help Conner failed, when his mom refused to put the lock. She also refused to let him go to a foster home till he loses weight. This made them go to meet again with the British social services and have a hearing. Conner was able to stay with his mom, only if he followed some rules on his eating. That first year, Conner lost 21 pounds from following the rules and he is willing to change. I thought that Conners mom didn’t care too much about him at first, but now that she realizes the consequences, she listens to the social workers. I am very happy for Conner that he is trying to change. The whole thing of Conner being 200 pounds grossed me out. This article used science to get Conner a better diet and the research they did for cures for him. This article also had to do with health.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/27/obese.child.reut/index.html

Kidnapped boy safe after 'extremely traumatic day'

A 13-year-old named Clay Moore was kidnapped on the Friday of February 23, 2007, in Parrish, Florida. The day he got kidnapped started as an ordinary school day. Clay went out to the bus stop and waited with the other kids, then all of the sudden this man pulls up in a red truck, gets out and tells clay to get into the car. Clay’s reply was “Sir, I don’t know you.” Then the guy pulled out a gun and said he will shoot if he doesn’t cooperate. So Clay gets into the car and all the kids runaway in fear of getting shot. The kidnapper drove Clay about 20-30 miles from where he was last seen, into the remote part of Manatee County. There, Clay was tied up to a tree by his feet and hands by duct tape and his own clothes. Then he was left in the massive farming land/woods. After a couple hours, Clay thought about escaping. But he was fearful of the return of the kidnapper. Finally, he escaped by kicking out and using a safety pin. After that, ClayStarted walking then running until he approached the road. Then he saw a farmer and asked him to borrow his cell phone so he could call his mom. When she asked him where he was, he replied saying he didn’t know. A couple moments later, the police got to him by tracing the call to his mom that was at 1:30 pm. Every one was happy for him that except a couple scratches, he was unharmed. After he was screened for injuries, he described the kidnapper as a 5 “8” Hispanic looking guy. But after the interviews with the kids at his bus stop, the officers were convinced that he could have also been a White guy with a tan because kids said he didn’t have a Hispanic accent. Then when officers and investigators viewed the land he was brought to, they noticed that the kidnapper knew what he was doing exactly and he had already had it planned. Now the kidnapper is still at large and the town is having a lot of precautions so it doesn’t happen again. So what basically happened was that Clay was kidnapped because he was the closest to the kidnapper and he was the first one in his sight. And then he was tied up while the kidnapper was getting ready to do his next step. But he was too late to do it when Clay ran away. I thought what the kidnapper did was just really sick. And I am happy for Clay because he escaped before any more evil could have been done. And I hope that the kidnapper gets what he deserves and something dreadful like this doesn’t happen again. In this situation, they used science to investigate and to find the suspect.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/23/amber.alert/index.html