Can algae feed the world and fuel the planet.

Is it possible that such a small organism like algae can be the solution to the modern age problems? Well a scientist called J. Craig Venter may have a solution. He specializes in plants and genetic modification, and he is one of the people that saw the huge potential in algae as a species. He believes that the future of agriculture, meat industry, even the future of the fuel industry lies in the study of synthetic biology and it’s continuous improvements. The basic aim is to be able to rewrite the genetic codes and get the cells do what we want them to do. The problem is finding pure clusters of algae that are robust and that can endure industrial conditions on a commercial basis. Also, to do all of that would take lots of time and money, so currently they are literally playing with algae and putting different genes in them to see what the outcome will be and finding the right combination of genes. They own the Exxon company, with a complex of Exxon refineries, and half of the money they earn, they use for lab experiments on algae. Venter has quite an interesting vision that’s in theory quite productive:  "It takes 10 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef, 15 liters of water to get one kilogram of beef, and those cows produce a lot of methane," another potent greenhouse gas” and why not get rid of cows.” According to Venter thanks to synthetic biology we could get our meet in test tubes from microbes.

No need to shrink guts to have a larger brain

Have you ever wonder why no other animals have a large brain? Well there is a theory that is called the expensive tissue hypothesis which suggests the trade off of the size of the brain and the and the size of digestion origins. Although now that theory is being challenged. Scientist have seen animals that their brains grew but not their organs. One example is us we grew larger brains but our size didn't change, this is because of the ability of waling upright and diet. As we all know the brain takes up lots of our energy that we could use for other things, like animals do. We know that if an animals brain stays small that is why they need more food or resources so they used their energy for moving or climbing trees instead of expanding the brain. Another interesting theory is that the more fat an animal has the smaller brain but fat doesn't waste our energy. Well it dose when we move and that is when it wastes our energy on walking more then brain expansion."It seems that large adipose deposits often come at the expense of mental flexibility," says Karin Isler. Our bypedalism doesn't waste much energy and that why we grew larger brains.

'Zombie' Worms Found in Mediterranean Fossil

Is it possible that worms know more about history than we think? There is a certain worm species called Osedax that represent a major concern for historians. It appears that they are eating up evidence of fossil records. They were first found in a whale fossil bones where it could have lived in for 7 years at least. According to researches they have lived in the ocean but they are currently found in the Mediterranean but they are still widely undiscovered. Any worms from the Osedax genus don’t have a mouth or gut but they grow root like tissue that dissolve the bone as they grow. They were first discovered in 2002 in whale’s bones in Monterrey bay California. Scientists cannot understand how they evolved and where they lived since of their soft body which does not leave a fossil. On the other hand they are still interested in to figure out what they can from the evidence that they have. One of the only ways to see if the worm has been there is by the distinctive bulb shaped cavities that they live behind. Owing to the fact that the Mediterranean dried out 6 million years ago and many sea animals died but it  was re-flooded by the Atlantic ocean, renowned professor concluded:  "There are 20 different species in Monterey, California alone, so it's almost certain there are many more out there. If Osedax were living the Mediterranean three million years ago there's no reason why they aren't living there now."

Dirt

Today in class we watched a movie called dirt that shows if it is living or non living. It all stared when we were learning about biotic and non biotic then we stared talking about dirt and in which category it would fall in. So we watched this movie and it has lots of interesting facts and ideas. We learned that dirt is a vital resources that gives us much more then we think and in different parts of the world it is used differently. It can be used for food, items and even houses. People all over the world worship it and it is a part of their culture and they worship it for food. They believe that their is a god who gives the soil they fertility so they can grow crops and they worship him by sacrificing animals. Dirt is also getting destroyed more and more because of mining and many other things and without it we wouldn't be on this planet. This movie was very interesting and it showed that dirt is living and if we don't stop destroying it it will become rare.

Astronomers Discover Complex Organic Matter Exists Throughout the Universe

Every day we get more information on how the earth was made, and this gave a clue how it was. There has been a new theory about how the earth was made and it is from stars. It does sound weird and unbelievable but there is a good explanation why. Prof. Sun Kwok and Dr. Yong Zhang of The University of Hong Kong found out that there is a organic substance that is commonly found in the universe and it has a similar structure to coal and petroleum. Coal and petroleum are the remnants of ancient life so that gave us the idea the stars created earth. Scientist investigated infrared emissions detected in starts. This is more commonly known as unidentified infrared emission features. Scientist thought that it was made by only two atoms but it is much more complex like coal. By looking at start dust that was left when a nova happened they saw that the stars produce this organic substance on weekly bases. Stars are not only creating complex organic materials they are also ejecting it into the general interstellar space. One really interesting thing is that the complex structure is also found in meteorites.”Our work has shown that stars have no problem making complex organic compounds under near-vacuum conditions," says Kwok. There is still lots to research about and understand but one day the answer will come.

Dark Matter Mystery Deepens

For years scientist have tried to explain what the universe is made of and they finally found the answer but the answer only make more questions about how it is made and what is its molecular structure. So they found out that it is made of dark matter. Dark matter is invisible and we only know it’s there because it has gravitation pull. Without it all the starts in the universe would just go off in different directions. The nature of dark matter is a mystery that when scientist investigated it only made more questions. A standard cosmological model of the universe shows that it is full of dark matter. Astronomers think that dark matter consists of cold which are exotic particles that clump together gravitationally. Over time the groups of dark matter grow and they attract normal matter which makes the galaxies we see today. Scientist use the highest tech computer to simulate dark matter and it show that it should all over the galaxy but in the middle there should be the most dark matter. Recent research from two dwarf galaxies shows that it is evenly places all over the space which is a big puzzle that they have to solve. They use dwarf galaxy for research because they are made up of 90% of dark matter and 10% of normal matter this makes them a great target for research. They have made lots of research and every day we find more and more information on what are they made of.

One step closer to creating quantum computer.

Some physicians at the Rice University have discovered a partial that will some day in the near future be used for a quantum computer. It is a new kind of a computer that uses quantum particles instead of digital microchips found in today’s computers. Scientists discovered a new method for making tiny device called a quantum spin Hall topological insulator that acts like a superhighway electron that represents the basis for creating quantum particles to store data. Today’s computers are based on binary system where data could use either zeros or ones in a system but thanks to quirks in quantum mechanics quantum bits could be both zeros and ones. It improves the computer’s functionality and overall performance. It could preformed some complicated calculations or it could be used for much effective code breaking, biomedical simulation and climate modeling. But there is one problem: quantum fluctuations can produce the loss of data encoded in quantum bits and this is commonly known as "fault tolerance". Physicians say that they don’t need lots of quantum bits because they would need roughly 30 that are equal to 1 billion transistors. They rely on topological designs that are more fault tolerant. But the real problem is how to put a stable pairs of particles,  called Majorana fermions, into a chip.

"We are well-positioned for the next step," Du said. "Meanwhile, only experiments can tell whether we can find Majorana fermions and whether they are good candidates for creating stable qubits."

How Area 51 Hid Secret Aircraft

Have you ever thought of what they do in area 51? Much speculated theories about US stealth aircraft are now confirmed and widely known. The Americans were testing a prototype of the OXCART. Apparently the Americans had to think about various ways to hide their aircraft from people but they had a bigger problem they knew they were surrounded by Russian spy satellites so they played a game of cat and mouse. They knew exactly the schedule of Russian satellites and they tried to trick them by making aircraft models of cardboard and other common materials in order to trick the infrared satellites buy casting fake shadows. When they saw the satellite coming over the horizon they would always scoot the planes in the garage where they had fake models of airplanes, which made it very difficult to test because they would have to go and pull it out and in and so on. Later on they discovered that Russian had a drawing of their plane thanks to the infrared satellite. When they plane is tested in the hot dessert it would create cool silhouette which was still visibly by infrared satellites. Sometimes they put heaters next to the fake models of plane’s engines to look like the aircraft has just landed. Despite all the Russians effort they never figured out the secrets of the plane before it was made public in mid 1960’s. It could reach the speed of 2000 miles per hour and cross the American continent in 70 minutes. Even thought it was really high tech it was not good enough to spot Russians satellite when flying over soviet union so it got really soon its improved successor. 

Scientists track falling satellite expected to hit Earth this week

Have you ever wonder what would happen if a falling satellite was about to hit earth in a week? Well a satellite will hit the earth this Friday. Scientist predicted that the satellite will most probably in water or on an uninhabited place. Since water covers most of the planet it is most likely it will also fall into water. The Chances of someone being hit by it is 1 out of 32000, but the chances of you being hit are 6 times less than winning the lottery. Most of NASA’s six ton Satellite would disintegrate on entering the atmosphere but there are still some parts that could cause serious damage. They say that 26 hazardous parts will enter the atmosphere intact weighting about 500 kilograms and moving at the speed of 90 to 380kph. It doesn’t seem like lots of speed but depending on how much it weights it will crush anything. There was also another satellite from Germany was going 28000 miles per hour but it landed in water so there were no casualties. 30 parts of the satellite entered the atmosphere weight with combined mass of one and a half ton. The satellite was launched at 1991 and decommissioned at 2005. The agency will make further updates as when the object is coming closer. NASA said that if any part of the derby lands near someone that they return the object by contacting the local police. Although there might be some arguments of if it lands on private property some people might not want to return it.

Lasers could be used t odecet roadside bombs!

Have you ever wonder how are we suppose to know were a bomb is so we can save people, well with the new invention from a research team in Michigan State University. Road side bombs account for around 60 percents of soldiers deaths. Lasers which can be used for a simple presentation also can use the sensitivity to canvas and detect explosive devises. Dantus said "Having molecular structure sensitivity is critical for identifying explosives and avoiding unnecessary evacuation of buildings and closing roads due to false alarms,". They detect explosive devise by using chemicals sensors. If the targeted object has the chemicals need for a bomb they would know the bomb type and where it is. Their newest laser can detect quantities as small as a fraction of a billionth of a gram. Another way it sees this is the chemical structure with differs from other substances.

My Scientific Summer!

Near the end of summer i when to basket ball camp, i know it sounds like it has little involved with science but it has a lot more. There we stayed ten days just training basketball.The first scientific thing is the how you shoot. The proper shot requires the shooter to but a back spin to the ball. The reason behind that is when the ball hits the board with the back spin it changes velocity towards the net making more likely to go in. The second thing is bouncing the ball, when it hits the ground the partials will go toghter and for a split second the ball will be deformed. If the ball if underinflated the particles have more space so it wont bounce. The third thing is change of direction for it to be quick and not slip the friction between the ground and the basketballs players shoes. Hope you enjoyed my blog post!

Lab

Today in science class we did a lab to see dose the mass of a marble affect how it moves. One question n that we had was when given a force what happens to it motion. We tested this lab by taking different kind of balls to see how they move when force is applied. When we applied we used straw and blew through them to make force. First we used the light weight balls to see how they move most of them just came across the table easily and didn't make any curves because they were going quick. Then we came to the bigger balls. The tennis ball was too heavy and we couldn’t move it. The Styrofoam balls were big but they didn’t much density so they were easy to my. So the mass of the marble dose affect its movement because the more mass the more force has to be applied. I would like for us to see which marble will accelerate the fastest when going down a ramp.

Marble Motion

Today in science class we did a lab to see dose the mass of a marble affect how it moves. One question n that we had was when given a force what happens to it motion. We tested this lab by taking different kind of balls to see how they move when force is applied. When we applied we used straw and blew through them to make force. First we used the light weight balls to see how they move most of them just came across the table easily and didn't make any curves because they were going quick. Then we came to the bigger balls. The tennis ball was too heavy and we couldn’t move it. The Styrofoam balls were big but they didn’t much density so they were easy to my. So the mass of the marble dose affect its movement because the more mass the more force has to be applied. I would like for us to see which marble will accelerate the fastest when going down a ramp.

From Feet to Fanthoms

This week we have been learning about the measurement system. We did a lab to see if the old metric system was correct so we used there measurement system. The Guiding question is what is the importance of having an International measuring system? How accurate are old measurements using body parts? My hypothesis is it is not that accurate because body part grow at different times so some time u may be huge or to small so it isn't accurate. So for the lab we had to measure different objects with their system. The materials we used were:
• Partner
• Objects in the classroom (whiteboard, desk, hallway, SPACE book, Peep, Crayon box)
• List of ways to measure:
Pace: legs outstretched =1 yard approximately or 1 meter
Egyptian cubit= elbow to tip of the middle finger= 18 inches or 45 cm
Fathom = middle finger to middle finger across the body = 6 feet, 180 cm, 1.8m
Palm = across the palm of the hand = 3 inches or 8 cm
Hand including thumb = 4 inches or 10 cm
Span = from tip of thumb to tip of little finger= 3 palms or 9 inches or 24 cm
English yard = from fingertip of arm to nose = 36 inches or about 1 meter
Foot = 12 “or 30 cm approximately
Fingernail = tip of pinky =1/2 inch = 1 cm.
• Meter stick or measuring tape
• Calculator
The process that we had to do is:
1. Make a data table in your notebook with 7 columns and 7 rows. (See below).
2. Choose one of the six objects or distances you will measure.
3. Determine what form of measurement you will make with the first object. (For example: Length of the 6th grade hallway with paces, book with palm or hand, fingernail for crayon box, etc…)
4. Measure it with the determined form of measurement 3 times, and then find the average.
5. Measure it with the meter stick/or measuring tape and find the actual measurement. (IMPORTANT!!!!! BE SURE THAT THE UNITS OF MEASUREMENT STAY THE SAME, either inches or centimeters or yards or feet or meters and the average needs to be in the same units)
6. Repeat the same for each of the five objects that are left and measure it with a different type of measurement, 3 times, find the average and again the actual measurement.
7. Compare class data results. Find the average of these results.

Data analysis: When i analyzed my data i saw that the measurements weren't that far apart so it wasn't that accurate but it could still be used.

Concusion: The old metric system was not really accurate but useful since if you don't have a ruler at hand you can use it. The importance of having a international measurement system is important because we can use the same one and understand it. Well my hypothesis was correct. The smaller object were easier to measure since it didn't take much time. I prefer to use the modern method since it easier and less demanding but if i didn't have a ruler i would prefer the old system.

Further inquire: I don't have any question a i think i did everything correct. Next time i would like to measure more object

Forces and Motion

The next unit that we will be working is forces and motion. I want to learn to learn pretty much about everything about it. I want to learn the basic and some advanced things. I don't want to learn anything specific just it in general.

Reflection On Everything

For this blog post we had to make a reflection about everything we did this year. The units that we studied are earths structure, minerals, volcanoes, rock cycle and mining. We learned about the earths structure and tectonic plated. tectonic plates are plates that are under use floating on the mantle so they are in constant motion. We also learned a little bit about the rock cycle and how it makes minerals. The next unit was mining were we learned the types of mining and the equipment needed to mine. Then we learned about volcanose and how they form and which types there are. For example one of the types is shield volcano. After that we learned about minerals which we learned a lot about. We learned what makes up rocks, the hardness scale which mosses invented, the types of minerals and how to identify them. As you see we learned a lot in science class and now we are leaning forces and motion. Below i will show you my plan that i made to make this blog post.

A group discussion + proposal

A group discussion + proposal

Group members- Ogi, Matija, Han &Ajda

Questions-

           Why are minerals important?

·       Because they use them for daily life purposes such as building materials, medicine and many more important uses

          What minerals are found in the world’s oceans?

·       Diamonds

·       Salt

·       Potassium

·       Magnesium.

·       Sand and Gravel.

·       Limestone and Gypsum.

·       Manganese Nodules.

·       Phosphoresces

·       Placer Gold

·       Tin

·       Titanium

Why are these minerals so valuable?

·       Because the process of getting them cost a lot of money

·       Because most of the diamonds lie on the continental shelf

          Who should have the right to receive them or the profits?

·       All countries around the specific ocean should have the right to own the minerals

·       The wealthy countries should share the minerals they find with the developing countries, but in return the developing countries should share their minerals

What are the problems with mining in the oceans?

·       It is very expensive

·       It causes earthquakes

·       They don’t have the tools to mine in some countries

·       Some countries are able to mine the minerals from the oceans but do not want to share them

Blue Questions-

Who owns the oceans minerals?

·       Mainly the countries around that part of the ocean

·       Everyone should share their profits/founds

What are the rights?

·       The people that find the minerals

·       The governments

·       Wealthy countries should produce the process and they should share it with the developing countries because they don’t have the privilege to afford it, but in return they need to give workers in return

·       By 2003, 157 nations had signed the law of the Sea treaty. The mining profits must be shared between all nations. Because of the treaty some nations think that everyone should share their technology and profits they get from the deposits

Do you agree with them?

·       Yes we do agree, because every country no matter if they are wealthy or developing should have the rights to have those minerals

The proposal-

Solve the problem without war-

·       We had some disagreements about what to write, because everyone had their own ideas but in the end we ended up voting to get the right proposal.

·       We also had many different answer possibilities so we ended up writing down more than one idea from more than one person

·       We should make a law saying that no matter who finds the minerals has the rights to keep them, no matter where it is

·       They should also share/trade what they find with the developing   countries    

·       The red writing is the highlights of our discussion or the disagreements that we had

·       The black is what we decided

Minning in Serbia

Today in class we discussed about the minerals that are mined in our home country. The most common minerals in Serbia are copper,lead,zinc and bauxite. The large part of the copper production comes from deposits in Timoc area ( Bor). Lead and zinc production mainly comes from Kopaonik area. Copper is the most mined mineral in Serbia. The process of mining copper includes blasting the ore with dynamite and then it is loaded in a truck to take it to the primary crushers, where the smelting process begins. Then it is crushed and chemicals are used to purify the copper ore, where the raw ore is separated from the fine sulfate of ore. The most well known company for mining copper is RTB Bor. Copper from Serbia is exported  to 150 key countries world wide. Copper is used in mass industry for production of various appliances.Copper isn't a very expensive mineral but it is useful.Our country is dependable on this mineral because it increases the overall profit of the country and it improves its economy.

Who Owns the World's ocean

This week in science class we talked about who own the oceans and the problems that occur when to comes to mining ocean minerals. the common problem is that wealthy industrial countries think that they could keep whole profit from mining because they paid for all the work. The poorer countries can not afford the process of mining the ocean floor because it is very expensive. There is a common sea law that 157 nation signed and according to this law ocean mineral deposits are the common property of all people. The problem is that wealthier nations   just don't want to co-operate with poorer countries because they are afraid that it would slow down their industrial production even though they should. In order to reassure poorer countries that they won't be left out, prospering nations should invest in the development of poor countries and also promise them the access to the annual percent of the mining profit. When it comes to who should get the annual profit, the countries that live near the ocean get the profit. The cities that live near the Pacific and Atlantic ocean should get some of the minerals.

Science Reflection on notes

Today in class we took notes on rocks and minerals. We had to answer some questions that our teacher gave us, some of the questions were how are rocks created, what types of rocks are there, the rock cycle and similar questions. I learned that there are 3 types of rocks: sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. Sedimentary rocks are formed when sediments are deposited in the layer of the lake and after some time they compress together and form a rock. Metamorphic are formed by the transformation of pre-existing rocks. Igneous forms when lava cools and solids. We also learned about the rock cycle which is simply constant changing of different types of rocks over a long period of time. We also learned about minerals and how to identify them by asking our selves these questions is it.. solid, naturally occurring, inorganic, fixed composition, crystal form?  We also found 3 interesting facts about rocks and minerals and the facts i found that were really interesting were: that quartz is the most common mineral and that diamonds are the hardest substance known to man. I really enjoyed learning knew stuff.

Crystal- Taking notes

Today in class we toke notes on minerals. We now know what are minerals and how they are formed. A mineral  is a s.n.i.f.c, which means solid, naturally occurring, inorganic, fixed composition, crystal form. We also learned about the rock cycle. we learned the different types of ricks which are igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. Diamonds are the hardest minerals and talc is the softest minerals. After we learned this, we took a test to see if we really know what it is and we only got 2 wrong.

Volcano project

This week we have been working on our volcano project and i chose Arenal. For my presentation we chose a volcanic region, my partner was Matija. I think i did good but i could done better by adding more information. I was missing the way the volcano erupted. I think i should get a 4-5 grade because it wasn't perfect but i think it was good. I learned a lot of things about Volcanoes like how are people affected by volcanose and what destruction can a volcano cause. People are affected by volcanoes in the way that it can destroy home and kill people but the after effect can be good for the soil and plants.

Crystal Garden Conclision

Its been two weeks and we are finishing our crystals gardens. On some gardens the crystals grew because they had the right condition to grow, while on the others nothing happened. On my nothing grew. The easiest crystals to grow were slat crystals, they could grow in 1 day. The hardest crystals to grow were mono ammonium phosphate. The best materials to grow crystals on were something soft and fluffy, i think that crystals need warm temperature to grow. If i needed to do this project again i would make a pond with the solution to grow crystals that's how crystals grow.


Crystals
Borax-
Salt crystal-
Sugar crystals:

Mapping Volcaones and Earthquakes.

This week in science class we researched if there is a pattern where volcanoes and earthquakes strike. My hypothesis was that there is a pattern, volcanoes erupt close to earth quake and the plate boundaries. Earthquakes are not all scattered they are all mostly around the plate boundaries. Volcanoes mostly erupt close to earthquakes since the earthquake cause the volcano to erupt. I don't think that from the data we have we can see if there's a pattern because earthquakes appear every 13 seconds so the data may not be accurate. I calculated that the closest active volcano is 8000 miles away from Serbian. If we would put more volcanoes and earthquakes on our data it would be the almost the same since most volcanoes erupt in the ring of fire and earthquakes happen close to volcano. In conclusion volcanoes erupt close to earthquakes and quakes erupt when 2 plates transform pass each other. 

Crystal garden

Day 1

Today in class we added  the solution to our crystal gardens. All of use made a detailed map and labeled were we put the crystal solution. We added food coloring to our solution so the crystals will be the color we want.My crystal garden is like a landscape were a volcano erupted. My floor of the crystal garden is cracked so i put the crystal solution on the cracks.

Day 2


Today in class we looked at our crystal gardens on my nothing grew, the only thing that happen is that the solution dried. On my friends it also dried but for one of them there were tiny crystals.

Day 3

We didn't have science class so i didn't look at it.

Day 4

On day 4 my land on the crystal garden got tighter so it split apart and now there are bigger cracks on the ground.The crystal solution dried in the clay and now i have colored clay.

My notes for class

These are my note i took in class:

·         Under the ocean there is magma

·         They drill into lava to find some fossils

·         Volcanoes erupt when trapped gases that are trapped underneath expand and explode.

·         Lava is over the 1000 degrees Celsius

·         Stone wind is when a volcano blow and the snow wind go on with the ash in it killing trees.

·         Extinct volcanoes once erupt and don’t erupt again.

·         Volcanoes form land, can change a how surface of land.

·         All active volcanoes ooze or explode.

·         Magma is in constant motion

·         Dormant volcanoes are the ones that didn’t erupt in 200 years

·         The 3 types of volcanoes are shield, cone and caldera.

·         Shield volcanoes is a volcano that looks like a volcano

·         Cone volcanoes are the ones that are like cones

·         Caldera volcanoes are the mix of shield and cone.

·         Ash sometimes gives the nutrients for plants

Dynamic Earth

Today in science class we learned about the earth and its structure. We focused on the 3 sections dealing with gems and minerals, Rocks and mining, plate tectonics and volcanoes. It was inserting since everything was in a visual format. In the first section we learned how diamonds and minerals are formed and how they can become a gem. In the second section we covered the history of mining and excavation. In the last section we looked into tectonic plates and how they affect earth's surface for example if tectonic plates crash into each other they form mountains or islands. This was very amusing and I hope we will do something like this again.

Miniral Unit.

This week i have learned about the earths structure and about caves and how they formed and where they can form like in a volcano or on the antarctic. Also i learned what creatures live in the caves and how their group is called. I learned what stalagmites are they rock that push up from the ground and that stalactite are the rocks that hang from walls. I want to learn about crystals and how they are formed. I also want to learn about the rock cycle.

cooling race lab reflection

I think i did good on this one. i just needed more details. i liked doing every lab

Making water wetter lab reflection

I think that i did well on my making water wetter lab.I really liked doing the lab. And my data analysis was good and i made sure it was correct. I think i basically i did well but i could improve and i will.