Current Events #3: Can’t touch this: Unusual venomous creatures

Did you know that a male platypus is venomous? The mammal has always been considered odd; it lays eggs and hunts prey by using its duckbill to sense electrical currents. It's poisonous attributes make the platypus even odder. But a platypus is not the only venomous creature in the world. Hooded pitohui and Komodo dragons are also venomous. The ironic fact is that these toxins might be used as pain-killers and disease fighters in the future! Animal venoms have been used as a blueprint for developing a number of new drugs, including those that treat heart disease and chronic pain. The reason why is because toxins are complicated.Toxins are so similar to good proteins that they cause serious problems by telling cells to do the wrong things in the wrong places at the wrong times. Scientists want to learn how toxins manage to accomplish this so they can turn it into a life-saver. After all, what can kill us can also save us — once we learn to control it.

I think that studying an animals toxins is a step in the right direction for making the world a better place. I feel this way because if we learn how to turn toxins into medicine, who knows how many cures scientists could create for illnesses!

 Also, if platypus venom is able to paralyze, then maybe as a medicine, it could do the opposite. Paralyzed people could be able to walk again! All in all, I don't think anything bad can come out of studying animal poisons.  
Sources
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/005/cache/komodo-dragon_599_600x450.jpg

https://www.iacez.com/images/mr-networth/eureka-left.png

http://www.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/Images/large-species-photo/large-duck-billed-platypus-photo.jpg

Scientific Wedding (my water cycle xtranormal)

Baboons detect bogus words

 Can baboons read? Absolutely not. But can they differentiate real words from random letters that were put together? According to recent discoveries, yes! While the baboons didn't recognize what the words meant, they were able to pick out  phony words.To ascertain this, scientist use an experiment  involving six baboons.The baboons were trained with touch screen computers. If the primates touched a cross on the screen after seeing a real wordtouched a cross on the screen after seeing a real word, they got a treat. They would also receive a treat if they pressed an oval on the screen after seeing a bogus word.After more than a month of training, most of the baboons got very good at this. Three out of four times, the average baboon could correctly identify the word.The highest-scoring monkey identified 308 real words; the lowest-scoring monkey picked out 81. For a bunch of monkeys, they're not monkeying around!

I believe that this experiment was definitely good way to use our resources. It could help lead up to primates being able to read and write. Monkeys being able to read and write would be useful to our society because they would be able to express their feelings on a piece of paper. Therefore, they would be able to tell humans what they would like have to without humans having to guess. It might even lead us to see what goes on inside an animals mind! Sources:

http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/sevcik/yellow-baboon--xxxpapio_cynocephalus_2.jpg

http://blog.sysomos.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/question-mark.jpg https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJZ74QHsnBcYaAT9CIYhuxm5AGxAeAcpy0ppUUQPP2uXzk4563uFH0pw_sWrXcFAb2mJ6cEEp1c0BU7LavFG7JN0N0_Fb8aDI4hDWpPC3EMneLA3ZD4wYbdehejVYG595JPQVJ8nmhw/s1600/MonkeyingAroundHeader.png

Current Events: Ancient Flower Blooms Again

30,000 years ago, an Arctic squirrel decided to bury seeds and fruits in an underground chamber in northeastern Siberia. The ground became permafrost, which is a layer of soil that stays frozen for a long time. Recently, Russian scientists dug out those pieces of fruit. With those pieces, the scientists managed to grow plants in the lab! These plant deserves to go in the Guinness World Records because they are the oldest flowering plants that researchers have ever revived from a deep freeze. This article was released on March 16, 2012.

       The discovery that plants can be brought back to life from 30,000 years ago is amazing! Just think about what this could mean for the science world! In the future, some plants that are common today may be non-existent, such as daisies. So we could bury the plants for later use. Also, if that plant could cure some disease that we didn't know that it could, people from the future would probably be able to revive that plant and use it. Imagine the lives that plant could save! I hope that we continue discover more ancient plants, revive them, and use them to cure ourselves from sickness. It may eventually lead to preserving human life as well... who knows.

States of Matter: Lab Report

   For the past week, my science class has been doing a series of labs. They were all focused on demonstrating chemical and physical changes . For the first lab, we used a skinny green candle and a stout white candle. The green candle was textured, smooth and had a spiral on it the white candle was just smooth.   There was no chemical changes present at this time.When our teacher lit the green candle, it started melting (a physical change).  It started getting shorter and smaller. There was smoke and  the candle was burning (both chemical changes).
   In the second lab we did, it also involved a candle. We mixed vinegar and baking soda together, which created the gas carbon dioxide, Then we poured the gas over the flame that our teacher lit on the candle. The fire did not immediately go out because my group mate did not tilt  the glass containing the carbon dioxide enough. But eventually, the flame went out because there wasn't enough oxygen.
   The third lab that we did was with marshmallows. We used a small marshmallow, a large marshmallow, a stick and a bunsen burner. We ripped the small marshmallow in half and tasted it. It tasted sweet and soft. Then we burnt the large marshmallow with the stick and the bunsen burner. Then we had to taste the burnt part. It tasted horrible, burnt and crispy. One person in my group said that it tasted good!
   The fourth and final lab was also very "sweet". We dissolved sugar and the person in my lab that tasted it said that it was like Chinese Tea. Then we put sugar in a test tube and placed the test tube over the bunsen burner using tongs. The substance inside the test tube turned black and yellow smoke came out from the test tube. All in all, last week was extremely fun.

             Sources
blogspot.com
www.slowtrav.com
http://i-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/at/bakingsoda.jpg
http://www.myfreedomsmokes.com/product_images/l/884/marshmallows__51334_zoom.jpg

Lab Procedure

Lab Procedure

1.Firstly, pour the water from the plastic cup into the flask using a funnel an a spoon.
2.Remove the toothpicks from the plastic cup with your hands and set them on the filter.
3.Remove the white beans from the plastic cup with the scooper and place them on the filter.
4. Pour water from flask into graduated beaker and place on hot plate. Plug in hot plate.
5. Remove excess water from plastic sup with pipette and place in graduated beaker.
Pick up Marble from the plastic cup with your hands. Place on filter.
6. Remove the iron fillings from the cup with a magnet and place the magnet on a filter.
Item remaining in cup should be sand.
7. Remove the hot plate pug  and CAREFULLY put the beaker on the tray using tongs.
8.Wash scooper.
9.Place the substance that is inside flask onto the filter using the scooper.
10. Identify the substance as salt.
11.Finally, count all the items you have seen in the cup. You should have toothpicks, white beans, a marble, iron fillings, water, salt and sand.

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom" -George Washington Carver. This quote means to me that one way to be successful in life is to get a good education. If you don't have education, you don't know what is wrong or right. You only base it on what others tell you. With education, you can have think for yourself. Education is power. It allows you to be respected for your intelligence and you are enlightened. If you have education, you can free yourself from bondage. For example, in countries like Egypt and Libya, as people were more educated and exposed  they realized they had more right than the government gave them. So as a result, of them realizing their suppression they started protesting which in turn gave them freedom from their bondages.With education, you can achieve your dreams.

 Last week, we dissected a  frog! The most memorable thing was the smell in the classroom. When I walked in side, I was about to say "What died in here" but I saw the frogs and thought better of it.  My group  got a boy frog to dissect  but we still got too see the eggs. The frog had a liquid (which I later learned was preservatives) that kept on spilling out. The fat bodies were yellow and noodle-like, which was pretty cool to me but no one else in my group seemed to care. After removing the fat bodies, we saw the frog's organs, or what was left of them. You see, my group mates decided to cut open  the frog in a completely rubbish manner. So some of the organs, like the liver , were damaged. The gallbladder was alright but it stained the liver green.                                                                                                           I liked dissecting the frog and I can't wait to dissect more things later on!

Quiz Time!!!!

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=106998656

Yesterday and today in class, we observed the digestion of an egg. Not a real digestion though! The whole science class had been placed into groups that worked together to observe 4 test tubes.The test tubes were filled with different substances and they all had 3 cubes of egg white. Test tube A contained 10 mL of pepsin. B held 5 mL of pepsin and 5 mL of water.C was filled with 10 mL of hydrochloric acid while D had 5 mL of pepsin and 5 mL of hydrochloric acid.Then we looked at the egg whites in all the tubes and my group saw that none of the egg whites were different. Then we put drops of  what was inside the tubes onto strips of litmus paper, which told if the item inside each test tube was acidic or not. The second day, we tested the test tubes and saw that some of the egg whites were beginning to be digested, though when the litmus paper was tested, it had the same results as the first day.

On Thursday, October 20, My science class did a chicken wing  lab. It was pretty cool!. The teacher cut back the peachy skin, which was attached to muscle. She showed us how the flexor muscle bends the joints in a chicken wing and the extensor lengthens the bone by pulling on the muscles, which worked perfectly! Then, onto the shiny, white tendons, which attach muscles to bones.We found cartilage and ligaments but sadly not nerves.The teacher also cracked the bone in half and showed us the bone marrow. Our class also found the differences and similarities between human anatomy and a chicken wing's anatomy.

Diffusion, Science Lab Green

         On October 13, 2011 in a science lab, an experiment was done. The labs purpose was to show how the cell membrane allows certain substances to travel in and travel out. The experiment involved predicting what might happen; such as if the plastic baggie were permeable to starch, the starch would move into the bag. Another prediction was that if the bag was permeable to iodine, it would move out of the bag; if the plastic baggie was permeable to iodine, the solution inside the plastic baggie would turn purple and the solution in the beaker would stay the same. The last prediction made was that if the baggie was permeable to starch, the solution in the baggie would turn golden and the solution in the beaker would turn purple. What also happened was diffusion (the process by which molecules move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration) and osmosis (the diffusion of water molecules through a selectively permeable membrane). The indicator (a substance that changes color in the presence of the substance it indicates) iodine was used on starch and it made the starch solution in the baggie hypertonic (high concentration) and the beaker became hypotonic (lower concentration) in relation to starch. None of the solutions were isotonic (equal concentration).

         The lab was done easily. Filling a baggie with a teaspoon of cornstarch and half a cup of water and tying the bag? Not a problem. Filling a beaker halfway with water and adding then drops of iodine? Hah! Like that would ever be a dilemma. Placing the baggie in the in the beaker so the cornstarch is completely in the iodine/water mixture? Kind of cool. But waiting fifteen minutes to see what would happen?! That was almost forever! But the experiment was worth the wait.

      This experiment, like written before, involves diffusion. Some examples of diffusion are cigarette smoke (it diffuses into the air and spreads around the room), a drop of food coloring in water (it gradually diffuses throughout the water), oxygen (diffuses from the air sacs in lungs into blood capillaries), and helium (it diffuses through the membrane of a balloon, causing the balloon the stop floating).