Go green video reflection

How are these plastics being developed?
These plastics are made from sugar and they are made from PLA (main type of bio plastic)

What makes these plastics "green?"
These plastics are made from sugar such as sugar beets, corn, or sugar cane. So basically these plastics are environmentaly friendly due to the ingredients within them.

What are some issues with plastics that were mentioned?
These plastics actually do generate waste! Because by growing corn we are using fertilizers, and pesticides, also the machinery used needs crude oils all of this contributes to air and water pollution. Also the companies that are making these plastics say that no fossil flues are used during the process of making bio plastics. However, the electricity generated by the companies are using fossil fuels. Also by diverting farm land for crops used for non food purposes may cause damage to the evironment and potentially cause a food crises.
Also we say that you can put these into compost, well compost lets out carbon dioxide which causes climate change. Also most towns/communities don't have compost facilities therefore the plastics end up in a landfill.

How might these green plastics change packaging practices?

Yes, because the packaging of these plastics are made of different materials therefor they would have to change the process and maybe different types of machine's would be needed.

ChemMatters - Episode 2: Plastics Go Green from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo.

Food Inc Reflection

How did the film describe science & technology as a positive or negative impact on society or the environment?

I think that the way we are processing our food was definitely a negative impact on the environment and our society. One of their points that really stood out to me was about cows meat spreading ecoli due to the diet that we are feeding them. And how just by eating a hamburger someone has died! This was one amongst many things that definitely changed the was I'm going to be viewing by plate from now one.

How do our consumer choices affect what is out on the market and therefore, our own species survival?
By consuming more of one thing then we make it appear more in stores etc... therefore, if it is something bad for the environment then it will impact our species survival. So its all basically down to us, we need to choose what to consume in order to change what is produced.

A few ideas that popped up in conversation throughout the movie were:

Hygiene, by creating more environmentally friendly machinery we could make changes (like what we are doing with cars now,) try finding better ways to raise the animals (chickens.)

What is the difference between natural farming and industrial farming? Which is better? Are they both necessary for human survival? Why or why not?
I think that by a long way natural farming is definitely better for the environment and for us. Also natural farming is better for animals, you can see this during food inc the way that they treated the chickens and how you weren't allowed to do it naturally (or at least partly) when they still new it was wrong because no one wanted you to see inside. However due to slight over population there isn't enough food if we didn't have industrial farming. So I think that we need a way to produce the same amount of food but in a more environmental way that is also better for us as people.

If technology and industry have improved so much that we are getting faster, fatter, bigger, and cheaper, how are science and technology held responsible for improving or ruining human health and survival?
Because of all the unhealthy food that we are producing being over weight and more cases of diabetes's been becoming more common since industrial farming. Also by trying to grow food faster we have caused serious diseases (ecoli etc...) because of a diet that animals aren't used to.
To conclude I think that Food Inc has definitely changed the way I view food. Its scared me from McDonald's :) and really made me wonder about what process has been used to make parts of this food, and how much corn am I really eating? Despite the shock of it all I still however enjoyed the movie and learnt A LOT!

Reflection: Ultimite Survival Unit

What activities throughout this unit have helped you in understanding the significant "big idea" concept? I think that watching the movies, projects for sure were definitely the main activities that I remember best throughout this unit (because I am a very hands on visual person.)

How did the unit question allow us to view survival through The Area of Interaction: Environments:
By having this particular question/s (how does an organism ensure survival in its environment? what is a necessity?) By doing this we could explore almost every element of our environment creating a broad topic however everything was almost interlinked. Because of this we could explore a lot of different things however we weren’t over whelmed with information.
What would you have liked to do more of? Less of?
I enjoyed the way the unit was set up.

How well did we investigate the unit question, concept, and area of interaction?
I think that we explored a good amount of the unit however, we covered a lot on biome's and communities but not so much on individual communities which I would have liked to do more of also the way the different animals hunt their prey or how different animals are victimized by their predators was something that we didn't cover much on (that I remember।)

Current Events: ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs -- updated daily Science News Share Blog Cite Pr

For a while now scientists have been working on creating GM (genetically modified) foods. However now a new find shows that humans aren't the only one's, our Earth has also been creating GM foods. The research group at Lund University say that higher plants are mixing in gene transfer which is mediated by a parasite or pathogen.
After studying a bit on GM foods I have noticed that the debate about this is very heated. People are saying that it is unnatural to mix genes from different species, and say that it will "poison their dinner plates!" However now research shows that genetic modification can occur naturally amongst wild plants.
Further studies of this have shown that, the gene for enzyme PGIC has been transferred into sheep's fescue from some type of meadow grass. Also by looking at the DNA it shows that only some small parts of a chromosome were transferred. This find is the first proven case of a transfer of a gene with known functions from the nucleus of one higher plant to the other.
"Unfortunately, we don't know exactly how the gene jump between the species occurred, which is not surprising as it took place perhaps 700,000 years ago. The most plausible explanation is that the gene was transmitted by a parasite or pathogen, such as a virus, perhaps with the help of a sap-sucking insect," says Professor Bengtsson.
If gene jumps occur naturally between plants that belong to a different species, scientist have had to ask themselves; does this mean that there is no longer any reason to oppose genetically modified crops? According to a scientist working on this the answer is hard to determine, he thinks that the results are interesting and can prove to be important however, they do not say what is right or wrong in a society.
"Many people fear genetically modified foods because the have a fear a an unwanted gene cross fertilizing into nature. This argument does not impress me. I sympathise, however, with the unease over the increased use of patents and monopolising practices in plant breeding. That is why it is so important that free and commercially independent research on plant genetics can be carried out in universities," says Bengt O. Bengtsson.
So the answer is up to you because nature modifies food on its own, should we continue creating genetically modified foods in labs?

Source:

"Spontaneous GMOs in Nature: Researchers Show How a Genetically Modified Plant Can Come about." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 08 Nov. 2010. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. .

Investigating Owl Pellets (food webs)

Based upon the class data, rank the most frequently consumed prey for the class “owl population”.

Based on our class data the most frequently consumed prey was the rat. On the pie chart it shows that 50 % of our "Owl Population" was rat.

Try to define the food-getting “strategy” for a predator.

Every predator has its own strategy while hunting for food. If you look at owls they rely a lot on their senses. Such as keen eyesight, which seeing as they hunt at night helps them locate small things. Owls also have very sensitive hearing which helps them locate concealed prey (wouldn't you love that while playing hide and seek?) Also owls have a particular type of feathers which help conceal the sound of the air that rushes over their wing surface, all of these senses work together to help the owl in the element of surprise while hunting prey.

Based upon your data, suppose the shrew population seriously declined, would it affect the areas of the owl population?

Seeing as only 1% of or owls diet consists of eating shrews, I would say no. I think that the sudden decrease in their population might affect other animal but as for our owls diet it would not dramatically affect it. However if the should be a decline in the rat population then yes I would definitely say that it would dramatically affect our owls diet. But shrews are not the main part of the diet of the owls pellets that we dissected.

Blogger wouldn'd let me upload my pie chart. :(

Current Event: Ancient African Dust Caused Red Soil in Southern Europe, New Research Reveals

In the Mediterranean there is a type of soil called Terra Rossa. A Spanish and American researcher have run a search to find the origin of this soil (Terra Rossa.) This research analysis has revealed that the dust from that mineral in African regions of the Sahara and Sahel. This research conducts that the mineral dust emits between 600 and 700 tonnes of dust every year brought from the reddish soil in the Mediterranean regions (example: Majorca) this was happening about 12,000 and 25,000 years ago.
Anna Avila (co-author of study and research at the Center of Ecological Research) explains; "The first hint of the relationship between African dust and certain soils in the region of the Mediterranean is heir reddish or reddish-brown color similar to that of African aerosol filters, caused by their clay content,"
This study had showed that African mineral dust addition have and will continue to play an important role in the soil origins in the Mediterranean regions. These results show that they are similar to some results regarding the soils in Sardinia which shows the likelihood of Africa becoming a common source.
For the origin of the soils scientists discussed 3 hypotheses: the non carbonate residual accumulation theory (Soils are derived from the product of non carbonate weathering of mother carbonate rock) second, accumulation of iron and aluminium hydroxides following capillary ascent form the bedrock and lastly, Soil is formed by external sources, including airborne contributions.
The first 2 hypothesis that were stated above were eventually discarded, due to the composition of the elements in the red soils. "The hypothesis, non native contribution was used due to the geochemical land value coinciding with African dust." A scientist working on this experiment stated.
Terra Rossa is located on a carbonated rock that is spread through the Iberian Peninsula in the south of France near the islands in the Mediterranean and in Italy along the coast of the Adriatic Sea from Slovenia to Greece.
This African dust has "adverse affects on human health, such as respiratory problems and reduced visibility. It also arouses interest due to its implication where climate change is concerned, with the role that mineral aerosols play in the radiation balance, nutrient deposition and oceanic fertilisation." Scientist Avila explained.

Source:

"Ancient African Dust Caused Red Soil in Southern Europe, New Research Reveals." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 16 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. .

Human Footprint/ My ecological footprint

What is Sustainability? Sustainability in my mind is taking what we are using now but to be environmentally friendly by using what we have without jeporadising Earth and the potential for future generations. needs.

What is a human footprint? Your human footprint is you impact on the Earth. Everybody impacts the Earth in some way and that is what they you call a human footprint.

My human foot print calculation: After I used both human foot print calculation sites on the Grd. 7 blog I figured out my human footprint and my family's human footprint as a whole. So in total my ecological footprint is: 11.78 hectares, meaning that if everyone lived the same way I do we would need 6.47 Earths. As for my families ecological footprint if we continue living the way we do just my family alone would need 2.5 Earths.

How could you lesson your ecofootprint? Well we are moving to senjak so I'll be walking to school which is one thing that will lesson my eco footprint. Also I don' t always remember to turn off light and Isometimes leave the water running so if I made real effort to turn off appliences like that that would also probably make an impact on my eco food.

Kinda scary but interesting facts FOR SOME OF THESE FACTS THEY ARE ONLY FOR THE STATES THESE EXPERIMENT/OBSERVATIONS WE COMPLETED IN THE STATES:

- In the period of about 2 years on average 1 baby will use about 3,769 dypers!

- Over the period of your entire life you will drink about 13,056 pints of milk!

- You will probably eat about 19,826 eggs, 20,000 potatoes, 4,376 loves of bread, 11,196 apples, 5,067 bananas, 12,088 oranges!

- Every second there are 350 slices of bread eaten in the USA

- Last year in the USA 47 billion hamburgers.

- In an average American teens life they will eat 14,518 candy bars.

- Also did you know that most people...: take about 28,433 showers, use 156 toothbrushes, 656 bars of soap, 389 toothpaste tubs, and 198 bottle's of shampoo is what an average American uses in their lifetime?
Now think about all that water which mean you use more than 700,000 gallons of water in your life and produce 567 gallons of sewage in your life (now that's disgusting)

Current Events: Ancient bugs found in 50-million-year-old Indian amber

Scientists have discovered a 50 million years old amber discovery 700 new species of ancient insects were found inside of the amber. The amber weighed 150kg's, the amber was produce in a rainforest in India.

From these new discoveries scientists have discovered that even though there was millions of years in isolation in the ocean the region has proved to be a lot more biologically diverse that it has previously believed to be.

The amber (named Cambay amber) has been found in the lignite mines in the Cambay shale of the Indian state, Gujarat.

When

When Gondwana split up into several smaller pieces in the mid-Jurassic, some 160 million years ago most of its pieces stayed in the southern hemisphere but one part of it spread to the northern hemisphere, Because it continued shifting for about 100 million years and a fast rate of 15-25 cm per year! The plate eventually collided wit h Asia and became what we now call today, India. So now it is believed that it caused it to have incredibly unique plant and animal life that are found only in this region.

Most of the recently discovered bugs also show links to modern insects as well as those that lived millions of years ago in different parts of the world, including Asia, Australia, and even South America."It is possible for plants to drift hundreds of kilometres on open ocean currents, and in the case of insects, some can fly," said Dr Rust.

This discovery has lead to a whole new perspective of the animal and plant life in India millions of years ago all due to a 150 kilo piece of amber.

SITE:

Moskvic, Katie. "BBC News - Ancient Bugs Found in 50-million-year-old Indian Amber." BBC - Homepage. 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. .

Current Events: Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a 'mini-Big Bang'

For several years now Scientists have been working on an enormous machine at the Franco-Swiss border this machine is the.. Large Hadron Collider. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, intended to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at an energy of 7 TeV (1.12 microjoules) per particle, or lead nuclei at an energy of 574 TeV (92.0 microjoules) per nucleus.
However during this current event I won't be talking about what the Hadron Collider is because last year i did that for current events, so during this current event I am going to be writing about an experiment that was recently done using the Hadron Collider.
The experiment ended up creating temperature's that were a MILLION times HOTTER than the CENTER OF THE SUN! So until now the worlds highest energy particle accelerator has be trying to collide protons and uncover the mystery of the universe formation which is what this whole experiment was about.
Scientists say that these collision might help spy the Higgs boson particle and and maybe some signs of some new physical laws. However over the next for weeks the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is going to be concentrating on analysing the data from the lead collisions. By doing this they are hoping to learn more about the Plasma that the universe was made of a millionth of a second after the big bang (assuming that's how the world was created 13.7 billion years ago.)
To do all of this/ figure this out scientists have constructed several experiments with the LHC. One of these experiment is called ALICE. This particular experiment has been designed to smash lead ions together. One of the scientists working on ALICE David Evans (University of Birmingham, UK. Say that "The collision obtained were able to generate the highest temperates and densities ever recorded, produced in an experiment.
Because the temperatures created we a million times hotter than the center of the sun, and these temperature's even protons and neutrons (made up of the nuclei of atom) will melt which will result in a hot soups of dense quarks and gluon's (quark-gluon plasma. plasma is believed to have existed just after the Big Bang. After the LHC finishes colliding lead ions, it will go back to smashing together protons once again.

One of the lead-ion collisions at the LHC

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11711228

Newly discovered snub nosed monkey that sneezes in the rain

A new species of monkey has been discovered in Northern research on this animal (the snub nosed monkey) is said to sneeze in the rain. Thought the species is new to scientists , locals say that probably the easiest time to find the monkey is when its raining. They say this is because of the monkeys upturned nose they get rain water in it which causes them to sneeze. However the monkey's have developed coping techniques such as, during rainy days the sit with their heads tucked in between their knees.

According to some local observers and hunters the monkey's mainly spend their time in high altitudes in mixed temperate forests during the months May and October (summer) and during the winter the monkey's usually descend closer to the villages because when the snowfall comes it makes the food scarce.

This newly discovered species of snub nosed monkeys are found in different parts of China and Vietnam. In this area almost all species are considered to be endangered. So now because of this new discovery of the snub nosed monkey the area's where the monkey is found is now being invaded by the building of logging roads where they will now be invading areas that were previously isolated.

Source:

"Newly Discovered Snub-nosed Monkey Sneezes in the Rain." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2010. .

For the First Time, Monkeys Recognize Themselves in the Mirror, Indicating Self-Awareness

Can you imagine growing up not knowing what you look like? Imagine all the ways that this could affect your life. Well that’s how it is for monkey’s, monkey’s will usually look at themselves in a mirror or see their reflection in a water bowl or something and think that it was a different/ apposing monkey! But now scientists are having chimpanzees and people pass a “mark” test where they will recognize their reflection and it has been found that they will make funny faces, and see a temporary mark that has been placed on their faces by scientists which will cause them to think, “How did I get so old and grey?”

The way that the “Mark” test works is that a mark will be placed on the animal’s face that you can only see in the mirror. Once the animal will touch the mark on its face its said to become self aware meaning that it no longer believes that it’s another apposing animal in its reflection.

From the “mark” test scientists (after 40 years of this experiment) have finally came to the conclusion that few but some species are self aware and will recognize the boundaries between themselves and the physical world surrounding them. The chimpanzee always passes the test because (scientists assume) that sense they are humans closest relatives they are more likely to pass the test than other/most primate species which will fail. However there are some exceptions such as the Rhesus Macaque Monkey that normally fails the “mark” test will still recognize them-selves in the mirror and will perform actions that scientists will expect of animals that are self aware.

To conclude the previous data on self-awareness this new discovery has undermined the idea that only humans can realize that it’s them in the mirror which is now what other primates such as chimpanzees are now learning to do. Scientists also think that in different situations this might also show up by using different tests.