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