Radiations: Bad.. Or Maybe Good?

Article Found:
Author: Stephen Ornes
November 29, 2012 
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/11/healthier-mice-through-x-rays/ 

   If Life were a video game, vitamins would be considered the "good" guys while radiations the enemies. Scientists experimenting on variable yellow agouti mice (mice containing DNA problems from birth making them more vulnerable to diseases), found that low dose of radiation actually improved the health of these laboratory mice.
 Radiations are "the transmissions of energy"-from website, for example x-rays or microwaves. As the article states, '“Nobody wants to think that low-dose radiation could be advantageous and the stuff you put in your vitamin pill would be bad,” said Randy Jirtle of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This is why Jirtle, who led the new study, was initially not excited about his new findings.'
Large doses of radiations lead to cancer due to the disturbance of cells. When scientists first began this experiment, they were expecting  low dose of radiation to cause small problems if no, but it runs out that low dose of radiation is better for health than having no radiation at all.

"The scientists suspect that the X-rays caused a change to the DNA that blocked the genetic condition that makes the pups sickly. That change was probably a type called epigenetic. In such changes, a molecule attaches to a gene, a sequence of DNA that contains instructions for building proteins. This attachment can alter the gene activity — in some instances stopping the gene from doing anything. Especially interesting, when Jirtle’s group gave vitamins to the mother mice, that molecule didn’t attach to the gene and turn it off in their offspring. Those baby mice, born with yellowish coats, did not have the epigenetic alteration."
However this positive change in health only happened to the mice born with harmful genes.
I think this is a good start to find a new cure and it shows that we,humans, don't yet know about all that is out there waiting for us to discover. Who would think something harmful could turn out to do good? I found this article interesting for a few reasons: it explained everything and gave us definitions, it was about something new and special and most of all it could be the beginning of a miracle.

Human Impact

By Stephen Ornes
November 8, 2012 
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/11/pumping-water-from-the-ground-in-southeastern-spain-may-have-triggered-a-deadly-2011-earthquake-there/

    Some earthquakes can be unpredictable while others are cased by us and our actions. In Spain, just like in many places, the people pump water from the ground for daily use, some suggest this might have been the cause of the 2011 quake that killed 9 people. This study was also known to be the first study to show that 'removing water can trigger earthquakes.'

"Geologists like Pablo González study connections among human activities, groundwater and earthquakes. When a dam is built, for example, water piles up in one place. Previous studies have shown that such an accumulation may set off a quake in the region. Some scientists suspect that’s what happened in 2008, when a powerful earthquake killed 80,000 people in Sichuan, China. Other studies have indicated that water pumped into the ground during fracking — a process that releases deep, natural supplies of oil and gas — can trigger earthquakes as well."-I found this very interesting.

However Pablo predicts the Earthquake would have happened anyways, since it was a region where many occur, still the pumping of the water made it happen sooner. After looking through satellites, scientists discovered the ground shook the most where the aquifers had been drained. Throughout the discovery it is also says that ground level drops 10cm every year due to the pumping of the ground water.

I personally never knew this could be true, I had no idea water pumping and earthquakes could have something in common. It is a short but good article, it talks about everything one has to know and the most important news.:)

 http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/10/curiositys-watery-find/

 By Stephen Ornes

October 18, 2012

 -pic from website

As I was reading through the articles on a page, I came across one, read the title, and realized it was relating to something I had already written. The robot curiosity, was sent to Mars in August, to search for any organisms or signs of there being once a life. This robot seems to have landed right in the middle of a former stream. Having found evidence of water is no surprise, it has been found already, however how the water got there is still unclear, could there have been ice? canyon?

“Curiosity had been analyzing nearby rocks. These supplied the new evidence that water once flowed through the crater. The rover found rocks called conglomerates, which form when pebbles and sand get stuck together with wet sediment. That sediment is the solid material that settles at the bottom of a river or stream. Curiosity has found conglomerates at two sites so far. At the second site, the conglomerate rocks were about the size of plain M&M’s.”

It is impressive that Curiosity has already found this evidence in such time, however this is only the beginning, hopefully more evidence might come up.

I didn’t find this article special or anything, I just thought it would be cool to read what curiosity had found.

Water Magic

You are hurrying to school on your bike, and suddenly your homework falls out of your backpack. Last night was raining so there are puddles everywhere. OH NO! You drop your bike, try to save your paper but you're too late, your paper has colors where your writing was, now you will have to think of an excuse.

In class we were putting papers into a little of water and observing what would happen. However on the papers we put a drawing or a mark in different colors and then take pictures.

Here are some design that came out of my designs:

We had to experiment with water and alcohol, the design I used was 2 dots of red pen and 1 of gray just a little above of the red dots. When I put it into the glass with water, after a few minutes the design I saw was:

Most polar: pink

Most non-polar or least polar : purple/gray (because it is not sticking to the paper so the water is dragging it up) 

Chemical compounds: water : 8

WE KNOW THAT POLAR THINGS ATTRACT TO POLAR AND NON-POLAR TO NON-POLAR. So the higher on the paper, the more non-polar.

Then I did the exact same drawing in a second paper and placed it in alcohol, however I noticed it took much longer for the alcohol to travel up the paper.

Alcohol is less polar than water, so the colors went up slower. However the polar and non-polar colors where the same as for the water. I find it pretty interesting that water can drag colors with itself just like that. 

And, I know that what we did was a chemical reaction, because when we placed some above a special lamp, they glowed (luminescence!).