Science Memes!

Creating the perfect match between an organ and the recipient

     I read an article about the shortage of organs for transplants, and what scientists are trying to do about it. Some scientists have figured out a way to trick the body's immune system into accepting artificial, and donor organs. They have to do this because the patients body usually rejects the transplant. Anthony Atala, a scientist from Wake Forest University, created organs that are very close matches for patients. Unfortunately, the organs that he is creating won't be available for 5 years. Another thing that scientists are trying to do is weaken the immune system to lower immune reactioons near the sight of the transplant. But, weakening the immune system can lead the patient more vulnerable to viruses and infections.Meanwhile, scientists are trying many ways to get organ transplants to be more safe for the patient.
     I think that more people should donate organs. I would be happy to donate an organ if I knew I was helping someone else. It makes me really sad to hear that people are dying waiting for an organ transplant. Many people don't want to give up their organs, even after death, where they will just be rotting away in your body. I hope that scientists will be able to come up with a solution for this saddening problem.

Pictures from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaL08jqVEc26mmAWsUoF2c2Y8txU_JYkhvqZlQKbevaVn1w5kpp993xvR9nowBe_P7P-gp8-PYhid0Dmi79kKvT9U56V2LyHJXB3A8NS-B7w-hhImVn0PpBak9goRCYQ15azAkbCM4EkC/s1600/ccotd_kids_logo.gif

http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/organ-transplant-20110418-085820.jpg

Article at: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-05/scientists-outsmart-immune-system-better-match-people-organs

Bald Eagles Being Used for Religous Ceremonies

   

 A few miles from downtown Denver is the National Eagle Repository. They take dead eagles found in the wild, and ship them to Native American tribes that order them. In the Native American culture, eagles are a very important part of religous ceremonies. The controvery is that after you order an eagle, it won't come for 2-4 years. Some of the diffrent Native American communities want to take the already dead eagles on their terrritory to use for the ceremonies, but the government won't let them because they don't have permits.

     I think that they should be allowed to use the eagles on their territory because if they're already dead, they're not doing any harm. I know that the bald eagle is the national bird of America, but I don't think anyone should have to wait 2-4 years for something you can easily get by yourself. It also is for a religous reason, and the government should respect that, and let them be able to take the already dead eagles.


Pictures From: http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/000/cache/bald-eagle_1_600x450.jpg?01AD=3Sh-_BFwMTHOmQEgL7BS-kM8p5A8udMhbLBGLn7EDNAQt1d7aK6u7Hw&01RI=7C6CB7663F75C44&01NA=

http://usaeagle.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/american20bald20eagle20and20flag.gif

Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/us/a-repository-for-eagles-finds-itself-in-demand.html?ref=earth

Noise Pollution can Change Forests?

     I recently read an article about how noise pollution affects forests. The article was about the animals/ plants that were affected in areas of high noise pollution. (areas near highways, cities, e.t.c) In noisy areas, mice eat the seeds to the Pinyon tree, which is a very important plant in the Southwest. The Pinyon tree rely on scrub jays (type of bird) to help plant seedlings, because scrub jays hide millions of pinyon seeds in one autumn, so they are many new seedlings each year. In noisy areas though, mice eat the pinyon seeds while scrub jays completely avoid them. This is happening in the southwest, with areas of high noise. The problem about this topic is that about 1,000 species of fungi insects, arthropods, mammals and birds depend on pinyon trees.
     I think that scientists should fin a way to help the pinyon trees. I think they should do this for a couple of reasons. First, 1,000 different species depend on pinyon trees, so they must be very important. Secondly,  I think if this problem doesn't get solved soon, it might mess up the southwest's ecosystem. Thirdly, I really want to know the reason why scrub jays don't eat the seeds in areas of noise and how and what can be done to stop it.



Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/science/noise-pollution-is-changing-forests.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=noise%20pollution&st=cse

Pictures from: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/PHOTO/LARGE/western_scrub_jay_1.jpg
http://www.itsnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/pinyon1.jpg

Lab Reports: States of Matter

      This week we did four labs to help us understand chemical and physical changes. In  the first lab we did, we observed a lighted candle. Before the candle was lit, we looked at the physical properties of the candle. It was white, hard, and spiral. After the candle was lit, we looked at the physical and chemical properties. The physical properties were that the wick on the candle was burned, and the top of the candle was smooth where the wax had melted. The chemical properties were the fire that was burning, and the smoke that the fire created. From this lab I learned that physical properties are easier to determine because you can always see them unlike chemical properties.

        In the second lab that we did, we also lit a candle. Fire can't burn without oxygen, so we made a mixture where the gas that came from it was carbon dioxide. The mixture had vinegar and baking soda in it. We then poured the gas over the flame, and the fire went out. I learned from this lab that this reaction was chemical because the gas it what put the fire out. 

        In the third lab we did, we had a small marshmallow, a large marshmallow, and a Bunsen burner. We ripped the small marshmallow in half, (which was a physical change) and then ate it. It tasted sweet, and really sugary. Then we put the large marshmallow on a skewer, and turned the Bunsen burner on. We burned a part of the marshmallow, and then ate it. It didn't taste as sweet as before, and it tasted ashy and gross. When we burned the marshmallow, it was a chemical change because the fire was gas, and it burned the marshmallow. The marshmallow was a solid, because it had a definite shape, and the molecules were packed closely together. I learned from this lab that after we burned the marshmallow, it didn't taste good because the sugar was gone.  

 The fourth and final lab that we did included sugar cubes, a glass of water, a test tube, and a Bunsen burner.  We crushed up two of the sugar cubes, and then put them in the glass of water. We stirred the mixture until the sugar dissolved. At his point, we couldn't see actual grains of sugar, but the water was still a little foggy, so we knew the sugar was still present. I also knew the sugar was still present because when I drank the water, it tasted very sweet. After that, we cut up two sugar cubes, so they could fit in the beaker. After putting on our safety googles, we turned on the Bunsen burner, and put the test tube with the sugar in it ove the flame. The sugar quickly melted, and then turend brown. Then, it turned black and started rising to the top. We removed the test tube from the flame, and then we waited for it to cool. After it was cool, the test tube was broken, and we tasted the substance inside of it. It did not taste sugary, but like the marshmallow, it tasted burnt, and ashy. I learned form this lab that the sugar wasn't there anymore because the substance had melted into carbon. These labs showed me how the physical and chemical changes occur in real life.

Pictures from:

http://psdho.me/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/burning-candle-with-fire-psd-full.jpg 

http://thenaturalidea.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Vinegar-1.jpg

http://mariasmovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/homemade-marshmallow.jpg

http://www.daviddarling.info/images/Bunsen_burner.jpg

http://0.tqn.com/d/chemistry/1/0/k/c/sugarcubes.jpg

Seperating Mixtures Procedure

1. By looking at the cup, identify the two toothpicks and remove them.
2. By using the magnet, run it up and down the sides of the cup to remove all of the magnetic iron pieces.
3. Put the filter paper in the funnel, and the funnel in the beaker. Then put the water in the funnel, over the filter paper, and remove the funnel after the water is filtered.
4. Plug in the hot plate, and put the beaker on the hot plate. Wait for all of the water to evaporate, and then plug in the hot plate. In the beaker, all that's left should be salt.
5. In the cup, there should be a clear glass rock. Remove it, and all that's left in the cup should be sand and pebbles.

Extra Credit

        The quote: “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom” means that if you get a good education you can do almost anything. If you don't go to or don't finish school, it can really impact your future. In order to get a good well-paying job, you have to have a college or at least a high school degree. When you get older and want to go to college, you have to do well in high school and even middle school before they decide to grant your application. That's why it is important to do well in school.


The quote is by George Washington Carver.

Frog Dissection

       In my science class, we finished the body systems unit, and to end it, we dissected frogs. When we got our frogs, we put on our gloves, and safety goggles and took out the dissecting tools. We used the scissors to cut through the layer of skin, and then the muscle underneath it. We pinned that back, and then looked inside the frog. We saw alot of eggs, which looked like small black beads. When I saw the eggs, I knew that our frog was female. We then had to remove all the eggs to see the other organs. After we did that, I had to break the frogs chest bones to see the heart. The heart in our frog was small, and red with a white film over it. Directly under the heart is the liver, which looked like a large brown three leaf clover.  Under the liver were the lungs and the gallbladder. The lungs were red and shriveled up, and the gallblader was dark green and small. It was next to the left lung. Below the liver was the stomach. The stomach took up most of the inside of the frog, and was a peach color. We cut out the stomach to see if there was anything in it, but there wasn't so we can assume our frog didn't eat before it died. Our frog also didn't have any fat bodies, so it probably just got out of hibernation before it died. On the sides of the frog, under where the eggs used to be were the ovaries. They were peach in color, and looked like ramen noodles packed closeley together. Connecting to the end of the stomach was the small intestine, which was slightly covered with a green substance that looked like swamp muck. The large intestine connected to the end of the small intestine, and ended at the cloaca which is like the anus.

           This dissection showed me that our body's organ systems aren't all seperate.In the frog, every body part was connected to something else. It also really made me see how similar a human body is to a frog's body. The dissection showed me that if you're missing one organ sytem, you're body won't run properly.

The pictures are from:
http://www.sciencephoto.com/image/378478/530wm/Z7000880-Female_Bullfrog-SPL.jpg
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_557/1290002082nQ7D1d.jpg
http://myclipsblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/see-through-frogs.jpg?w=570

Nervous system posters

Hunger Games Trailer!!!!!!!

Digestion Lab

In science class, we did a lab that helped us understand how digestion works. We had four test tubes labled A, B, C, and D. We put three pieces of cut up egg white in each test tube.  In test tube A, we put in 10 mL of meat tenderizer (A.k.a pepsin) and there was no immediate reaction. In test tube B we put in 5 ml of pepsin, and 5 mL of water and again, we didn't see an immediate reaction. In test tube C, we put in 10 mL of hydrochloric acid, and we could see the liquid bubbling, and small holes already forming in the egg white. In test tube D, we put 5mL of pepsin, and 5 mL of hydrochloric acid, we also didn't see an immediate reaction. We used strips of blue litmus paper to see how acidic the solution was. In test tube A, our litmus paper stayed blue. In test tube B, it stayed blue, but was wet. In test tube C, our litmus paper turned an orange/pink color, because it was acidic, and in test tube D, it also turned orande/pink because it was acidic. The next day, we looked at our test tubes again, and there were some major diffrences. In test tube A, the egg white was almost all disintegrated, but in test tube B, there wasn't a reaction. In test tube C, the eggwhite was almost all gone because the acid had broken it down, but in test tube D, there wasn't a reaction. We used the litmus paper again, and the paper stayed blue for test tubes A and B.  The litmus paper turned orange/pink again for test tube C , but not for test tube D. The first day the litmus paper changed but now it didn't because the acid probably wasn't there anymore. This lab was a good way to show how the digestive system worked, because the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs works the same way.

Chicken Wing Dissection Lab

In science class our teacher dissected a chicken wing, and we observed the different parts. First we looked at the skin, which was bumpy because feathers had been pulled out. Then after she made a cut, we saw the fat which was right underneath the skin. After the fat, we saw the muscles, which she pulled and squeezed, and the wing moved accordingly. Then we looked at the tendons, which were at the end of the muscles, and attached to the bone. After our teacher pulled off all of the muscle, we saw the joints which connected the bones, and the ligaments that were connected to the joints. Lastly, we saw the cartilage which helps the bone move without them touching each other. This lab really helped me understand the different types of tissue better.

Diffusion Lab

          In our science class today, we tried a diffusion lab. We put cornstarch and water in a plastic baggie, and put water and iodine in a beaker. We then put the baggie into the iodine solution and waited 15 minutes. The cornstarch in the baggie was supposed to turn purple, but it didn't work because the baggies were too strong, and the iodine didn't get through. I think the lab would have worked if we had cheaper baggies or if we waited longer.

Tree Hugger? Or Not?

In recently read an article about a type of vine that curls around a tree's trunks. In Barro Colorado Island, Panama, there is a type of vine (Liana) that curls around trees and grows up to take their sunlight and water. Scientists have come to the startling conclusion that these vines are slowly taking over tropical rain forests. These vines are parasites that use the trees as their host. The Liana are a great source of food to animals during the dry season, because they flower and fruit at that time when most trees don't. They also provide a sort of "highway" in the canopy to the animals because they snake through the trees when they grow. This weed takes most of the sunlight, water and nutrients that a tree needs. They can also stop a tree's growth and over time kill it. I think that we should get rid of this vine, because our rainforest's are already small, and we don't want them to get any smaller because of a problem that we can fix.

The article I read can be found at the following website:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/science/24vine.html?ref=science

Sea Lions Sentenced to Death?

I recently read a very interesting article, that was quite intriguing. Sea Lions in Oregon and Washington have been sentenced to death, by the government. Their cause: eating endangered salmon. The states will be allowed to kill up to 85 sea lions a year, but only the ones that eat salmon. Last year this idea was struck down, because animal rights groups filed a lawsuit. Before the government made this horrible desicison, they tried to scare away the sea lions by using firecrackers, loud noises, and rubber bullets. I don't think the government should do this because, the sea lions don't know any better. To them, the salmon is just food. Before the government does this, I think they should try harder to move the sea lions, because this is a harsh and cuel way of doing it.

The article mentioned in this piece can be found at: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/salmon-eating-sea-lions-sentenced-to-die/?ref=earth

My Soaring Straws Lab

In class we recently did a lab, with toilet paper rockets. We pulled back the straw on the rubber band to get the elastic potential energy. I found out that the more Elastic Potential Energy (EPE) there is, the more Gravitational Potential Energy (GPE) there is. The EPE which was the amount of stretch in our experiment was the manipulated variable. It is the manipulated variable because we changed how many centimeters we pulled the straw back. The responding variable was the height, because depending on how far back we stretched the straw, the height changed. When I stretched the straw back 1cm, my average height was 2.09m, which is different from when I stretched the straw back 5cm, the average height was 6.28m which is higher. So, when I had more EPE for my 5cm trial, my GPE was 115.23mj, but when I stretched it back 1 cm, my GPE was only 34.85mj.

Some errors in my lab were that we did this over a period of days, and all the different classes used the same rockets, so I don't know if the rubber band on the rocket broke in other classes or not, but in my class it did. Also, the toilet paper tube bent down more on the sides, so the results might not be that accurate. I also had a hard time seeing exactly how far the straw went up because sometimes the straw went to the left or right. We could make this lab better by getting stronger materials, because then we wouldn't spend so much time trying to rebuild our rocket, and our data would be more accurate. I also think we should build our own individual rockets, because then our own data would be more accurate.

My Toothpick Fish Lab

                                                                I recently did a lab in science class, and the results I came up were very interesting. We had three fish of diffrent colors that all lived in a pond near a waste factory. ( Fish colors: red,green, yellow) The dominant alleles were green, while the yellow and red alleles were ressecive. When we paired up the fish, their genotypes showed that most of them were green, but the yellow ones died because they wern't camoflauged well enough in the pond that was filled with green algae. ( The red fish could hide easily) For every generation, I took out the yellow fish because they were eaten. When I got to the 4th generation, there was a natural disaster and all the green fish died.

          When the natural disaster happened, the population of the fish was just wiped out. The physical characteristics of the green fish gave them away, because all the green algae died from the toxic waste that was dumped into the pond. Accidents like this could be avoided in real life life we didn't build factories near wild life areas. As I said before, the population was just wiped out. Depending on the ecosystem, it may not be be just plants that die but animals too. We should pick good places before building things that are harmful to the environment like factories.



( We used colored toothpicks to do this lab, and no animals or plants were injured while doing this lab. This situation was fictional and did not happen, but the concern is serious.)

Plants can text?

           In an article I read, it stated that plants that are equipped with microchips, can text farmer's cell phone to ask for necessities. This new invention can save farmers thousands of dollars a year. Originally, the "cellphone" was for astronauts in space, because astronauts need plants to receive oxygen and for food. Currently the microchips have to be attached to a power source, but scientists hope in the future, they can be equipped with batteries. I think that it is great that researches have created something like this. It may not be used as much in the eastern states because there is more rain, but it can certainly be used in the western states. So let's keep texting!

If you would like to view the article go to:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30998981/ns/technology_and_science-innovation

Dead blackbird mystery solved

   Recently, I read an article and it said that scientists said the birds falling from the sky and the fish turning up dead were not unusual. Animals die in big numbers at the same time due to poisoning, bad weather and diseases. Mostly these things happen to animals that move in large groups. Scientists agree that the fireworks display on New Year's Eve frightened the birds, and since blackbirds can't see at night, they ended up flying towards the ground, and killing themselves in the process. I think that we shouldn't have such big and noisy events near places where wildlife stay, to prevent this from happening again. I also think that people shouldn't jump to conclusions, and think something is wrong when really the event that happend was an accident. So in the end the birds died of fright, and it's not the end of the world.

The information in this posting was aquired on the following website: http://news.discovery.com/animals/bird-animal-die-offs-110106.html 

Save the Pine Barrens!

Some of the plants in the Pine Barrens are: the Trident Red Maple, the Shortleaf Pine, the Pitch Pine, and the Grass Pink, and Mountain Laurel. If we don't save the Pine Barrens, we won't have wildlife, clean air, or be able to go camping, or canoeing. This ecosystem supports our society in so many ways, including the ones listed above. Many industries are supported by the Pine Barrens such as: paper plants, furniture companies, and many factories. All of the information and pictures in this video was collected on the following various websites: pinelandsalliance.org, njconservation.org, whoyoucallingaskeptic.wordpress.com, biodiversity.wku.edu, wild-life-rehab.com, naturalmissouri.blogspot.com, firstpeople.us.com, dnrstate.md.us.com, state.nj.us.com, porkyfarm.com, and duke.edu.com. Take what you learned in this video seriously, and thank you for watching.

The End