Collapsing Can Lab

Have you ever tried heating up water in an aluminum can (soda can)? Well how about then putting that can into ice water? If you haven't, I'll let you know what happens. It collapses. Why does this happen? As you heat the can and then dump the water into the ice water while dipping the can in the ice water, you take all of the air out of the can. Therefore, the air on the outside has a greater pressure than the air on the inside. This pressure is strong enough to crush the enpty soda can. Air pressure is the force exerted by air. This is the force that crushes the can. Pretty cool, right?

Picture:

http://serc.carleton.edu/images/earthlabs/hurricanes/can-crush.jpg

Popcorn Lab

How do you make your popcorn? Do you just put the bag in the microwave for a couple of minutes? There are many ways to make popcorn. As mentioned before, using a microwave is one option. When you use a microwave, tiny invisible micro waves are released and the evaporate the small drop of water inside each kernel. This causes the kernel to pop and out comes your popcorn! This is a form of radiation. Radiation is the direct transfer of heat though electromagnetic waves.

This is different from when you use an old-fashion popcorn maker, which is a form of convection energy. Convection is the transfer of heat though a fluid such as a gas or liquid. As the popcorn maker heats the kernels up, they pop out of their metal canister and they are done.

These two forms or energy are different because they need different circumstances in order for the heat to transfer. While in order for heat to travel through convection you need a fluid, for it to travel though radiation, you don't!

Picture: http://seancasio.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/popcorn-air-popper.jpg

Stay Out of the Hong Kong Streets!

(In this picture, you can see the grey smog covering the city.)

Who: This regards anyone who lives n Hong Kong, as well as the Hong Kong government.

What: Recently, the levels of air pollution in Hong Kong have risen to some of the highest levels since the levels were recorded. High air pollution can be bad for your health. For this reason, officials have advised that the citizens of Hong Kong stay indoors as mush as possible. High air pollution can cause coughing, sore throat and other problems that have to do with health.

When: This occurred on Monday, March 22, 2010 and continued to Tuesday, March 23, 2010.

Where: This occurred in mostly Hong Kong, but may affect nearby cities as well.

Why: This occurred because of the many factories in Hong Kong. The levels have been high for quite a while now. However, the sandstorm that occurred in China also played a key role in specifically increasing pollution in the air.

Opinion: I think that the smog in Hong Kong is very bad not only for Japan, but also for the rest of the world. We should all participate in an effort to reduce their air pollution because though it is their problem at the moment, if the levels of pollution keep rising, it will spread to the rest of the country and then the rest of the world. This can kill many people. If it gets bad enough, it may kill all of us. We only have this ONE world to live one. We should all try to take care of it together.

Picture: http://www.hkoutdoors.com/images/stories/pollution/city_of_smog.JPG

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/science/earth/23hong.html?ref=science

What Is It Really?

Everything out there is either a plant or an animal, right? Wrong! Recently, Sidney Pierce, a biologist from the University of South Tampa in Florida, discovered that sea slugs, though animals, have the ability to carry out photosynthesis. She presented the information on January 7th, 2010 at the most recent meeting of the Society of the Integrative and Comparative Biology. Photosynthesis is the ability to use sunlight to make you own food and energy. To do this, you need chloroplasts. You use the chloroplasts to produce chlorophyll. Until now, scientists believed that only plants have the ability to produce chlorophyll. However, recent studies proved them wrong. How did these animals got their chloroplasts? The sea slugs eat algae. and the algae have chloroplasts. When the slugs consume the algae, they are apparently are able to transfer the DNA from the algae to themselves. Though no one has ever seen anything like this before, it appears to be possible. What about the future generations of sea slugs? Will they be able to produce chlorophyll? Research shows that the slugs that have this mutation in their DNA will be able to pass the gene onto their children. However, these new slugs will not be able to produce chlorophyll until they have stolen enough chloroplasts from the algae they eat.

Who: Sidney Pierce

What: Found that sea slugs are not only animals, but have also obtained genes that also make them plants.

When: The evidence was presented on January 7th

Where: The most recent meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. The meeting was held in Seattle.

Why: The slugs were able to transfer DNA from their original food source, algae. The stole chloroplasts from their food, and eventually gathered enough to carry out photosynthesis.

I personally think that this is a very fascinating discovery. This also connects to what we are learning in science class right now. We are talking about animals and their classifications. I believe that it would be fun to try to classify this animal. I am not sure how scientists classify animals, but I think that it would be very hard to place it into a phylum. I also think that if every animal was about to carry out photosynthesis, it would be better for the environment. Though this is a very far fetched idea, maybe one day it will be possible. When I first saw the headline for the article, I thought that it was very unbelievable. I did not know how it was both a plant and an animal. Now that I have read the article, it makes sense. While I was reading this article, I couldn't help but wonder if the slugs really did obtain their chloroplasts from the algae. Isn't there any other way that the slugs could have gotten the chloroplasts? Either way, I think that this was a very fascinating article.

Sources:

Article: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/13/half-plant-half-animal-really/

Picture: http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Aplysia-punctata-BA.jpg

Botanist

How you ever wondered what a botanist is? What do they do? Where did they go to college? Where do they work and how much money does a botanist make? Click the link to find out.

Botanist (chocoholic257)