This week (by Thursday at midnight), you will do your first Weekly Science Article Report.
Here's what to do for this assignment:
1) Citation: Here you will put the name of the article, the author, and where you found it (for example, the New York Times or Science News for Kids).
2) A brief summary: Here you will summarize the article in one or two sentences. This is to give your readers (including me) a sense of what you have read.
3) Reflection: This is the biggest part of your report. I am interested in your response to the article. Please address the following questions in your reflection:
a) What did you think about the article? Did you like it or not? Why?
b) What interested you or surprised you about the article?
c) What questions do you have about what you read? What would you like to know more about what you’ve read?
I am really looking forward to reading what you write.
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2) A brief summary: Here you will summarize the article in one or two sentences. This is to give your readers (including me) a sense of what you have read.
3) Reflection: This is the biggest part of your report. I am interested in your response to the article. Please address the following questions in your reflection:
a) What did you think about the article? Did you like it or not? Why?
b) What interested you or surprised you about the article?
c) What questions do you have about what you read? What would you like to know more about what you’ve read?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/04/pacific.garbage.patch/
There is a large patch of garbage (the pacific garbage patch) about the size of Texas with about 3.5 million tons of trash. Scientists are beginning to study and understand it.
I really liked this article because it gave a good amount of information and was not too difficult to comprehend. I liked how they had quotes from scientists who had actually gone out and studied it, so you were really getting a sense of what it’s like.
Something that really interested me was the size of the garbage patch. It was really shocking to me. I also was surprised by the fact that it’s not like a garbage dump in water, it’s mostly big pieces of plastic every once in a while, but the water is filled with plastic so small, you can only see it when you scoop out samples of the water. It’s not like a giant island of garbage.
I would really like to know how scientists are deciding to go about fixing this problem. I also want to know how it is affecting the ecosystem. I wonder how long it would take to travel through the patch. My final question is: what is the majority of the garbage patch made up of? Bits of plastic bag? Bits of bottles? Those are the questions I had.
Weekly Science Article Report #1
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/science/earth/17trash.html?ref=earth The name of the article is called “Following Trash and Recyclables on Their Journey”. The article was published September 16,2009 and is by Mireya Navarro
2. The article is about trash and its journey. A group of people decided to put small electronic devices on separate trash items so they could follow trash and its journey and see if where the trash goes has a negative impact on our environment.
3. I thought that the article was good. I liked the way it was written and the way the person explained how the group did it. The person made the article interesting. The things that interested me in the article were the way the people set up the experiment. They put electronic things on 3,000 trash items and they got as much stuff as possible. These people seem very dedicated to this experiment and it seems like they know what they are doing. There are some questions I have about the article though. Wouldn’t some of the electronic devices get destroyed in the trash? I also think they’re could have been more detail in the article but it was a good science article.
Zooming in on the Milky Way's center
Giga-Galaxy Zoom project images dusty lane and cloud regions
By Ron Cowen from http://www.sciencenews.org
With a camera and a telescope an astrophotographer has taken a never before seen picture of the center of the Milky Way. He took 1,200 total pictures and pictures were taken from 52 different places.
I liked this article; it was informative and gave me a clear image in my mind about what happened in science today. The fact that over 1,200 pictures were taken to form one big picture is quite cool. What surprised me was the size of the telescope and camera that the astrophotographer used . The telescope was ten inches big and the camera was small enough to fit on the telescope. How did the astrophotographer manage to get all over the place to take all of these pictures How did he fit a camera on a ten-inch telescope. How long did it take, to take all of the pictures? Where did he take them? What made him decide to take all theses pictures?
Howstuffworks.com
How Nuclear Bombs Work
by Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. and John Fuller
The article I read was all about how nuclear bombs work. It was about how the physics and the structure of an atom bomb make it so powerful.
I enjoyed reading this article because it was about something that interested me. I have always wondered how and something so small (an atom) could create such a large explosion. I was suprised that Einstein famous theory of E=mc squared explains why an atom can create such a huge explosion. E stands for energy and and m stands for mass and c stands for the speed of light. Matter and energy are interchangeable and the number for the speed of light is huge and when you multiply that by a large mass you get a huge amount of energy. I want to know how did scientists discover that splitting an atom could cause so much damage. I definetly want to learn morea about the isotopes that they keep mentioning in the article. The only problem was that it took me a little while to get through it and I dont think it was written for kids.
sorry mr.A i forgot to mention i got my article from ScienceNewsForKids.com
“Another Sex Dispute, But Athlete Is a Horse”
The New York Times
By Bill Finley
In this article they are talking about a female horse Martha Maxine that has a condition where she has regular female genitalia, but also has testicles inside her abdomen. The horse in dispute is a harness race horse; the whole sport is based upon the horses speed, since male horses are built differently than females they have more speed and separate races. This condition has been seen once before in a harness race horse that had elevated levels of testosterone. The condition is said that somewhere between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 horses have some version of the condition.
I liked the article a lot. It gives you insight to what some sports are like when it comes to steroid testing or if there is a dispute over whether or not the athlete is male or female. I think it was a good article in general; it makes you think and keeps the information coming until the very end. I did not like the fact that the author kept changing the sex of the horse in his writing, sometimes it would say “she” and sometimes it would say “he”.
It surprised me that there are sex disputes in sports where it is not the human doing the work. Recently there was something like this in track and field, I didn’t think at the time when I though about it that it could be the same with animals as well. In most animals like in humans the muscular build for the male is larger than the female, its interesting to see how a small test can show such a big thing.
I am interested in how they found out after the steroid test if “she” was a “he”. I would like to know if in any animal the female is built larger than the male. If the condition is not noticeable (other than muscular build) are there other ways to tell if “she” is a “he”? How is the horse doing against other male horses? Is this a condition in more than just horses? Do steroids have the same reaction on horses as they do on humans? Is the testosterone level similar to male horses? If the horse has the problem, would it be like a birth defect or a condition that might be passed on from a parent? How do you do a steroid test, and how would you be able to tell testosterone levels from it? Why are males built more muscular than females? Why was it just made illegal in the sport to give steroids to the horse?
“That’s why people were giving steroids to mares in the first place. Steroids build muscle mass. In cases like this one, an animal that had this since birth and went through puberty as a male would be a larger horse with male characteristics including the male drive to run”
-Dr. Sue McDonnell
http://sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20071031/Note3.asp
This article is about how some black holes form. It is also about how much bigger some of the huge black holes are than the sun.
I think they did a really good job getting their point across, and they made it pretty interesting. It really made me get absorbed into the article. I really like it because it was interesting to learn about how black holes are bigger than the sun when the sun is the biggest thing normal people understand. What surprised me was that some black holes are bigger than the sun. I want to know more about like what they look like. Some of the sentences were kind of confusing.
teddy bear
A brain-boosting video game
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles
I read an article that explains that playing the game Tetris changes your brain. In the story scientist ran scientific test on teenage girl’s brains when they played Tetris, and results show that the brain had changed.
I liked this article because it was very interesting and I understood it well. The topic of how a video game could change someone’s brain was really cool. The scientist had some girls play Tetris for three month and some girls that had never played. They scanned their brains using an MRI and the result was that the girls who had not played the game had not grown any gray matter in their brain the ones that did play there gray matter was more thicker, that surprised me a lot.
A question that I have is even though in the article it said that they used girls, because they tend to play less video games, is I wonder if since boys play more if they would have more gray matter than the girls. Also do all video games make your brain grow or is it just Tetris.
The article I got is from sciencenewsforkids.com I'll post the link for anyone who would like to see it right here, http://sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20070905/Note2.asp.
The article i chose is called Color-Changing Bugs. The title pretty much explains what this article is about but i will give a brief summary. This article talks about, this beetle called, Charidotella egregia. The article explains how big the bug grows to be. But it also talks about the fact that it can change colors from gold to red, and back. It talks about how it changes colors and how it doesn't just change colors like chameleons, and squids.
I really enjoyed this article because, i learned things that did not even have to do with the topic, the changing colored beetle. I learned that squids change colors, which i did not know until i read this article. I also enjoyed the pictures that were put up with the article, they really helped me visualize the way that the bug looks and the way it changes colors. I really liked how it talked about the way the bug changes colors, and how the bugs shell had layers.
Im very interested by this article because, it is about something that i did not know of. I think i would be intrigued if i got the chance to do a project on them.
This type of beetle seems very interesting to me, and i would really enjoy finding out more about it like where it is from, or the different kind of animals that it is related to. I think that i would enjoy learning how the bug lives, like what type of food it eats, if it flies, where does it sleep, when does it come out, and things like that.
Broken Symmetry- by Jenny Lauren Lee
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/47191/title/Broken_Symmetry
This article is about the multiple theories regarding why the left and right sides of our body are different internally. Some theories suggest that this starts in very early development.
I really enjoyed reading this article because I have been wondering about that topic for a long time. On the outside, our bodies do look symmetrical. On the inside, our organs aren’t even balanced; the spleen, heart and stomach are on the left while the liver and pancreas are on the right. Many theories have been tested about why our bodies develop this way. In 8 day old mice embryos, a microcurrent is created over a shallow pit covered with cilia. This microcurrent goes in a leftward flow and may possibly start the process of developing asymmetrical insides. This theory may apply also to fish, but growing evidence suggests that animals like frogs and rabbits have asymmetric connections to certain molecules before any cilia form in the pits. Chickens and pigs don’t show any directional flow at all, so scientists are questioning whether or not cilia are responsible for symmetry breaking.
About 40 years ago, a baby girl was born blue. This was because her insides were formed symmetrical (more or less) and it was very difficult for the blood to pump throughout the body. The real problem is when one organ, such as the heart, is upside down. The body is like a jigsaw puzzle. If one piece is in the wrong spot, the other pieces won’t fit together correctly. However, if all of one’s organs were to develop reverse (for example, the pancreas and liver would be on the left while the stomach, heart and spleen would be on the right), the body would still function correctly.
Some questions I have about the article: How do they find out things like this? How does an organ develop upside down? Why do some animals rely on cilia for the symmetry breaking and some don't?
The Claim: Lack of sleep increases the risk of catching the cold
By: Anahad O’Connell
Published September 21, 2009
The New York Times
This article is about how the amount of sleep you get effects your chances of getting a cold. Scientists kept track of 153 men and women for two weeks, and recorded the quality, and duration of their sleep, then they quarantined the subjects for a 5 day period and exposed them to cold viruses.
I liked this article because I don’t get enough sleep, so it interested me. This article was short, but well written. It was an easy article to understand, and it gave a lot of statistics. I was really interested at how mammals that sleep a lot develop more disease fighting white blood cells. I was surprised by how species that sleep more have a greater resistance against pathogens. I want to know what else lack of sleep effects. Why did they decide to experiment on 153 people rather than an even number? Why do people need to sleep?
The article I read is called “How We Know A Dog Is A Dog: Concept Acquisition In The Human Brain.”
It was from Science Daily and the direct link is http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923121443.htm
The author of the article was not listed.
This article was about how our brain can process what certain things are. It uses dogs as an example of the fact that we can recognize that a dog, is in fact a dog even though there are tons of different breeds and not all of them look alike.
I thought the article was pretty interesting and I liked the fact that it gave an example that most was easy to understand; otherwise the concept of the article could have been more difficult to grasp. I thought it was really surprising that the scientists were able to pinpoint exactly which part of the brain was processing the conceptual knowledge that all humans possess.
This article was very short and I wish it could have been longer and gone more in depth about the hypothesis they tried to get their results. Some questions that I have are:
How can the hippocampus store so much information?
How does the hippocampus pass on the information to the prefrontal cortex?
Is it possible that the Hippocampus can lose some information that it has already had before?
What happens when the memory regions and the decision modules are disconnected? Is it even possible that they could become disconnected?
Of course I could list on and on with all the questions that have the article has formed for me, but I think I should just say that the article should have been longer. If so it could have given a better description as to how exactly the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus work together to form concepts.
“Big Polluters Told to Report Emissions”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/business/energy-environment/23emissions.html?ref=science.)
By: Leslie Kaufman
Published: September 22, 2009
New York Times
The article that I read was about how the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA are ordering the nation’s biggest greenhouse emitters to start keeping track of the levels of gases that they are producing, and to report those results back to the government starting January 1st, 2010. The EPA is saying that while doing this they would keep track of around 85 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in the US, and are thinking it is probably connected to global warming. Alongside with this new rule they will be checking over 10,000 business sites and suppliers of petroleum products and they will also have to present the data in the starting of 2011. Suppliers of fossil fuel will be asked to approximate how much carbon dioxide, methane, and any other greenhouse-gases that are emitted when fuels are burned by businesses in consumers of cars and buildings.
I liked this article a lot because it shows that a lot of greenhouse emitters are making a lot of harmful gases in the air that are not good for the environment. I think it’s good that now the government is checking up on it and seeing how much it really does produce so that maybe they could solve the problem. This article also gave a clear idea what was going on, and that these big things are harming the earth it wasn’t something you had to think about to realize it, it just gave it right now there to you. I thought it was just really interesting how they put this story out there and really telling people that we need to save out earth if you want to live on it. Even little things will help like recycling or saving electricity energy or even just walking down the block instead of your parents driving you there. Some questions I have about this article are things like what made the government finally realize that this was happening and you need to really start checking what is going on in our breathing air. I was also wondering if maybe some companies refused to do this in anyway even if they had to, did anyone speak their feelings on it?
Moonquake Mystery Deepens
By: Mary Caperton Morton
Posted on August 19, 2009
http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/24d-7d9-8-13
In this article it explains about how there are quakes on the moon called “moonquakes.” It gives a lot of information on how it is possible for moonquakes to occur, and how the moonquake can actually happen. It also gives small information about the moon in general.
I thought that the article had a lot of information. When I was browsing through the internet to find a story, I read something about moonquakes which got me interested. Since I thought this topic was unique, I decided to read the article, and I found it very interesting. I liked this article because it gave me information on things that I didn’t even know about, like how there were even earthquakes on the moon. I thought that was a little strange. The article was also easy to understand because it didn’t use so many scientific words so that I don’t understand what the article was about, but they used just enough so I could understand. They also had interviews, so you could see the different perspectives of different people, and what they thought about moonquakes. There were a lot of scientists too, that talked about their thoughts on moonquakes.
What interested me about the article, was how the author explained how moonquakes occur. It was different than how earthquakes happen. Scientists that studied this topic had a lot of different opinions on how moonquakes can actually occur. Some scientists think that it has to do with tidal pressures on the moon. Scientists still aren’t sure on how the moonquakes occur, and they have a lot of different theories and hypotheses. Another thing I found interesting was how they said that moonquakes reoccur in the same locations, at the same time during the month. I found this interesting, because there could be a pattern that is going on with it. In the article it also included how scientists have measured some of the moonquakes, and how some had the magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale. Something that surprised me about the article, was how there was such things as moonquakes in the first place.
Some things that I am still wondering about the article is the latest information that scientists have about moonquakes, or the latest discoveries that they made. It would also be cool to know why moonquakes happen. It would also be interesting to find out how much the strongest moonquake was, according to the Richter scale, and also when was the longest moonquake, and how long it was.
The article name was Mini T. rex by Stephen Ornes and it was from Science News for Kids
This article was about how Paul Sereno, a paleontologist found a dinosaur the size of a human called the Raptorex. It has similarities and differences to the T. rex, the Raptorex is an ancestor to the T. rex.
I liked the article very much because it was very informing. I like dinosaurs, so a new discovery of one is very interesting to me.
What surprised me was that the raptorex was the size of a human and had a lot of similarities with the T.rex. What also surprised me was that the raptorex was 35 million years older that the T.rex.
One question that I have is how did the raptorex evolve in that 35 million year gap?
First Genetic Link Between Reptile And Human Heart Evolution Found
Author: Unstated
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090902133629.htm
The article was mostly about how scientists found a similarity of heart chambers in reptile and humans. It also explains how specific proteins turn on genes that are involved in heart formation.
I liked the article. It was interesting to learn about how we are related to reptiles. I would often find myself lost in the article so I kept going back and rereading. One reason why I didn’t like it was because there were a bunch of scientific names/numbers genes and what not, so I had to Google them to understand the article. For example, the Tbx5 gene controls heart development and is located on chromosome 12. I was not that surprised because I had no expectations, so I had nothing to compare it to. Some questions I have are, since they found connections with reptiles, will they find connections with amphibians? I am not to strong in the topic, and I think I am glad I now know everything I learned, so I don’t think I will want to know too much more.
Weekly Science Article Report #1
Science News for Kids
A Brain-Boosting Video Game
This article was about how scientists studied the effects of Tetris, the video game, on the brain by taking fifteen girls and making them play Tetris for three months. After this, they scanned the subjects’ brains and found that these girls had thicker gray matter, which is a mixture of blood vessels and brain cells (located in the brain) that are obligated to process information.
This article was very interesting to me. I’m not obsessed with video games, but I do own a lot and sometimes I play them on my free time. In the article, I liked how the scientists planned out their experiment very intelligently. They tested girls instead of boys because they spend less time playing video games and it would be easier to see changes. They also took scans of the brains while the subjects were playing the game so that they could see what was going on. It was very surprising to find out that Tetris can actually do some good for the brain. I mean, haven’t we all heard parents complaining, that video games are horrible for the brain? If I could, I would ask the scientists why they picked the game Tetris, out of all video games. I would also like to see how other video games affect the brain.
How Space Suits Work
By: Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. howstuffworks.com
This article shows how the space suit deals with all the dangers of being in outer space.
The space suit must deal with all of the elements of outer space. Such as if you stepped out of the spaceship without a space suit you would –
• Be unconscious within 15 seconds from lack of oxygen
• Your blood would boil then freeze because there is little or no air pressure etc.
So to keep that from happening a space suit must –
• Give you oxygen
• Remove carbon dioxide
• Maintain a comfortable temperature etc.
I thought this article was really interesting I had no idea that a space suit does this much. I knew that it did many things and without it you would die but I didn’t know there were so many components to the space suit and how complex it was. I was also really surprised about how quickly bad things start to happen to you when you don’t have the space suit. I really liked in the article how thoroughly they explained everything they left me with no questions and in my mind I don’t know how they could have gone any further.
Torturing ‘does not get the truth
This article is by Professor O’Mara and is published on BBC news
The article is about how torture and how the affects do get a response but it may be a wrong one. She did a study on Special Forces soldiers were she would torture to try to get something she had just told them. The response were not always right showing what she said about torture.
The article impressed me on how something many countries do may be the wrong way to get information out of people. The article talked about what the torture can affect so they may lose there short term memory making it useless. The article drove me to read it because it was about how the brain process’s information and how it can go wrong. I think this article was very well rounded it showed some questions and then some of her conclusions on the subject. I would want to figure how some one may go about trying to get information out of some one with out using some form of torture.
Swine Flu Remains Mild as Vaccine Advances
By Betsy Mckay and Gordon Fairclough
wall street journal online
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125198466331383281.html
Two reporters researched the deaths and causes of swine flu throughout the world. They also studied the vaccines being given.
I really liked this article. I explained a lot about swine flu deaths and victims, and how all around the world we are overreacting about it. More people die from the regular flu than swine and we don't even realize it!
Experts say that swine flu has not become more virulent, and it is just like the normal flu. This gives a lot of breathing room for pharmaceutical companies. Another reason not to worry is that studies show that almost all deaths from swine flu were due to the person already having and illness. This means swine flu is not very deadly.
With vaccines getting better and better everyday, there is nothing to worry about. Just wash your hands and Face.
Fingerprint Evidence By Emily Sohn
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20060503/Feature1.asp
This article is about how even the FBI is sometimes wrong about fingerprints. It explains what fingerprints are used for.
I really liked this article because i love crime stuff. My favorite show is N.C.I.S. I am really into it. I like how this site has something like this. I think this article is really good and mostly shows how its done, not tell.
What intrested me was that when the FBI try's to match the same fingerprints. Also, what else fingerprints are used for, like lunch lines, to keep track of things. To pay, get into a building. This all surprised me a lot. I thought what they use in the shows like, CSI or NCIS, don't really exest in real life, the accuresy, the information, and the the tracking devises.
I would love to learn more about this topic. It is so intresing! Some questions from me are, How are computers helpful for handling fingerprint identification? How are they frustrating for handling fingerprint identification? Why are fingerprints not as reliable for catching criminals as police would ideally like them to be? I really hope to learn about this topic in science class.
I read the article: GE: “Solar business is our 'next wind'”. It was from CNET.com and was written by Martin LaMonica.
The article talks about GE’s new solar cell technology, using Cadmium Telluride instead of Silicon in solar cells. This new material is less efficient, and produces less electricity than silicon cells. However, it will be much cheaper to produce, so people can balance the power loss with extra panels made affordable by lower prices.
I liked this article because it went in to depth on how the market will change due to this technology, as well as how our personal lives will change. It went in to detail on the important things, such as costs and technology. I also found the technical part of the article was very interesting. With a new product about to come out, I want to know how it works. However, I am still wondering how GE will market these panels when they debut in 2011. Will there suddenly be a Solar Panel isle in the Home Depot? As GE releases this potentially revolutionary technology, it must market it strategically so it can profit.
Article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10360611-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
A research team at the University of Oregon has found that evolution is a one-way road: You cannot reverse it. This is because the genes once present in our ancestors are blocked for eternity.
I like the article because It had many details, and was somewhat clear, but it took me a while to understand them. I was suprised by the "you can't reverse evolution" part. That made me want to read the article. The only question I would have is if they could've made it a bit better to understand. Aside from that, It's perfect.
Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923143335.htm
Traces of Water Found on Moon
Michael Barkoviak - September 24, 2009 9:00 AM
http://www.dailytech.com/Traces+of+Water+Found+on+Moon/article16327c.htm
This article is about scientist's recent discovery of water on the moon (which you may have gathered already from the title...). However, the don't mean it in a way of lakes and rivers, but of water molecules beneath the surface. This recent discovery may help lead to lunar bases so that even more discoveries may be made of this mysterious rock. Water will make not only the vital drink easily available, but also will help to farm crops for food. During the Apollo missions they had found small traces of water, but scientist believe that this was actually a infection from our astronauts.
I thought this article was fascinating. I love the idea of being to live/vacation on the moon. What a great destination! I've heard stories, seen pictures, etc. about outer space- but to actually experience it would be out-of-this-world! It was a clear and informative article, no fancy science speak, any average person should be able to understand it. But, it was almost too clear. There was minimal information, it only informed you of the basics. I would love to find out how they discovered it, when they discovered it, and where exactly on the moon, for example. I know the author wanted to release the information ASAP, but maybe he should have put a little more information in it. Otherwise, it was an extremely fascinating article. Great pictures too!
I read an article called Nintendo Slashes Wii Price Tag by Brendan Sinclair. I found it on ZDNet, but it was originally posted on GameSpot. The article was about how Nintendo is dropping the price of the Wii and why they are doing it. It stated that the price cut was steeper than its competitor’s price cuts. Also, the cuts are believed to be due to disappointing hardware and the fact that they want to boost sales for the holiday season.
I thought the article was really good. It was good because it was on a topic that many people would read about. I was surprised that this is the first price cut for Nintendo Wii. It also surprised me that they cut it by fifty dollars. I wonder how much they loose will by cutting the price. Also, how much more business they think they will get.
Butterfly 'GPS' found in antennae
By Judith Burns
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8273069.stm
Monarch butterflies in North America use something that scientists call a "24-hour clock". They use it when they are going to Mexico in the winter.
I think it is really cool that Monarch butterflies have their own little GPS system. I find it fascinating that they have been using them for so long, and nobody knew they were in the antennae. That it was undiscovered until now, is interesting for me because people must have just assumed that parts of their brain acted as a navigator. I wonder if all insects with antennae have some sort of GPS like monarch butterflies do, or is it just them? Is it the same thing with birds? Do birds have something like that, but in their brain?
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