When the Heat's On, Some Fish Can Cope: Certain Tropical Species Have Greater Capacity to Deal With Rising Sea Temperatures Than Thought

ScienceDaily (April, 05, 2012) — Australian scientists have discovered that some tropical fish have a greater capacity to cope with rising sea temperatures than previously thought -- by adjusting over several generations.

The discovery, by researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University and CSIRO sheds a ray of hope amid the rising concern over the future of coral reefs and their fish under the levels of global warming expected to occur by the end of the 21st century.
Understanding the ability of species to acclimatise to rising temperatures over longer time periods is critical for predicting the biological consequences of global warming -- yet it remains one of the least understood aspects of climate science. The scientists were seeking to discover how fish would cope with the elevated sea temperatures expected by 2050 and 2100.

I got very interested with this article because last year I was learning about Climate Change, and how the sea temperatures may change. We are going through many changes that are affecting us now or will in the future, for me it is very important to be informed of the things that are happening around the world and the subject of this article talks about something that may affect me someday. We can see that a population of fish can affect the temperature of the sea.

The Areas of Interactions used in this article are, in my opinion, Environment, because what happens under the sea is also part of our environment and this may force us to do many changes that may affect the environment. I think that Health and Social Education are also used in this article because this article is to infomr us all of what is happening so this is social education and the population of fish may affect our health because some of them may be contamined or they may reporoduce with health deseases.
This is a very interesting article that we should all read and take some precautons and learn of what is happening out there. 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/plants_animals/fisheries/8/

Brain Implant Surgeries Dramatically Improve Symptoms of Debilitating Condition

ScienceDaily (Mar. 8, 2012) — Implanting electrodes into a pea-sized part of the brain can dramatically improve life for people with severe cervical dystonia -- a rare but extremely debilitating condition that causes painful, twisting neck muscle spasms -- according to the results of a pilot study led by Jill Ostrem, MD and Philip Starr, MD PhD at the University of California, San Francisco.

Today, people with cervical dystonia can be treated with medications or injections of Botox, which interrupt signals from the brain that cause these problems. However, those treatments do not provide adequate relief for all patients. Over the last decade, doctors at UCSF and elsewhere have turned to a technique called deep brain stimulation to help people with debilitating dystonia. Also used to treat Parkinson's disease and the neurological disorder essential tremor, the technique is like putting a pacemaker inside a heart patient's chest, except that deep brain stimulation requires a neurosurgeon to implant electrodes inside the brain.

I got interested with this article because I know about many types of inplants, but I never heard about a brain implant. It is very intresting that a brain implant can change the way a part of your body functions. This may facilitate cervical problems, but I am worried that it may damage or affecft some part of your brain or your body. It is a very cool invention and I hope it works.

Right now I can not connect it really to my daily life, but my mom had a cervical problem so she had to get operated, if this implant would have excisted when she got operated she may had put that implant because it may be easier. She still suffers of back hurts and maybe if she would have had the implant she wouldn't suffer anymore. This brain implant scares me a little because the brain is very delicate so it's kind of risky. I hope I will never have cervical problems, but if I do and this implant is successful I may get one if I need to.

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2011/03/9511/brain-implant-surgeries-ucsf-dramatically-improve-symptoms-debilitating-condition

Oil from Deepwater Horizon Disaster Entered Food Chain in the Gulf of Mexico

Oil rig in Gulf of Mexico. (Credit: Photo by James Pierson.)

ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2012) — Since the explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, scientists have been working to understand the impact that this disaster has had on the environment. For months, crude oil gushed into the water at a rate of approximately 53,000 barrels per day before the well was capped on July 15, 2010. A new study confirms that oil from the Macondo well made it into the ocean's food chain through the tiniest of organisms, zooplankton.
Tiny drifting animals in the ocean, zooplankton are useful to track oil-derived pollution. They serve as food for baby fish and shrimp and act as conduits for the movement of oil contamination and pollutants into the food chain. The study confirms that not only did oil affect the ecosystem in the Gulf during the blowout, but it was still entering the food web after the well was capped.

This article called a lot my attention, because currently our planet Earth is going into a tough situation that can lead to crisis, due to the fact of all the pollution is done daily. I would love to make a change even though I don't know how can I do it, I don't want to do a little change.. I want to make a world-wide impact that will help us have a better place to live, and by starting reading about the current problems around the world I can start learning. Even though the disaster is not in my country and it is not affecting it right now, it may affect us later because if it affects the food chain it can get to the point that it can affect our food web. Everyday we can see that more and more problems occur, more pollution is made, more endangered species, more diseases, water scarcity, etc.. Do we want to keep on living in this kind of world?

Do we want this?













Or this?














We are responsible for that, we need to make a change NOW before it's too late.. Let's think about our future, and the future of our kids.. We want them to go to beautiful places and know them.. We don't want to tell them "This used to be such a beautiful place full of trees."
This article is so important because every animal is important in the Food Chain, so it may affect world wide.
The Areas of Interaction I consider that take place in the article are: Environment, this issue is definitely affecting our environment and the natural creature that live in the Gulf of Mexico; Health and Social Education, this disaster entered the food chain and that is a major issue because that will affect the food they eat and the other animals that depend on the ones that are dying. It is an important topic that need to be talked about and find solutions to it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120320142100.htm

Rap Music Powers Rhythmic Action of Medical Sensor

(Jan. 26, 2012) — The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.


ScienceDaily
This graphic illustrates the principles behind the operation of a new type of miniature medical sensor powered by acoustic waves, including those found in music such as rap, blues, jazz and rock. The device, a pressure sensor, might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis. (Credit: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)

Acoustic waves from music, particularly rap, were found to effectively recharge the pressure sensor. Such a device might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis. The heart of the sensor is a vibrating cantilever, a thin beam attached at one end like a miniature diving board. Music within a certain range of frequencies, from 200-500 hertz, causes the cantilever to vibrate, generating electricity and storing a charge in a capacitor, said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering.

This article really interested me because I constantly hear rap music, like many of the songs I hear have rap included and in parties Rap is also very common, so it is interesting to read about a topic that its part of my daily life and my friends' lives.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126152129.htm

When the Heat's On, Some Fish Can Cope: Certain Tropical Species Have Greater Capacity to Deal With Rising Sea Temperatures Than Thought

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) — Australian scientists have discovered that some tropical fish have a greater capacity to cope with rising sea temperatures than previously thought -- by adjusting over several generations.

The discovery, by researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University and CSIRO sheds a ray of hope amid the rising concern over the future of coral reefs and their fish under the levels of global warming expected to occur by the end of the 21st century.
Understanding the ability of species to acclimatise to rising temperatures over longer time periods is critical for predicting the biological consequences of global warming -- yet it remains one of the least understood aspects of climate science. The scientists were seeking to discover how fish would cope with the elevated sea temperatures expected by 2050 and 2100.

I got very interested with this article because last year I was learning about Climate Change, and how the sea temperatures may change. We are going through many changes that are affecting us now or will in the future, for me it is very important to be informed of the things that are happening around the world and the subject of this article talks about something that may affect me someday. We can see that a population of fish can affect the temperature of the sea.

The Areas of Interactions used in this article are, in my opinion, Environment, because what happens under the sea is also part of our environment and this may force us to do many changes that may affect the environment. I think that Health and Social Education are also used in this article because this article is to infomr us all of what is happening so this is social education and the population of fish may affect our health because some of them may be contamined or they may reporoduce with health deseases.
This is a very interesting article that we should all read and take some precautons and learn of what is happening out there.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111205102631.htm

Science one step closer to less energy intensive artificial photosynthesis

MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2011

Artificial photosynthesis is the process with the main purpose of converting carbon dioxide into some useful chemical(s), most notably fuel. The primary goal of artificial photosynthesis is not to find new ways to get more fuel but to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions and reduce climate change impact. The main problem with artificial photosynthesis has always been the fact that this process is too energy intensive. This mainly refers to the first step of artificial photosynthesis, namely converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide because this process requires so much electricity that the end result is that the bigger amount of energy is being used to produce the fuel than can be stored in the fuel.

Because of this issue science has a demanding task of finding a right catalyst that will improve artificial photosynthesis and make it less energy intensive.The latest research on this field comes from the University of Illinois where scientists have used an ionic liquid to catalyze the reaction which has significantly reduced the amount of energy needed to turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide because the ionic liquids stabilize the intermediates in the reaction so that less electricity is needed to complete the conversion.

http://sciencefactsandarticles.blogspot.com/

This article interested me a lot because everyday I reflect on how much I am contributing on climate change by using electricity and ¨producing¨carbon dioxide emissions. I worry a lot about thins things because I feel that I cannot make a change, but I see that everyday more people are worrying about this things , and this article talks about projects and things groups of people are coming up with to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the improvement of artificial photosynthesis and to make it less energy intensive. I really like knowing about projects that people are coming up with of how to make our Earth greener, so this article talked to me about one of the projects and I find it very interesting.

Obviously I can connect this article with my daily life because every day more and more companies, schools, houses, etc. are trying to reduce Co2 emissions and less polluting. Us, as individuals, are worrying more about this probloems because the changes in our environment are starting to affect us, so this article is giving us ideas of how to help our home (Earth.)

This article uses the 3 areas of interactions. Environment: This is about how our environment is affected and the plans and projects of how to resolve this problmes. Human Ingenuity: New creations humans are doing to help our planet become greener. Health and Social Education or Community and Service: This article educates people about the problems we are having now and the solutions for it and the group of poeple that are doing this projects are contributing to community and service because they are helping the community to have a better place to live. :)

BE GREEN!

Orbital Observations of Mercury Reveal Flood Lavas, Hollows, and Unprecedented Surface Details

ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2011) — After only six months in orbit around Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is sending back information that has revolutionized the way scientists think about the innermost planet. Analyses of new data from the spacecraft show, among other things, new evidence that flood volcanism has been widespread on Mercury, the first close-up views of Mercury's "hollows," the first direct measurements of the chemical composition of Mercury's surface, and the first global inventory of plasma ions within Mercury's space environment.

An example of a large crater (Tyagaraja, 97 km in diameter) with a floor partially covered by large numbers of coalesced hollows. (Credit: Courtesy of Science/AAAS)

For decades scientists had puzzled over whether Mercury had volcanic deposits on its surface. MESSENGER's three flybys answered that question in the affirmative, but the global distribution of volcanic materials was not well constrained. New data from orbit show a huge expanse of volcanic plains surrounding the north polar region of Mercury. These continuous smooth plains cover more than 6% of the total surface of Mercury.

This information turns out to be very interesting for me because new materials are being found in Mercury, everyday new things are discovered and the way scientists think change all the time because of the new discoveries. This information is completely new so if evidence of flood volcanism has been discovered maybe one day we can fin evidence of living things in Mercury or in other galaxies, and that would be very cool. This information may be of interest for some of us or maybe not because it doesn't necessarily affect us in any way. But for me is important to know about things that happen outside of my life, a lot of things happen around the world that may never affect me but I like knowing what is happening outside my window because someday it may affect me or it may be useful for me.

In my opinion the Areas of Interactions used in this article are: Environments an Social education because this discovery occurred in an environment and maybe more things can occur in that environment, and the other one is Social Education because this information its not only educating scientist that got to change their minds because of this but also the community to know that outside are planet many things happen that may affect us in a good or bad way.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929150927.htm