Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Science News *Fastest Sea-Level Rise in 2,000 Years Linked to Increasing Global Temperatures)

Rising seas lap at a house in South America
 ScienceDaily (June 20, 2011) — The rate of sea level rise along the U.S. Atlantic coast is greater now than at any time in the past 2,000 years -- and has shown a consistent link between changes in global mean surface temperature and sea level.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), was conducted by Andrew Kemp, Yale University; Benjamin Horton, University of Pennsylvania; Jeffrey Donnelly, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University; Martin Vermeer, Aalto University School of Engineering, Finland; and Stefan Rahmstorf, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.
"Having a detailed picture of rates of sea level change over the past two millennia provides an important context for understanding current and potential future changes," says Paul Cutler, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.
"It's especially valuable for anticipating the evolution of coastal systems," he says, "in which more than half the world's population now lives."
Adds Kemp, "Scenarios of future rise are dependent on understanding the response of sea level to climate changes. Accurate estimates of past sea-level variability provide a context for such projections."
Kemp and colleagues developed the first continuous sea-level reconstruction for the past 2,000 years, and compared variations in global temperature to changes in sea level over that time period.
The team found that sea level was relatively stable from 200 BC to 1,000 AD.
Then in the 11th century, sea level rose by about half a millimeter each year for 400 years, linked with a warm climate period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly.
Then there was a second period of stable sea level during a cooler period called the Little Ice Age. It persisted until the late 19th century.
Since the late 19th century, sea level has risen by more than 2 millimeters per year on average, the steepest rate for more than 2,100 years.
"Sea-level rise is a potentially disastrous outcome of climate change," says Horton, "as rising temperatures melt land-based ice, and warm ocean waters."
To reconstruct sea level, the scientists used microfossils called foraminifera preserved in sediment cores extracted from coastal salt marshes in North Carolina. The age of the cores was estimated using radiocarbon dating and other techniques.
To test the validity of their approach, the team compared its reconstructions with tide-gauge measurements from North Carolina for the past 80 years, and global tide-gauge records for the past 300 years.
A second reconstruction from Massachusetts confirmed their findings.
The records were corrected for contributions to sea-level rise made by vertical land movements.
The reconstructed changes in sea level over the past millennium are consistent with past global temperatures, the researchers say, and can be determined using a model relating the rate of sea level rise to global temperature.
"Data from the past helped calibrate our model, and will improve sea level rise projections under scenarios of future temperature increases," says Rahmstorf.
Support for the research also was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey, the Academy of Finland, the European Science Foundation through European Cooperation in Science and Technology and the University of Pennsylvania.
ScienceDaily (June 20, 2011) — The rate of sea level rise along the U.S. Atlantic coast is greater now than at any time in the past 2,000 years -- and has shown a consistent link between changes in global mean surface temperature and sea level.

Reflections:
So Sea Level is rising again! This time, by more than 2mm per year! And all these are linked to Global warming, our climate is getting hotter and hotter, the ozone layer is depleting, the world's sea levels are rising drastically and drowning islands, our world is getting dirtier, weaker and warmer. And nobody is doing anything to save it, just quite ignorant of the fact that by dumping one peice of rubbish doesn't really making a difference on the world's climate and ecosystem. But imagine a entire city of million doing the exact same thing and h ow it is going to hurt our ecosystems. Rising temperatures melt land-based ice, and warm ocean waters, these water from the ice eventually flows into bigger oceans lie the Atlantic and Pacific. When the ocean waters warm, fishes cant survive, coral reefs get bleached and die. A warm sea has greater volume than a cold sea and when the sea is heated it will increase in volume, leading to changes in sea level (thermal expansion). The oceans are large and are enormous energy stores. They are heated slowly and retain the heat for a long time, long after the heating has ceased. It takes years to transport heat down to the ocean depths. Even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases today, the sea will get warmer and warmer, and rise for the next 20 years. Plankton will also not be able to survive in these warm waters and many animals in the water will migrate in search of colder areas. This is a serious cause for concern but many people are still not aware of it or they are just acting ignorant of teh fact that they, themselves will be the ones paying for their mistakes. When the ocean floods towns and drowns people, and the Sun's UV Rays shine through and more people die from skin cancer, droughts occur, only then will the uncaring people regret what they've done over the past few decades. When people cut down trees, they may say that it is essential to cut trees for paper, if not, there would not be enough paper in the industry. These paper companies have never thought of any initiatives to save these trees, these trees just give them money, and money is what they want. Everyone, including you and me will have the mentality when we litter that, our one piece of litter doesn't affect our climate at all, but imagine the difference when 10000 people in the world litter at the same time. Our Earth may be able to tolerate 100 peices of litter, but will it be able to tolerate 10000 peices of litter at the same time? We may think that we are not going to be the ones affected because there is still a long time before Sea Levels start to flood islands and  the Ozone Rays get depleted, but that is a seemingly irresponsible and selfish thought. Haven't we always wanted the best for our children and further generations? If these were what we wanted to give them, i would like to say that mankind has failed itself. Without doubt, i could point everyone who is hurting the environment in his own way. Be it, logging, littering, not recycling, reusing or reducing or dumping rubbish at landfills, everyone is an environment destroyer. The world we live in just gets hotter and hotter, for example, Singapore's temperatures have been rising drastically, over the past few years and i have reasonable evidence that many singaporenas like you and me are feeling the heat. We may be able to stant the heat now and until we die, but will our children be able to stand the climate conditions when the temperateure goes over 40 degrees? The climate changes, storms erupt more frequently, resulting in severe flooding, during very warm weather, droughts starts, islands get flooded by the sealevel and in the worst case scenario- Many people die from heatstroke. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornados become even more common. During that time, every country an every island will be affected by some form of natural disaster, and no country will be spared! Even then, we may be already lying in our own graves an watching the inferno outside, but think, if the disasters were all whecked on our children and us responsible for it, think of the pain they will suffer. Why not just make our Universe a better place for everyone? So if we do not start now, and continue our ignorant, irresponsible and uncaring mentalities and ways, never will we be able to save our universe, it will just forever remain as a broken promise. A broken promise made by the 21 century people to save the universe. But they never did. Start now! Cut down on logging, reduce emmissions, reduce, reuse and recycle! And most importantly, dump your car and never drive it again. As i end my long reflection here, i want to urge everyone to be mindful of the state of their Earth and not be ignorant, irresponsible about their future. The future of everyone belongs and depends on us, it is up to us to make the right decisions! Below is an interesting video about the Rising Seas.

Hoped you liked that video which mentioned many important information about the warming of ocean and the rising of sea levels, including the melting of Glaciers and the Antartic Ice Sheets.

Practical Four and Five (Observations and Recording)

In this post, i am going to talk about sodium bicarbonate which is also known as baking soda, since this practical featured an experiment on baking soda. Baking Soda, so what are its uses? Everyone might think that it is just something sommonly used during cooking, flavouring etc. however do you know that Baking Soda can actually act as a cure for certain caners? Just white powder, do not underestimate its powers, eating it everyday will give a boost to your health but i believe no one will dare to eat it plain. Read on to find out more. But before that, i would first like to show you a baking soda bomb.

Wasn't it cool? The men were completely covered with the reaction of Baking Soda with Water. So what is Sodium Bicarbonate? Sodium bicarbonate is a white solid that is crystalline but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste resembling that of sodium carbonate. It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs. The natural mineral form, nahcolite, is found in dissolved form in bile, where it serves to neutralize the acidity of the hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach, and is excreted into the small intestine via the bile duct. It is also produced artificially. Since it has long been known and is widely used, the salt has many related names such as baking soda, bread soda, cooking soda, and bicarbonate of soda.

Sodium Bicarabonate is a very useful product, i now list out, its many uses. Sodium bicarbonate is primarily used in cooking (baking) where it reacts with other components to release carbon dioxide, which causes dough to rise. The acidic compounds that induce this reaction include phosphates, cream of tartar, lemon juice, yogurt, buttermilk, cocoa, vinegar, etc. Sodium bicarbonate can be substituted for baking powder provided sufficient acid reagent is also added to the recipe. Thermal decomposition causes sodium bicarbonate alone to act as a raising agent by releasing carbon dioxide at baking temperatures. The carbon dioxide production starts at temperatures above 80 C. The mixture for cakes using this method can be allowed to stand before baking without any premature release of carbon dioxide.

Many laboratories keep a bottle of sodium bicarbonate powder within easy reach, because sodium bicarbonate is amphoteric, reacting with acids and bases. Furthermore, as it is relatively innocuous in most situations, there is no harm in using excess sodium bicarbonate. Also, sodium bicarbonate powder may be used to smother a small fire, as heating of sodium bicarbonate releases carbon dioxide.
A wide variety of applications follows from its neutralization properties, including reducing the spread of white phosphorus from incendiary bullets inside an afflicted soldier's wounds. Sodium bicarbonate can be added as a simple solution for raising the pH balance of water where high levels of chlorine (2–5 ppm) are present as in swimming pools and aquariums.



Sodium bicarbonate is used in an aqueous solution as an antacid taken orally to treat acid indigestion and heartburn.  It may also be used in an oral form to treat chronic forms of metabolic acidosis such as chronic renal failure and renal tubular acidosis. Sodium bicarbonate may also be useful in urinary alkalinization for the treatment of aspirin overdose and uric acid renal stones. It is used as the medicinal ingredient in gripe water for infants.

Bicarb has been known to be used in first aid, in treating scalding, to prevent blistering and scarring with instructions to cover scaled area with a liberal layer of bicarb. It is used as well for treatment of hyperkalemia. Since sodium bicarbonate can cause alkalosis, it is sometimes used to treat aspirin overdoses. Aspirin requires an acidic environment for proper absorption, and the basic environment diminishes aspirin absorption in the case of an overdose. Sodium bicarbonate has also been used in the treatment of tricyclic antidepressant overdose. It can also be applied topically as a paste, with three parts baking soda to one part water, to relieve insect bites.




A paste from baking soda can be very effective when used in cleaning and scrubbing.  For cleaning aluminium objects, the use of sodium bicarbonate is discouraged as it attacks the thin unreactive protective oxide layer of this otherwise very reactive metal. A solution in warm water will remove the tarnish from silver when the silver is in contact with a piece of aluminium foil.

Baking soda is commonly added to the rinse cycles of washing machines (together with the detergent) as a replacement for softener and also to remove odors. Sodium bicarbonate is also effective in removing heavy tea and coffee stains from cups when diluted with warm water.

Also, Baking Soda can be used ot put out small fires as it releases carbon dioxide upon heating. Recently, new studies have shown that Baking Soda can actually improve or even cure some types of cancers. Sodium Bicarbonate is indeed an useful chemical which i feel should be further exploited for any other uses, because studies may open up even more benefits of Sodium Bicarbonate! I end my post here and i ho[e that you have learnt alot about this special chemical usually used in Cooking. I will be skipping some practicals on the Measurement of length, and the densities of the regular and irregular solids.

Practical Two and Three (Hot Stuffs and Types of Flames)

So in Practical two, we learnt how to use the Bunsen Burner. Now, lets review the parts of a Bunsen Burner- It has a Barrel, Air Hole, Jet, Collar and the Gas Tap. The Barrel is to raise the flame to a suitable height for burning, the collar, to control the amount of air entering the burner by opening or closing the air-holes, the gas tap to control the flow of gas to the Bunsen Burner, the Air Hole to allow air to enter the burner, the Jet to enable the gas to rush out from the gas supply and to draw in air, the Base to support the burner so that it will not topple. Now, we have finished with this basec review of practical two. Now, i would proceed with a phenomena, related to Bunsen Burner but more connected to electricity. Watch the video below to learn more:



Wasnt it amazing that he managed to light the Bunsen Burner with only his fingers? The answer is actually no. Although it may seem to be very amazing, there is a very simple explanation to it. You can see that in the video, the students were all joining hands and the last person joined hands with the blue shirted girl and her hand was on something called the Van De Graaf Generator. Now, i will tell you guys more about the generator.
Van De Graaf Generator
A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate very high electrostatically stable voltages on a hollow metal globe on the top of the stand. It was invented in 1929 by American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff. The Van de Graaff generator can be thought of as a constant-current source connected in parallel with a capacitor and a very large electrical resistance.

A simple Van de Graaff-generator consists of a belt of silk, or a similar flexible material, running over two metal pulleys, one of which is surrounded by a hollow metal sphere. Two electrodes in the form of comb-shaped rows of sharp metal points, are positioned respectively near to the bottom of the lower pulley and inside the sphere, over the upper pulley. One Comb is connected to the sphere, and the other comb  to the ground. A high DC potential (with respect to earth) is applied to the roller ; a positive potential in this example.

As the belt passes in front of the lower comb, it receives negative charge that escapes from its points due to the influence of the electric field around the lower pulley, which ionizes the air at the points. As the belt touches the upper roller, it transfers some electrons, leaving the roller with a negative charge, which added to the negative charge in the belt generates enough electric field to ionize the air at the points of the upper comb. Electrons then leak from the belt to the upper comb and to the terminal, leaving the belt positively charged as it returns down and the terminal negatively charged. The sphere shields the upper roller and comb from the electric field generated by charges that accumulate at the outer surface of it, causing the discharge and change of polarity of the belt at the upper roller to occur practically as if the terminal were grounded. As the belt continues to move, a constant charging current travels via the belt, and the sphere continues to accumulate negative charge until the rate that charge is being lost equals the charging current. The larger the sphere and the farther it is from ground, the higher will be its final potential.

Since a Van de Graaff generator can supply the same small current at almost any level of electrical potential, it is an example of a nearly ideal current source. The maximum achievable potential is approximately equal to the sphere's radius multiplied by the e-field where corona discharges begin to form within the surrounding gas.

Now, let us connect this to the video shown, when the teacher touched the small Van De Graaf Generator, a small change passed through here body, transfering to the other students and finally to the last person whow as the one to light up the bunsen burner. As there was a small charge inside his body. (Static electricity), Bunsen Burners, just need a small spark to light it up and in daily life, people use, match sticks or lighters are used. When the guy moved his hands close to the Bunsen Burner, as it was made of metal, there was a spark which came fromt eh guys finger when his hand came into close range of the burner's barrel, the small charge then ignited the Burner. This is a cool experiment i found out about the burner, i have finished giving the explanation and as i end my post here, i urge people not to try out the siilar experiment because, you may get yourself burned in the process! This post will include practicals two and three because they are both linked together.Read on to the next practical!

Practical Seven (TIme travel)

Although this Practical is titled Measurement of Time, i will be writing about Time Travel and will also include some videos and also photos, as everyone knows, time travel had always been debunked by many scientists, however, the discovery of it is getting closer and closer to us, one day, we may even be able to see our great great grandparents by jumping through a worm hole! Read on to find out more! The following is a video by National Geography, showing you the possibilities of interstelar travel.


 I hope you had fun watching this video, now i will start explaning the possibilities of time travel. So what is time travel? Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects (or in some cases just information) backwards in time to some moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period (at least not at the normal rate). Although many people have thought that time travel was 100% impossible, it has been proved to be possible given the phenomenon of time dilation based on velocity in the theory of special relativity as well as gravitational time dilation in the theory of general relativity, theories by Einstein. However, Einstein did not manage to find out whether the laws of physics allowed backward time travel.
If you want to advance through the years a little faster than the next person, you'll need to exploit space-time. Global positioning satellites pull this off every day, accruing an extra third-of-a-billionth of a second daily. Time passes faster in orbit, because satellites are farther away from the mass of the Earth. Down here on the surface, the planet's mass drags on time and slows it down in small measures.
We call this effect gravitational time dilation. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity is a curve in space-time and astronomers regularly observe this phenomenon when they study light moving near a sufficiently massive object. Particularly large suns, for instance, can cause an otherwise straight beam of light to curve in what we call the gravitational lensing effect.
What does this have to do with time? Remember: Any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time. Gravity doesn't just pull on space; it also pulls on time.  
You wouldn't be able to notice minute changes in the flow of time, but a sufficiently massive object would make a huge difference -- say, like the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A at the center of our galaxy. Here, the mass of 4 million suns exists as a single, infinitely dense point, known as a singularity [source: NASA]. Circle this black hole for a while (without falling in) and you'd experience time at half the Earth rate. In other words, you'd round out a five-year journey to discover an entire decade had passed on Earth

Speed also plays a role in the rate at which we experience time. Time passes more slowly the closer you approach the unbreakable cosmic speed limit we call the speed of light. For instance, the hands of a clock in a speeding train move more slowly than those of a stationary clock. A human passenger wouldn't feel the difference, but at the end of the trip the speeding clock would be slowed by billionths of a second. If such a train could attain 99.999 percent of light speed, only one year would pass onboard for every 223 years back at the train station

In effect, this hypothetical commuter would have traveled into the future. But what about the past? Could the fastest starship imaginable turn back the clock?

We've established that time travel into the future happens all the time. Scientists have proven it in experiments, and the idea is a fundamental aspect of Einstein's theory of relativity. You'll make it to the future; it's just a question of how fast the trip will be. But what about travel into the past? A glance into the night sky should supply an answer.


The Milky Way galaxy is roughly 100,000 light-years wide, so light from its more distant stars can take thousands upon thousands of years to reach Earth. Glimpse that light, and you're essentially looking back in time. When astronomers measure the cosmic microwave background radiation, they stare back more than 10 billion years into a primordial cosmic age. But can we do better than this?

There's nothing in Einstein's theory that precludes time travel into the past, but the very premise of pushing a button and going back to yesterday violates the law of causality, or cause and effect. One event happens in our universe, and it leads to yet another in an endless one-way string of events. In every instance, the cause occurs before the effect. Just try to imagine a different reality, say, in which a murder victim dies of his or her gunshot wound before being shot. It violates reality as we know it; thus, many scientists dismiss time travel into the past as an impossibility.


Some scientists have proposed the idea of using faster-than-light travel to journey back in time. After all, if time slows as an object approaches the speed of light, then might exceeding that speed cause time to flow backward? Of course, as an object nears the speed of light, its relativistic mass increases until, at the speed of light, it becomes infinite. Accelerating an infinite mass any faster than that is impossible. Warp speed technology could theoretically cheat the universal speed limit by propelling a bubble of space-time across the universe, but even this would come with colossal, far-future energy costs.

But what if time travel into the past and future depends less on speculative space propulsion technology and more on existing cosmic phenomena? Set a course for the black hole.

Imagine space as a curved two-dimensional plane. Wormholes like this could form when two masses apply enough force on space-time to create a tunnel connecting distant points. 
 Now, i would specifically talk about wormholes, i wont ention about black holes or cosmic strings. So
theoretical Kerr black holes aren't the only possible cosmic shortcut to the past or future. As made popular by everything from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" to "Donnie Darko," there's also the equally theoretical Einstein-Rosen bridge to consider. But of course you know this better as a wormhole.

Einstein's general theory of relativity allows for the existence of wormholes since it states that any mass curves space-time. To understand this curvature, think about two people holding a bedsheet up and stretching it tight. If one person were to place a baseball on the bedsheet, the weight of the baseball would roll to the middle of the sheet and cause the sheet to curve at that point. Now, if a marble were placed on the edge of the same bedsheet it would travel toward the baseball because of the curve.

In this simplified example, space is depicted as a two-dimensional plane rather than a four-dimensional one. Imagine that this sheet is folded over, leaving a space between the top and bottom. Placing the baseball on the top side will cause a curvature to form. If an equal mass were placed on the bottom part of the sheet at a point that corresponds with the location of the baseball on the top, the second mass would eventually meet with the baseball. This is similar to how wormholes might develop.

In space, masses that place pressure on different parts of the universe could combine eventually to create a kind of tunnel. This tunnel would, in theory, join two separate times and allow passage between them. Of course, it's also possible that some unforeseen physical or quantum property prevents such a wormhole from occurring. And even if they do exist, they may be incredibly unstable.

According to astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, wormholes may exist in quantum foam, the smallest environment in the universe. Here, tiny tunnels constantly blink in and out of existence, momentarily linking separate places and time like an ever-changing game of "Chutes and Ladders."

Wormholes such as these might prove too small and too brief for human time travel, but might we one day learn to capture, stabilize and enlarge them? Certainly, says Hawking, provided you're prepared for some feedback. If we were to artificially prolong the life of a tunnel through folded space-time, a radiation feedback loop might occur, destroying the time tunnel in the same way audio feedback can wreck a speaker.

You can just imagine the wormhole like a peice of a3 paper, the a3 paper seems to be very long and Einstein have said that space is in relation to time, so when you fold that peice of a3 paper into half, theres the top and bottom pages, one facing the top and the other facing the bottom, just likt the picture on top, now what does a wormhole do in time travel? It shortens your passage, the top and bottom sides of the wormhole are connecting different universes together, if you jump in fromt eh top side, you will end up at the bottom side. Its as simple as that! It acts as a long tunnel where you just slide through and end up at a different universe.

Now, after having explained all the facts behind the wormhole and time travel theory, there is another video i want all of you to watch, after which i would end this interesting post on time travel. Note that this post is related to Practical Seven. (Measurement of Time)

Hope you had enjoyed these videos! Look on for more posts!

Science News (Buzz Kills: No Amount of Alcohol Safe to Drive)

                  New research finds that blood-alcohol levels well below the U.S. legal limit are associated with incapacitating injury and death.    
ScienceDaily (June 20, 2011) — In the United States, the blood-alcohol limit may be 0.08 percent, but no amount of alcohol seems to be safe for driving, according to a University of California, San Diego sociologist. A study led by David Phillips and published in the journal Addiction finds that blood-alcohol levels well below the U.S. legal limit are associated with incapacitating injury and death.

Phillips, with coauthor Kimberly M. Brewer, also of UC San Diego, examined official data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). This dataset includes information on all persons in the U.S. who were involved in fatal car accidents -- 1,495,667 people in the years 1994 to 2008. The researchers used FARS because it is nationally comprehensive, covering all U.S. counties, all days of the week and all times of day, and, perhaps most important, reports on blood-alcohol content in increments of 0.01.
All the accidents included in FARS are, by definition, severe. But the authors looked at different levels of accident severity by examining the ratio of severe injuries to minor ones.
"Accidents are 36.6 percent more severe even when alcohol was barely detectable in a driver's blood," Phillips said. Even with a BAC of 0.01, Phillips and Brewer write, there are 4.33 serious injuries for every non-serious injury versus 3.17 for sober drivers.
There are at least three mechanisms that help to explain this finding, Phillips said: "Compared with sober drivers, buzzed drivers are more likely to speed, more likely to be improperly seat-belted and more likely to drive the striking vehicle, all of which are associated with greater severity."
There also seems to be a strong "dose-response" relationship between all these factors, the authors write: The greater the blood-alcohol content, the greater the average speed of the driver and the greater the severity of the accident, for example.
The findings persist even when such potentially confounding variables as inattention and fatigue are excluded from the analysis.
In general, accident severity is significantly higher on weekends, between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. and in the summer months, June through August. But when the researchers standardized for day of the week, for time of day and for month, the relationship between BAC and more dangerous car accidents also persisted.
"Up till now, BAC limits have been determined not only by rational considerations and by empirical findings but also by political and cultural factors," Phillips said, citing as evidence that the U.S. national standard of 0.08 is relatively recent and that BAC limits vary greatly by country. In Germany, the limit is 0.05; in Japan, 0.03; and in Sweden, 0.02.
"We hope that our study might influence not only U.S. legislators, but also foreign legislators, in providing empirical evidence for lowering the legal BAC even more," Phillips said. "Doing so is very likely to reduce incapacitating injuries and to save lives."

ScienceDaily (June 20, 2011) — In the United States, the blood-alcohol limit may be 0.08 percent, but no amount of alcohol seems to be safe for driving, according to a University of California, San Diego sociologist. A study led by David Phillips and published in the journal Addiction finds that blood-alcohol levels well below the U.S. legal limit are associated with incapacitating injury and death.

Reflections:
I feel that drink driving should be stictly prohibited, regardless of how much alcohol a person has in their bodies, whether it is 0.01 percent or 0.08 percent. As this study had pointed out, no amount of alcohol is safe to drive and accidents are always more prone to occur when a person has alcohol is thier body, regardless of the dose. As the does gets higher, the proneness of an accident just gets even higher. 1,495,667 people in the years 1994 to 2008 were involved in such drink driving car accidents and they prove to be the ignorant sort. I fell that more people are not cherishing their lives and getting over confident about themselves, for example, they will try to boost their drivin skills by saying that they could still drive properly though having more than 0.08 percent of alcohol in their blood. Now, studies have found that even 0.1 percent of alcohol can affect thinking and decision makings. As you see, buzzed drivers are more likely to speed, more likely to be improperly seat-belted and more likely to drive the striking vehicle and the greater the blood-alcohol content, the greater the average speed of the driver and the greater the severity of the accident. In more developed countries like Sweden, their permitted alcohol limit is 0.02 percent, this shows the quality of law-enforcement and safety regulations in more developed countries. Even Singapore, a very developed country has an alcohol range is 0.8 percent. I fell that Singapore should not follow countries like American, instead countries like Japan and Sweden. Even better, Singapore should set a o percent alcohol range for drivers as reports have already shown that even 0.1 percent of alcohol could cause accidents. Drink-Drivers should also be severely punished. Below is a video about what will happen when drunk pilots fly a plane:

Monday, June 20, 2011

Interesting Videos (How do you Crush cans with Water!)

How do you crush Cans with water? Everyone wants to know the answer to this question and i am sure all of you will be surprised at how simple, efficient and low-cost, So after watching the video and the explanation, if any of you guys want to try it, you can submit your videos of the experiments here and i will put it on this blog! Have fun watching the video below!

So, was the video cool? The man heated the can up and then submerged it into a can of cold water and the can simultaneously crackled and crushed by itself! Now, i will proceed to giving the explanation for this reaction. This is simply due to something called Charles law. So what is Charles law? A modern statement of Charles law would be-At constant pressure, the volume of a given mass of an ideal gas increases or decreases by the same factor as its temperature on the absolute temperature scale (i.e. the gas expands as the temperature increases) A more simple way of saying would be- As the temperature of something increases, its density would decrease. What is happening here in the video is that when the water boils, it actually forces all the air out of the can and when the can was quickly cooled in the bucket of ice water, it causes all the water vapour to condense which makes it vacuum inside the can, which means the air pressure outside of the can is stronger than the outside, and the can collapses on itself. The air pressure outside the can is simply too huge and forces the can to crush. I can compare this similarly to that of a submarine, when it goes too deep into teh water and exceeds its underwater depth limit, the airpressure outside is far too much stronger than the air pressure inside the submarine and pushes against the submarine's walls, forcing the metal to have a cracking sound. However, a submarine struction is designed to withstand such huge pressure, thus, it would not crush. Similarly, i can compare that to an airplane, there are many cases of airplanes breaking open resulting in severe decompression, similarly, the airpressure outside the plane when it is flying at an altitude of 30000 metres is very much stronger thant he air pressure inside the airplane, resulting in a severe decompression when any part of the airplne breaks off, regardless of whether it is the ceiling, floorboard or windows. Just a small crack will allow the air outside to rush in at a ery high speed and the air inside to rush out, pushing at each other. As for the metal can, when it is heated, the water will evaporate and the water vapour will rise, however as the can is covered, the vapour cannot escape, when the can is suddenly cooled, the water  vapour will condense suddenly and causes it to vacuum inside the can. One more contributing factor is that the air pressure outside the can overcomes the pressure inside and crushes it. I conclude my explanation here and please continue scouring my blog for more interesting articles and videos. This post covers two topics- Charles Law and severe decompression. As i end my post here, i just want to post a video regarding airplane severe decompression when some part of the airplane was blown off. Have fun watching!
This video is long-52 minutes, however, it is a very interesting reconstruction of the real scenario. 9 people were blown off, but amazingly, the plane manage to land at Honolulu.

Science News (Progress Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Reverse Blindness)

                        (An Educational Video about Iduced Pluripotent Stem Cells)


ScienceDaily (June 18, 2011) — Researchers have used cutting-edge stem cell technology to correct a genetic defect present in a rare blinding disorder, another step on a promising path that may one day lead to therapies to reverse blindness caused by common retinal diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa which affect millions of individuals.

In a study appearing in an advance online publication of the journal Stem Cells on June 15, 2011, investigators used recently developed technology to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a human patient with an uncommon inherited eye disease known as gyrate atrophy. This disorder affects retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, the cells critical to the support of the retina's photoreceptor cells, which function in the transmission of messages from the retina to parts of the brain that interpret images.
"When we generate iPS cells, correct the gene defect that is responsible for this disease, and guide these stem cells to become RPE cells, these RPE cells functioned normally. This is exciting because it demonstrates we can fix something that is out of order. It also supports our belief that in the future, one might be able to use this approach for replacement of cells lost or malfunctioning due to other more common diseases of the retina," said lead study author cell biologist Jason Meyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness, affecting an estimated 25-30 million people worldwide. One and a half million people worldwide are affected by retinitis pigmentosa.
Because iPS cells can be derived from the specific patient who needs them, use of these cells may avoid the problem of transplant rejection. In the study, vitamin B-6 also was used to treat the damaged RPE cells producing healthy cells that functioned normally. The retina is a relatively easily accessible part of the central nervous system, which makes it an attractive target for correction with iPS cells. Researchers are hopeful that once the gene defect responsible for a blinding disorder is corrected in iPS cells, these cells may be able to restore vision.
In addition to Meyer of the School of Science at IUPUI, "Optic Vesicle-like Structures Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Facilitate a Customized Approach to Retinal Disease Treatment" is co-authored by Sara E. Howden, Kyle A. Wallace, Amelia D. Verhoeven, Lynda S. Wright, Elizabeth E. Capowski, Jessica M. Martin, Shulan Tian, Ron Stewart, Bikash Pattnaik, James Thomson and David M. Gamm, all of the University of Wisconsin; and Isabel Pinilla of Blesa University Hospital and the Instituto Aragones de Ciencias de la Salud in Spain. Meyer is also a primary investigator with the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute at Indiana University School of Medicine. Thomson is also associated with the University of California -- Santa Barbara.


Reflections:
So Blindness can be reversed after all! Thanks to a professor called Shinya Yamanaka, Human-induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be directed to develop into light-sensing photoreceptor cells of the retina. It is hoped that these cells can be used to better understand and treat human disease affecting the visual system.Nowadays, as technology is being more and more developed, treatments of various deseases have started to surface, just like this Stem Cell treatment, which i believe lasted for very long during the trials. 


Macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness, affecting an estimated 25-30 million people worldwide. One and a half million people worldwide are affected by retinitis pigmentosa. Almost 10 percent of the worldwide population is affected by blindness and similar eye diseases, i feel that there is actually a need for a cure for blindess and this professor has done it, he had identified the cause of concern accurately and also surprisingly managed to even deduce a treatment for it. Sometimes, inventions of medicines, and cures always start with ideas, these ideas slowly form into trials and then being approved into the commercial sector. Cures always start with ideas and brainstorming. And also most importantly, a vast amount of research. Almost everyone knows that stem cells can be regenerated to any of our body's systems and they might think, why cant i just regenerate a brain or a heart using stem cells when a patient has heart failure or brain death? It is actually discored possible now, and many studies have started. But everything contains risks, using stem cells to regerate brain cells, or even used to treat blindess may cause caner as the stem cells might not grow properly and in the end, grow into cancer cells.

Somatic cells can be induced to convert to a pluripotent state simply by forcing the expression of a few genes, opens a phenomenal number of possibilities in regenerative medicine. However, the mutation of these genes actually resembles that of the mutation of cancer genes, thus, i hope that in depth studies would be conducted before the use of stem cell to treat illnesses and diseases is approved. We do not want an increase of cancer cases due to the use of stem cell treatments. Thus, everyone should execute caution with stem cell treatments and everything comes at a risk, however, as these treatments are new, and for illnesses like blindness which is uncurable with any other treatment, a sufferer should consider going for it as there is still a limited chance of success! One may never know if his/her treatment will succeed. I end my long reflection here and continue to read through my blog as it gets updated with newer posts!

Gimli Glider


Here is an ACE Project done by me about the Gimli Glider Incident when an Air Canada Beoing 676 ran out of fuel halfway and the pilot managed to sideslip the plane to safety. The near fatal incident was due to a miscalculation of the fuel needed for the journey and also equipment failure. Read on the powerpoint to find out more. To me, this project is one of my most interesting ones as i got to watch videos of the real incident on youtube. For the benefit of you guys, i have posted the videos below with 5 parts in total. Have fun watching!
Part One:






Hope these videos were interesting, now i will procede on to the other similar incident-the Mars Climate Orbiter Failure.

The Mars Obiter had entered Mars at a too low altitude, thus, it had disintegrated due to atmospheric stress. This was also a miscalculation of the distance by the NASA Scientists, as they had converted wrongly using the metric and imperial systems. The obiter could only withstand an atmospherix pressure of 80km, thus, it had exceeded an altitude of 30km and had disintegrated.The ground crew calculating the altitude were not well trained in the metric conversion and got it calculated wrongly and caused the disintegration of Mars Climate Orbiter. Below is also a video of the Mars Climate Orbiter:

So Indeed, you can see the power of atmospheric stress can exert, it can even disintegrate the orbiter, anyway, these are the two related ACE Projects i dont in Term One and i hope you had fun reading through and watching the videos:) As i am coming to the end of this post, i just want to urge people in the US to use the metric scale of conversion instead of the imperial scale!

Practical One (Getting to know the Science Laboratory)

This practical is titled (Getting to know the Science Laboratory). It is our first lesson of lower-secondary science and the first practical explained some general concepts of science, such as the laout of the science lab, the hazards of science, the tools in the lab and some safety precautions. So just as a precaution, let me list down the hazard symbols below:
Explosive Substances
Highly Flammable
Toxic Substances










Corrosive Substances
Radioactive Chemicals

Now, Lets Review the tools in the Science Lab. I would first state the Purpose and the Item of Equipment.
Purpose: To heat Substances   Item Of Equipment:
Bunsen Burner




Purpose: Together with bosshead and clamps, to hold items of equipment at a suitable height.
Item Of Equipment: 
Retort Stand
 Purpose: To support beakers and similar containers of substances while they are being heated.  
Item Of Equipment:
Tripod Stand And Wire Gauze
Purpose: To Pour Liquids from one container into another, can be used with filter paper to separate some mixtures.  
Item Of Equipment: 
Filter Funnel
Purpose: For measuring very accurately a specific volume of liquid.
Item Of Equipment: 
Pipette
Purpose: For measuring a volume of liquid to an accuracy of 0.1cm cube.
Item Of Equipment: 

Burette
Here, i conclude the blog post for practical one, ipractical 2 will be more interesting so please read on the next blog post- Practical Two!

Science News (Glimpsing the End of Our Solar System)

A Hubble Space Telescope color image of a small portion of the cluster only 0.63 light-years across reveals eight white dwarf stars (inside blue circles) among the cluster's much brighter population of yellow sun-like stars and cooler red dwarf stars. (Credit: Harvey Richer (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) and NASA).


ScienceDaily (June 17, 2011) — Researchers at the University of Leicester are investigating the possible eventual fate of the solar system by examining 'white dwarf' stars elsewhere in our galaxy.

A white dwarf is the last stage in the life cycle of a star like the Sun, after it has contracted to a diameter smaller than that of Earth. Incredibly dense, one teaspoon of white dwarf material would weigh about five tonnes.
Nathan Dickinson, a postgraduate student in the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, is researching the chemical composition of white dwarfs for his PhD. He is particularly interested in the presence of 'heavy elements' in and around white dwarfs, which are otherwise mainly composed of the two simplest elements, hydrogen and helium.
Data from the Hubble Space Telescope provides a spectrum for each star which reveals its chemical make-up. Older, cooler white dwarfs, with a temperature of less than 25,000 degrees, sometimes contain elements such as oxygen, nitrogen, silicon and iron which have been 'hoovered up' from the remains of planets.
Younger, hotter white dwarfs, above that temperature always show heavy chemicals due to their high temperature. However, they sometimes exhibit more of this material than is expected, which raises the question of whether this extra material also came from planets or whether it originated elsewhere, perhaps in clouds around the star."
"Understanding whether the extra material in hot white dwarfs comes from torn up planets is important," emphasizes Dickinson. "It can give us an idea of how these ancient planetary systems evolve as the star ages, so we get a fuller picture of how solar systems die.
"Being the end point of the life cycles of most stars, white dwarfs are among the oldest objects in the galaxy, so they can tell us about what were in the oldest solar systems. Given that the Sun will end its life as a white dwarf, this could tell us what could ultimately happen to our solar system."
In 2010 Dickinson presented some of his work at the 17th European White Dwarf Workshop in Germany, which has since been published in the journal AIP Conference Proceedings.
"Working at the forefront of this scientific area is extremely exciting," says Dickinson. "I find being one of a relatively small community of people in the world to work on this particular area amazing. This work is helping to shape our understanding of how most stars end their lives, how solar systems die, how the environment around these ancient stars behaves and what will ultimately happen to the vast majority of stars in the galaxy.
Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Science and Engineering, Professor Martin Barstow added: "These are important results which show how younger scientists can be involved in cutting edge research and help the University make important contributions to answering some of the most challenging questions about the Universe and our place within it."

Reflections:
So, the end of our universe. When would it be? Many people have been wondering about this, religious people are sticking to the date proposed by Mr Harold Camping as Oct. 21.Astronomers are investigating the possible eventual fate of the solar system by examining 'white dwarf' star. As these stars were formed billions of years ago, even when earth was yet to form, they actually provide an insight to ancient Earth and maybe even provide an answer as to how Earth came about, was it the Big Bang Theory or was it the religious theories? The dwarfs can tell us about what were in the oldest solar systems and similarly, just like the Sun would end as a white dwark, it could tell us more information about how the universe would end. Now, i would like to comment on Professor Martin Barstow's words-: "These are important results which show how younger scientists can be involved in cutting edge research and help the University make important contributions to answering some of the most challenging questions about the Universe and our place within it."

I agree with him that in the 21st Century, younger people are achieving greater heights an they seem to possess a greater level of talent than the people in the 20 and 19 centuries. Young people are making more contributions to the society, we should be taking this seriously as they will be the next batch of scientists answering questions about our Universe. It will be the talented group of them helping mankind, invent cures to diseases...... I believe that talent should be discovered earlier and more chances should be given to these people, such as letting them do experiments on their own withought any guidance, only with talent will our Universeand mankind's quality of life progress  and improve.