Core Bio Current Event 13
University of Texas at Austin. “Massive Martian Ice Discovery Opens a Window into Red Planet's History.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 22 May 2019, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190522141747.htm.
The University of Texas at Austin's article, "Massive Martian ice discovery opens a window into Red Planet's history," tells of Mar's secret ocean. The team at Texas University found that there is a reservoir of ice on Mars in the north pole that sits under the surface. Using radars and other scientific materials the team discovered that there is enough ice beneath the surface at this pole that if it were too melt it would cover the entire planet in 5 feet of water. This is not that much, but it is crazy too think about because just 5 years ago we didn't even know if there was water on Mars. They also discovered that the polar ice caps had survived as they had thought to be gone.The importance of this is that Mars has a lot more water than we thought. Water also means life and maybe human life. The amount of water there would be not enough but it is another step in the colonization of planets that may come. This also gives us reason to believe that these same things might be occurring in other planets in our solar system or even the entire galaxy. These discoveries also give space agencies more reason to put an astronaut on Mars and collect data on these pools of ice.
This article was a very interesting read and gave me much insight on the discovery going on in space. One of the strengths of these article is its use of primary sources from the team that made the discoveries. One weakness though is that the article was a little hard to follow as they talked as if I already knew the entire structure of Mars. I think they could improve by making the article simpler for non-experts.
Tenzing Pixley
ReplyDeleteCore Biology C ODD
Current Event 13
Monday, May 27th, 2019
Grant, Will. “Current Event 13.” Current Event 13, 1 Jan. 1970,
bhscorebio.blogspot.com/2019/05/current-event-13.html#comment-form.
In Will’s review of Massive Martian Ice Discovery Opens a Window into Red Planet’s History by The University of Texas at Austin, he broke down the article into multiple components. The first and foremost part I really liked about his review was how he connected the discovery of water on Mars to multiple other planets. He says, “it is another step in the colonization of planets that may come. This also gives us reason to believe that these same things might be occurring in other planets in our solar system or even the entire galaxy.” Another aspect I liked was how he used the latter quote to make a statement on why space agencies should be incentivised to send astronauts to other planets, Mars in particular. Lastly, I enjoyed some stylistic elements such as when he wrote how the article “tells of Mars’ secret ocean”.
Despite having a lot of context, the review does lack in some formalities. At times, the language does become unprofessional, henceforth taking away from the essay. An example of this being “This is not that much, but it is crazy too think about because just 5 years ago we didn't even know if there was water on Mars.” Also, it could’ve used some more outside information to pair with the analysis with other planets in the galaxy.
In the end, I found Will’s current event review to be both very informative, and fun to read. I learned a lot about the discovery of water on Mars, and through connections to the other galaxy, I stayed hooked throughout the entire read. Even though there were some small issues such as informal grammar, it only hindered the essay in a very minor way.
Megan Barker 6/4/19
ReplyDeleteBio 10H C Odd Current Event 14
University of Texas at Austin. “Massive Martian Ice Discovery Opens a Window into Red Planet's History.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 22 May 2019, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190522141747.htm.
Will’s review of the article “Massive Martian Ice Discovery Opens a Window into Red Planet's History” had clear points, vocabulary, and was centered around an interesting topic. Firstly, Will’s review was concise and had clear reasonings. Everything that he wrote had a purpose, and especially his summary was to the point, while still having some detail. Secondly, Will used syntax that was understandable. When writing about a complex topic, it is easy to use complicated vocabulary that makes the article difficult for the reader to understand. However, in Will’s review, none of these words were used, letting the reader understand and form thoughts around the article. Finally, Will chose an interesting topic to write about. Because of the extreme global warming on Earth, there has been much speculation as to whether or not other planets would be habitable for humans. For this to happen, humans would need water. Water being on Mars, a planet relatively close to Earth, is revolutionary and a huge step in figuring out whether or not humans could be sent to other planets to live and colonize on.
Though Will’s review had some great points, there were also some aspects that could have been improved upon. For example, throughout the article, there were many run-on sentences. For instance, he wrote the sentence, “Using radars and other scientific materials the team discovered that there is enough ice beneath the surface at this pole that if it were too melt it would cover the entire planet in 5 feet of water.” If this sentence were to have been split into two, it would have made the sentence much more readable and easier to follow. Another issue in the article was that there were quite a few grammar mistakes within it. Many commas were missing throughout the review. If he added these commas, it would make the article much more easy to read.
An ‘aha-moment’ that I had while reading this article was that there was, in fact, water on Mars at all. Personally, I remember when finding water on another planet was an unthinkable task. Scientists thought that we might not ever find a planet with a sustainable water source. Finding water on Mars is a huge, revolutionary step. The fact that there is water on Mars raises many other questions, such as whether or not there are life forms on Mars. Additionally, one can ask whether or not these life forms are fossilized or sedentary. Will’s review made many good points, and it provided the reader with a moment of realization, but some grammatical errors and run-on sentences tended to take away from them.