Salty Water and Gas Sucked Into Earth's Interior Helps Unravel Planetary Evolution

            The article has presented many new insights into planet Earth’s evolution.  Lead author Dr Mark Kendrick from the University of Melbourne's School of Earth Sciences hypothesized that, “Inert gases trapped inside Earth's interior provide important clues into the processes responsible for the birth of our planet and the subsequent evolution of its oceans and atmosphere.” (Science Daily Dr. Kendrick and a team of researchers underwent an experiment, in which they collected serpentinite rocks from mountain belts in Italy and Spain. They found out that that the serpentinite rocks trap a large amount of seawater in their crystal structure and can be transported to great depths in the Earth’s mantle by subduction. Scientists understand the process of subduction as a process in which atmospheric gases are mixed into the Earth’s mantle, from such things as meteorites.

              This finding is important because the study has indicated that the gases throughout Earth may not actually be from Earth. This study disproves the theory that gases must escape and cannot be stored in the Earth’s mantle, but gases can become trapped. The significance of this study has far reaching implications for future studies. Scientists can now experiment on these trapped gases and can try to discover the gases true origins, which can thus provide us with more information about our planet’s evolution of the oceans and the atmosphere.

            From this article I have learned that our gases on Earth may not have come from Earth, but may have been transported here from space and got trapped in the mantle. This subduction process allows scientists to study the trapped gases to figure out when and where they came from. Before reading this article, I assumed that all gases are from Earth, but this article has broadened my prospective on Earths evolution.  I think that we, the people of the planet Earth, are one step closer into finding the origins of our planet, the universe, as well as help understand how we as a people have come to be where we are in the universe.

Bibliography

University of Melbourne. "Salty water and gas sucked into Earth's interior helps unravel planetary evolution." ScienceDaily, 26 Sep. 2011. Web. 27 Sep. 2011. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926095335.htm

Posted for A. Falcon

Australian Aborigine Hair Tells a Story of Human Migration

          This article was a synopsis of how scientists made a new discovery in the dating of Australian aborigines. A lock of hair collected from a British Scientist a century ago has been analyzed and is now suggesting that Aborigines migrated to Australia 50,000 years ago. The leader of the group who cracked the genetic code was Eske Willerslev. He is a highly regarded Scientist when it come to DNA.  Genetic dates are based on a mixture of statistics and best guesses, but the split times calculated by the Danish team are compatible with the more reliable archaeological dates, which record the earliest known human presence in Australia at 44,000 years ago. The Aborigines’ ancestors could have arrived several thousand years before this date.  There are many objections to this recent discovery. Primitive tools have been discovered and they have been dated back only about 6,000 years ago. These tools suggest that when they were used, it was the at the beginning of a civilization, but that wouldn't make sense because recent research shows that the Aborigines' migrated here around 44,000 years ago.  The dingo originated on the Asian mainland and became part of the Polynesian domestic menagerie along with the pig, the chicken and the rat. This ensemble had reached New Zealand by A.D. 1250. How the dingo arrived in Australia is an “enigma,” Dr. Savolainen writes, because none of the other elements of Polynesian culture are found there. The Dingos are said to have arrived from Polyensian Islands but what is strange is that the dogs were at that time Domesticated and only traveled with their master. So how did the Dingos end up there? Also, when did Aborigines actually migrate to Australia?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/science/23aborigines.html?_r=1&ref=science

  posted for W. Duncan

Women More Likely Than Men to See Nuance When Making Decisions

This article suggests that men and women view the world differently. New research suggests gender plays a role in categorical decisions because men tend to organize the world into distinct categories whereas women see things as more conditional and in shades of gray. At the University of Warwick, psychologist had 50 men and women judge where certain object was to fit in certain categories. The researchers reported that, “Men were more likely to see an object as fully belonging or not belonging to a category, while women more often judged that objects only partially belonged. The more intriguing finding, though, was that men and women were equally confident about their decisions. This means the gender difference was not due to men simply being more certain or women more uncertain about their judgments. Instead, it suggests men and women perceive the world differently.” These categorical judgments can have an influence on the types of professions people pursue. Which is partly the reason for why many professions are heavily male dominated. Research finds that men engage in more abstract thinking about many topics (using categories, generalizations) while women are more disposed to context-specific thinking (in terms of concrete situations and relationships). This article talks about how the morals of men and women differ.

These findings can help humanity understand the thinking of men and women. In specific, it can help women understand why men think how they do, and it can help men understand why women think how they do.

I thought this article was interesting. It was very well written and easy to read. By including specific tests done on men and women the information in this article can be verified easily. This article gave me a lot of insight on the psychology of men and women, which I think is a very interesting topic.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sex-roles-and-seeing-the-world-in-black-and-white

Harmless soil-dwelling bacteria successfully kill cancer

      This article explains bacteria that can destroy tumors and can possibly be used as medicine for cancer therapy. A scientist says that this can be tested in cancer patients in the year 2013 because of being sure with the testing.  Clostridium sporogenes is bacterium that is widespread in the soil, which is what is used for therapy. There are spores of the bacterium that are vaccinated into patients and only grow in solid tumors, where a specific bacteriological enzyme is formed. Professor Nigel Minton is the person who is leading this research and believes that this project will work in 2013.

       Many people who have worked in this research believe that this can be a simple and safe procedure for cancer patients. This therapy is said to kill all types of tumor cells, but for people who have a high risk may have to go through a surgical procedure. They have not completely been positive on this research, but the people that have been working on this for years are certain that with more tests, they can be able to cure cancer and stop the battle for people.

       Before I read this article, I only knew that there were people that have been working on curing cancer for years, but I did not know that there were researchers that were this close to finding the cure for cancer. After reading this, I feel like there was some good points that can help people believe in a better chance of hope in the future.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/09/05/harmless_soildwelling_bacteria_successfully_kill_cancer.html

posted for T. Diaz 

How Far Will Dolphins Go to Relate to Humans?

This article talks about Denise L. Herzing, a dolphin researcher.  She studies the way dolphins communicate with each other, and is hoping that in the future dolphins will be able to communicate with humans. In the past, dolphins have taken commands from humans, and we have given the rewards of food, but there has never been a direct two-way communication.  Herzing has been documenting the actions of three generations of dolphins in the Bahamas.  She still documents these dolphins today, and has been since she graduated from Oregon State.  These videos have shown us many things about dolphins, including their courtship, how they play, and how mothers forage for food for their young.  Scientists have determined what the dolphin's different sounds mean.  They know that whistles are for identifying things, clicks are used to navigate, and Burt pulses are a mixture of the two.  Scientists hope this two-way communication system will be running by next year, and it will use an underwater computer that will both give off and identify sounds.  Divers will hold two objects, and when the computer plays a certain sound, they hope dolphins will identify certain objects with sounds. 

           

This is very important to our society.  Once we are able to communicate with them, we can better understand their habits like migrations, mating, and their food sources.  Once we understand these things, we will be able to protect them. 

            This article was well written, and it brought the most important points across.  I liked how it not only gave the main researchers comments, and it included the comments of other scientists.  This gave many different opinions on the topic, and it helped me understand it better.    I do think that the article could have talked a little more about the process of the communication, but overall, I think it brought across a very interesting topic.   

Glowing Cats Fight Aids

Mayo clinic has developed a new way to fight human HIV and AIDS and other diseases. The goal is to test it on cats then later test it on humans, there trying to “create cats with intrinsic immunity to feline AIDS virus. Mayo has created a way to insert monkey proteins to counter act HIV when it kills the body’s infection fighting T-cells. The Mayo executives say this can not only benefit humans but animals as well. HIV/ AIDS has killed over 30 million people and left countless children orphaned and millions of cats also suffer and die from FIV/AIDS. The technique of inserting monkey genes into the eggs before sperm fertilization is called gamete lentiviral transgenesis. The injection makes the offspring glow green, which makes it easy to tell which cats have been genetically altered. All the offspring have the genes, and the genes remain active in successive generations. http://www.macroevolution.net/fiv.html

“Making Headway in the Movement to Protect the World’s Sharks”

This article is about the decreasing numbers of sharks through fining. This article went to great lengths to portray what the world governments, which are effected by fining, would do to stop it. The US government has begun to crack down on fining by blocking trade routes, searching fishing boats, and other such things. The idea of searching boats for shark fins is a hard one to fulfill. Shark fins can be hidden in very small places so it is very hard to find them through searches. The government has tried to force fisherman to bring sharks that have been caught. All of these things were particularly well presented.

They did happen to talk way too much about fining, and they should have talked more about why the fins were so important and what is so important about them. I get the idea of shark fins be rare and decorative but what other purposes. They talked about the declining numbers and statistics of hammerheads sharks but I think that they should have gone into some more details or they should have showed some numbers and statistics of other sharks.

Before reading this article I had no idea that shark fins were so important. I mean I knew that sharks were often hunted but I didn’t know for what purpose and how drastically the population of sharks has decreased.
Posted for J. Bothwell

After Quake, Virginia Nuclear Plant Takes Stock

The article I read on The New York Times website describes the problems which the Dominion nuclear power plant in North Anna, VA, which is still deactivated, has faced since the 5.8 magnitude earthquake on August 23^rd.  The plant is only 12 miles from the epicenter of the quake in Mineral, VA, and experienced minor, mostly cosmetic damage, including a 117-ton canister which shifted several inches after the earthquake. Inspectors also discovered a crack in a concrete wall of a water building, but it was dismissed as a pre-quake blemish. Plant workers are screening all parts of the plant for damage and fault, keeping in mind that the most vulnerable part of the plant to quake damage, according to John H. Bickel, a nuclear engineer and consultant, are ceramic insulators which act as heavy duty circuit breakers in the electrical systems of plants. They control the flow of electricity through the plant, which could prevent power from reaching certain systems, or allow electricity to flow while it shouldn’t, if the pads were to shift or be damaged significantly. However, most involved with the plant, including Neil Wilmshurst of the Electric Power Research Institute, believe that the plant’s security measures and stability are quite strong and in good shape.

            Many people in Japan earlier this year were affected by the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which caused massive leakage of radiation through escaping steam and water and serious subsequent harm to the surrounding environment that will negatively affect Japan for years to come. This is important because if workers at the Dominion plant in North Anna were to reactivate the plant whilst it had a major flaw in its functioning systems and the plant broke down, many people in Virginia could be at risk for exposure to radiation, and the environment would also see serious problems.

            I thought this article was well-written and made its points well. It showed the relationship between causes and effects clearly, and tied together information with fluidity. One point I would make is that the article was a little slow and boring, and the author did not capture the attention of the reader as best he could. I would have tried to add more of a tone of gravity to the article, as the story does have a serious point about the security and preparedness for disaster in nuclear plants in the U.S.

Declan Borcich

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/science/earth/08nuclear.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science

NASA Launches Mission to Study Moon From Crust to Core

On Saturday September 10, 9:08am NASA’s twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory or Grail lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air force Station in Florida. The two are expected to reach the moon on New Years Eve and New Years Day. Their mission is to gather more information about the moon’s gravity field, and get better understanding question like how the Earth and rocky plants in our solar system are formed. Maria Zuber from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge say “ grail will take lunar exploration to a new level, providing a unprecedented characterizations to new levels. It also say that NASA is taking a big leap in the exploration.

I learned many great things while reading about the twin Grails. First I learned that Florida space station is back in business that its stepping up it space exploration. Eight minuets after the twin Grails were launched their signal was received saying that they have deployed their solar panels and are fully operating. The distance between the Earth and the moon is 250,00 miles. What normally take three days to reach will now take about 3.5 month science the ships are low energy trajectory which will take more time.

Over all I enjoyed this article very much. I thought this article was very informative and had a lot of great detail. The article was not lengthy and it was very easy to understand. I enjoyed l learning about the mission and how it will benefit us.


Patrick Bisconti

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110910172803.htm