Alexander New Current Event 3
Citation:
Chang, Kenneth. "Visions of Life on Mars in Earth’s Depths." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
In the article, Visions of Life on Mars in Earth’s Depths by Kenneth Chang from the New York Times, scientists went to the Beatrix gold mine in South Africa. When they were in the mine, they took samples of tiny microbes living in the hard rock, miles underground. These organisms flourished not from the sun, but from the interior of Earth below. At the time of the Viking missions, Earth’s deep biosphere was unknown to biologists. It was always assumed that where it was always dark there would no life at all. Almost a century ago, Edson S. Bastin, a geologist at the University of Chicago, wondered why some petroleum had higher levels of sulfur and generated more pollution when burned. “He and a colleague, Frank E. Greer, successfully cultured such bacteria from groundwater from an oil field, and Bastin speculated these could be descendants of bacteria that had been trapped in ocean sediments more than 250 million years ago” (Chang). Today, the deep biosphere is thought to account for 10 to 20 percent of mass of all life on Earth.
Studying these microbes could help in figuring out if life could exist on other planets, like Mars. The reason for this is that the conditions underground on Mars could be similar to the conditions in the mine on Earth. If you put the organisms on Mars, then they could easily colonize with a little water and the chemical reactions occurring in the rocks around them. Dr. Onstott, a scientist working on the project said, “As long as you can get below the ice, no problems. They just need a little bit of water” (Chang). There is lots of evidence so that one could assume there is life on Mars, but it is definitely not a sure thing. At the end of the article, Chang poses the question, “Even if life did arise on Mars four billion years ago and later migrated underground, could it have survived for four billion years? There are reasons to be skeptical. When low on water and energy, microbes can slow their metabolism or enter a state of suspended animation, able to revive when conditions improve. But many biologists doubt that such a tenuous hold on life could extend for a few billion years” (Chang).
I enjoyed reading this article because it is intriguing to think about there being other life outside of Earth, especially if it is in the same Solar System. The article provides lots of detailed information about how they discovered the microbes and why it is possible for microbes to be on Mars as well. Also, I liked how Chang asked questions at the end of the article but instead of leaving us questioning, he answered them to the best of his ability. However, the article was rather long and a little difficult to follow at times. Overall, if Chang shortened the article a little so that it was more about Mars rather than the studying of microbes, it would be improved.
The current event written by Alex New was fantastic. His report was about the microbes that live in the rocks underground and how similar microbes could live on Mars. one of the things that Alex did well was he used a fair amount of data such as years and percentages, this is helpful because data such as this helps the reader understand and visualize much of what is being said. Another great thing that he did was he conveyed the point of the article clearly, he did this by never going off topic. Most importantly Alex used quite a few quotes from the article to back up what he was saying.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the current event gas good, it still had areas for improvement. One of the things that Alex did not do so well was that he did not define any terms, one of the terms that should have been defined was “biosphere”. It is important to define such terms so that people know that the author is writing about. Another thing that Alex could have done is talk more about the microbes, this is important because besides the facts that they live in rocks and need next to no water, not much is known about the microbes.
This current event has greatly altered my view of life on earth. Before reading this current event i had no idea that there were organisms living in rocks deep in the earth. I find this topic fascinating and will attempt to implement this newfound knowledge into daily life.
Citation
http://bhscorebio.blogspot.com/2016/09/alexander-new-current-event-3-httpwww.html#comment-form
New, Alexander. "Alexander New Current Event 3." Review. Web log post.Blogger. N.p., 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
My classmate, Alex did a current events review on the article “Visions of Life on Mars in Earth’s Depths” by Kenneth Chang. Chang reported about how a gold mine in South Africa was found to have living organisms miles underground. I thought that Alex did a great job with his review because he was able to incorporate quotes in his article. An example of this is when he used the quote, “... Frank E. Greer, successfully cultured such bacteria from groundwater from an oil field, and Bastin [A geologist from the university of chicago] speculated these could be descendants of bacteria that had been trapped in ocean sediments more than 250 million years ago” (Chang). This is important because Alex was able to backup his claims with a quote from a geologist. Another thing I thought Alex did well was he included alot of data in his review. He included percentages, like when he talked about how the biosphere is 10-20% of the Earth's mass. Finally, I liked how Alex was able to critique the author in a considerate way at the end by saying how the article was too long and difficult to follow.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think that Alex did a good job overall I still think that there is room for improvement. To improve his article I think Alex could have talked more about the Viking mission and why it was relevent to have knowledge of the biosphere on this mission. Another thing I think Alex could have done better is he could have explained the organisms more instead of just saying that they had found them and they can survive. I think that it would have been more informative if he included the name or other information about the organisms that were found in the mines.
Overall I think that this review was very interesting because before I didn’t really understand how much we are learning about the world we live on. Also, the review made me think about how people living on Mars might become a reality instead of science fiction. Although this makes me excited about the future of space travel, it makes me worried about how little we know about the Earth. For all we know there could be a whole different species living thousands of miles beneath the surface of Earth or Mars.
Citation:
Chang, Kenneth. "Visions of Life on Mars in Earth’s Depths." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html?action=click&contentCollection=space®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=1
New, Alexander. "Alexander New Current Event 3." Review. Web log post.Blogger. N.p., 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.
http://bhscorebio.blogspot.com/2016/09/alexander-new-current-event-3-httpwww.html#comment-form
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ReplyDeleteEllie Parson 10/4/16
ReplyDeleteCitation for Article: Chang, Kenneth. "Visions of Life on Mars in Earth’s Depths." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Citation for Review: New, Alexander. "Alexander New Current Event 3." Rev. of Http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html?action=click&contentCollection=space®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0, by Kenneth Chang. New York Timesn.d.: n. pag. Print.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/science/south-african-mine-life-on-mars.html
Alex New’s review of Visions of Life on Mars in Earth’s Depths by Kenneth Chang was extraordinary. The article he reviewed mainly related microbes found in a gold mine located in South America to possible life on other planets with similar conditions as the gold mine. Alex correctly explained the concept and meaning of the article through descriptive and advanced vocabulary such as words like “flourished.” An expansive vocabulary helps the reader to better understand the story of the microbes on Earth, and keeps the review interesting. Alex also used quotes from the article to improve the validity of his summary. The facts in those quotes further support the microbes existence and their importance to scientists. Without the quotes, his summary and would lack in the quantitative data it needed. As he reviewed the article, Alex wrote that he enjoyed the ending of the article because it asked and answered questions. His reasoning for liking it was relatable. He stated “Also, I liked how Chang asked questions at the end of the article but instead of leaving us questioning, he answered them to the best of his ability.” The ability the author had to answer the questions as much as he could is an important part of the article in general, because it shows that Chang has knowledge about the topic that expands beyond his article. Alex indirectly pointed this important detail out, showing his analysis was accurate.
One area of improvement in Alex’s review could have been his critique. He did explain that the author’s article was long, but he did not explain why he believed the length of the article was not justified. The topic could have called for that much information to be expressed in order for the whole point to be present. Due to this error, his critique lacked the unique vocabulary he used earlier in his review. Using quotes to support his ideas was a great part of his review, but at one point in his article there were too many quotes. On his second paragraph, about a half of it consisted of quotes from the article and was not his own writing. If he could take those quotes out and explain them in his own words, it would have been more original and included more of his own analysis.
From this article I learned about life forms I hardly knew existed. I chose this review because the title interested me and I personally like astronomy. While reading this review and summary I learned more than twice of my prior knowledge of microbes found miles underground and possibly in space. Understanding how small organisms on Earth could tell about life on Mars was a hard concept for me to grasp, but when I understood I earned a deeper appreciation for the scientists who found made these discoveries.