Science: Ask A Geneticist (Due 2/2)

When I read all the three links, I learned many important, and at the same time, interesting facts.First of all, I learned that there is an average of a six million difference between two people's DNA. Next, I learned that a karyotype is a chart that scientists use to study chromosomes. I knew that DNA was a molecule, but I didn't know was that it was made up of smaller units called nucleotides. The most interesting facts I learned were about how close chimps and humans are. For example, did you know that one human chromosome is made up of two chimp chromosomes? The fact that shocked me the most was that between humans and chimpanzees, 98.8% of our DNA is the same! Last but not least, I learned that chimps and humans started out with the same number of chromosomes. Then, approximately 5 million years ago, humans and chimps started drifting apart in evolution and in that time some of their genomes changed.

Lit: Wooden Bowls

At first, I thought that the story was really sad, but I really liked the way it ended. Also, I liked that the man and his wife learned their lesson by the end of the story. This touching story teaches many lessons. First of all, you should learn to respect your elders. Just because they are really old doesn't mean you can just insult and isolate them from the rest of your family. Also, another lesson this story teaches is that you should treat others the way you wish to be treated. I think this is the most important lesson it teaches because later on in the story when the little boy is playing with the wooden scraps, making wooden bowls for his parents to eat in when they were older clearly showed that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. If the son didn't want to be isolated and eat in a wooden bowl away from everyone else when he was old, why did he treat his father that way?

Next, if you relate this story to C.A.R.E.S, I think it best relates to empathy and self-control. It relates to empathy because before doing or saying something to someone, you should put yourself in their shoes to see how they would feel. If the son had empathized with his father, he would have definitely realized how sad the old man had felt. Last but not least, this story also relates to self control because you should think twice about your physical and verbal actions. The son should have took a little while to calm down and actually think before making a hasty decision and doing such a thing to his father. Thankfully, when the son realized his mistake, his father happily forgave him. The son should have had more self control, because even though all the things his son had done, the old man still forgave him. On the other hand, his son should have also forgave him whenever he spilled something or broke something. So the next time, whenever the man gets mad, he should remember everything his father had done for him.

Pippin's Question Box

Why does peppermint help stomachaches? (best)
Peppermint helps stomachaches because it does a really good job with digestive problems. It acts as a sedative to the stomach and it relaxes the muscles in your stomach. Next, peppermint also helps allow the flow of the compounds that help digest the fats in the food that we eat. For more information, check out this site: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/973912/herbs_for_stomach_aches_indigestion.html?cat=68

Pippin's Question Box (Holiday)

How long does it take for a christmas tree to grow? (fast)
A christmas tree takes about 5-7 years to grow around 6-8 feet tall, so maybe around 7-8 years to grow a really big one.
Link: http://www.okchristmastrees.com/growing.html

Pippin's Question Box

The three ways to go forwards in time:

1) You could create a time machine: If you're a scientist or interested in science, you could build a time machine and travel to the future and explore it. (No link because I came up with it by myself.)
2) Daylight Savings: If you set your clock ahead for daylight savings, that's going forward in time. For example, if I set my clock for 7:00am instead of 6:00am, I'm going forwards in time. (No link because I came with it by myself.)
3) To use time perception: According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel, you can us time perception to speed up or go forward in time. This is just a theory, but it actually makes sense. When certain animals hibernate during the winter, they speed up time by sleeping. This is in the Time Perception on Wikipedia.

Science: Basic Genetics Homework

When I read "What is Heredity" and "What is a Trait," I learned many important things. But out of all of them, here are my top two. First of all, I learned that heredity is the passing of traits from parents to the child. I learned that genes have the instructions that define our traits. Also, all of us have thousands of genes that are made of DNA that are in our chromosomes. When each parent contributes one set of chromosomes, the only rule is that the child can only get one of each chromosome. Continuing on, since parents give random chromosomes to the child, it develops a unique set of chromosomes, which is why people have a very unique combination of traits.

On the other hand, when I read "What is a Trait," I learned that a trait is a notable feature or quality in a person. The different combinations of traits we have is what makes us unique. There are many types of traits: physical, behavioral, and predisposition to a medical condition. Physical traits are characteristics of some one's makeup. They include eye color and height. Behavioral traits are characteristics of how some acts. Last but not least, predisposition to a medical condition is an increased risk of getting a certain type of disease. For example, heart disease or cancer could get passed as a trait from parent to child.

Science: Class Response

I did my class response on the owl pellets we dissected. Before actually dissecting, we did a food web of what an owl eats. This was to help us what kind of the animals an owl eats. For example, they eat animals such as voles, mice, moles, shrews, birds and many more. Also, we also got a worksheet to help us learn more about owls. During the time we were doing owl pellets, I learned many interesting facts along with my partners, Disney0022 and Fudgy1814. First of all, as I told you, I learned what kind of animals an owl eats. Next, I also learned that owl pellets are masses of bone, teeth, hair, feathers, and the exoskeletons of the prey they eat. In addition, I never knew that owls have no crop, a loose sac in the throat that serves as a storage for food for later consumption. More than that, I never really knew what a crop was before!

I also learned other resources to learn more information about owls. When I used Wikipedia, I learned numerous facts. One of them was that owls eat every 24 hours and that since owls don't have teeth, they just eat their prey whole. Furthermore, I never knew that owls were far-sighted and that they can't see clearly within a couple of inches near their eyes. Last but not least, owls form a pellet ever 6-10 hours of a meal in its gizzard.

Science: Current Events 2

Name of Article: Sneezing in Times of a Flu Pandemic

This article is called Sneezing in Times of a Flu Pandemic. This is about two psychologists, Spike Lee and Norbert Schwarz, who wanted to test if a higher risk of the flu could trigger fears of unrelated illnesses in people. So they conducted an experiment to see what would happen. The two researchers had an experimenter, who would loudly sneeze as students passed in a busy campus. After that, they surveyed many of the students. In doing this survey, they discovered that a lot of the people who has seen the experimenter sneeze said that they showed a greater fear of falling ill than others. Just to make sure the psychologists had accurate results, they repeated the test, this time in a mall. The interviewer himself sneezed and coughed, and he conducted a survey on whether the government should spend more of their money on either the flu vaccine or green jobs. The people that were surveyed and had seen him sneeze favored the flu vaccine rather than green jobs.

I completely agree to what this article says. Because of the H1N1, also known as the swine flu, people are tending to overreact way too much if they see someone sneeze or cough. Some people totally make a mountain out of a molehill. I mean, just because a person sneezes or coughs, does it mean they have the swine flu? There are a lot more signs to think someone has the swine flu. In addition, because of the amount people with swine flu is rising, people are just starting to get more and more scared. In conclusion, I think that people shouldn't overreact and get scared if someone sneezes or coughs, because then they'll be afraid that they ave the swine flu.

Source: This article is from Times.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102121720.htm

Science Thought for the Weekend 11/13

I think this quote means that you should never be afraid to tell the world what you discovered. Instead, you should express your feelings thoroughly, persuading them to agree with them. For example, if you were a scientist, and you discovered something, you were quiet because you were too scared to share it. A short time later, another scientist finally discovered it, but this scientist was confident and shred his discovery with the world. For this people praised him. The scientist that kept quiet didn't achieve anything because even if he knew he did, no one else did. So in conclusion, I think that this quote means that your should express your feelings and never let your fear come in between.

Science: Current Events Blog

The article I read is called Treating the Pain Epidemic by John Tierney. The article is about millions of Americans with chronic pain. All around the world, many people have chronic pain, but doctors are not taking it as seriously as they should be.
According to the article, it says that researchers are also not taking it as a big deal along with doctors. I completely agree. With all the people with persistent pain, over 70 million people in America, painkillers are just not going to work. There has to be something that can help even more. What doctors are doing right now is not enough.According to the article, instead of getting rid of their pain, patients "often find themselves in a persistent cycle." This is pretty expensive for people, having to do repeated tests, surgeries and treatment. AS the article says, patients with chronic pain have to go to the hospital more, along with going to the emergency room when it's really not necessary. To sum it all up, because of wasteful treatment, the health care costs are going up pretty fast. This is why I think that doctors should really start taking this matter more seriously, as it is very important.

This article is from TierneyLab(November 5, 2009, 3:23 PM.) Treating the Pain Epidemic
By John Tierney. Times. http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/treating-the-pain-epidemic/?ref=science