Green Plastic
Food Inc
I think that after seeing food Inc, that there are many beneficial things in nature, and if we try to change those things to make it more efficient. It doesn't always work. For example, with mass food producing companies who have more power then the government, food producing companies don't have to care much if any law is made to stop using chemicals or to animal rights. Consumer choices can help though because even though food producing companies have mare power than the government, to stay there they would have to have lots of consumers. Therefore if the majority of their consumers want something changed, they'd have to change it or face the problem that no one will buy their products.
How the Earth is used will affect us because the 6 billion and something people all share only 1 world. If we deplete all our recourses and put chemicals in all our food, soon we would be in complete chaos. All means of transportation would stop working other than bicycles, roller scats, horses, and our own shoes. Most people in Earth would have diabetes or some other kind of low nutrient high calorie sickness. Mass food production companies are well aware of this problem, but all they ever try to solve the problems with is more technology, which sometimes might improve the problem but mostly just makes a new problem.
Natural farming is when you give the organism an environment which has all its needs, but it takes longer until you can harvest it and it will be more expensive and usually have less edible parts. It'll taste better, it'll be healthier, but most people can't afford it. Industrial farming is when you find the cheapest, fastest, way to get an organism to harvesting stage which will have more edible parts. All big food producing companies will use chemicals to achieve their goals but those chemicals are still a new invention and the faults haven't been fixed yet. This can cause sicknesses and will get some people allergic. But because its cheaper most people prefer it over natural farming products.
Current Events
Jet Lag Makes You Dumb
Laura Sanders
Nov 16. 2010
Jet lag, most of you have experienced this when you go into a different time zone, it makes you tired and very easily annoyed. But most people forget about it after a good long sleep. But recent studies Erin Gibson of the University of California, Berkele, have shown that going into a new timezone can also lower your IQ. Studies have shown people who travel to different time zones have a bigger possibility of getting cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer.
Eric Gibson and his team of researchers tested this on a group of hamsters, by changing their sleeping and eating times by 6 hours every 3 days, which is like going from Serbia to China every 3 days. The hamsters amount of sleep didn't change, but their sleeping and eating patterns were a mess.
Soon, the hamsters were showing memory loss, like not remembering where their food was or which of the 2 chambers they lived in had wood shaving to sleep in. The hamsters also had a harder time figuring out what a wheel does even though a few days ago they were using it easily. These problems were most likely caused because after their "jet lag," due to cell death or stress, they only used 50% of their brain. Even 28 days after they stopped changing time zones they were still confused and still had a lower IQ then usual. Gary Gibson says he will do more tests to find out the exact cause and effect of Jet lag.
I chose this article because it really caught my eye. I often travel to different time zones even though I'm not effected that bad cause I'm younger. My parents looked like they'd just ran a marathon. And I also chose this article because everything else I could find was a bit boring.
Analysis of Owl Prey
Answers to Students Guide Questions:
1. Based on the class data the animal found most in an owls diet is the vole, which makes up 30.46% of their monthly consumption.
3. It would be much more energy efficient to catch 1 vole instead of 35 insects because even though there would be the same amount of food but to catch 35 insects would take 35 trips to catch and the vole would take only 1 trip.
5. If all the shrew in one area left or died it would not affect the owl population at all because according to the classes data shrews only make up 1.068% of the owls diet and if their not there the owls would either go get something else to hunt or just leave 1.068% of their stomach hungrier then usual.
Current Events
Glowing Trees
Nov 11. 2010
Darren Quick
Gizmag
As soon as post-doctor Yen-Hsun Su of the Research Center for Applied Science (RCAS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, finds out that nano particles of gold when injected into trees make the leaves luminescent. He thinks about replacing lamps we have now with glowing trees. LED lights use phosphor powder to run and the powder is highly toxic, is extremely expensive, and pollutes. But if we took trees and made all their leaves luminescent and replace the LED lights with trees, it would help CO2 emissions go down and we wouldn't have to harm humans with toxic phosphor powder and trees would last longer.
Basically when you inject gold nano particles into trees, their leaves the gold nanoparticles can produce a blue-violet fluorescence that triggers a red emission of the surrounding chlorophyll and makes a sort of purplish light. post doctor Yen-Hsun Su tested this new development on the Bacopa Caroliniana and it made a purple light that made the tree look purple. I chose this article because I gave gizmag my school gmail adress so every day it sends me a new article about some interesting technology. This time it sent me a article that really caught my eye. I mean, who's heard of glowing trees that would replace street lamps? So I decided to do my current events on it.
Human Footprint Reflection
In class we finished watching the Human Footprint, which is a documentary about what we do to the world when we are alive. How much food we throw away, how much plastic and paper we don’t recycle, and how much electricity and fossil fuels we waste. It tells us how many species of animals will be gone soon and how it will affect the food chain. It also told us about how easy it is o stop it all, that if everyone did a small thing it would make a big difference. Right now, if everyone lived like I lived we would need 1.9 Earths
Sustainability is to support or to keep going, the world supports us but we're using its resources too fast so it will not be able to provide humans and animals with the needed things like shelter and nutrients, all the things we take for granted could soon no longer exist on planet Earth. A human footprint is how much of an impact to the world we make while we are alive, whether its good or bad. There are many ways to make your human footprint a good one. By limiting the food, drinks, water, etc. you need every day over a lifetime you could save tons. By carpooling you could save the world from another car and help a friend. There are so many easy ways to help save what places man and technology haven't touched, which would stop global warming and pollution.
Some of the facts on the video surprised me a whole lot. I mean, who knew how many materials diapers took to make? Who knew that by eating so little every day, turn it into how much you eat in a lifetime and the numbers are so big? From this video I learned that every small thing has an impact, and doing one little thing like taking out a plug to the TV when you’re not using it can save up to so much electricity being used and Carbon Dioxide going into the air. But if that’s the case why don't manufacturer make machines that electronically disconnects itself when not in use and have a small battery to start it up again? There are so many thing you can do to make a difference. Get a better human footprint and help the world.
Current Events
I'm doing my Current Events on Big Dog, as Dr.G introduced in DT class. Big Dog is the 2nd most advanced rough terrain robot in the world made in Boston Dynamics with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Achieving up to11 kph and going 20.5 km without recharging, breaking world records for longest distances traveled by machines with legs. It weighs 109 kg but can carry a payload of 170 kg . Its 1 meters long, .3 meters wide, and 1.1 meters high. It's main purpose it to go anywhere and everywhere. It is called the Big Dog because it's shape is meant to resemble a dog. It has human like stability which is helped by its 4 legs.
The motivation came from the fact that less than half of the earth is accessible by any means of transport with wheels. But animals can go almost anywhere. Over the past 40 years the idea of a locomotive with legs has been embraced by scientists. But only now after 1986 have scientists really had the technology to pursue the idea and make it fact. We have been making machines that can hop and run on 2 legs as well as 4, achieving a world record of 21 kph. Big Dog is the newest invention with it's own censors that tells it's on board computer how to navigate rough terrain. The Big Dog also has on board communications and controls. The 0n board computer receives information from 50 censors from around the body telling it what is happening and what to do next.
Newer versions of the Big Dog a planning to be made, some for military purposes. The newer versions are going to have a new feature of being able to right itself if it ever falls down.
Current Events
Doing the Wet Dog Wiggle
Oct 22, 2010
Alexandra Witze
How many times have you had to dry yourself with a towel of a hair dryer? Many times I think, but the furry animals I have in mind can just shake and be dry in the matter of seconds. I you have a furry pet like mice or dogs, whenever they get wet you can see them shaking about. But is it really that simple? Or is there a secret to it? To find out the engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta did tests to find out.
First they got 40 animals and 7 different species from lab rats to the engineers pet cats and dogs to lions and bears from the zoo.(No animal was harmed in this experiment), they then got slow motion cameras to film what the animals where doing. Then they just poured water on each animal and observed what they saw. They found that above the furry animals spine there is a lot of loose skin that flaps around when they shake their body and helps them get rid of any water in their fur. Because the furry animals can do this their body heat is 25% lower than a humans ans if the don't get rid of water in their fur they would easily get hypothermia and die.
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