Honors General Science Current Events

 In the article "Plastic Pollution Affects Sea life Throughout the Ocean", it states that nearly 13 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year! That's a lot of plastic! Animals such as: fish, birds, sea turtles and marine mammals eat this plastic or get tangled in it and end up dying. Almost 100,000 marine animals die every year just from a tiny piece of plastic you didn't throw away. Why put these animals lives in danger when you could get throw your trash in a trashcan? Research shows that half of the sea turtles worldwide have ingested plastic some way or another. This research also shows that a sea turtle that ingests just 14 pieces of plastic has an increased risk of death. Scientist have also proven and told us that nearly 60% of all seabirds have ingested plastic in their lifetime, and they suspect this number to go up to 99% in the early 2050's. So many animals in the world are affected just by the tiniest peace of trash. You may not thi...

    Studies have shown that sheep's brains have zags of  neutral activity, and that pattern is similar to those of sleeping people. The thing is, these spindles have been found in the sheep's brains while they're awake. These spindles have never been spotted in healthy, awake people's brains before. Scientists don't really know what they actually do, but the most popular theory is that they lock in memories during sleep.  Jenny Morton, a neurobiologist at the University of Cambridge, studied six female sheep with implanted electrodes that spanned their brains. They collected data over two nights and one day. For  humans, changes in sleep spindles have been akin to aging and diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. Studying these spindles over time in sheep may reveal answers about these human disorders. So maybe, just maybe, sheep's brains can be the cure to  Alzheimer’s. 

     In the article "Perfumes from everyday products collect in distant ice" states that perfumes from everyday products like soaps and cleaners are actually getting caught in the ice located in remote areas. A researcher on the team named Marco Vecchiato stated that "everyday activities -just washing your hands and taking a shower- may have an impact" far from your bathroom." The problem keeps growing, the more perfume products that are used increases the amount of substances introduced into the atmosphere. In different layers, there is a difference in perfume based on the levels of poverty and money. It is especially an issue near Mount Elbrus which is where this problem is occurring.       I thought this was a very interesting article because it is not something people are worried about. We should be concerned about it because ice evaporates and that water then turns into rain which could poison the lands. This could also affect the stratosphere.

    Australia is home to many humans and animals the fires have been a really big problem of course. Around a billion animals have been killed due to the fires and have lost their homes and hunting grounds. Since of all these animals are losing their habitats and are struggling to find food I wonder since Australia is already home to many endangered species, if we are going to see more animals be endangered or maybe even some extinct.  A good thing is that Australia is recovering and put out a good amount of fires.  Article        

On July 4th, 1971, a gorilla named Hanabi-ko was born at the San Francisco zoo. Nicknamed "Koko," she started learning sign language a year later. Scientists found out a lot about gorillas by working with Koko. Great apes are similar to young children in the case of learning a new language.  When an interviewer asked Koko where gorillas go when they die, she signed, "comfortable hole bye." It it incredible to me that an animal is able to not only understand, but respond to what a human is saying. Koko was taught to sign at Stanford, York University, and other places.  Though Koko died on June 19, 2018, as reporters say, "we will continue to honor her legacy."  Link to Article 

      Antarctica contains over half of the world's freshwater in frozen ice sheets. However because of global warming it could melt the water into the sea. Anders Levermann, a researcher at the Potsdam institute for climate impact research in Germany, said that once the ice melts it is very unlikely that Antarctica will go back to its original state until temperatures go back to how they were which is highly unlikely. If temperatures continue to keep rising, the ice in Antarctica will crumble and melt into the sea causing the global see levels to rise and devastate coastal cities. If global warming continues to increase it could cause devastating effects on our planet.  

 The pandemic has had a significant effect on people's mental health. UK researchers recruited 153 people through social media that were over the age of 16 and had experience with an eating disorder. After excluding those who didn't meet the criteria they were left with 129 people. These people were between the ages of 16 and 65. 93.8% of these participants were females. 87% of participants said it was worse and 30% said it was much worse. They said they felt less in control and more isolated. Researchers say that the results of this show that social support releases stress. The researchers said that they want the experts to minimize social isolation and making exercise adds and food adds more mindful of people who experience eating disorders.  This article shows that more and more people are experiencing negative impacts on their mental health and more resources should be given to those who struggle with certain things, such as eating disorders.  People with eating disor...

September 30, 2020 The article I chose to read was about invasive jumping worms known as Asian jumping worms, crazy worms, snake worms, or Alabama jumpers. The worms are spreading throughout the South, Mid-Atlantic, and parts of the Northeast. They don't need a mate to reproduce so a single worm could potentially create a whole invasion. These worms are killing off forest understory which provides less nutrients for plants to grow there.  If these Jumping Worms get too out of hand, they could cause environmental harm which would obviously be not good. These worms could kill plants and increase erosion. They feed off the nutrients in the soil which takes away nutrients from the plants in that area which would kill them along with the plants surrounding the area. 

       The current event that I read about was a rat that sniffed out a land mines. The 5 year old rat Magawa has saved countless lives by clearing 141,000 square meters of land of unexploded land mines. He earned the PDSA gold medal. The idea of using rats was made because using metal detectors or other things was too expensive and took too long. Using a rat was inexpensive and they are fast. What a rat could do in one day, a machine could do in 4 days.     I think the effect this has on the world is positive. If people can train more rats, less money and time would be used and more lives could be saved. We should start going to clinics and turning rats into bomb sniffers already!

  The human brains abilities happen because of a complex web of nerve connections. The cortex of the brain controls thinking, planning, focusing, etc. and stress directly effects the cortex, causing it to get all jumbled. The cortex no longer sends signals to the correct parts of the brain. Scientist did a study on this to see how the stress of COVID-19 effected the brain. They compared it to 9/11 study results, saying how people who were closer to it had more vivid memories of it due to the amygdalae part of their brain, whereas others who were farther away from it didn't use that part of their brain to recall memories. Similar to how people who are at higher risk of catching the virus have higher stress levels. 

Law enforcement intercepted a ricen laced package and letter sent to Donald Trump that supposedly came from St. Hubert Quebec. A women has been arrested in the case but they are still investigating.  Ricin is a highly toxic compound extracted from castor beans that has been used in terror plots. It can be used in powder, pellet, mist or acid form. If ingested, it causes nausea, vomiting and internal bleeding of the stomach and intestines, followed by failure of the liver, spleen and kidneys, and death by collapse of the circulatory system .