Honors General Science Current Events

 Many dinosaurs migrated from South America to Greenland. During the time period, carbon dioxide levels were very high. The amount of carbon dioxide suggested arid desserts and severe climate conditions. Due to the conditions, there were very few plants. Around the time the carbon dioxide plummeted. I think this is interesting to know that global warming could help the dinosaurs make it to new places even though it was all one continent at the time. I wonder if global warming could help us now in any way. Link to Article

 Over 87,000 papers have been published about this global pandemic. When most people think of the pandemic going around right now, they think about how awful it all is. How many people have died, how many people have lost a family member, or how many people they have lost relationships with friends or family. But, do people ever think about how this event will go down in history, and how it will affect science studies in the future? We never know what type of science we will come across in the future, but we can say that science evolves every day, and things are constantly changing. This is why so many people are interested in this pandemic. The more we know about this pandemic, the more we can do to try and change is. So, what will science bring in the future? And how will it impact future in sciences? We won't know the answer to either of those questions for a long time, but we can certainly say that it will evolve so much, and make things a lot more interesting.    htt...

 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284655 https://www.healthline.com/health/lichenification What happens if you constantly scratch or rub a certain spot on your body over and over for a long period of time. studies show that if rubbing skin for short spurs or long spurs of time every day for two weeks it does have effects on your skin. skin is  made  up of cells that produce keratin (keratinocytes). These cells are gradually pushed to the surface of the  skin  by newer cells, where they harden and then eventually die off. that being said. when those new cells come back up your body adjusts to the scratching and sends cells that are thicker and tougher to the surface that way it is harder to kill them and you will have less of a reaction from scratching. I think this is interesting because I have a bad habit of scratching my neck due to anger or stress. sometimes I can even draw blood. not from nails just from the friction. that being said i have noticed ...

 As time goes on, fish used for sushi in restaurants are 283 times more prone to worms than they were 40 years ago. The parasites that infect these fish are known as herring worm, or Anisakis. They get through to these fish by being passed down from marine animal feces. Lucky for us, these parasites can not survive in human bodies. But they can cause symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Scientists think the rapid growth of parasite spread to fish is because the increase in marine animals since 1970. You might want to double check your California roll from now on.  Link to Article  

           A reversal is what causes earth's protective magnetic field to lose its strength. Some scientists think that this has been cause by extinction. Others think that these geometric changes have nothing tot do with the climate or everything else. A team of scientists calculated how a magnetic field would alter weather patterns. They said, "The increased of charged particles entering the atmosphere would also increase the production of hydrogen and nitrogen oxides." This means that these molecules would consume the ozone and then the shield of earths atmosphere would be weakened. What does extinction have to do with this? Since the scientists think that when Earth's magnetic field is weakened it is caused by extinction, over 41,000 years ago this happened.  https://hgscurrevents.blogspot.com/2021/02/magnetic-field-reserval-may-have.html

 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210218162028.htm July 30, 2020 NASA sent its most advanced rover to Mars. 203 days later, it landed safely on the surface of the planet. The rover will spend 2 years investigating the Jazero Crater. It will investigate the rock and sediment of Jezero's ancient lakebed and river delta to characterize the region's geology, and past climate. Part of its investigation also includes searching for signs of microbial life. Sending the rover to Mars not only to find and collect scientific samples, but it also sets the stage for future robotic missions to Mars. This is important because it can not only help collect data for future robotic missions, but also eventually human missions to mars. The data collected from the rover could help NASA understand more about Mars for future missions.  

 Scientists are saying that as a result of the rapid heating of the Arctic it is causing cold air to be pushed up further South. It has reached deep into the middle of the US and has caused power outages for more then 5 million people. The warming of the Arctic is also causing Jet streams to shift. The splitting of the polar vortex has caused huge flurries of snow in Europe and very cold temperatures in the US. I think that we need to take more steps to stop climate change or at least slow it down. Climate change is a real thing and the snow in usually warm places is just a wake up call for what is going on around us.  Article:  https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/17/arctic-heating-winter-storms-climate-change

 Researchers over in the UK are doing studies to mix COVID vaccines to see if any could boost the immune responses. The current vaccines for COVID take two shots to fully work so they are hoping that finding the right combination will only take one shot instead of two. This test will be through The University of Oxford.  I think that if we do find a way to combine these vaccines into one, it will speed up the process by week, potentially saving a bunch of lives and will take less stress off health care workers.    Article

 General Motors announced that they will be selling zero emission cars starting in 2035. They announced this because they are trying to create a more sustainable energy model. Gas cars create green house gases which is not good for the environment. More Americans are starting to buy electric cars. If you look at a graph between a tesla and Camry up front the tesla is more expensive, but over time you actually end up saving money from buying an electric car.      I think that zero emission cars will actually be kind of cool. I also think that having electric cars will be better for the environment because they don't create the gasses, so If more people buy them it is good. The only thing that  might not be good is that up front the price is more expensive for non gas cars so people will think they are to much when they really save money, so they will look for gas cars.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/learning/gas-or-electric-thinking-algebraically-about-...

 This fifth state of matter might be one of the best conductors ever. This substance is kept to the temperature near absolute zero and it is one one hundred-thousandth the density of air. This matter is usually made out in space because of the lack of gravity to help study the particles. These boson particles have the lowest quantum state at which point they proceed to enact a quantum mechanical phenomenon known as wave function interface. They are experimenting with this stuff on the iss in its very own laboratory. This matter has had good testing done on it but we still have more to learn. So far testing has led us to test it with other states of matter. That is all I have on this subject for now.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_condensate   My link

 So to preface, if you didn't know if you cut a grape in half, just leave the skin attached on one end, and put it in the microwave you can make plasma. The reason this is is that the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation in the microwave is about 12cm in wavelength through the air. However, when passing through the grape, it's about 10 times as small. This puts the waves at 1.2 cm across, just about the size of the grape. If you were to not cut the grape in half and put it in the microwave, it would actually trap the microwaves. This is because it reflects the waves inside itself. This causes it to heat from the outside in. If you put two grapes together, however, where they're touching becomes the point with the greatest energy. If it gets enough energy collected, it can ionize the air, allowing it to gain more energy from the mircowave, hence creating plasma. https://youtu.be/wCrtk-pyP0I 

     What did  Earth  look like 3.2 billion years ago? New evidence suggests the planet was covered by a vast ocean and had no continents at all.  They found clues about this ancient Waterworld preserved in a chunk of ancient seafloor, now located in the outback of northwestern Australia .  Its rocky scenery preserves a hydrothermal system dating to 3.2 billion years ago and records the entire ocean crust from the surface down to the heat engine that drove circulation. It also showed different types of isotopes of oxygen over time.   And the ratio between these oxygen isotopes hinted that at the time, there were no continents at all. https://www.livescience.com/waterworld-earth.html

In this article, recent studies have shown that there could be more life on other planets than we realized. Scientists have found that microorganisms can live in atmospheres made of only hydrogen. There are many other exoplanets out there that have large amounts of hydrogen in the atmosphere, enough to sustain life. Researchers are hoping that if microorganisms are on other planets, that they will one day be visible from Earth.  I found this article really interesting. I believe that there most likely is a lot of other life in our solar system and many other galaxies throughout the universe. Like the article suggested, life doesn't mean other "humans," but even just microorganisms are really fascinating.  https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/alien-life-form-hydrogen-atmosphere-microorganisms-a9498181.html

 According to researchers from the  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new strain of Covid-19 will soon become the most dominant strain in the U.S. This new strain is highly more contagious than the original strain, and it is projected to reach all of the United States in early April of this year. Since this strain is fifty percent more transmittable, it could cause the most Covid-19 cases in the country by March, according to researchers. However, by vaccinating one million people per day, it could substantially reduce the number of Coronavirus cases. Even though this new variant of the disease is at a low number now, it still has the potential to drive a surge in the U.S. cases. Currently there is 76 definite cases across twelve states, however, this number will most likely triple very quickly. I think that this is important because now even more people will become infected with the disease, and the amount of Covid-19 cases will quickly begin to s...

 Space travel may harm health by damaging cells’ powerhouses Link To Article     Some astronauts and space travelers may have numerous health risks when traveling to space. Some of these risks are a loss of bone and muscle. An astronaut named Scott Kelly, that traveled into space and successfully came back stayed working with NASA and his twin, Mark Kelly. They had blood samples were taken which showed  different mitochondrial activity. This change to the human body could be related to molecules related to metabolism and " Spaceflight seemed to have caused many biochemical changes." However the changes all seem to point to the mitochondria says Michael Snyder, and targeting them may help and protect future astronauts.      I found this article interesting. To me, it is scary that traveling to space can cause changes in the human body and may mess with the structure of atoms. I also found it interesting that when one twin traveled to space and...

          Global Warming in the artic may mean colder winters for some areas. This is happening because global warming pushes off warmer air which holds in the moisture of cooler air. This means that there is a greater chance that there will be an increasing amount of precipitation like snow and rain. Arctic amplification is when the giant white blankets of snow in the north push the heat back into the atmosphere giving off the surface temperature. Due to the fact that these white blankets of snow are melting the dark water is being revealed. This causes more warming because the dark water absorbs the heat. The artic is warming up faster than anywhere else on the earth. We can help reduce this by limiting the greenhouse gases that we use; like methane and carbon dioxide.          I personally thought that this was very interesting about how the snow blankets in the north are melting and heating up the water causing further warm...

 Scientists now have evidence that suggests that Earth was all water when it was created, and there were no continents. Earth's first water may have arrived by ice-rich comets. When Earth was a hot magma ocean, water vapor escaped into the atmosphere. The rocky landscape in Australia preserved a hydrothermal system that contains different isotopes of oxygen. Scientists found that oceans hold more oxygen-18 than oxygen-16. Their computer models showed that on a global scale, land masses attached onto oxygen-18 pulling it from the water. With no continents, oceans would hold a lot of oxygen-18. The ratio between these two oxygen isotopes hints that, back then, there could have been no continents. I find this quite interesting because I never thought that there could have been no continents on Earth from the beginning. This could also possibly change our knowledge on the way humans and life in general have evolved over the years. 

 Stocks in Gamestop suddenly started to rise recently.   Investors on Reddit have banded together to raise GameStop’s stock price substantially in recent days. This has caused hedge funds that bet against the stock of the video game retailer are facing major losses. This could mean a lot of things and it interests me as it has brung Gamestop to the news. This also worries me for the consumer of GameStop as this could possibly cause prices on their inventory to rise. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/learning/lesson-of-the-day-dumb-money-is-on-gamestop-and-its-beating-wall-street-at-its-own-game.html