Honors General Science Current Events

 Recycling always seems like the right thing to do, but how much of the material that we recycle actually gets recycled? Almost none. Some materials are made of layers of different kinds of plastic. These plastics cannot be separated making them unable to be recycled. Other plastics turn into a gross material when they are recycled, making recycling plants not even touch them. In 2018 alone, 27 million tons of plastic was landfilled. Only 3 million tons of that 27 million tons was actually recycled. In 2017, researched reported that only 9% of the world's trash has ever been recycled. 12% was burned and the the remaining 79% was piled up on land or in water. Recently, scientists have found a way to better recycle plastic using compatibilizers. The compatibilizer conjoins the plastics to stick together and not pull apart immediately, making a strong plastic. It also mixes well with melted plastics to form a tougher plastic product. It was kind of shocking to me to know that most of ...

Scientists have come up with three main reasons why certain stars are picked as constellations. The reasons are how bright the stars are, the distance between them, and simply how the human eyes move. The human eye tends to move in jumps called saccades. Saccades are when both eyes quickly shift from one point to another. These techniques combined together helped map constellations all across the sky. These methods worked to confirm how constellations came to be.  I found this article interesting because I never really thought about how star patterns in the sky were picked out like constellations. However, after reading the article, it does make sense that we picked out the brightest stars to be constellations because they are obviously more visible. Though, I never really thought that the way our eyes move had anything to do with it, but then again it makes sense now that I'm actually thinking about it.  https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/why-people-picked-certain...

 Researchers off the coast of Australia recently discover a live short-nosed sea snake thought to be locally extinct for 23 years. This snake is highly venomous and very endangered. To me, this is interesting because it means that there could be other creatures we thought to be extinct that are still alive.  https://www.newsweek.com/extinct-highly-venomous-sea-snake-rediscovered-oceans-twilight-zone-1585398#:~:text='Extinct'%20Highly%20Venomous%20Sea%20Snake%20Rediscovered%20in%20Ocean's%20Twilight%20Zone,-By%20Caroline%20Tien&text=Last%20week%2C%20scientists%20conducting%20research,in%20more%20than%20two%20decades. 

 Avery Potteiger                                                                                                                                                           4/28/2021 Honors General Science         Period 5b Link to Article This Praying Mantis Inflates a Strange Pheromone Gland to Attract Males      There is a praying mantis in the rainforest in Amazonian Peru that inflates a "Y" shaped organ on its back to attract males. This mantis is called, " Stenophylla lobiverte...

       The asteroid that had killed the dinosaurs off 66 million years ago also helped with the creation of the Amazon forest. After the asteroid had hit, it changed the type of vegetation drastically. Due to this impact, the plant declined to about 45%. There was a worldwide extinction for many seed-bearing plants. During the next 6 million years, forests were all recovering from this drastic event. During the regrowing of these forests, many trees developed a canopy and this allowed less light to hit the ground. The forest changed so drastically that many wondered why and how. Based on the researcher's analysis, they came up with some ideas like dinosaurs would have eaten the trees not allowing it to the canopy, another idea is that the ash enriched the soil allowing more variety and more growth, or it could be because the plants that became extinct allow flowering plants to grow.     I think this is very interesting because I wouldn't put these two ideas...

 The Monkeydactyl is a very interesting topic. As we know, a monkey is a modern day creature that we usually think of a brown, and can climb in trees. The Monkeydactyl is similar to the monkey, in the fact that it could probably climb trees, in order to get the insects and food they needed to survive. Monkeydactyl's fossil remains, unearthed, in China. This animal discovery may help scientists find out more about our past, so we can learn from it and make adjustments to what we may need in the future. Do you think learning about the past is essential in order for scientists to make changes to help us prepare for the future?  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/monkeydactyl-jurassic-pterosaur-oldest-fossil-opposable-thumbs       

In this article, it talks about why trying new things in space are so important. Cells that are grown on Earth, in a container can only grow so far, and in space it can grow completely!  Gravity influences cellular behavior by impacting how protein and genes interact inside the cells, creating tissue that is polarized , a fundamental step for natural organ development. Gravity works against scientists, trying to create  three dimensional tissues in the lab for medical transplantation. So, in Space there is 0 gravity and the cells are able to grow completely on its own, without any complications.  These studies will also improve the generation of artificial organs that are used for testing drugs and treatments on Earth. If this study actually grows full human organs, then why don't we do it more often? There are so many people who need these organs and space can provide them! I was extremely interested in this topic, after Ms. Heagerty talked a bit about it in class. ...

C onfined to the skies above Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, the ceaseless streaks of Catatumbo lightning have captivated the interests of scientists, explorers and artists for centuries. For nearly half the year and up to ten hours a day, the natural methane and oil deposit-caused phenomenon can be observed in the bucolic Venezuelan horizon up to 280 times an hour. However, this everlasting lightning is very fatal for fishers and can cause some deaths. https://allthatsinteresting.com/mind-blowing-natural-phenom

"The Rise of Aten" was the 3,000 year old city that was found. It was discovered under the sand on the western bank of Luxor, by archeologist Zahi Hawass.  It dates to the reign of King Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt between 1391 and 1353 BCE, according to the statement. There were even rings, pottery, pots, and tools found in some houses that were still left standing. There was even a bakery that was found with ovens inside of it. Lastly, there were some skeletons, and one had its arm stretched out and rope was wrapped around the knees, tombs found.      This discovery is the second most important since  the tomb of Tutankhamun, said the lead archeologist.  "The discovery of the Lost City not only will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time where the Empire was at his wealthiest but will help us shed light on one of history's greatest mystery: why did Akhenaten and Nefertiti decide to move to Amarna?" Bryan add...

 According to microbiologist, Rebecca Vega-Thurber, coral supports more species per square meter than any other habitat. Coral is a complex organism that is able to hide its diversity in plain sight and while scientists always thought there was one distinct species, they have now been able to conclude that there are actually four. The coral's internal structures look almost identical which is what makes it so hard to decipher the difference between the four different kinds, which concludes that millions of years ago, the coral diverged together. Scientists also found that these different species of coral is found at different water depths of the ocean. They also have different amounts of photosynthetic algae and pigments. When this study was conducted, it allowed us to know cryptic reef corals are splitting up their shared ecological space. I think that this is important to know because now we are able to conduct more studies to find out why coral has different properties at differ...

 Have you ever wondered about how many birds fly into wind turbines a year? Well it is about 140,000 to 500,000 each year. If the number of wind turbines go up more, the number could raise to about 1.4 million each year. We could try to lower this number by putting the turbines out of the way of migration paths. I believe that wind turbines can be a very optimal way of getting energy, but we should try to stay away from killing that many birds a year.  Source  

 In 2013 and 2014 data was collected from older adults participating in the National Health and Aging Trends Study. They answered questions about sleep disturbances and deficiency. When these answers were examined, they found that routinely taking 30 minutes to fall asleep, difficulty in remaining alert, napping, poor sleep quality, or sleeping 5 of fewer hours per night was associated with an increased risk of death and dementia. These studies demonstrated and proved just how important sleep is. I personally find this extremely educational. I knew that sleep was important for the body and necessary for day to day life but I never that that it could have such severe long term effects on both the body and the brain.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210211113840.htm 

There are about 18 million square kilometers in Africa that is suitable place for elephants to live . To put that in perspective, 18 million square kilometers is bigger than Russia. However, the range of elephants shrunk to just 17 percent of what it could be. The range is shrinking because of people killing the elephants for their ivory, habitat loss, and growth of human population. If the future of elephants are to be secured, it would take proactive landscape planning at the local, national, and continental scales. Fostering a ethic of human and elephant coexistence would also be necessary. It is truly sad that this is happening to elephants, and I think we should be doing more to help protect them. If the range of elephants continues to decrease, then they could possibly go extinct. We should be doing more to protect them to help the population grow instead of shrink.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210401112538.htm