Honors General Science Current Events

    Through many studies and experiments, scientists were able to slightly restore a 58-year-old man's vision. He had something known as retinitis pigmentosa; a genetic disease that causes light-gathering cells in the retinas to die. The man could only see some light, and couldn't detect motion or objects. After the surgery, he could now make out objects, and even see lines on the road. He still has to wear special goggles to help him see, but this advancement shows that we are making progress in helping the blind finally see.     I think that because of this research, a lot more people will be happier. Not just the people whos blindness can be cured, but for the families of them. Things like this would take a while, of course, but that time would be well spent. The only downside is that these surgeries and therapies aren't fool-proof, but I hope that it'll be a great improvement. Link to article

     Multiple mummified cats have been found in various tombs in Egypt. They date back to more than four thousand years. They were found  at Saqqara, south of Cairo. The burial ground was the city of Memphis', which was ancient Egypt's capital for 2,000 years. The Egyptians believed that felines and various other animals help special powers and abilities in the afterlife. The tombs also contained bronze statues of cats dedicated to their cat goddess. The cat's bodies were wrapped in fabrics and then drew on with black pigments.  bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46167334

      This article talks about how only 3 percent of the Earth is untouched by humans. The other 97% can no longer qualify as ecologically intact. The Serengeti is a place where all animal species survive by non human contact on the land. This is the three percent of land left untouched on Earth. These places are rare to find. Of the fully protected ecosystems, 11 percent of them are to be protected by humans. Hunting and climate change, effect invasive species too.  I think that more places like the Serengeti should have been reserved and untouched by mankind. 

       In this article it talks mainly about how cell phones and computers can actually affect the relationship between parents and their children. It shows how parents get stressed out with their children when don't respond because they are playing on their phone/laptop. Technology takes out the face to face relationship with children, because they would rather just text or call their parents when they need to ask something.  Also, i t turns out that when  kids  are the ones to initiate phone calls, both  parent and child  report having a close  relationship  and higher levels of self-esteem. However, when the  parent  initiates the call and uses the phone to monitor their  child's  whereabouts, the  relationship  was more likely to be strained. Overall, in this article it shows how technology changes relationships and how it can actually make the relationship worse. (Little fun fact): Nearly 40% of pe...

 The Milky Was was shaped by a collision with a dwarf galaxy about 10 billion years ago. The Milky Way has been continuously getting bigger over time by colliding and merging with other, smaller galaxies over time. So, what does this mean for us? It means no harm to us, but it does open up more opportunities for astronomers to do more detailed research. They are excited to see what new pieces of information we can get from knowing this new information!   Link :  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/milky-way-galaxy-origins-merger-collision-star-age  

 Due to climate change, grizzly bears are starting to move north, and polar bears have started to mate with grizzly bears. The hybrid "pizzly" bear is a result of rising temperatures. "Polar bears have longer skulls, but their molars are smaller than what is typical for their body size... Grizzlies on the other hand eat whatever they want... perhaps the intermediate skull of the pizzly bear could confer a biomechanical advantage." (Larisa DeSantis)  The first sighting of a pizzly bear was back in 2006, but since then, the sightings have increased. Who knows what kind of animal hybrids will come next.  Link to Article 

 The robot can keep its eye on the ball to judge sports like baseball and tennis. It tracks the ball and figures out where it lands and then can make the right call. In sports like baseball and tennis, the ball needs to land inside the lines of the court to continue play so the right call is necessary. In baseball, the pitch has to be inside of an invisible box above the home plate to be considered a strike. In sports, human error is a big part of the game and can change the outcome but it is getting smaller due to instant replays. A robot that can instantly give a decision based on where the ball lands and determine the correct call can change the game and can remove the human error from these sports. Link

 Toyota has been developing a more eco-friendly engine without getting rid of the classic combustion engine. They recently released a video of the experimental car on the track in Japan. Driver, Hiroaki Ishiura said, " It's not as different [from a gasoline-powered vehicle] as I expected. It feels like a normal engine. [If I wasn't told otherwise,] I'd probably think this is a normal engine." Which means that the driving experience will be similar if not the same with a clean burning fuel. I think this will be a good invention and give car enthusiasts the ability to still work on their own cars and maybe even conversion kits to make gasoline engines run on hydrogen.  

      During the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the elephant's foot was formed. It is a mass of corium and other radioactive materials melted by the extreme temperatures during the melt down. The photograph taken here had to be done from far away with a mirror because when they tried to due just with the camera, it melted. It can provide a lethal dose of radiation in 4.5 minutes.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_Foot_(Chernobyl) 

       There was a mummy that was originally identified as a priest. Then, later on it was discovered that it was actually a pregnant woman.  “Our anthropologist was double-checking the pelvis area of the mummy to establish the sex of the mummy and check everything, and she observed something weird in the pelvis area, some kind of anomaly,” he said. It turned out that it was actually a leg of a Fetus in the mummy. Scientist know that the woman was rich or wealthy because of the jewelry  on her arm and the clothes she was wrapped in. This was the first known discovery of a mummified pregnant woman.      I think the fact that they first thought the mummy was a man is a little funny because I am I little confused on how they missed the pregnant part the first time. I also think that it is so cool because there are pictures of x-rays of the mummy with the fetus in it. This discovery could also help archeologist  or scientist to figure out a ...

India, mainly due to overpopulation, has seen the biggest crisis any country has seen. They have a shortage of hospital beds, oxygen machines, and people are even dying while waiting outside hospitals to be helped. India counts around 300,000 new infections and 2,000 people dying everyday. This has of course lead to a nation wide panic, where people are scared to even step outside. This is clearly very terrible but maybe after all of the suffering they could achieve herd immunity since it is spreading so fast.  Article

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210429095154.htm Glaciers are one of the main indicators of climate change because it can be easily observed.   Scientists have shown that almost all the world's glaciers are becoming thinner and losing mass more now than ever.  Rising sea levels and water scarcity What was once permanent ice has declined in volume almost everywhere around the globe.  Nearly half of the rise in sea levels is attributable to the thermal expansion of water as it heats up, with meltwaters from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and changes in terrestrial water storage accounting for the remaining third. It is important to be aware of things like this that is happening in the world because the future of this Earth depends on us and how we take care of it. We should be doing our best to take care of the Earth so it can last as long as possible. 

  According to the article,  Earth’s oceans are storing record-breaking amounts of heat, oceans are storing a significant amount of heat that is beginning to become uncontrollable. Even though the pandemic caused shut-downs that decreased the amount of greenhouse gas being put into the air, the globe continued to keep warming. Researchers found that last year, the total amount of heat stored in the ocean was the highest it has ever been since 1955. This rapid rise of ocean temperatures is significant because as it rises, ice begins to melt in the oceans, causing storms to supercharge and raise ocean levels. Researchers also say that this will continue to increase if we don't try to reduce carbon emissions. I think that there might be something more than human pollution causing this to happen because the article said that it still began to rise even during the pandemic.  To read the full article,  click here .

 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. ...