What Happened in Space Science Last Year? Answer, a lot!

Space Science News of 2014

Jared Rogerson

Mr. Youell

News 2014

1/15/2015 (revised 3/29/15)

The past year has seen many extraordinary breakthroughs and achievements in space science. The test launch of the new capsule called Orion from NASA, the successful landing of the ESA's Philae lander on a comet, and the private company SpaceX's attempt at making a reusable spacecraft are just some of these huge scientific breakthroughs in the realm of the great unknown last year.

The first of these great scientific achievements was the successful landing of the first ever probe on a comet. (see figure 1) This mission has been in progress for over ten years, and finally made its successful landing on the comet named Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but known more commonly as plainly 67p. The Rosetta spacecraft carrying the lander Philae had an extremely difficult and long journey from Earth, which included multiple gravity assists on around Earth and Mars to get it up to enough speed to basically "fling" it out into deep space towards the comet. The mission exceeded 500 million kilometers from start to finish. Unfortunately, during the landing of Philae, grappling hooks that were meant to secure the probe to the comet failed, causing multiple bounces that put it far enough away from its predicted land site that it did not have enough sunlight to continue to run, thus stopping to send data back to earth a few days after landing. Scientists are still hopeful that as the comet gets closer to the sun, the solar panels will have enough sunlight to power the probe once again. But until then, there are a lot of other scientific discoveries and advances that happened in the realm of Space.

The next great discovery in Space science this past year was the successful first test flight of the Orion space capsule (see figure 2). What is so important about a space capsule you ask? Mainly the fact that it is the most high tech and newest space capsule to date, and is planned to launch manned missions to the moon and even to mars in the upcoming years. It also contains the largest heat shield ever made, which will be needed in returning missions from deep space. The test launch took place on December 5th, 2014, and I was one of the people watching live on NASA.gov when it happened. It took off aboard two Delta IV rockets, which although will not be the system it uses during its actual missions was used to test the capabilities. Orion reached its peak altitude some hours later, higher up then any human-capable spacecraft has been since the last moon landing in the 1970's. It continued until it successfully splashed down in the pacific ocean, after all of the major tests had been made and had soared above expectations.

The final great discovery in Science happened in early January of this year, and was the attempt of the private space company SpaceX to successfully launch, and then land a spacecraft on a floating pad in the Pacific ocean. The plan was for their Falcon space capsule to dock with the International Space Station, resupplying it with food and scientific equipment, and then landing it softly on a specially designed landing pad in the Pacific ocean (see figure 3). Regrettably, this first test of their recovery launch system failed by completely missing its landing target. This has caused SpaceX to take more initiative into improving this particular spacecraft landing system, and they hope to have succeeded by the end of this year. So far no new tests have been announced as they are still developing a way to make this more safe and more likely to succeed, but will likely happen in the following months.

As you can see, space science developed and grew exponentially last year. The year 2014 was hailed as the most successful year in space science, and there are no plans of stopping that into 2015 and beyond. The discoveries and success stories that I mentioned are just a few of the major ones from last year, but no where near everything. Space science will continue to grow and succeed in the years to come, and some day we will look back on these as the beginning of something amazing.

Figure 1: Artists depiction of Rosetta Spacecraft (above) and Philae Lander (below) on comet 67P.

Figure 2: Orion Space Capsule test flight launch, rocket clears the launch tower

Figure 3: SpaceX Falcon Landing Pad ready to receive the Falcon spacecraft

The Super Scientific Space Summary of 2014!

This year was a great year of 2014 for the world, but especially for SPACE TRAVEL, IN SPACE!(Say that in your most epic voice possible). I mean we've had some of the coolest space events recently since the whole "Man lands on the moon!" But also some of the best movies and games IN SPACE! (Civilization Beyond Earth, and Interstellar -Both are really great because they're IN SPACE!) But I'm here to talk about news story's in 2014 as to look back at what great things humanity has overcome, and not complain about Interstellar's plot holes, or how about Civ B.E is just Civ 5 all over again! So lets dive right in!

First I want to talk about the amazing feat of how a European Space Agency managed to land a lander, on a comet, I am of course talking about the Rosetta Comet Landing . The names of the equipment used was the Philae lander, Fig 1, and the Rosetta probe/spacecraft, Fig 2.
      

Fig 1: The Philae Lander

Fig 2: The Rosetta probe/spacecraft

They were sent to land on the comet for research, and managed to do it. Although that may not sound impressive, let me try to make it a little more realistic and impressive. They landed a remote controlled flying piece of metal on a relatively small rock hurdling in space at great speeds that is 510 miles away from earth (for Americans 310 miles) by landing and harpooning the rock to keep steady and on it. That sounds a little harder then landing a lander on a rock, IN SPACE!
This project also took 10 YEARS to get it to the comet, no that's not a typo, it took literally 10 YEARS! They launched this when I was four! That's ridiculous, but what impresses me even more is how they used 10 year old technology to get it on to that comet, still running on windows vista and windows xp, and the cost of it all 1.8 BILLION us dollars! 1.8 BILLION, also not a typo.
Now you may be asking yourself "Why waste your time and resources doing something so hard and dumb?" I reply to "First off its not dumb, its the literal definition of awesome "causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear."
I quote Dictionary.com directly on that. But second off, doing this feat of greatness earned the scientists and everyone behind the lander fame/recognition, it also will help us with research of comets, how they came to be, why, etc.

Although with every good mission there comes problems. No I'm not going to talk about the hypocritical feminists who complained about clothes one of the guys who worked on the rocket was wearing even though they complain that they can't wear certain clothes without being ridiculed etc.
But there is one problem with the lander right now, its out of fuel, IN SPACE. Well actually its on the comet and by out of fuel I mean its not getting enough sun to let the solar panels get enough power to turn it on and leave it on, so its currently deactivated, so they have to wait for the comet to get close to the sun or a better position etc. There also comes the problem of the comet which we have no control over, The comet could break apart or explode or just get destroyed at any second because that's what comets do. All we can do now is just wait and hope, and if you like to, pray.

Our Second story is all about another space launch, but rather then it being about unmanned drones going to distant comets in the universe, instead NASA has launched a rocket, that was able to orbit earth and come back to the atmosphere in 1 piece, AND not only that, it landed right in the ocean without water damage! This is of course the ORION spacecraft see Fig 3.

Fig 3: The Orion Capsule having been lifted from the water.

So lets go into detail about this mission. First off lets talk about the spacecraft. The Orion is like any spacecraft, with a capsule and a rocket to propel it, See fig 4(that's it in a very basic form, its much more complex then that.) They rocket allows it to get into earths orbit and then from a safe distance it disconnects it from the capsule then allowing the rocket to either become space junk or land on earth (somewhere safe of course, you don't have to worry about a giant rocket destroying your house.) Where it can be collected. The design of the ship is much like that of the Apollo ships, which brought man to the Moon, IN SPACE! Now the same sort of ship design, with many improvements such as; longer life support, more space, better technology, better physical ship design on the ship itself. The ship can house up to four people for space missions and can support 6 months and 21 days in total, (there are a bunch of factors for that one but that's the best we can get.) The space ship was designed to be able to take humans to asteroids near earth and even Mars! The great name of the ship that took man to the moon, will now take another great step for mankind.

Fig 4: The Orion Spacecraft

My third story and final story is cool, its a story about MARS ONE. If you haven't heard about Mars One let me explain it to you. A group of people have been chosen to be sent to you guessed it, Mars. Although the program started in 2011, when the Mars One program was founded, it still exists and is in its very early years, if it was a person, it would be a toddler. They currently have 100 people where they will have 24 of them chosen for the final pick to go live on Mars. You can see a small trailer for it here. They also have several stages and a road map explaining there goal and when they hope to accomplish it and how they hope to accomplish it, which you can find here. How will they do the mission? Well they will start with small steps, sending packages to Mars and setting up a communications relay between Mars and Earth, see Fig 5. They will then start to send bigger packages to Mars around 2020 and at 2026 and 2027 they will send human beings to Mars, see Fig 6 for the housing. They live there off of plants and other things they can create infinitely like solar power. So the big question is: Why send people to Mars? Well if you send people to Mars that means you can do many things. You can stream it live and make money off it, make it a TV show, but also SCIENCE. Being on Mars will allow us to make many scientific discoveries in many fields of science, like medical and geological science, who knows we could even find the cure for cancer! Mars One may achieve great things for human kind, and I just hope that they can manage to succeed.

Fig 5: The communications Relay


Fig 6: The Housing the astronauts will live in.

This concludes the TOP 3 big space news stories of 2014, thanks for reading and have a great day, I'm going back to my Civilization Beyond Earth!



Sources:
http://www.mars-one.com/about-mars-one
http://www.space.com/27740-rosetta-comet-landing-success.html
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/#.VLzs4SvF-So

Acid Rain

Nemanja Besevic

3/24/15

Science 9B

Acid Rain

                Acid rain is a natural occurrence which humans have stretched to the extreme at which it harms both nature and humans. It occurs mostly around places with many factories and or vehicles but it mostly affects the nature at high elevations. Acid rain is an important issue which must be stopped but it is also important to know the causes and effects of it.

                Acid rain is caused by a chemical mixture between SO₂, NO and the rain. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are both results of inefficient factories and cars. SO₂ and NO are very quick to mix with water and can be carried by the wind for very far distances and they naturally rise high up into the air so they can mix with the rain. Even though acid rain happens naturally it usually only has a pH of 5.0 but when humans started creating vehicles and factories the pH level dropped drastically. Burning fossil fuels is the leading cause of acid rain since it produces the most gas. Natural Acid rain reacts with alkalies so it becomes neutral but now the pH level is too low so it never neutralizes completely. In the last few decades humans have released so much gas into the air that we have changed the mix of our atmosphere. We have to move to more efficient ways of energy and must drive less cars or else there will be too much acid rain which endangers us, the wildlife and all of nature. Fig 1. shows the creation of acid rain.

Fig 1. The creation of acid rain by factories

                The effects of acid rain are many and none of them are positive. Right before acid rain starts falling SO₂ and NO are released lowering visibility in the general area around them. This is a short video that shows what it would look like CO₂. Acid rain can damage paint and man made building, especially if they are built using limestone. Car manufacturers have to use acid resistant paint or else every time acid rain falls the car has to be repainted, this leads to a $61 million yearly increase in cost for manufacturers. Acid rain mostly effects trees at high altitudes. It doesn't directly kill any trees, but it weakens them making them more susceptible to damage from other causes. 75% of all lakes that were surveyed by the NSWS have been acidic, some have even had a pH of 5.0 or lower. The lowest pH. level recorded was 4.2 in the little Echo Pond in New York. The low pH levels combined with episodic acidification will lead to many wish dying in ponds, lakes and rivers around the world. This does not only harm the fish, but also all of the animals dependent on fish as a food source. According to epa.gov episodic acidification is when snow and heavy downpour increase the acidity of lakes and rivers for a brief period of time. But this brief period of time is enough to kill many fish as shown in fig. 2

Fig 2. The above graph shows the acid 

tolerances of various organisms

This is perhaps the most important thing to know about acid rain, the remedies, how to stop it. Many people around the world have very little to no knowledge about what acid rain is and what it does. We must spread the word and increase awareness or there will never be a way to stop the acid rain. If you have already spread the word then it is time for conservation, turn off electronics when you aren't using them, try and use energy efficient devices, limit the use of air conditioning and adjust the thermostat.

Acid rain is a very important issue that must be addressed before a lot of damage is done. It kills many fish, destroys natural habitats and acidifies bodies of water. It lowers visibility and kills trees. It is cause by factories and cars and it must be stopped. Spread the word about acid rain and help save the Earth we all live on.

Source:

http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/whatcauses.html

http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/effects/

http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/whatcanyoudo.html

http://geography.about.com/od/globalproblemsandissues/a/acidrain.htm

The Magma inside the Moon (& facts)

Richard Koys

Mr. Youell

Science 28/3/15

            The moon is the small rock that orbits our earth and the rock that is over 4.527 million years old. It is said that a huge comet has hit the earth and was then destroyed into hundreds and hundreds of pieces. After the collation, an asteroid belt was created around the earth, but after years have passed, the rocks then began to collide until they created a massive rock which was then given a name: the moon. But last year in 2014, scientists have discovered something very amazing. Like when earth has molten metal (not magma), it has been revealed that the moon ALSO has a core! The only difference is that the moon only contains magma.

Several kilometers below Oceanus Procellarum (Latin for Ocean of Storms is the largest and darkest spot on the moon), scientists have discovered in a rectangular shaped area that there was spilled lava that was flooding across the moon. It has been said that the moon could have experienced some volcanic activity that was accosted with bigger planets. This must explain it when the moon has crashed on our planet. The work of the data gathering was done by GRAIL which stands for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory which is a pair or part of a NASA spacecraft that orbited the moon back in 2012.  Below known impact basins, GRAIL has found ring like patterns but underneath the Procellarum region, the mysterious rectangle emerged. It is also said that the Procellarum region is rich in radioactive elements that billions of years ago would have produced excess heat. The scientists have said that as this region cooled, the rock would have cracked in geometrical patterns, like honeycomb patterns seen on earth in basalt formations (basalt is an aphanitic igneous rock).

There is only one question remaining, if the moon has magma deep inside its core, why is it not erupting? Just like oil on water, less dense magmas are buoyant (it means that it is able or tending to keep afloat or rise to the top) and will percolate up above the solid rock. But, if the magma is too dense, it will either stay where it is or it will sink. “The moon is not big enough to have the same strong convective cooling process that Earth has in its interior” said Herbert Frey who is a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

So what caused the rifting remains unclear? The moon just keeps on surprising us and is also scaring some people. I mean what would happen if the entire moon would erupt? I would suggest that it would be blown to pieces just like that day when the moon has crashed on our planet and it could destroy part of earth and kill many lives. Who knows, this didn’t happen yet but it could happen. Since the Moon has no active volcanic activity, the melt currently located at the bottom of the lunar mantle must have a high density (look at image#1 below).

Images #1

When we cut ¼ of the moon and ¼ of earth, we can see that they are both the same. They both have 4 cores but they also have different names.

Facts about the moon:

1.     The surface temperature of the moon measures about -233 to 123 °C

2.     The moon’s length of orbit is 27.3 earth days.

3.     In China, the dark and shadowy parts on the moon are called “the toad in the moon”

4.     When Alan Sheppard was on the moon, he hit a golf ball and drove it 2,400 feet away, nearly one half of a mile.

1.     You will not believe this, but more than 400 trees come from the moon! Now you might be saying: “But there is no way that seeds come from the moon! That’s impossible! Well In 1971, in 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa took a bunch of seeds with him while Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were busy sauntering around on the surface.

2.     Is the moon a planet? Since the moon is much bigger than Pluto, it is then and also it also received the name “double-planet” because it is close to earth and orbits it a lot.

3.     The tides that we see when we go to the beach are all caused by the moon’s gravity. The more the earth spins underneath, the bigger the tides become. Also when there is the full moon, and new moon, the Sun, Earth and moon are lined up, producing the higher than normal tides (called spring tides, for the way they spring up). When the moon is at first or last quarter, smaller neap tides form.

4.     The moon’s gravity is also stealing the earth’s rotational energy which is then causing our planet to slow about 1.5 milliseconds every century.

5.     The moon is also moving away from our planet. How? The moon doesn't only steal the earth’s rotational energy to slow our planet down but is also using that energy to move 3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed, the moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It's now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away.

Here are the sources that I have used:

http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/10/ancient-magma-plumbing-found-buried-below-moons-largest-dark-spot

http://www.universetoday.com/93696/if-the-moon-currently-has-liquid-magma-why-isnt-it-erupting/

http://www.space.com/19619-top-10-moon-facts.html

http://space-facts.com/the-moon/

http://www.universetoday.com/20050/10-interesting-facts-about-the-moon/

And of course I used Google images for the pictures.

Top Space News of 2014

Nadia Tokovic

Mr. Youell

9E Science

17 January 2015

The past 2014 year has been a very important and eventful year for space discoveries and breakthroughs.  I am going to talk about 3 articles that are in my opinion the most important of space news in the last year: the Rossetta Philae Probe landing on comet, Rosetta's discovery of water on the comet, and the Curiosity Rover finding evidence that might be life on Mars. All three of these events are news from spacecrafts constructed by scientists in order to discover things we could never discover by just staying on Earth. It is very important for people to use new technologies in scientific research and that the spacecrafts that I will talk about can, and already are discovering a lot of what is yet unknown to us about space. 

Article #1

A space probe named Rosetta along with its Philae lander was launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency (ESA). Its mission is to perform a detailed study of comet 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After 10 years of traveling 6.4 billion kilometers throught the Solar System, on August 6, 2014, Rosetta arrived at the comet's orbit. This is when it became the first spacecraft to reach a comet and orbit it. Then, on November 12, 2014, Rosetta's Philae lander began its 7 hour descent onto the surface of the comet. A signal comfirming the sucessful touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT. This became the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet, and this event was by many named as the top breakthrough of 2014.

This will give scientists a chance to explore the comet, and see what happens as it gets closer to Sun. From the data the Rosetta and Philae collect in their mission scientists hope to find out more about how the solar system was formed, and how comets played a role in bringing water and other complex organics onto planets and possibly Earth. 

The landing occurred 510 million kilometers away from Earth , between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The speed of comet 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko was more than 18 km/s. This is a very very large speed and a controlled landing would have been impossible. The landing was completely precalculated and automatic. These are just some of the hardships for the scientists that launched Rosetta. Also they were concerned about the landing, because of the comet's unusual shape, and very bumpy surface. The odds of landing now fell to around 50%, from the 75% that was predicted. The landing spot which was away from boulders but showed a clear view of the comet was named Agilkia.

In conclusion this event was a very big success for the launchers of Rosetta and an extremely important event for space study all around the world. The exploration done by Rosetta on the comet could give scientists very important answers and change many of our views. It is also amazing that this is the first spacecraft to ever go into a comet's orbit, and even land on it. I think that this is definitely one of the most important events of 2014 and will be remembered for a long time.

fig 1. Philae lander lands onto comet 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Fig 2. Rosetta's position in time of Philae's landing

Article #2

Scientists from all over the world have long wanted to know where Earth's water came from. Some of their theories suggested that water could have come onto earth from a comet or asteroid. New data received from the Rosetta spacecraft however, shows that the Earth's water might not have come from comets like scientists have thought. This is because an instrument (called ROSINA) on Rosetta has found that the molecular makeup of the water on the 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet is very different from Earth's water.

fig 3. ROSINA instrument

Because the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio of the water on the comet is very different to Earth's water, even if comets such as 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko did affect the Earth in it's early existence, the molecular composition would have had to greatly change, which is unlikely. This is why Kathrin Altwegg, who is the principal investigator is ROSINA, believes that it is much more likely that asteroids brought water to Earth. Altwegg knows that scientists measured the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in meteorites (which are pieces of the asteroids) and found that the ratio is fairly similar to the one in Earth's water. Asteroids are dry rocky bodies now, but it is thought that around the time of the creation of Earth they were full of water. Altwegg thinks that the water from the asteroids was brought to Earth about 800 million years after the solar system was formed, when asteroids bombarded the young and cooling Earth. 

According to Space.com, thanks to Rosetta's discovery scientists have now realized that Kuiper Belt comets are much more diverse than expected for comets from the same origin. This is because when scientists analyzed comet Hartley 2's water composition ratio it appeared to be a lot closer to Earth's water ratio than 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko's is. This leads us to think that the Jupiter family comets have a much more diverse origin than thought in the past. 

Rosetta will now continue it's journey with comet 67 P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko  as it makes ts way around the sun. The closest approach to the sun will be in August 2015, and scientists are hoping to find many more discoveries with Rosetta which could answer many of their questions.

In conclusion I think this discovery is very important and once again proves the importance of the Philae probe's landing onto the comets surface. This is just the first of discoveries that Rosetta's exploration will bring, and already scientists are finding answer to a the really important question of how water came to Earth.

Article #3

According to The Independent, the Curiosity Rover which landed onto Mars in 2012 and now it has found curious spikes of methane which could be evidence of life on the planet. Scientists are unsure of the cause of the methane spikes, but it could be small bacteria-like organisms. Scientists think this because 95% of the methane on Earth comes from microbial organisms. Now they want the Curiosity Rover to test the possibility of life on Mars.

Last year, remains of an ancient freshwater lake in the Gale Crater which could have supported life in the distant past was reported. The laboratory on the rover has also been saying that it has found methane in the atmosphere over past year. NASA says that another explanation for the methane spikes could be degrading organic material which was left behind by meteors which came into contact with Mars.

If the gas is really coming from living organisms, then this would definitely become one of the biggest discoveries in human history. To figure this out scientists are now testing the possibility of life on Mars, and preparing for an unmanned mission, which will search for the source of the methane spikes and will take place in 2020. Now, the Curiosity Rover is taking samples of sedimentary layers, which could perhaps provide clues to the history of Mars and provide us with the answer of where the gas spikes are coming from.

Fig 4. Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars

I think that these discoveries were the 3 most important of space news in the past year. All 3 of these discoveries could with even further scientific research answer many of the questions that humans want to know about the universe and its creation. The first story is about the first ever landing of a spacecraft onto a comet. This is a huge breakthrough in science and will allow a much further exploration of comets which has never been done before and will give us very important answers and change many of our views. The second story talks about news coming from the Rosetta spacecraft, only a month after landing on the comet, about how water came to Earth. This is just the first of the discoveries that the exploration of the comet will bring and once again shows how important the Rosetta exploration is, and what spectacular discoveries the Philae probe is already bringing. The third and final event, is the discovery of gas spikes which could mean that there is life on Mars. Scientists are now testing this possibility, and if this is true the discovery will become one of the most meaningful in the whole human history. In conclusion, these 3 articles of space news of 2014, in my opinion are all of great importance I think it is very important for people to use new technologies for scientific research and the from the articles spacecrafts can, and already are discovering a lot of what is yet unknown to us about space.

The year 2014 has been an outbreak year for science, with the spread of the Ebola virus and the threat of it spreading worldwide scientist found proteins that blocks both HIV and Ebola release, also a possible cure for cancer in the form of a measles vaccine and a way to burst cancer cells using nanobubbles.

Cancer is a disease that causes millions of deaths annually, it can target many places such as the human brain(fig1), lungs, blood, stomach, liver...etc.

(Fig1: This is an x-ray image of a person with brain cancer. the white patch on the brain is the cancer infected area)

 Over the years there has been no cure found for the disease only various treatments which do not always have a beneficial result to the patients and normally use a heavy amount of radiation. However in 2014 there have been two big discoveries made which might change the path of cancer treatment forever. They are; a heavy dose of measles vaccine and a treatment using nanobubbles to burst cancer cells.

The measles vaccine was developed by "Mayo Clinic" researchers employing virotherapy destroyed a 49 year old woman's blood cancer by injecting her with extremely high levels of measles vaccine. This type of cancer is very hard to treat in the late stages that this woman had it and the two options which where normally used to try stop the development where, bone marrow transplants and radiation therapy. After both treatments failed she was injected with an extremely high concentration of a measles vaccine and within 36 hours the tumor was gone. There are many discussions on whether or not, high levels of measles can treat cancer, however one thing is for sure that experiments will proceed and hopefully the scientists will find a cure for this devastating disease. 

Furthermore even if the measles treatment fails to work there has been another study going on performed by researchers at Rice University which indicates that the cancer cells can be burst using nanobubbles. The way this procedure works is by tagging the gold nanoparticles with antibodies which help it target the chosen cancer cells. These particles then attach to the surface of the cancerous cell and are ingested and stay right under the cell’s protective membrane. Following they will be activated by infrared laser pulses; these pulses can penetrate human skin, but are not absorbed by the nanoparticles. However that is exactly what is required for this treatment to work; the light would affect the free electrons causing them to start producing access heat causing the nanobubbles to pop. Then if that does not kill the cell it is now very weak and vulnerable to other drugs. There is a similar method used currently to this one however it has a flaw. The other method uses the same concept however it heats up the golden nanoparticles and kills the cell using heat, but that is not as healthy as the heating process kills healthy cells around the area rather than the new method discovered by the Rice University does no damage to healthy cells (fig2).

(Fig2 This shows how the different rays are used to burst the cancerous cell)

Another disease that has been around for a long time is HIV. This is a sexually transmitted viral infection and in order for the virus to work it needs to hijack some of the host cells. In order to do so it goes through some processes. In order to enter the cell one of the main proteins used to help it enter the cell is the protein TMI. This protein is found with many other viruses such as the recent Ebola virus. Now researchers claim to have found a way to use the TMI protein to block the virus release which means that it would not spread. There is no cure for HIV yet however this could be the first step to its discovery.  And also it could be so that the virus could be halted before it evolves into AIDS.    

To conclude the year 2014 has been a big breakthrough for medical science, possible cures for cancer may have been found, which could result in saving millions of lives each year. Furthermore possible cure for HIV might be on the way which would mean again many lives saved. Hopefully researches will continue in the year of 2015 and these findings could be further on developed into cures that work efficiently.

Vocabulary:

Virotherapy-a therapy using a modified virus that destroys cancer cells without destroying healthy ones.

Measles -a viral disease causing red rash and fever

Ingested-Taken in to the cell

Science 2014 report

The year 2014 provided not only great new scientific discoveries but during the previous year magnificent scientific breakthroughs occurred. But standing far above the others there were a few scientific stories which not only captivated the world but have the ability to revolutionize or improve the everyday world around us. During the last year we managed to land a single probe on an asteroid after is circled it for 10 years, man kind was able to alter the memories of mice and we as a species even managed to get as far as creating bacteria which could increase our genetic alphabet by adding another base pair into our D.N.A. And yet, there are still stories which bafflingly still manage to be more brilliant, intriguing and captivating than those previously mentioned. Those stories which  which shine brighter than the rest are the mutations that we found in the body of a 115 year old woman which could lead to us lengthening our very existence on this planet, the blood of young mice helped rejuvenate the muscles and brain of old mice and that our species which we hope to continue and lengthen to incredible lengths, no matter of how important we believe ourselves to be is the cause of a 6th great extinction which has already begun to take its place on the world around us.

Dr. Henne Holstege led and educated group of researches from the pristine VU University Medical Center located in the heart of the Netherlands examined the body of a woman who had found herself deceased during 2005 and became the oldest person yet to donate her body to science. Dr. Henne Holstege and the team located an approximation of 400 mutation in the woman's body. Suffering of no symptoms linked to hematological illnesses (disorders affecting blood) and according to the researches on the autopsy "did not suffer from vascular or dementia-related pathology." The brain cells rarely experienced any division after the birth but the majority of the mutations happened to be found in regions that happened to be mutation prone. The ratio of white blood cell telomeres (the region of the cell determining how we age) from her body to her brain was 17 times less. The researches believe the secret to her long lasting life was in fact her mutations and those could help us uncover new ways to lengthen even our lives.

IMG 1: Animated image presenting
the switch of blood between the
two rats.

But our fixation of increasing our life span has not to end there for an experiment which blossomed out of a rather strange finding that can be traced to 150 years ago. The experiment taking place one and a half centuries ago the researches sewed together the skin of two mice (a less gruesome image of which presenting only the idea can be seen in IMG 1) however after the findings led to new studies beginning in the year 2000 that research led up to the publication in 2014 led us to an idea that a factor in young blood can indeed reverse certain signs of aging. The young and old mice had their blood circulation linked helped the elders. A factor in the blood named GDF11 was studied by a group of scientist showing to rejuvenate the heart, increase neuron growth within the brain as well as improving the older mouse's muscular strength and endurance and even improving spacial memory. This baffling and yet powerful data has led to a trial of 18 Alzheimer patients receiving donations from younger citizens. 

But through all of our human desires to extend our lives we negative impact we inflict on the surroundings around us is truly horrendous. Over the past 500 years alone humans have been responsible for the decline of over 25% of all species. Over the 6th great extinction the cause of loss of animal life is not going to be due to a meteor or other theories but we will know for sure it was our doing and ours alone. Many Believe that hindrance at this point it unimaginable, we have done far too much to date. Thinking not of global warming, the destruction of animal habitats as well as disruption of the food chain are large causes. The mass of hunting up to points of extinction out of mere human ignorance also contribute as to why we are facing an upcoming man made extinction.

The leaps we have reached in science in history are fascinating, however we live today at the peak of discovery. Never before have we done so much in the scientific community as today during the year of 2014 alone, to have discovered so much that the three mentioned stories are only few of overwhelmingly many that had com out during the previous year. More stories all equally as fantastic those mentioned have already occurred leading to today's monumental daily discoveries. We have entered an age where science has reached such an incredibly point, but above all is the fact that we get to live in the current age.

Science in the News 2014- Global Warming and its Effects.

Themistoklis Daniilidis
Mr. Patrick Youell
Science in the News
3/27/2015

Global Warming and its Effects

Every year many important events take place. There are those years where so many new discoveries, inventions, new ideas, or just simple events take place our perspective/ knowledge on the world, on its people, and on their ideas totally changes; One of those years was 2014. Multiple events on different levels made this year special. The world we live in is not only the events that take place as in politics, wars and other great topics, but first of all the world itself; Its nature, its habitat and its living organisms. If the nature is destroyed, its living organisms are slowly decreasing and aren't able to exist anymore, we won't exist either. For this simple but actually really complex reason I decided to choose news that are hidden. News that don't show up since for most people they don't matter. News that don't occur now, but in the future they could possibly be the reason that we won't be able to have a life like we do today or even worse not have a life at all.

 

Scientists have been really worried these past years about the humidity and global warming continuously arising. 2014 had had the highest temperature ever recorded in our planet (Figure 1) as the BBC environment reporter informs us, Mark Kinver informs us: "2014 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures 0.68C (1.24F) above the long term average, US government scientists have said".

Figure 1: Here is a graph of the global average temperature anomaly. You can clearly see the continuous growth of temperature throughout the years, reaching its maximum in 2014.

What are the reasons of these extreme weather conditions? The main reason is humidity. Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. Humidity is really important since it does not only affect the weather, but also the climate and its global changes. It occurs when air becomes saturated (when no more solute can dissolve), which means when it is not possible to hold more water vapor. But of course humidity is not magically created by itself, Humidity is created by humans. The main two simple reasons for that is the non-stopped growth of population, in addition to the fact that each  average individual in today's societies uses the most possible energy than ever before. This energy though is not renewable, as a result there is an extreme carbon output.

What are the present and future effects of global warming (Figure 2)? First of all, the beautifulness of the environment is getting destroyed since more and more plants, trees but also species tend to unfortunately disappear, not being able to handle new, unknown weather conditions. Also, many other animals start travelling to other places in order to find better conditions to live in, like butterflies and foxes as National Geographic mentions. Icebergs are continuously melting, not letting animals like seals and penguins live. Even though the weather gets warmer and warmer as mentioned earlier, rain and snowfall increase. Ecosystems will keep on changing, species will move to find better places to live in. Many others will completely disappear. Diseases will also be spread since the warm weather does not kill the bacteria. All these are mostly  future results of global warming. 

Figure 2: A scary, not realistic picture of what global warming causes. Even though not realistic as a picture, the meaning it gives is important: This planet will be "burnt" and will collapse if humans continue causing global warming in such high rates. 

 That does not mean that global warming does not affect people around the world right now. Except the unexpected and crazy weather which changes our daily plans, except the really hot, or extremely cold weather, the rain and the snow, global warming affects a key part of economy, politics but also a big part of everyday life for many people: Agriculture. Heavy rain does not let the soil and the plants to be healthy and grow (Figure 3). It makes them rot. In addition, really cold or really hot temperature does not let many trees and plants to grow. 

Figure 3: Effects of global warming on agriculture.

 As a result, the food supplies will become less and less while the population (as mentioned earlier) will increase a lot each year. This means that in about a century or even less from now, it is extremely possible that we don't have enough food to feed all the people around the world. 

Except those mostly future effects of global warming which many people are not aware of, we have gotten some "signals" that something is going wrong with the weather lately, but even more during 2014. According to the Climate Central Organization, a significant signal is how crazy had been the weather during the entire year in Alaska. During 2014 Alaska faced really unusual warmth. In Barrow, a place where icea used to fully cover the ocean for a really long part of the year, this year the ice can only be seen from hundreds of miles away from the shore. This shows that the weather has become balmy unlike the past. This is a huge climate change for Alaska, one of the coldest places in the world. 

The most important part of this enormous and threatening problem is the need for people to really understand the situation we are in and how it can affect our future. The second step will be understanding what is needed to happen in order to prevent worst effects of this problems but instead have a healthier, more productive and beautiful environment for us and the future generations. People from now on no matter their social class should do a few simple steps to save our world. We should all use cars much less, only in special occasions, but instead use bicycles and public transportation (Buses, metro) (Figure 4)since they save much more energy and do not create lots of carbon dioxide in the air. Buying food products that are in season can help a lot the environment since there is no need for transportation of those products, growing your own fruits and vegetables can also be helpful. If you are able to, designing a house with maximum energy efficiency could be critical for saving energy. Also, governments not letting old factories work but create new ones with high energy efficiency. All these daily life steps could transform our world to a much healthier and pleasing place to live in. Let's save our planet! Don't think about the present, but also the future! 

Figure 4: Public transportation is a key step to saving energy and producing less carbon dioxide. 

 Bibliography: 

-"Global Warming Effects Information, Global Warming Effects Facts, Climate Change Effects - National Geographic." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-effects/

-How Do Humans Cause Global Warming?" PlanetSave. N.p., 02 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

http://planetsave.com/2009/02/02/how-humans-cause-global-warming/
-"Humans Cause Global Warming: 10 Indicators." PlanetSave. N.p., 18 Aug. 2010. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://planetsave.com/2010/08/18/humans-cause-global-warming-10-indicators/
-"5 Ways to Prevent Global Warming That Big Media Won't Tell You."PlanetSave. N.p., 28 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://planetsave.com/2008/11/28/five-ways-to-prevent-global-warming-that-big-media-wont-tell-you/
-"There’s Growing Evidence That Global Warming Is Driving Crazy Winters."Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/20/theres-growing-evidence-that-global-warming-is-driving-crazy-winters/
-"2014: A Weird Weather Year in Alaska So Far | Climate Central." 2014: A Weird Weather Year in Alaska So Far | Climate Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/2014-weird-weather-year-alaska-17651
-"2014 Warmest Year on Record, Say US Researchers." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30852588
-Google Images

3 promising inventions of 2014 that save resources

Jiwoo Kim

Mr. Youell

Science E.

20 January 2015

3 promising inventions of 2014 that save resources

Year 2014 has been a very progressive year for science, as we have improved technology to aid us in our daily lives. However, mankind is close to hitting their limit as our resources that has been taken for granted, are running out FAST! There was the oil price decline crisis as OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) failed to reach an agreement, sending the oil price tumbling from $115 (June 2014) to below $70 as reported on www.vox.com. Events such as this, have led to lavish, and wasteful use of limited resources such as water, oil, and coal.

Nonetheless, there have been successful projects or discoveries that can greatly help to make a sustainable environment. This blog will introduce you to the 3 most impactful inventions of 2014 that help us save resources.

Car that runs on air

Peugeot has invented a hybrid car that needs nothing more than air to run, which is even greener than green hybrid electric cars.

How does it work?

This model Peugeot 2008 Hybrid Air's new air-powered hybrid system consists of 3 cylinder petrol engines linked to a hydraulic air motor, and a tank of compressed air and oil. On "air mode"(using only air to run the car), the car runs on the hydraulic air motor which is driven by pressurized air from the air tank, like letting air out of an inflated balloon. The air that will be let out by the air engine is kept under pressure by the captured energy from the wheels and brakes. The diagram of the functional parts of the car is shown on figure 1. This car can drive at a speed of 43 miles per hour (equivalent to 69km/h) solely on air, but will have to switch to hybrid or only petroleum mode to run faster.

The invention of this car, that runs with 0 emission of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and without using fossil fuels up to 43 m/h, is an incredible achievement. If this car is to be applied or utilized in daily drives in great quantities from home to work, school, or wherever, we will see remarkable effects and greatly reduce the pollutant emissions, as well as the use of our limited fossil fuels.

Figure 1 Diagram showing how the car works

If fossil fuel can be saved by this hybrid car, a necessity of life, water, can be saved and utilized by the next invention to be introduced.

Portable filtering water bottle

Before we get started on the innovative water filter, let me explain how our planet can possibly be running out of fresh water! Our planet contains over a billion trillion litres of water but only 3% of water is safe to drink. Also, 2/3 of the fresh water is  locked away in glaciers, and the majority of the rest is trapped in soil or underground aquifers, leaving us with only a tiny fraction to use.

I discovered a typical yet unique invention that can greatly help save our precious water, on www.theguardian.com . It is a water filtration system that can purify filthy water into sterile drinking water. 

Previous cleansing techniques had significant flaws such as ceramic filters which could not filter out some viruses that measured 25 billionth of a meter. Unlike any precedented products, Lifesaver filtration system uses a handheld pump mechanism to force water from the outside to the inside of a narrow coiled tube inside the device. The tube parts have pores that are 15 nanometres wide, small enough to filter out bacteria as well as viruses. For details and diagram of the lifesaver bottle, refer to Figure 2.

This product can utilize the great majority of water on our planet that has been locked away from our use. This lifesaver water bottle can make  use of even the filthiest water and really save lives of those who die from thirst.

Figure 2 Diagram of the structure of the lifesaver bottle

Another spectacular invention of the year 2014 can sound very stunning. It can generate light from nothing other than gravity!

Device that generates light from gravity

I found this amazing product, Gravity light on www.theengineer.co.uk. Gravity light is an innovative device that can generate light from gravity. As shown in Figure 3, you hang weights on the weight hook and as the weight descends, the potential energy of the weight generates moderate light which can be used for approximately 25 minutes. The brightness can be adjusted but the intervals in which you have to raise the weight back up again will have to be altered accordingly. 

According to the product website http://gravitylight.org/, This product is for the 1.3 billion people in the world that don't have access to electricity. Majority of them rely on dangerous kerosene (potential risk for fire, higher chance of cancer) for lighting because they can't afford expensive solar power grids. This affordable product (costing around $5 U.S. dollars) can serve its purpose of "help eradicate harmful and damaging effects of kerosene" to preserve the environment and reduce the use of fossil fuels. 

Figure 3
Diagram of how gravity light generates light from gravity

All these 3 inventions of 2014 are undoubtedly noteworthy, and each of them are significant feats. These inventions can potentially help to greatly reshape our world into a society that understands the finite resources on our planet, and works to preserve more, for a better future. I hope this opened your eyes to something new, and raised awareness on the limited resources and some promising products to solve the problem.