Sunday, March 17, 2013

Current Event

Fluorescence Could Indicate Health of Corals
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Date Published: March 15th 2013
Author of the Article: Andrea Thompson
Source: Live Science
URL: http://www.livescience.com/27948-coral-fluorescence-health.html
By Ivan Cukanić

       The health of corals could be measured by their fluorescence. In an experiment, scientists measured the fluorescence of corals before during and after stress. The stress was the change of temperature: from normal to hot and from normal to cold. Before the stress, they were fairly fluorescent, during the stress they started losing their fluorescence and after the stress their fluorescence was minimal. During the stress, algae started dying and escaping the corals. This new technique of measuring health of corals would be much easier for scientists and much less invasive.

       This article was interesting for me because it was informing the world of a new and better way of measuring the health of corals. This could help save coral reafs and heal damaged corals. This article was written two days ago, so I think this discovery was quite new and that not all scientists that are experts in this field know about this. This article helped spread the word about this.

Saturday, March 16, 2013


Will The World's Largest Telescope Help Unveil The Secrets Of Our Origins?

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Author of the Article: Meera Dolasia
Date Written: March 15, 2013
Source: Dogo News

URL:http://www.dogonews.com/2013/3/15/will-the-worlds-

largest-telescope-help-unveil-the-secrets-of-our-origins



    The largest space telescope on Earth was built in the Chile desert. It is consisted of 66 antennas, each with a diameter of 12 meters, and the world’s fastest computer ever used in a telescope. The desert it is in is the world's driest dessert and is situated on an elevation of 5029 meters above sea level, so they have to wear oxygen masks. The sky is always clear there and there are few clouds. This location is far away from cities and from radio wave interference. Because of the previously listed things, the picture of the universe will be sharper than ever and the computer can process it really fast. Scientists say that they will find galaxies that were formed right after the Big Bang .
   
      I think that this will telescope will help us a lot in discovering new things about our universe and that it will be better than most space telescopes. I just do not get the point of finding the galaxies that were formed after the Big Bang. How will that help us with anything? From my perspective, it would be a huge discovery, but a pointless one as well.

Current Event

Title of the Article: Strong Personalities Skew Study Samples
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Author of the Article: M. Farbman
Date Published: 05. 27. 2009.
Source: Popsci
URL: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-05/strong-personalities-skew-study-samples
By Ivan Cukanić

      Many bird owners would describe their pet's personality in great detail and say that their bird's behavior is unique. Science did not research much about the personalities of birds, but there was a study of the behavior of birds called flycatchers. They observed their behavior in groups, alone, in the presence of the other gender, facing danger and etc. The results of the study showed that the birds reacted very similarly in all of these situations and each of them fell into every trap the scientists set up.
       
       This article was very interesting and had shocked me about the behavior of flycatchers. I, just like many other people, thought that all birds had unique personalities. Before I read this article, I was sure that some flycatchers could escape from traps. However, the results of this study may not entirely be true, for they had only observed one group of flycatchers in one period of time. Maybe different groups of flycatchers behave differently. But who knows? Maybe there will be more studies like this one in the future.