Hot, freezing and room temperature water. Whats the difference???????

Today we did an experiment. We had cold, hot, and room temperature water. In each one we put some food coloring. In the hot one the color spread the most because it has less density, so it could not go all the way down. Also the particles in it filled as much space as it can. In room temperature it kind of fell down because it has a little kinetic energy. And for the cold one, it just fell to the bottom because it has more density.

Could Gold Particles Turn Trees Into Streetlights? Posted by Meera Dolasia on 11/15/2010

 Did you know that gold particles could turn trees into street lights? A Taiwanese scientist found that is true.

The team of scientists led by "Yen-Hsun Su" from the Research Center for Applied Sciences Academia "Sinica" in Taiwan, were researching a way to create a substitute for LED (Light emitting diode) that is commonly used for street lights. While LED is very efficient it uses "phosphor" powder to emit lights at different wavelengths - which is not only expensive, but also, highly toxic.

For his research, Dr. "Yen-Hsun Su" infused sea urchin shaped "nanoparticles" of gold inside the leaves of a "Bacopa Caroliniana" plant. The gold reacted with the chlorophyll, causing the leaves to emit a red glow, essentially creating a bio-LED. The luminescence also acts as an energy source that enables the leaves to conduct photosynthesis at night, which in turn absorbs Carbon Dioxide and emits Oxygen, making our air even healthier.

The research is still in its infancy and there are many issues that need to be ironed out, not the least of which is the high price of gold, which makes infusing even tiny amounts quite an expensive proposition.

 Another issue is the trees - The "Bacopa Caroliniana", commonly known as aquarium plant is perennial with a unique quality - Its leaves change color, turning from bronze to almost red, depending on the amount of light they are exposed to. The scientists will not only have to find other plants with similar characteristics, but also, ones that keep their plants year round - And then, since trees are constantly shedding old leaves and growing new ones, there is the question of how often the gold "nanoparticles" have to be replaced.

Reflection 
I think that this is really amazing. It can also save electricity. I choose to write about this because when i saw the title that gold particles can turn trees into street lights, it caught my aye. and as said, it can save a lot of electricity.    

I posted this on  the 22/11/2010 at 9:32

Site: Dogo news

Paper Airplane Captures Stunning Images From Space ( posted on 15/11)

It was not too long ago when taken images from Space were thought to be the specialty of expert astronauts. Lately however, unpaid space fan have become confidant enough to do the same, using clever house gadgets, like Teddy Bears and now, a paper airplane!

Though it was made completely out of stiff paper and straws, the scavenger 1 was not a “plain vanilla fold-up paper plane”, but a rather difficult design, complete with framework, fuselage and even a toy plastic pilot. Attached to the airplane was a Styrofoam payload box that contained a video, a miniature camera, a GPS tracking unit, a back-up beacon transmitter and, a release mechanism.

The idea of three British Space buffs, the Project Paris (Paper Aircraft released into Space) airplane was launched from a field outside Madrid, Spain on October 28th, and transported up to just over 89,000 feet, by a helium balloon. At this point, thanks to the low-pressure environment, the balloon burst and the airplane and its goods fell down slowly to Pelayos Dam, about 40 miles away from the original launch site. Along the way, the tiny airplane took some incredible pictures of the view.

The three men were happy to find the airplane and its pilot intact and quite pleased to see the quality of images it captured, during its short, 90-minute time to Space.

Posted by Meera Dolasia on 11/14/2010
Site: Dogo News

Here is a video if you like to watch it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K76Cfbq_5hY&feature=player_embedded

Wish To Improve Your Math Skills? (Posted on the 19/11)

Want to improve your Math skills without working hard? Just zap the brain with a little of electricity and voila, all your math problems will be solved! At least that's what a group of people from a  British scientists from London's Oxford University say.
The main aim of the experiment, that was done on a group of student from Oxford University and University College London, was to test if parts of the brain could be shocked into getting it to work better with numbers.

To test this, 15 students, divided into three groups were asked to solve the same two mathematical problems every day for a week. The problems, which involved identifying the larger of two numbers and plotting one on a number line, were made a little more challenging by replacing the numbers 1-9 with symbols.
However, before starting the test, two of the groups were subjected to a 20-minute session of a light electric current to the “parietal lobes”, which the scientists believe is the brain's number. For the first group the current flow was passed right to left, while for the second it was transmitted left to right. The third group received no help at all.
The group that got zapped right to left seemed to show a great improvement in their math skills. However, the ones that got zapped left to right move back to the level of almost six-year olds! The results for the people who got no help were somewhere in between.
While scientists are not sure why direction of the current would make such a difference, they believe that zapping it from the right side, seemed to turn up the activity of the brain cells to math, while going the other way turned or closed them down. Luckily, the impact was limited to the wavy line not numerals and, is expected to last for only six months!
While this is great news, do not toss out your “Kumon” supplements or fire your math tutor yet. That's because the research, no matter how successful is not being done to aid lazy students, but to help people who suffer from “dyscalculia”, a disease where people can't cope with simple day-to-day, like counting change or figuring out their expenses.

MY reflection
I think that this is so amazing and very helpful for math tests and if you dont get math all the time you can use this.

Posted by Meera Dolasia on 11/08/2010
Site: Dogo news

Our lab today

I think that the lab today went very well. We stayed on task, and we cleaned everything up when the teacher said so, we also helped each other during the cleaning up time. But lets get back to the experiment. Well our experiment went very well. I thought that it was very weird that first you think it’s a solid, but then it turns into a liquid, so you don’t know if that is a solid or liquid. Also when you hit it quickly it is like a solid, but if you put your hand slowly inside, it is like a liquid.  In my opinion I thought that this mixture is a homogenous mixture because you can really see what it is made of. Also what we used was water and corn starch to make it. During our experiments I think that at some points it was too hard and at some points it was too liquidy. So if you have too much water then it is not good, and if you put too much corn starch it is too hard. After a wile of touching it, your hands get wrinkles on them. But this might be an absolute material, not solid, not liquid, but something ells???  

Here is a video so you can see it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw4qklgNIxI&feature=player_embedded

Flamingos Wear Makeup too!!!!!!!!

Hey, not only humans wear makeup flamingos also wear makeup but of course pink.

The surprise was made by scientists from Spains Donan, Biological station. They have been observing the tall birds for three years now. The fact that the hopeless birds are always trimming their feathers was observed for many years. This makes them look more conspicuous, but also spread waterproof oil which gets rid of waist from a gland at the base of their tail. This oil also has reddish-orange pigments called carotenoids.

Smart birds know that if they put this oil on their bodies for long amounts of time it increases their pink color even more, making them look better. They appear to be purposely rubbing their cheeks against the glands, and then spread the oil into their breasts and back feathers. Because the caroteniods lighten quickly, because of the sun, the birds are always doing this. Even more amazing is that they rais their speed clearly during buddy seasons.

Because of their amazing pink color, long legs and hooks, flamingos are one of the most familiar birds in the world. They get typical color from the carotenoid pigments.   

Opinion:

I think that it is very amazing and also weird that flamingos have makeup too just like humans, not really the same but simillar.

Date: 2/11/2010

Posted by Meera Dolasia on 10/30/2010

http://www.dogonews.com/2010/10/31/omg-flamingoes-wear-makeup-too

My Mixture

My mixture is a homogenous mixture because you can’t really see all the substances it is made of. The way I made it was well first it is made of 1 mandarin, ½ of a banana and some milk. What I did was I put all of those things in a mixer and mixed them together. When I was mixing, it slowly started turning into a homogenous mixture from heterogeneous mixture. My other observation was that we had to mix it for a bit longer time until they were really mixed together, in other words until it was a homogenous mixture. I choose to do this mixture because I wanted to find out which, the milk or the fruits, smelled and tasted more at the end. Also how long it would take for the fruit to become a homogenous mixture, it took about 2 minutes with high speed mixer.